Hafa Adai ya’ll! Glad to be back with another post in 2023, this time with coverage and commentary straight from our Marianas sister island, Saipan, and their annual “big” car show, the Island Summer Auto Fest (ISAF) which took place last weekend, September 9, 2023. I’ve lived in Guam all 39 years of my life and believe it or not, this was my first time jumping on that 45 minute plane ride to Saipan. The trip was made possible by the ISAF peeps, James & Carol Fleming and company. James had messaged back in October 2022 asking if I was interested in visiting them as a judge for the car show and I was stoked. I’ve looked over their @islandsummerautofest account on IG and was always intrigued by their scene and builds. I wasn’t sure who else was making the trip other than John Borja (@audiousguam) and James Arki (@arkitech671)… only to find out exiting the Saipan airport arrival area that Fabian (@fadesbbg) and Paulo (@madpowtattoo) were also part of the chosen ones. With the crew assembled, we rendezvoused at an island favorite restaurant…

Shirleys! Just like back home. For those who haven’t been to Saipan before before… I’d say the island, for the most part, looks similar to the southern villages here in Guam. The more building and commercial-like populated area, Garapan, is a combination of old Hagatna and Tumon. There’s more of a Chinese influence over the island as you’ll see a lot of Chinese text/signs on buildings… I spotted quite a few businesses that operate both in Guam and Saipan including big names like IT&E, Triple J and others like National Office Supply.

All those familiar places made me feel immediately like I was home, but all over the island you’ll find places named “Joeten” followed by _______ ie. Joeten Motors, Joeten Market, Joeten Department Store, and Joeten Theaters. I had to ask and apparently the “Joetens” are a prominent family on island, similar to how the “C” family owns a bulk of businesses here on Guam. So crazy how the 670/671 mirror each other….

… if you thought bottled water was expensive on Guam, check out the price of their oven roasted chicken at Joeten’s… holehh!

After getting settled in to our hotel/apartment, we had dinner at this restaurant called Naked Fish in Garapan (10/10 for me)… Anyone remember 10 years ago when Michelob Ultras weren’t cool? People were saying it was too light or didn’t taste good back then… Well I guess it Michelob was the ugly chick in high school who later became the hottest chick on island. lol

We spent the rest of the night bar hopping in the area; Guess this was a trip of firsts because this was the first time I’ve ever played a game of shuffleboard…

Saturday was the day of the Island Summer Auto Fest. Our rooms were right in the area behind the venue (Marianas Business Center) so the drive was literally a minute or so. When we arrived at around 10:00, some cars were already parked waiting for the event crew (aka John and Paulo) to start staging; Weather didn’t seem to be on our side but thankfully the venue was shaded and rain didn’t stop the show from going on successfully. Despite the heavy downpour, people started trickling in and prepping their cars for the show. This STI was super clean, talked to the owner (@rickyyanthony) for a bit… Those plates you see on it are from New York, where he moved and shipped the car from. I asked why Saipan out of all the places? He shared that his family operated a business out in Saipan and how he liked the slow, easy going lifestyle that we enjoy as islanders.

Team UNRATED rolled in and this Integra owned by Dave (@dave.670) caught my eye… Cherry build with teal Rota Group Ns…

View of the bay… Had a good time talking with some of the UNRATED guys about their builds and how they strive to inspire the young ones out there to keep building cars and follow their dreams. Good stuff.

One build that I was looking forward to seeing was Mark’s (@_mxshark) Civic EK… I previously saw this car on ISAF’s IG last year (I believe it took home Best of Show in 2022). Mark’s car once again drew lots of attention with his display and its in your face persona. I heard he was trying to bring this to Guam and run it at the track… but now that the raceway is closed… I’m not sure if we’ll ever see that happen.

Mark’s EK was definitely a crowd favorite… My pics don’t do this car any justice so check out @islandsummerautofest and @_mxshark on IG if you want to see more of the progression of this ride.

My personal favorite car at ISAF was this Civic FD Type R build by Jheff from Team Exotic (@jheff824). Looks really simple with the Mugen aero with some Spoon flair but it had a ton of quality parts on it that all meshed together well. I’ve judged at a handful of car shows and one thing that I always look out for is how clean the car is. I look at how in-depth the owner spent making the car look new — something small like old rusty bolts vs new/dress-up replacements make a big difference in presentation. I also to like look into hard to see areas like the undercarraige, wheel wheels, and wheel barrels to see if they were given some tender loving care. Jheff’s car was both clean and well built… and it showed because he nabbed the 1st place trophy in the crowded 4 door category.

Real Moooooogen goodness. No pics to show, but he had a really nice trunk set-up too!

Junction Produce themed GS300 owned by JT Ada of Team Exotic… If you’ve followed the Guam scene, you’d probably find this to be a familiar car as it has been featured a few times here on HAFADAZE and was once owned by Dennis T. (@denlibertyvip). In 2023, the car finds new life in Saipan with a new owner who redid it to make it his own. After seeing it again up close and personal, I can say that this VIP build is looking much better these days.

ISAF brought me back to the AutoJam times with these display boards… Lots of owners had them propped and they were given bonus points on the scoresheets. The boards were also a big help to us judges as we were able to refer to them when judging. The only drawback I’d say is that photographs of the actual cars didn’t turn out too well (at least for me) because the boards got in the way (see above). Arki and Fabian, my co-judges were saying that maybe in future shows they could just put a QR code up for people to scan and review noh?

JT’s trunk set-up… Solid build overall which ended up taking home 2nd place in the VIP category.

You can always find other cool vehicles in the parking lots outside of a car show… Saipan was no exception. I noticed many owners had vanity plates… apparently in Saipan you don’t have to pay extra for it like we do here on Guam.

Juanito Sambile’s 2013 Honda Ruckus from Team Exotic ran away with 1st place honors in the scooter/moped category with those Tron vibes.

Hell yeah, fxcking right….

We were trying to make good time on the judging and we got caught up with the first handful of vehicles because we had to pay extra attention to all the work they put into ’em…one of them being Joey Pangelinan’s 2012 Tacoma build from Team Exotic. Saipan really brought the heat for this show since there were rumblings this might be the “last” Island Summer Auto Fest event. James Fleming, organizer, was saying that he wants to focus on the car brand specific meets that are held every few months instead. Understandable, the work into actually putting on a car show is just nuts…

Cut and slammed… Joey’s Tacoma was so mint — just look at how clean that bed is. I could tell immediately that Joey was a car show veteran because he had the gas tank door open to showcase that it was painted correctly and that he spent that extra time making sure no dirt was present in those “forgotten” areas. Joey ended up running away with 1st place honors in the truck category…

… while Justin Ayuyu’s 78 Toyota truck on the other side of the venue representing Low District took 2nd place.

It was a family affair for on this Yota as I saw multiple people with all hands on deck prepping it on the spot for the show. It looked like an incomplete project, but sometimes it’s not about winning, it’s about showing off your hard work and enjoying the experience. Nice meeting you guys and thanks for coming out to ISAF.

Chris Meyers’ Infiniti Q50s representing Low District; Some Guam folks may remember Chris from the recent 40th (and maybe last) Smokin’ Wheels — the car was shipped to Guam for the event and he was tearing up the drag strip and hurting feelings all night. I think Chris is the only person in the Marianas who can claim that his car participated in Guam’s last track car show (Smokin’ Wheels 2023) and Saipan’s “last” car show (ISAF 2023). Solid!

Nicely done static setup on this Civic on some aggressive Enkei RPF01s…

Carbon fiber, carbon fiber, carbon fiber Z from Team Fourtry… There were numerous car “rev-offs” during the event and man this thing was loudddddd. At a few points during the show, people were running back and forth from car to car, almost stampede-like, to witness these guys bouncing their rev limiters. Can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything like that before. You just had to be there…

Nicely done up 2020 Civic Type R FK8 sitting on the forever classic TE37s owned by Ryan Li (@sheepkkking), also representing Team Fourtry.

Ryan had a well-rounded build and I was surprised he didn’t place in the 4door category. However, he did end up taking home the Joeten Motors brand award was chosen by a representative from the dealership. Well deserved.

2JZ IS300 from Low District… also a participant in the rev-off. I really wonder if there are videos floating around of the action… lol

SIMPIN ain’t easy Civic owned by Butch (@thehomie.steeze) from Senzoku running our HAFADAZE license plate frames in the rare dark blue-teal colorway. Not too many of those floating around anymore.

More mini-truck love — HOTWILZ from Team Exotic…

We started judging at around 2:30 and ended around 8ish… It took us longer than expected but it was really nice to meet up with all the Saipan brothers and enjoy their builds. We finally had some time to go around the show again as spectators instead of as judges and we were able to catch up with John and Paulo who were working on the audio sound-off portion of the show.

Non competing FD RX7 owned by Triple J…

Loved the color and graphic scheme on it…

Super custom “Frankenstein bodied” 88 Toyota Hilux from Juan Pocaigue. Yes, those are Jeep tail lights fitted back there. Follow the build — 670_Badlux. At the end of the night, Juan ended up taking home 3rd place in the truck category. I believe Juan also participated in the Burnout comp earlier in the day as well.

Simple Evo from Low District…

ISAF’s Best of Show winner, Mia’s 2007 Toyota Rumion (aka Scion XB)… Looks like a rather simple build but it actually was a complete head to toe JDM to USDM conversion. This build had all its bases covered on the scoresheets and cleanliness and execution was off the charts. I wish I had more pics to share of it but as mentioned before the display boards kinda got in the way with getting a good shot. Head on over to @islandsummerautofest on IG/Facebook to take a closer look not only at the Rumion but other builds from Saipan.

Ending the car show coverage with one more pic of Mark’s display… Sorry for touching. haha. I wish I had more pictures and commentary to share with ya’ll but judging and taking pics and just the whole experience was pretty difficult for this almost 40-year old body of mine. Thank you to all the show organizers, sponsors, car owners, attendees, etc. and everyone who I met who made the experience a memorable one. The show wrapped up around at around 9-10 in the evening and despite being utterly exhausted we spent the rest of the night barhopping in Garapan again; Twas an interesting night to say the least….

We got up a little late on Sunday and decided to do some sightseeing and shopping for pasalubong to bring home. We rolled by Himawari Market, which is known for their ready made foods and bread.

We all walked out with lots of blueberry cream cheese bread to bring home… Pretty good stuff.

I also found these rice crackers in finadene flavor… Instead of “kakidane” they went with “finadane…” Eyyy!

We also made a stop by Joeten Market (not the superstore which was more like Cost-U-Less)… The vibe felt like I was shopping at Bunny Market Dededo in 1994. Crazy, I actually know the dude in the poster on the chips display… and he says that the poster thing is more than 10 years old. If it ain’t broke, why fix it I guess?

We stopped by Banzai Cliff, Bird Island, and Suicide Cliff… all with beautiful island views. I really liked how the island roads had signs marking directions and spots making it super easy to navigate for tourists like us. Wish we could have been the Grotto, but it was closed off. Maybe next trip!

The little island in the background supposedly has birds flying all around it on a good day, hence being named “Bird Island.”

This trip to Saipan was definitely one to remember. Much love to James/Carol Fleming and Co. for their unbelievable Hafa Adai hospitality. Thank you as well to the Guam continent: John, Pau, Arki, and Fabian for making the trip “funner” than I thought it would have been. lol. Meeting up with all the Saipan enthusiasts and bonding with the Guam homies made me re-appreciate the easy going island lifestyle that we are so lucky to live in and experience. With that said, I am pleased to announce that some new merch will be dropping in the coming days. We’ll have new stickers/tees based on the “Easy Life” logo you see above, an OG teal and gold hologram colorway on the frames, and a few other surprises… Stay tuned to our IG for a sneak peek and release date. Keep checking in on our ONLINE SHOP to check for updates on the gear. Thanks for reading!

Esta.