Went to HIN last night...

In Portland. Wore my GRM shirt too. What a let down. I mean, tickets were only 25$, but the venue was small, the car variation sucked, (there's only so many civics and FRSBRZ you can look at before everything starts looking the same.)

They had some loud mouth rooster on a stage trying to get the crowd fired (didn't happen, because PNW'ers are notoriously introvert) the booths were really limited and they had some really non performance oriented booths.

That being said it was a fun way to kill two hours, I bought legit JDM,yo air fresheners. Free swag, a guy airbrushed the old yota TEQ logo on a shirt for me. Models were nothing to gawk at, plus SWMBO was with me...

I think the craziest part was the difference in cars. There were two actual track cars, civics. An r32 and r33, and r35. The event staff told the owners of the skylines to close the hoods because "the attention draw is unfair to those that a paid for a booth" lol. What an absurd statement. The RE-amemiya fc3s GT car was there, THAT was awesome to see.

On the flip side though, there were miatas with license plates for fender flairs, miatas with license plates for air diffusers, civics with license plates for hoods. Did I miss a trend? Yuck...

That was the unique. Everything else, I kid you not, was a 350z/g35 with more ICE and dubs than a snoop dogg video. Or a FRSBRZ with maximum stance, ¥0!

So who cares about my experience right? I thought I would write this in case there is anyone else that has this circus come to town. I've heard the Las Vegas and LA show are bigger and better, maybe so, but the Portland one gets a 5/10 for me. I went because I've always read about these in super street as a kid, they really talked them up and made it seem like there was a huge nightlife and so many cars you can't see it all in one day. Granted, that was 2003-ish. Times have changed.

Anyone else?

Never been to one, but it sounds like they are slowly becoming an import version of the Goodguys street rod shows. Maybe the crowds are getting older, EDIT: I should say more mature?

phew... glad I past on it....

For us uninitiated, what is HIN?

In reply to stuart in mn:

Hot Import Nights.

The most memorable show I saw was at California Speedway on the same day we had a track day event. Lowered, stanced, shiny and chromed turbo cars were lined up - owners posed. I couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed for them while also thinking, "Well, there's the track, show us.", as we drove by heading out on-track.

One of the best car shows I went to was a kumho tires sponsored drag night. They handed out awards for different cars. A lot of cars showed. Models with butt cheeks hanging out. They had a DJ spinning dance music. The best part was that a little kid started break dancing. A crowd formed. Soon it became an impromptu dance off with grown men and this kid. The crowd got huge, everyone started dancing! The MC got on the mic and tried giving out shirts. No one would pay attn to him so he got mad and got off stage.

Seems like the only thing you need for a successful show/party is a loud sound system, and free entry for cars. Let the people do the rest. Maybe I should get into this gig.

HIN was big at the peak of the "tuner scene" from 2002-2008.

I was frankly shocked to see in that this thread that it still existed.

The best "car show" I've ever been to is the paddock at Monterey Historics... :)

drdisque wrote: HIN was big at the peak of the "tuner scene" from 2002-2008. I was frankly shocked to see in that this thread that it still existed.

This. They were pretty lame even back then. Weird night club scene theme. There was a HIN after party sort of thing at the Varsity parking lot in maybe 2005 that I remember rolling by in my 400hp Galant VR4 and maybe half the people thought I had a Sentra or Stanza with a fake intercooler. LOL

I did go to Nopi Nationals several times in the early 2000s since I lived in Atlanta and even for all the rice, there was plenty of legit fast non riced out imports there too.

These days I don't go to any car related events besides races except for the Mitty. Oh and SEMA as like a educational event and because it's an excuse to go to Vegas.

drdisque wrote: HIN was big at the peak of the "tuner scene" from 1994-2001. I was frankly shocked to see in that this thread that it still existed.

Fixed it for you. The F&F franchise killed the scene, well that and motovicity.

Im not much on cars shows but watching the autocross at a good guys show is fun. Otherwise i prefer the small local shows with burnout contests

crankwalk wrote:

drdisque wrote: I did go to Nopi Nationals several times in the early 2000s since I lived in Atlanta and even for all the rice, there was plenty of legit fast non riced out imports there too. These days I don't go to any car related events besides races except for the Mitty. Oh and SEMA as like a educational event and because it's an excuse to go to Vegas.

I went to NOPI Nationals from 2002-2005 too. I even managed to snag press credentials most of those years for covering it for a crappy now nonexistent website. Yeah there were some cool cars despite all the rice, I mean SR20DET convertible Chevy S10, Twin-Charged Hyundai Scoupe (Supercharger and Turbocharger), an Eclipse GST popping a radiator hose during the burnout contest and getting my picture taken doing the epic handshake with Buff Bagwell (man I wish I still had that picture).

Another one in the "I didn't realize they were still around" crowd. Apparently they haven't been doing a good job of staying relevant.

Central Florida still has some big import shows in the V2 Lab Mystery Meat (it's bologna) and Simply Clean. 90% of the cars in these shows are just stanced. Air bags, lots of camber, and crazy colored wheels. People are rude, things get stolen, traffic at the venues is a nightmare. Took my family to one of these last year and left after 20 minutes because we just kept seeing the same wheels on different cars in different colors and had about 38 vape clouds blown towards our kids stroller. I'm all for anything that keeps the aftermarket auto industry in business but that scene just isn't my cup of tea and theres nothing worth looking at either anymore haha.

Didn't know these things still went on. I went to a bunch of their shows in the early 00s.

It was fun, but even then a lot of the cars just looked ridiculous.

It's been held at Kil-Kare in Xenia OH in years past, not sure if it's still around. Some of my old Scion friends used to go, and one year it was held in conjunction with a Scion Exposed event at the same time (but 2 hour staggered time start). SE was free, and we got to wander over to HIN after it opened. Meh, did nothing for me, except a free Monster Energy drink, so I never went to it again.

DirtyBird222 wrote: Central Florida still has some big import shows in the V2 Lab Mystery Meat (it's bologna) and Simply Clean. 90% of the cars in these shows are just stanced. Air bags, lots of camber, and crazy colored wheels. People are rude, things get stolen, traffic at the venues is a nightmare. Took my family to one of these last year and left after 20 minutes because we just kept seeing the same wheels on different cars in different colors and had about 38 vape clouds blown towards our kids stroller. I'm all for anything that keeps the aftermarket auto industry in business but that scene just isn't my cup of tea and theres nothing worth looking at either anymore haha.

I used to go to the big Supra meet around Memorial day down there. Lots of Dbags but some really fast Supras.

Occasionally Hulk Hogan.

DirtyBird222 wrote: Central Florida still has some big import shows in the V2 Lab Mystery Meat (it's bologna) and Simply Clean. 90% of the cars in these shows are just stanced. Air bags, lots of camber, and crazy colored wheels. People are rude, things get stolen, traffic at the venues is a nightmare. Took my family to one of these last year and left after 20 minutes because we just kept seeing the same wheels on different cars in different colors and had about 38 vape clouds blown towards our kids stroller. I'm all for anything that keeps the aftermarket auto industry in business but that scene just isn't my cup of tea and theres nothing worth looking at either anymore haha.

Its funNY, I was thinking about maybe going to a show here, see what it's like. Glad I chose not to. I quit the car game in mn for the very same reasons.