One of the first meets that a couple of mates and I went to was the JZX NZ meet, and ever since then it’s kind of stuck and I’ve been going along for as long as I can remember. We used to meet up as mates every fortnight. Admittedly it probably got a little bit out of hand and may have resulted in being late to university the next day after coming home at 3am on some occasions. It was an awesome patch though, and we all had heaps of fun. Except one day it all just stopped. The meets stopped and we all went our separate ways for a bit. When that happened it resulted in some of us buying JZXs and some of us selling them. It’s all become a bit dormant for the last year or so.
Nigel James was always one of the attendees. His Chaser was immaculate in white with a 2JZGTE under the hood. He’s changed it up a bit recently; he’s painted the car and replaced the bodykit. The new bodykit comes from Japanese tuning company Rush and has been painted in a shade of green. I’m loving the new look.
With the meet taking so long to come back to life it was expected that some new members would show up and old members might have new cars. Younghoon Roh’s Equip’d JZX100 Mark II is one of the new cars in the crowd. Having not seen him around at the older meets, it’s great to see the JZX category picking up traction and breathing new life into some of these awesome cars.
Sitting under a singular light was ‘founding member’ Thomas Carlos’s GX81. Sitting a little higher than usual on SSR mesh, he’s been working on the car to make it immaculate for a few years now. It’s come a long way and is staying tidy.
Phillip McCall’s JZX100 Chaser Tourer V is rolling on a set of Work XT7s. The theme of simplicity ran across the board with most of the cars running stock kits with additional lips or nothing more — Phillip’s is a good representation of that.
It’s a pretty chilled environment; the gang parks up and talks for a few hours and then goes home. Paul Harris’s JZX90 Mark II Tourer V on AVS VS5 can be spotted chilling behind Nigel’s JZX100 Chaser.
Jason Thomas is one of the original members of the club with his JZX100 Tourer V Chaser. He’s been building the car since pre-forum days and before the meets at Kelly Tarltons. I remember seeing this car as it is these days four years ago at the first JZX meet I went to.
The JZX platform has been used as a taxi all around the world for many years, and is still being used as a taxi in Auckland. It’s no surprise that one of the members had his own set of taxi signs that come out for special occasions — or just in case he wants to make a quick few dollars carting people around.
Younghoon’s JZX is still a work in progress, but it’s come far since it was first brought into the country. I can’t wait to see the final outcome of the car — depending on whether sells it before then!
Before we knew it it was 10.30pm and we decided we should probably all go home. Maybe these will become a regular thing and more JZX owners will start showing up again.
