Eastside JDM :: Under The Cover Of Dark

On a dark Saturday night a large group of JDM car’s descended on a car park somewhere in Melbourne’s east. Although not all of the cars where exclusively from the east, some traveling from the north for a chance to meet other JDM import owners. Many cars were seen scouting the area even before the meet had started at nine thirty, presumably looking out for police or defect stations.

Other cars where seen doing blocky’s just because they were lost and could not see the meet point. With a vague location listed on the Facebook event page a fair group of cars found themselves congregating around a nearby MacDonalds.

Once a small group of cars lined up next to each other then it was a simple case of follow the leader. Streams of burbling WRX’s arrived with a pack of Nissan’s bringing a chorus of turbo flutter.

It wasn’t just Subaru’s and Nissan’s that brought the JDM flavor but also a few Mitsubishi’s that made an appearance.

There were even a few Euro invaders sneaking in slowly amongst the herd of JDM cars, quietly they found parking spots close to the main action.

Not may people are brave enough to add a bold contrasting color that attracts attention but the red highlights on this R34 help to give the car a bit of an impact.

Rare and unique yet not a JDM car this Ford Sierra Cosworth was hidden up the back of the car meet where it didn’t seem to attract the attention it so rightly deserved.

Among the sea of regular JDM cars was this little and rare semi softtop suzuki swift. I’ve never seen one before however it does make sense that Suzuki would create such a thing especially in the nineties.

Now For the heavy hitters! The crowd pleasures! A supra with some serious power and a full blown drift car driving around on club plates. These two cars pulled the biggest crowd of the night they also attracted the attention of the police who were keeping a close eye on the car meet.

Another euro invader, a mini with some chunky BBS rims and plenty of style.

You can never go wrong with the traditional black and gold combo that’s why the John Player Special livery is one of the most loved race car livery’s.

Two cars that share DNA parked right next to each other! The real question is when will Toyota release a turbo 86? There are plenty of bolt on turbo kits but no factory option, we have only been waiting five years and still we wait.

A rather clean S14 with a fresh looking kit never fails to impress, the S14 is like a middle child it never gets the love it deserves.

Who needs shiny wheels when you have a striking paint job like this!

Selling merchandise at car meets is starting to gain popularity, not only where there all kinds of stickers for sale but there was also hot donuts and coffee!

A strong representation from the AE86 crew with a nice mix of hatch and notchbacks all in a row.

You cannot go wrong with an FD RX7 remarkably this one has a massive front mount intercooler tucked behind the front bar for a bit of extra oomph.

Classic Japanese style smaller negative offset wheels with fat tires, whats not to like about this Onevia!

A change of parking spot brought a whole new crowd to these two show stoppers. Unfortunately the Insane Customs S13 Drift car was not appreciated by the highway patrol who threw the book at them for driving on club plates after 12am.

Looking a little worse for wear this MX5 is mid restoration yet i bet we will see this car with a completely new look very soon.

At first i did not recognize what car this was, I soon discovered it was a Subaru Impreza with some special tuning from AVO. This Impreza goes by the name of GPVII and has it own following on Instagram.

Parked way in the back, ready for a quick escape was this beautiful R34 weapon. It sat quietly in the shadow of darkness just begging for a photo.

Having owned an import i know the feeling of always watching your back when driving in Melbourne, being a target because you have a loud car or something that looks relatively fast does not mean your a criminal. Car meets like this bring together like minded people to share their creations with the rest of the car community. Eastside JDM are helping to keep a good group of JDM fans together much like the original JDMST group and we hope to keep a close eye on this forever growing movement.
-Grant