The last time a Hot Import Nights show (www.hotimportnights.com) was held in the Los Angeles area, it took place down the freeway at the Long Beach Convention Center. This time, the organizers moved the show 20 miles north to the Los Angeles Convention Center in beautiful downtown LA. The move in venue was more than welcome, as the dreaded commute down Long Beach's pothole-ridden 710 freeway has claimed many a front bumper, side skirt, and wheel.
To give you an idea as to what Hot Import Nights is, the shows start at around 6pm on Saturday, and run until just past midnight--this one took place on July 23, 2002. Once through the insanely long line with security screening, everyone piled into the convention center that was turned into one large, car-packed rave. If you've never been to a Hot Import Nights show, the best way to describe it is it's like The Fast and the Furious, only all the cars are stationary. The whole idea with the show is to reinforce the credo, "If it looks fast, it is." As such, HIN shows draw more Hondas and Acura then Euros.
There are, however, a group of Euro owners that frequent the HIN shows, determined to show up their Japanese counterparts. These Euros are usually not quite as wild as the Hondas, but the quality of mods are far superior. The Euros are also less into headlight and taillight swaps, a trend that is as popular as APC taillights in the Honda scene. Interestingly enough, at this HIN show, there were a handful of Honda Accords wearing BMW 3- and 5-Series head and taillights.
With the loud music thumping and the lasers shooting across the stage, it's all too easy to get caught up in the HIN atmosphere. For the eurotuner staff, however, we preferred to check out all the models and then head into the reserved suite we always get at events like this. We've discovered Honda-drenched shows are a lot easier to take if you've got a cold drink in your hand.