Import Expo: Texas

For the second year in a row, the crew at the Import Expo in Houston, Texas put together a show big enough to fill the Spurs' Sports Arena. This show expanded to every room in the arena, with each room overflowing with more action than you can shake a stick at. The stadium also hosted side shows galore: a DJ competition, dance competition, booty contest, male hot body contest (don't ask why!) and a variety of ramps set up for a freestyle bike demo. The remaining four rooms and hallways surrounding the stadium were packed with a fleet of show and street cars, as well as a vendor row large enough to be considered its own auto salon. The Import Expo drew in a record 15,000-plus people, and more than 300 cars. The weekend started off with a pre-party that was so good my inebriated mind can't remember where it was or how I got that strange tattoo on my back that says "sweet." The afterparty at Spy, a downtown Houston hotspot, was anything but stealth and was a perfect way to close out the weekend.

The best part of the whole show was the attendance. I don't mean the showgoers, although their presence was much appreciated, I'm sure. I'm talking about the promoter who had the foresight to hire some of the top industry models to autograph posters and calendars throughout the venue. I couldn't walk more than a few feet without my "model radar" going off with a distinct "boing"--Jasmin Alejandrino, Natasha Yi, Sasha Singleton, Kali Yu, Rowena Galam and Aiko Tanaka represented the Import Tuner Cover Model cam, and Tila Nguyen represented some of Houston's finest. Boing indeed.

Spotlight vehicles came in the form of "racing zing" and "show bling" with the likes of the A'PEXi Integra, Stephan "Vin Diesel" Papadakis' 2001 AEM Civic Coupe, and some yet-to-be-debuted race cars from Royal Purple. Proving that our good taste is empirical, many 2NR feature cars were also in attendance at the Lonestar State event, like Chris Musngi's Supra, L.J. Garcia's Civic, and last month's cover Supra owned by Kenny Tran. With the quality of the cars and the beautiful women present, this trip was definitely worth its weight in gold. I especially enjoyed the Sony PlayStation trailer that had many of the newest games available for thumb-numbing excitement. The only way to understand the scope of this event is to shell out money for a plane ticket, room and car...or you can just put the Al Bundy Flava in ya ear and kick your feet up while you check out our photographic diary of the Houston Import Expo.