Last Saturday I attended the SpoCom Norcal Edition car show held at Club Auto Sport in San Jose, CA. If you do a quick Google search of the word “spocom” you’ll find more images of scantily clad women than actual cars–this may explain why legions of adolescent males paid the relatively high $25 spectator fee, but more on that later. Look harder though and you can find some sweet J-Tin at this show claiming to be aimed at “automotive & pop culture tastemakers alike.”

 

The Venue

I don’t claim to be a tastemaster of any kind, but here is my review of the show from a Datsun owner’s point of view.  Let’s start with the venue: Club Auto Sport is a large, retail/commercial complex and home to exotic-car rental agency Club Sportiva and Borelli Motorsports:

 

Inside the main building there were several aisles for show cars to be parked and a main stage for a DJ and wait for it…bikini contest! Club Auto sport offers private garages so naturally I peeked at various man caves…found a Porsche 959 in hiding!

 

The Cars

Those tall orange “Swords” above are actually the coveted SpoCom Awards. I learned that this was a highly competitive show with “teams” vying for these 4-ft tall trophies. Here is a taste of the cars placed near the main stage area:

 

There were about 25 cars lining the aisles inside the building…scattered about in random fashion with one aisle having only 3 cars vs 18 in another:

 

The car scene inside the building was quite different from the cars placed outside, and this is where I found some pretty neat machinery. Let’s begin with my roadster which was staged near this S30 sporting an old-school body kit:

 

More Vintage J-Tin

I’m a sucker for Datsun 510s, so you can imagine how stoked I was to walk back outside and find these three dimes!

 

This 2-door sported RS Watanabe wheels and subtle rear flares, no doubt necessary to squeeze the 9″ widths:

 

This 4-door had a pumped up SR20DET pushing over 400whp, tuned by our friend Seb at SpecialtyZ.  Lots of CF details and a very clean engine bay:

 

Finally, this white 4-door rocked some AME/Fatlace wheels:

 

That was it for the Datsuns but other vintage marques were around like this SA22 with an unorthodox Honda F20C powerplant…and turbocharged!  I really dug the converted Mugen wheels:

 

Our friend Patrick N is no stranger to the car show scene and his orange TE27 always impresses. An ambassador to the Toyo Tires booth, Patrick’s wheel of choice this time was the timeless TRD Tosco.  Well done, sir!

 

Nissans

Our beloved Nissan was well-represented from the huge Infiniti G35/G37 conglomerate to the 370z community. It was refreshing to see older models like the S-chassis cars and a few VIP-treated Q-ships. Vertex S14

 

Classy S13 on TE37s

 

R32 on Volk ZE40s

 

G-crowd 

Stanced G-cars abound! Some wild and some simple/clean:

 

My first modded Q50 sighting:

 

My favorite G35 coupe:

 

This G35 was insanely detailed. Yes, you thought mirrors were only for those low-riders…the bottom of this car was a serious tribute to OCD:

 

370z’s

The Z34s at the show were heavily modified and a few have reached almost viral popularity like this one on airbags:

 

Darkness:

 

Gotta love those Volks!

  

The Models

Let’s not forget the apparent spectator selling point for this show…the lovely bikini models. Big thanks to the ladies that were kind enough to pose for pictures:

    

Also Worth Watching: The Wheels!

SpoCom was wheel heaven with OEM and aftermarket rims from Volk/Rays, SSR, Work, BBS and more. Custom split wheels like the green Work VS-XX pictured below add a personal touch while allowing some pretty crazy fitment!

   

Other Imports: Hondas

My favorite Hondas were this HigginsBuilt EF Civic and J’s Racing Honda S2000:

 

The aero on this thing is wild!

 

Other Imports: Subaru/Mitsubishi

Unfortunately for show competitors, Evo’s and Subie’s were classed together. Sad as there were great examples of both

 

VIP madness

The VIP scene was strong. All makes, static or on air with hard to miss details. Those are GT-R (R35) wheels on an Infiniti Q45!

 

Yes, even modified vans…a Sienna with Volk TE37s!

 

Bonus Japanese Sports Cars

Hidden gems like this FC Rx-7, MA70 Supra and wild FD RX-7 from JDM Palace were all wonderful to see

  

This was probably the cleanest Supra I’ve ever seen…right down to the side body cladding this thing was mint!

 

Just A Few Euros

Insane widebody E92 M3 and striking F82 M3:

 

Mad Max and Barbie?

I’ve got nothing…

 

On Being A Cultural Tastemaster

I’ve been to HIN, Wekfest etc and they were bustling with people and good vibes everywhere. The SpoCom show on the other hand was quite odd with respect to the spectators and energy. Outside were the most cars, vendors and booths but eerily there were only a handful of spectators. Most of my pictures were shot throughout the day with no fuss…usually at these shows it’s impossible to get a clean view of a car without droves of people in the shot. I think the $25 entrance fee could have detracted would-be show goers. Or most of them were inside watching the bikini show. If being a cultural tastemaster means suffering though loud rap music laced with explicit lyrics, young dudes wearing backpacks posing with models, and a sampling of “what kids are into these days”, then SpoCom is for you.  On a positive note, the roadster got some killer media exposure!

 

 

 

Big thanks to martianpics, CleanCarCulture, and JnnVision for the fantastic shots! More pictures in our gallery below: