I was aware of the Monsters Of Japan show for quite a while before the date, but it also took me quite a while to pull the trigger and sign up. Too be honest, I’m getting worn out trying to keep the cars in a place where they are clean and show worthy with out taking them apart for more major work. The Camry has undergone some minor work through out the year, and has another round of changes coming up during the down season. The Hachi hasn’t had any major issues beyond the wheel bearing, but it does have some much needed down time coming up for some repairs of its own.
New Event, New Displays
The event was a Friday through Sunday schedule. I could have hung out all weekend to answer questions, or I could make some new displays for the people attending the show. Even though I was in a room full of other Japanese Vehicles most of them with modifications, this isn’t really what this show was about. This was an “auto show” full of new cars, and people that probably didn’t know what an AE86 was, or what a first gen Camry looked like. Those are the people I targeted with my displays.
I used slightly different styles for each placard, but tried to make them similar enough to show that the two cars were together.
More Monsters
If you’ve never been out to the Cal Expo Center it is an expansive complex, that can be very cool for some events and a bit awkward for others. In this case it was a little of both. The Monsters of Japan had a room all their own. Twisted Images managed to fill the room with a good mixture or true JDM monsters, and a few more like my own monster-ettes. Some of our company from the weekend.
Less Monstrous, But Still Cool
In addition to our room, there were plenty of other special vehicles around the show. Some in their own rooms, some as part of dealer displays. I identified particularly well with the “80’s Room”.
Vintage Trailers
Vintage Trailers were housed in another room. The only disappointment was the room was a bit empty. Don’t get me wrong the trailers were all super cool, and I’ll borrow one anytime someone want to load me one. I just thought the display could have been done better with either more trailers, or less space used.
Motorcycles
Similar to the trailer room the motorcycle display was a bit light. Also similar to the trailers the display didn’t make much sense to me. All of the bikes were lumped into the center leaving a lot of empty space again. Worse is trying to photograph a single bike in front of another often leads to what just looks like a mish mash of bars and levers going everywhere. Hence the single photo below.
Lemons In The Center
Throughout the weekend some of the Lemons racers were busy building a real live Lemons race car. Of course they brought out a few of they’re own vehicles as well. The Lemons series is one that I feel very conflicted about. I’ve seen so many cars similar to the ones I’m trying to save that get beat to death and treated like disposable garbage in the name of this series. While that doesn’t make me a happy camper, I do like the idea of a budget minded race series. I would just rather see them tear up some early 2000’s shit boxes than the already disappearing 80’s rides.
OEM Offerings
The OEM’s are of course the reason for the show. They were pretty much all here with a handful of offerings. This isn’t Detroit or Los Angeles, but if you’re actually shopping for a new ride for yourself, what you’re looking for is probably here. Even if it didn’t catch my eye or lens.
https://brandonmostautomotive.myportfolio.com/sac-auto-show-2018
Fin
After a long weekend the cars made it back home with out issue. Overall the show was good, and it was fun being able to stop in and check on them all while being able to re-arrange the shop at home. Really the only down side was the vehicle shuffle needed for only two of us to get two cars too and from the show while not involving anyone else or a trailer. Maybe next year we’ll involve another person to make it a bit easier.
