Crown Auto in Queens, NY has been gaining prominence as a vendor for Japanese dream parts, and builder of some incredible cars. The past few years, their name has been popping up on a huge percentage of New York and New Jersey's most impressive show cars and track builds. This July, they held an open house and shut down the surrounding blocks to put on a killer event. It's a shop I've been wanting to check out and what better day than a block party on a lazy Sunday to take a road trip down to New York and poke around.
Josue Santiago of Ronin's GDB STI was front and center in the Crown lot main display. The incredible look of this STI is thanks to Voltex's catalogue of aero and air suspension to bring those wide fenders closer to its wheels. Also of note; the JDM rear window with the factory wiper.
Filling the 40mm wider over fenders are GTR spec Volk CE28s with fitting 295 width Falkens.
The interior is equally tended to with Japanese racing influence without compromising on being streetable.
Jordan Canela of Tough Club built with a similar build ethos from a different aero empire. Varis's catalogue was poached for it's insane widebody and "Circuit Version" aero for insane presence. Volk TE37Vs make use of the extra 60mm of clearance. Much more development is in progress for this car and I'll report with more when it debuts!
One of my personal favorite Subarus is Joe Tobias's blobeye STI. Rather than run the typical aero brands seen on most Subarus, this one runs M Sports; a brand primarily known for drifting and made famous by the Team Orange D1GP cars! Recently Joe traded out the original World Rally Blue for a pearl white that really perfected it in my opinion.
This is another personal favorite Subaru also of Ronin. I love the choice of Ings+1 aero as another not-so-typical choice with well fitting CE28Ns. I usually prefer cars with factory wings to keep a wing but I do feel the wingless look suits this one perfectly.
Wether or not Rocket Bunny/Pandem are your style, you can't deny the sheer presence their widebodies exude.
I got ahead of myself and didn't take nearly enough photos of Crown's Voltex S2000 - however there are a few pictures I have in my 2019 Wekfest coverage when they debuted the completed car. This kit is Voltex's Circuit Version III - one of only a couple in North America and amongst only a handful globally. Stylistically it's unchanged since completion save for the new Volk 21C which come in wide-friendly offsets even going into the negatives which is rare for a monoblock!
Liberty VIP showed out with some tough looking cars. This SC has been around for a while and is always exciting to see.
The completeness of this GS is what does it for me. A true VIP build is thorough and opulent. Enormous and exclusive Luxury Abstract Gradus fill out the custom body work covering a Rolloface front and rear BBK. The engine bay was exciting because it's not completely devoid of what makes the car actually function and doesn't have creature comforts and luxuries removed for the sake of cleanliness, but everything in there looked pristine, new, and better than factory.
Throughout the day cars were constantly cycling through the venue so nothing was ever where you left it and it kept your head on a swivel.
It must be annoying to a degree having something like a Midnight Purple III V-Spec because it took this dude forever to make his way through the venue to park since everyone wanted to take a pic or say something.
20 years of Phoenix Yellow and OG Bronze TE37s!
Always love seeing Andres's EK4 SiR.
Cool seeing a JDM Honda Legend given love.
Steven Mahadeo's time attack EJ6 is a raw time attack build that felt a bit like a privateer competitor at Tsukuba. A massive custom splitter dominates the front of it along with a C West front bumper. Tracklife Composites front fenders house wide 17" Volk CE28Ns while Konig Hypergrams sit out back. PCI skirts, PCI's hatch mounted wing, and APR mirrors round out the bulk of the purposeful exterior.
The interior is just as focused on function while a K24 motivates the lightened chassis. I just watched Steven tear up Lime Rock Park this past weekend and it definitely does it's job well!
Chris Acosta's sedan could easily hold it down at any car show despite being a purpose built race car. Stock aero bookended by a splitter and wing keep it simple outside sat over Group B NC-01s - the first set I've seen in person and I definitely love them! Inside, everything not needed was removed and deleted as cleanly as possible. The engine bay is equally cleaned up with the centerpiece being the B18C. This car was also at Gridlife tearing around track!
Shoutout to Crown for hosting a great meet!
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