Larry Chen teamed up with sponsors to produce an old-school Long Beach FD weekend meet, and it was just as sick as it sounds.
What could be better than an evening in Long Beach, California, on a cool spring day? How about the addition of hundreds of incredible cars ranging from exceedingly rare JDM imports and staple sports cars to actual Formula Drift cars? Thanks to Larry Chen, that recently became a reality!
As a long-time fan of Formula Drift, I’ve kept up with automotive photography icon Larry Chen for quite some time. Recently, he posted a video to his YouTube channel announcing that he had teamed up with Type S, Toyota Gazoo Racing, and ST Suspension to host a massive car meet in the parking lot of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. Naturally, I packed up my camera stuff and headed down there.
Bringing Back the Long Beach Good Ol’ Days
For those unaware, Formula Drift used to host a pre-event meet the weekend of their annual kick-off competition weekend in Long Beach. The competition cars would parade through the streets and gather at The Pike Outlets. However, as one might imagine, things started to get a bit rowdy as FD rapidly grew. Eventually, the police department and the city put an end to it.
In an effort to bring some of that essence back, Chen and crew also partnered with Formula Drift for this massive meet. About an hour in, a parade of competition cars drove over the bridge in Long Beach and into the Queen Mary parking lot as well.
Stacked Inside and Out
Unsurprisingly, the showing was phenomenal. Requesite high-ticket supercars, widebody Skylines, and an almost unironic gross of GR Corollas sprawled the parking lots. In addition, some extremely rare pieces graced the meet. A pair of Mitsubishi Pajero Evolutions stand out as a staple. Though, admittedly, I’ve got a bit of a bizarre taste in cars.
A Brabus 4×4 Squared, a Mazda Cosmo, and a half dozen R34 GT-Rs sprinkled the field amongst more cars than one could possibly mention. So, I present to you my photo gallery from my brief stint at the meet. Admittedly, it’s been a minute since I dusted off the still images skillset, so you’ll have to deal with my sub-par photography.
