Norm Reeves Honda Car Show and Toy Drive 2011
Words by Matt Willis
Every year around the December holidays, the crew at Norm Reeves Honda puts on a little car show at their dealership in Cerritos. They also had a little toy drive going on, as with many other events around this time, to benefit those who are less fortunate and give them a brighter holiday. We’ve seen the Norm Reeves show covered via The Chronicles in the past, and the turnout and quality of cars always looked above average. This year we decided to check it out and see what was going on…
We left Long Beach at around 9:30am, and arrived at the Norm Reeves “Used Car Super Center” lot at about 10. The weather looked questionable on my way up from San Diego, but once we got a little further north the rain started. It wasn’t bad to the point where people got drenched; in fact I thought it was just enough to make the photos a little more intriguing. There was also an indoor section which had a few more cars on display, and gave everyone a safe haven as the rain was coming down. For the most part, though, everyone seemed to be enjoying the show and checking out all the cars despite the less than desirable conditions…
As far as the vehicles go, I thought there were some quality cars. Some of them were redundant, but still pleasing to see…others were new material and a treat to see in person. It wasn’t a huge show by any means, so we went through it in about an hour or so before heading to the OC Infiniti meet back towards the coast. I’ll let you guys judge the cars for yourselves…
When we got there, the lot was already filled with cars…
Couple of CR-Z’s out in the center…
Silverstone S2000…
And another Silverstone S2000 on Work Emotion CRs…
Scratching my head at this one…there were a couple of similiar builds here that really didn’t flow very well. Again, it all goes back to the fact that people these days are build their cars to fit in, to run in a “crew”, to follow the trends…then when you criticize it they puff up and get all bent out of shape. A true owner will never give a shit about that stuff…some of best builds around, while they do follow themes, are still widely a vision of the owner, not about what other people think. Another part of it is the time people put into their builds. Classic car guys will always tell you that they’ve spent YEARS bringing their car to be; granted those cars are usually a lot older than your average late model Honda. They spend a lot of time seeking out parts and doing research, and then ultimately taking their time to apply it to the vehicle. I don’t get that feeling when I look at this. This car has just about every “express train to Japan” trend displayed on it somewhere, from the JDM angle on the license plate tags, to the confusing wheel stance, accentuated by JDM-inspired Hello Kitty tape on the center caps, a patched in rear fog light and roof rack that looks like it could easily jettison itself on your local freeway. Granted, there are still some nice elements to this car…but I’m just trying to find ways to put the pieces of the puzzle together, and it’s just not working for me..
Simple white RSX on DC5 ITR wheels…
Sadly, probably one of my favorite cars of the show was this 97spec Integra Type R…
Red hatchback with Denji headlamps and rolling on the same 97spec ITR wheels seen above. It needs some paint matching done, but doesn’t look bad otherwise…
Well done DC Integra with JDM front-end conversion…love the color…
Sharp looking TSX with the Accord Euro R front end…
Another beautiful TSX…
Yet another Silverstone S2000, this one with a Spoon Hard Top rolling on Mugen M7s…
Tim and I liked this 8th-gen Accord coupe. It looked had bold appearance, but I thought it could have had more aggressive-looking wheels. I love the gunmetal color…
One of my favorite Hondas currently…
We saw this root-beer colored DC Integra at Autocon a couple weeks ago.
We’ve seen this hatch before too. I love the race look on the wheels/tires, and the engine setup as well…but it’s just weird to me that the front end is just gloss black and the rest of the car is another color. I don’t know if its a work in progress or what, because we saw it in the same state at the WiredOnHonda meet a few months ago.
Beautiful stock Del Sol. I love seeing Hondas restored and maintained in their original configuration…timeless…
Nice looking fit, didn’t care too much for the wheels…
Bisi’s Wagovan on display…
Great looking hatch with a giant intercooler…
Not sure if the hood on this S2000 is custom or what. If anybody knows about it, please post up in the comments below…I looked around online and couldn’t find out anything. Even though it’s not very pronounced, I think it works very well with the extruded shape of the S2000…
This was probably my favorite car of the show, and only because I’m a sucker for die-hard brand dedication. It’s not really practical nor is it cost effective for the average builder, but I think it’s cool to show off at events. Everything on this S2000 was from Spoon. You can get a fair amount of AP1/AP2 parts direct from Opak these days for a somewhat reasonable price…at least when you compare the prices to that of old Spoon EG/EK/DC components. All in all, very well done S…
Unique front end on this 4-door…
Fourth-gen Civic sedan with what appear to be one-piece housings. There were several other little things to this car that made it look great…
Another cool hatch. Still can’t stand those BYS spoilers though…haha…
Well-kept CRX on Mugen RNRs…
Indoors, we were greeted by this first-gen Civic…
DPK David’s EJ1…
One of sharpest and most refined bays in the business…
Hmmm….
J.P.’s EG with copper finished accents…been around the scene for a while but still looks great.
This EG was “kind of” in Spoon uniform, although there were some inconsistencies.
NA1 NSX…
Anh Truong’s DC2 is easily one of my favorite cars, not only in the Honda scene but probably the entire automotive scene as a whole. Fanastic build that I don’t mind seeing over and over and over again…
Bisi’s new ’12 Civic build was on display indoors as well…
We’ll wrap up with a couple shots of Michael Mao’s NSX that has been drawing attention since we saw it at Autocon…
That’s it for today…hope you all liked it. Thanks for reading… -Matt
The hood vents on the S2000 are “custom” but its very common to see them. Most people use a DIY template or so to cut the hood and i believe buy the black vented inserts, friend of mine has them on his 500hp s2k.
Thanks for the info! – Matt
Am the owner of the civic hatch with black front end, with euro tires and DHS wheels! Reason why my front end is black and rear of the car is sand color is bec wen i bought the shell it had a drag front end ditch that and just saving up get whole cared painted! keep up good job always like ur pics
Thanks for chiming in Juan! I love the car and we’re looking forward to seeing more of it…