I’ve got a treat for y’all! 3 meets in 1 post! I also have a special surprise which I’ll get to in a bit… I hope this fall is treating you well. We are coming up to the end of 2025 and boy, what a journey it has been. I’ve made the intention to show up and put time into the automotive community since summer. I’ve got to meet a couple cool owners with cool cars and it’s an uplifting feeling. It’s all coming together as at the end of this post, you’ll see some of the heat that this current generation of automotive enthusiasts are cooking up.

For a special surprise, I actually brought my Sony Handycam with me to 2 meets. I made a mini VLOG on YouTube and I’ll attach a link right here. If you want, you can watch that video first and come back here for photos as I’ll get more in depth. I will admit that it was fun and nerve-wracking at the same time to be recording. Vlogging myself in public is still a fairly new idea to me and that’ll take time to develop. My hope is that the video coverage will allow y’all to witness automotive coverage in Colorado as if you’re there with me in person. Also, it could be something you’ll just have in the background while you’re tinkering with your own whips or enjoying hobbies outside of cars.

Now that that’s been addressed, let’s get into the first meet!

It has been 2 years since I’ve attended a Colorado Honda Meet. Last time I was there, the 11th gen Civic Type R (FL5) and the 5th gen Integra Type S (DE5) were acquired by enthusiasts and those models showed up. It was a lot more sunnier that time around and there were more cars in the Denver RTD parking lot.

I showed up a bit later and caught the peak of it before folks started leaving. It was getting cold and as you can tell by the clouds, it was going to get slippery. I apologize in advance as I didn’t capture that many cars. I went in there in hopes of talking to more people than taking photos…

This year instead of seeing an FL5 and DE5, I caught this pair: DC2 and EK9 donning their red “H” badges.

It’s a good pairing to see these 2 side-by-side as they are both RHD, both Championship White, and both rocking Volk TE37s in Mag Blue.

After capturing those 2 cars, the sprinkling rain turned into light drizzle and folks decided to dip. I was avoiding the leaving cars so I decided to head back to my car.

As I’m walking back, I’m hearing a deep-toned exhaust note that’s reminiscent of my Skunk2 exhaust. I’m getting closer to the source of sound and I’m seeing this blue 8th gen Civic SI (FG2) reversing into a spot next to my FA5. As an 8th gen owner, it’s very rare to meet 8th gen owners in the wild like this so I was excited to meet the owner of this FG2.

As I approach the FG2, the owner hops out and I introduce myself. He tells me his name is Ryan (or @sleek_si on Instagram) and we chopped it up from there.

Ryan’s owned this FG2 for 5 years and added a vast amount of miles to it. It’s his daily driven, touge weapon. When he’s not getting seat time on the racing sim, he hops in this thing and hits the mountain roads with fellow enthusiasts in Colorado.

In comparison, Ryan is much further along in modifying his car. It’s a street-oriented build with Stage 1 bolt-ons (e.g. intake, header, and exhaust or IHE as enthusiasts coin) and suspension upgrades.

Exterior wise, he had the car wrapped after it was totaled by the insurance company. The car had severe hail damage and he received enough funds to repair the dents and refresh the exterior. Originally silver, he now rocks this blue that’s a much lighter shade than the Fiji Blue Pearl on the FA5.

At this ride height, he’s still able to get around in the snow on his winter set of wheels/tires. For now, he’s rocking his summer tire setup with Continental tires and 17×9 Konig Hypergrams.

Unfortunately, he got in an accident where a truck damaged his driver side fender. He is safe and sound. From his updates on Instagram, the car didn’t seem to suffer structural damage. Hopefully it’s just a fender replacement and re-wrap to color match.

Despite not snapping much of the Hondas there, it was really dope to get to know other Honda owners in the Denver area. Shoutout to Ryan for the company in the drizzling, chilly weather! 

2 weeks after the Honda meet, I headed up north to Lakewood, Colorado for a special meet. The local Nissan dealership, Empire Nissan, was hosting a Trunk or Treat Meet to have kids in costumes grab candy and chocolate from the trunks of people’s cars attending the car meet. In conjunction with Empire Nissan, the Z Car Club of Colorado co-hosted as well. That week I bought some chocolate so I was set for trunk or treating.

When I pulled up, I parked one spot over from this Toyota Aristo V300 Vertex Edition on Work Gnosis GR203 wheels.

A couple cars down was this Nissan Pulsar GTI-R. The owner Tyler (forgive me if I got your name mixed up) recently acquired the GTI-R and already had plans of getting rid of the monster truck height with made-to-order coilovers.

Beside the AWD, SR20-powered hatch was this AWD, RB26-powered Nissan Skyline GT-R on a set of silver Volk CE28s. For the exterior, it’s rocking a Nismo front bumper, Nismo 400R side skirts & door strips, and Ganador mirrors.

The engine bay was touched up with a Millennium Jade valve cover, Narita Dogfight SPL hose clamps and zinc-plated hardware.

Drift Factory (Instagram) came through with their line-up of S-chassis. This Nissan Silvia Spec R (S15) is rocking an ings N SPEC kit with Work Meister T7R 2-piece wheels.

You’ve seen this R32 from previous coverage at IMI Motorsports (click here for Drift Matsuri coverage). Here’s Jay’s (Instagram) drift car, R32 with an SR20 in the engine bay.

Here’s a t-rex sweeping up candy from one of the RPS13s from Drift Factory.

Strolling through the Empire Nissan parking lot was this Toyota Chaser (JZX100) from another local Colorado drift team, Fool’s Errand (Instagram).

This Nissan 180SX Type X is another car from Jay’s fleet.

To uphold the timeless Type-X image, Jay threw on a set of Gramlight 57CRs. There’s really nothing else to say. Type X’s are the dream OEM+ spec for me in terms of S13s!

Another S15 in attendance except in Flame Red and sitting on Advan GT wheels.

This JZX100 Series 2 is nicely lowered on a set of Blitz Technospeed Z2 wheels.

Joining later that afternoon was this trio of Skylines… From left to right, R32, R34, and ER34.

There were a handful of Z’s in attendance as well like this original Nissan 240Z.

To finish up the trunk or treat portion of this coverage is this kouki Nissan 240SX (S14) with a single-turbo RB28.

As I was walking around, I left a bowl of chocolate by the front bumper of my Civic. I kept checking back to refill the bowl and got the 5.62-lb (or 90-oz) bag to about 0.5-lb before I left that day. I even had 4 Hot Wheels cars that I gave away to the kids who were suited up in their costumes. The rest of the chocolate went into my wife and I’s secret chocolate stash lol.

The day after the Empire Nissan Trunk or Treat meet, I was at work on my 15-minute break. I hop on Instagram and see Kaede and his homies repost on their Story of a meet happening that evening. I text my wife that I’ll be going there straight after work and she gave me a hella hard time… I’m leaving her with the pets all by herself and we weren’t gonna spend the night anymore watching Abbott Elementary Season 2 together… I’m just playing she was really chill about it!

In all seriousness, I briefly stopped by my crib to pick up my photography workhorse and my handycam. On the way to the meet, I drove through the pink-skied sunset. I’m enjoying the views and the experience of driving my Civic with minimal, hectic traffic that sprawls throughout the Denver area, majority of the day. I arrive at Osaka Sushi with a platter full of Japan’s finest selections of cars: Toyota’s, Mazda’s, Nissan’s, and Subaru’s.

At first, it felt like I was at a ghost town. It didn’t occur to me that I’m at a sushi spot and everyone was inside eating… It was a bit awkward for me but I got some good snaps of the cars.

The host of the meet was Kaede (or @kaede_shitmizu on Instagram) and this is his Lexus IS300 (SXE10). I first saw his car in 2022 at a car meet in Littleton, CO (Source: REVIZE.BLOG). There’s been minor changes to the front end since I’ve last seen it in person. Instead of the TRD Neo V1 front bumper and RS200 Z Edition Altezza grill, he swapped those out for a TRD Neo V2 bumper and a hood-trim piece.

This is the second time I’ve seen this car in person. This BMW 3-series (E92) belongs to Andy (or @andynhib on Instagram). I always love a good combination of German-made cars with Japanese-made wheels.

The sun went down fairly quick. During that time as the sun descended, I got to meet a couple people. There was Ken shooting film on his Pentax K1000, Kaede greeting me, Uma who you see here standing beside this Toyota Celica with a Boss Coffee livery – owned by Diego.

When it got really dark I busted out the tri-pod for long exposure shots and I love the outcome of these photos. I was going for a “night at Daikoku” type of vibe and I captured that…

Ken (or @bigriceguy) lit up these cars with the headlights of his Toyota 4runner because he needed more light to shoot on a roll of Cinestill 800t. I took advantage of that opportunity and snapped away.

This Nissan 240SX (PS13) coupe belongs to @mooneyes___ (on Instagram).

Besides the PS13 was this Nissan Skyline (ER32) sedan on a set of Nissan R33 wheels.

Last but not least, this is Austin’s (or @adoneill8 on Instagram) recently completed Toyota Corona. I started following the journey of his build 3 months ago when he just finished painting the engine bay. Currently, the car is up and running with a Toyota Corolla FX16 4A-GE. If you haven’t yet, check out the YouTube video to hear Austin giving it some revs…

These 2 rolled up later that night scraping up the drive-way…

Ken told me that this Toyota Chaser (JZX100) was at a drift event the day before, thrashing it at PPIR (Pikes Peak International Raceway).

Besides the JZX100 was this VIP Toyota Celsior (UCF21).

Despite most of this coverage being JDM, I had to include this Ford Crown Vic with hydraulic suspension and SSR Speed Star MK-I’s.

Here is Matt’s Subaru BRZ (ZC6) (@noluckmatt on Instagram). Instead of his set of white TE37’s, he’s rocking a set of Work CR Kiwami’s in GT Silver.

A new addition to his build is a TRD rear half spoiler/bumper.

Before I called it a night, I snapped one more picture of Kaede’s IS300 and said “peace” to the handful of people I met that night.