Southrnfresh: Welcome To Atlanta 2013 Coverage
Well Import Alliance has come and gone, and a very eventful weekend it was. It has been a long time since we have had a large event. Within the last year I have had my first child, and things with the site kind of picked up and free time is hard to come by these days. We have out grown the typical parking lot that used to satisfy our events. Which is why we have not been able to host as many large events the past year. Granted its a good problem to have, its just takes more time to find the right place to hold any type of event. Mainstream Performance has always been a great layout for large meets. Even though it is far from the city, the location is perfect and provides more than enough space for us to welcome our peers to the city for the weekend.
First of all we would like to thank everyone who attended, wanted to attend and could not make it due to the bomb scare that shutdown the highway down. The day was a complete success, even though I would have liked to organize parking a little better for photo taking purposes. With a event like this its hard to organize the parking how we really wanted it to be without a bunch of folks directing traffic. But everything went pretty smooth, we setup the parking to have the “front row” to be the main attraction of the evening. But the traffic problems left some of those guys arriving late and the spaces just got filled up before they arrived. No one really complained and everyone seemed to be okay with parking and enjoyed themselves.
I usually like to go out and about and capture a ton of pictures of our own events just so I can show you all the best coverage. But I was completely swamped in our tent selling shirts and decals. You guys managed to buy every single piece of merchandise we had that afternoon which was a huge surprise. Once I was able to take a break from the tent and take a walk around, most of the crowd was gathered at the exit watching the cars leave. So I was not able to capture as much I wanted to, but the other guys managed to get a good amount of photos.
For those of you not familiar with “Welcome To Atlanta” and what it is. Welcome To Atlanta is held the day before Import Alliance Spring meet in Atlanta. Its not meant to compete with Import Alliance, but it is a chance to get up close and personal and meet some of the people that build some of the nicest cars. Because at Import Alliance its really hard to actually see some of the nicer cars due to the size. When w go out of town to big events we always are on the look for something to do the day/night before when in a new town, so this event is a chance to welcome the out of towners to the city.
I will be using most of the photos from Khris H. , Kurshid M. , Jon Davis, and myself.
ADRIFT PRODUCTIONS took some nice photos and got some real good moments as well that I will include. I will also post up some random photos found online.
Photos By:
Kurshid Maricar
Joseph Dale
I have to say a special thank you and shout out to Atlanta Drift Kings, they brought out a cool ass drift track and had a tournament.
James Rhodes entertained the crowd and was the DJ for the evening, which was a pleasant surprise.
Melvin Velez’s Mazda RX7 from Team Quickstyle. When setting up for the guys to come out, I talked to Melvin and learned that Quickstyle is a real drift team up in the Northeast and Japan that compete in D1, that also has a competitive RC drift team all over the US.
These guys are all in with the RC cars. I was amazed at the detail and the presentation they put on much like it was a real life drift event. If I had the money and time I would surely give the RC drift stuff a try.
Futbol fine tuning his car for competition.
I wish I got a chance to watch more of them drift and check out some of the cars. I literally got to actually see it for maybe 2 or 3 minutes before I was called back to the tent, but we will certainly be doing more events with the Atlanta Drift King guys in the future. If you are looking to get into RC Drifting check out them on their Facebook group here.
I stepped out for a few minutes just to see what the crowd was like. I snapped a picture of the overflow lot, and just saw a sea of heads and cars all in the lot. I usually make it my job to stroll through the lot and snap pictures and check out the cars. But I never got to personally see any of them. But I was really happy to see the amount of people that came out. This picture was taken about 3:30 when the event had been going on for a hour.
I made it over to the exit and snapped a photo of the crowd at the exit. After a while the crowd grew, and the peer pressure increased for anyone leaving to leave their mark on the pavement. Usually this would be something that would be stopped and not allowed, but being the location and the fact that its so far in the middle of no where no harm no foul.
Tanner Norwood took home the fan favorite award. Tanner’s miata managed to do the best burnout of the afternoon.
Austin Starr’s brought out his Eg from Alabama. Austin does not really drive the car much, so it was a pleasure for him to make the 2 hour drive up to Atlanta especially for the the event.
Rami Qaseem’s S2000 from Low-weezy ana came up for the weekend and represented well.
This Evo X from Low-weezy ana had a crazy engraved rotor I believe its said “do work”.
370z from Low-weezy ana
Miller Decals came out and did some on the spot vinyl wraps. They did a few complimentary body panel wraps, and raffled off a discounted full vinyl wrap. Brandon Starr won the discounted full vinyl wrap from Miller Decal in the raffle. I had been thinking of getting my roof wrapped in black for a long time just to see how it looked. So it was a perfect time to take advantage of their special pricing that afternoon. I ended up getting the carbon fiber wrap on the roof and was very pleased with the turnout.
Georgia Atchinson won the free body panel wrap raffle, and chose to get his roof carbon fiber wrapped. And ended up getting his hood wrapped also. The wrap came out really good, considering it was an aftermarket vented hood.
Zak Kerbelis of ONEKIND studios silver metallic wrapped S2000.
A shot of Justin’s Supercharged FRS on Work Emotion wheels
The miatas were out in full force. A shot of Ethan Watson’s Miata from Canibeat. Special thanks to Ethan for giving me a hand in the booth!
Tanner Norwood’s supercharged miata. The car has always been a favorite of mine. Tanner had taken a different approach with the car this year, and raised the car up and put a meatier set of tires on it. This time last year it was a lot lower and the tires were stretched to the max. It seems that most people have evolved to a more function approach to their builds, especially when you drive the car as much as he does.
C.J. Gann’s Miata on Work Equips. Tanner and CJ always make the 2 hour trip down to show love to SF and attend almost all of our events. I really appreciate them for that!
Jordan Riegelhaupt’s bagged A6 on Carlsson wheels
Tony’s Lexus GS on Vossen wheels. Tony (CarbonGS) has been a part of the import scene in Atlanta for a long time, and has had this GS for so many years. Tony has managed to keep the car much of the same for the past 5 plus years, and keep up with the trends of today’s builds. Wish I could find a shot of the front from the day, but this was the only one.
Chauncey Custer’s Mazda 3 Sedan
Last year there was only 1 of these, the group has grown to 3 within the year. I wish I had more time to check them out. Do not see much of these modified in this region.
A pair of Beetles showed up towards the end of the evening
Luke Smith’s bagged Mercedes 240D
Another euro classic this 635 on Work Equips
Ed Lee’s Blue S4 – Matt Mummert’s grey S4, and a B6 Passat. I met the owner of the passat, but forgot your name. Forgive me!
Side shot of Ed Lee’s S4
Chris Weyer’s Golf R on Fifteen52 Wheels
BMW 3 Series on CCW Classics
E46 M3 on Work Vs-XX
A shot of Larry Young’s Q45 and Stephen Stern’s G35 Sedan from Team ISO
Another shot of Larry’s Q45. I had reserved a spot for ISO at the meet but with the traffic situation and the amount of people that showed up it was hard to judge the amount of space they needed. So when they arrived we had to stuff them in the spot that we had for them. The last 2 years they did not come out to the event, so I was happy to geth them to ride out to the boonies and hang out with us.
Engine shot of Tubby’s Supercharged K swapped fit.
I am shameful to say that I never got to meet the owner of this CRZ, I always see pictures of the car on my facebook news feed. As much as I know the cars I seldom get a chance to meet the owners in the honda community.
Another Honda that I absolutely love, but never met the owner. The Honda community is so full of high caliber builds its hard to keep up with them all sometimes. But hats off to the owner, I always loved the build of the car. I can see the subtle changes from last year. It has a new set of Regamasters and the Primo race decals. The little things make a big impact to my eyes like the old school tow strap hanging out the bumper.
Dylan Outlaw came out in his K20 ITR this year sporting a new set of Gram LIghts and Verno race decals.
Charlie’s FG Coupe looking good as usual. Charlie has a new set of BBS LM wheels this year. And has also upgraded the brakes to a set of RL Brembos pictured here
MUGEN FG sedan from Virginia on JLines
Si Sedan on rebarreled Work Rezaks
The rarely seen EM civic on Ray’s wheels, and FG on Advans
EG hatchback on CCW LM5.
Tommy’s TSX holding the 17×10 – 17×11 Work Rezaks
Gorgeous Civic Coupe on Volk Ce28s
TL on a set of polished and rebarrelled Racing Hart C2. Love the wheels!
KJ brought out his S2000 with another new coat of paint. He says its gonna stay this color….but we shall see.
Spoon themed RHD Imported S2000 on Work CR Concave wheels. Few people go all the way with the Spoon setup on S2ks, well done.
S2000 on Enkei RPF1
S2000 on Work Emotion XD9
S2000 on CCW Classics
Matt Tucker’s Turbo K Civic Type R on Volk Ce28. Another person I have never personally met, that makes it out to the meet every year.
Backyard Special Bumper on the RSX looks really nice. I have noticed that the RSX is gaining some popularity as of late. Good example of a quality build.
David Dowdy’s ITR
Civic EG from Low Monroe
Civic EF Sedan from Low Monroe
Josh Densmore’s Civic Wagon
Eric She’s G37 on Vossen Wheels from Team Kaizen
Chris Hall’s newest project. Chris purchased this car a month ago from the owner out of North Carolina, curious to see if he is gonna change it at all or leave it the same. The car is so well put together it can just stay like it is.
Rich Hartnett’s S13
Clean Kouki S14 on Advans
Juan’s 720 Datsun Pickup from Dynasty Car Club
Justin Stringer’s Corolla Sedan. I remember when Justin got the car about 2 years ago. He set a goal to make a factory look for the engine bay. The car retains the A/c and power steering while stuffing a turbo setup in the engine bay. I really love old school restoration builds like this, hopefully we will get to catch up to Justin for some more photos soon!
That is all that we have so far, we have more photos to go through that we will post up on our facebook page through out the week. I would like to thank everyone again that attended and had a good or bad time. The feedback I received from the event was really good, and it means the world to us that you all enjoyed yourselves we are not professional event coordinators and we are learning as we go. The response and kind words by the people I talked to has motivated me to move on a summer event project that I have wanted to put into motion for a year or so. So I hope we can go forward with that within the month and bring the dream to reality this summer! Thanks for looking!
