I’ve found another home, and I’m definitely not alone. Soldier Field’s parking lot was packed again this year for Hot Import Nights Nightshift. I think the show may have been even bigger this year than last year. It certainly felt like there was more going on. In addition to the hundreds of cars that were showing, there was also drifting, auto-crossing, motocross, dyno runs, and, of course a concert. I have put up all of my pictures from Hot Import Nights: Nightshift Chicago 2007 up.
Chicago drifting gets a bad rap because there aren’t really any tracks near Chicago. To get around this, organizers usually just section off one part of the parking lot, set up some cones, and then let the drivers go crazy. Drivers from groups like the Touge Factory and Drift Brigade came out to destroy their tires for our amusement. The exhibition was nice overall, but it felt normal to me because I’ve already seen so much drifting this year. One of my favorite parts was seeing one of the Drift Brigade drivers doing donuts while hanging out of the car.
The dyno that Valvoline brought was pretty cool to me. The dyno allowed us to see how much power these pretty cars were really making. It’s nice for the owners of the cars too because there are usually not nearly as many people watching your car showing off its power on the rollers. I talked with the owner of a Turbo VR6 GTI and he told me that the cars weren’t making as much power as they should have. He though that the dyno was off, but I also think that the heat plus the lack of a fan blowing on the cars was causing the numbers to be off.
The motocross was something new to me. You might not expect import lovers to be into that sort of thing, but everyone like to see someone else risk their necks. You should tell that these guys were pros though because error was not an option because they were basically jumping over a bus.
This was another great year for HIN in Chicago. There’s a lot to do even if you’re not into cars. But the cars are still my favorite part. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye:
