• Celebrating Japanese and European imports of the ‘90s and ‘00s, Grid Icons Golden Era welcomed more than 60 invited vehicles into Griot’s Garage in Tacoma, Washington.
• The curated car show was divided into sections, with Hondas in the main garage, Euros in the museum, and other standout builds throughout the car care school and courtyard.
• High performance and big horsepower were not overlooked as two world record-holding Hondas made special appearances – Myles Kerr’s “World’s Fastest and Quickest Integra” and SpeedFactory Racing’s “Fastest 4-Cylinder in the World.”
• Grid Icons wouldn’t be possible without its valuable partners: Radium Engineering (Presenting), Hawk Performance (Official Brake), Fluidampr (Official), H&R (Official), and Griot’s Garage (Official).

Events have always been a huge part of the automotive culture; however, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of meets, shows, and cruises oversaturated the car communities. Today, in any given major city and on any given weekend, there are too many options for enthusiasts to attend, which, quite frankly, made each event less exciting than the previous one. This dampened our spirits at Pit+Paddock, hence why, in the summer of 2023, we embarked on a new car show series called Grid Icons.

The concept was simple: Instead of trying to appeal to the masses and host mega events, we took a more niche approach by focusing on smaller segments of performance cars. While most car shows attract hundreds of cars, Grid Icons aimed to curate a collection of 50 to 80, depending on the venue. The goal of Grid Icons was to feel more like a boutique art exhibit than a traveling antique road show.

MOMENTUM INTO YEAR TWO

We kicked things off with two intimate shows in Southern California; the first focused on JDM Nissan Skyline GT-Rs (R32, R33, and R34 only), followed by an exhibition of modified Volkswagen and Audis. In Season Two, the momentum of Grid Icons pushed us to bring together the finest naturally aspirated BMW M models on the coast of Long Beach. The next two Grid Icons would take place outside California, with a Porsche dealership takeover in Pennsylvania and then a Ford Mustang tribute in Detroit. For the sixth edition of Grid Icons, we returned to the West Coast for a finale show that will be remembered for years.

GOLDEN ERA IN THE NORTHWEST

In 2022 and 2023, we collaborated with Formula DRIFT to elevate their car show pop-up at Evergreen Speedway. These shows were incredibly successful, helping bring in more than 10,000 fans through the gates; however, after two years, we felt it was time to take a break and bring the Northwest region a high-quality car show that resonates with its strong Honda scene while also incorporating other ends of Japanese and European performance tuning during the “Golden Era” of the ‘90s and ‘00s.

POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS

Pit+Paddock is truly fortunate to have incredible sponsors for every Grid Icons show. This allows us to invite car show exhibitors and spectators free of charge while also not making the event feel super commercial with tons of vendor booths and an overwhelming number of sponsors. Much appreciation goes out to Radium Engineering (Presenting Partner), Hawk Performance (Official Brake Partner), and Fluidamp, H&R, and Griot’s Garage (Official Partners).

GRIOT’S GARAGE TAKEOVER

Speaking of Griot’s Garage, we couldn’t have asked for a better venue collaboration than with the car care brand based in Tacoma, Washington. For those who haven’t had the opportunity to use their products, they are without a doubt some of the best in the game, and they’ve been doing it since 1990 (I’ve been using their Speed Shine since I was in high school!). The company moved its flagship retail store and corporate offices to a former Coca-Cola bottling plant in 2011, and this location has served the community with free events nearly every weekend. For Grid Icons, though, we asked for some favors to clear out Griot’s entire indoor facility for a nighttime car show. The end result couldn’t have been any more epic!

DELAYED BUT DELIGHTFUL

The news about Grid Icons at Griot’s Garage spread out across social media, but it was still up to the local community to come out strong… which they did! A weekend freeway closure and monsoon-like rain caused massive delays for exhibitors and guests, but that didn’t matter. Our staff didn’t get all the cars parked until almost an hour after start time.

People didn’t seem to mind as it gave them a chance to listen and watch some of our Golden Era heroes roll -in. Making the most delightful engine noises were a fine pair of JDM legends that co-starred in the car care school of Griot’s Garage – Kenji Nishimura’s Top Secret Toyota Supra and Codi Blanken’s RE Amemiya Mazda RX-7. Next to the workshop sat the H&R booth and Mike Kippen’s Mk3 GTI 3.0 Turbo – a well-known hatchback in the Volkswagen world. Sprinkled across the entire front courtyard were another 20+ builds, ranging from BMW M3s to Nissan Stagea wagons.

EURO HALL MUSEUM

While most car meets would be complete at that, there was still 70% of Grid Icons to experience within the doors of Griot’s Garage. After spectators peruse around the retail store, a garage door opens to the museum, where, on any given day, you’ll find exotics and collector cars inside. For Grid Icons, this is where we bundled all the stunning Euros into three stunning rows. Some of the most noteworthy cars included Alex Ciceu’s Porsche 964 on BBS LMs. Behind him rested Eric Shaeffer’s Mk3 VW Cabrio VR6 Turbo, which has evolved over 20 years since it belonged to the owner of Evolution Sports (my first employer!). Other heavy hitters that received no shortage of love were Ekk Sengchantha’s K-swapped E30 convertible, Danny Vasqeuz’s S54-swapped E46 Touring, and Travis Kover’s Harlequin Mk3 GTI.

RAISING THE BAR

Take a detour to the Griot’s Garage café, which also serves as the company lunchroom, and guests noticed that we turned it into a full-blown bar. Griot’s Garage dusted off its V8-swapped, two-door E30 M3 wagon—a build many old school guys like me can remember from SEMA 2016. Then, of course, there’s the Porsche 964 Carrera RS Clubsport NGT—one of 290 in the world. It’s also rumored to have won races at Suzuka Circuit and Fuji Speedway before it was imported into the States.

HONDA HEAVEN

The final stretch of Grid Icons leads into the massive garage, which was once home to the R&D and restoration work performed by Griot’s Motors. Now, it serves more like a storage facility, but for our show, it would be the setting of our elite Honda showcase with more than 20 top-notch builds grouped together by model and generation. The headliners of the Honda Hall included Myles Kerr, whose 1,600+whp DC2 holds quarter-mile and half-mile records and is widely known as the “World’s Fastest & Quickest Integra”. Behind the race car was a pair of iconic Integras by way of Terry Suvonnarith’s GSR and Ron Khamphouvong’s Type R. Both are regarded as two of the cleanest, JDM-inspired Hondas in the country. Five more rows of hand-picked Civics and Integras were positioned behind, with some of our favorites being Wooster’s EK9 Civic Type R (props to him for driving 12 hours from Alberta!), Jackie Law Spoon-themed ITR, and we can’t forget the “World’s Fastest AWD Four-Cylinder” Civic EG commanded by SpeedFactory Racing.

Last but not least, we shoved Ayrton Senna’s 1992 Monaco-winning McLaren Formula One car into a corner as well. After all, it was powered by a Honda…

Gallery