May 3rd, 2008379 views(2)

Photography and editorial by Chris Sempek

As soon as you walk in, Hot Import Nights has a vibe of it’s own. The first thing that hits you is the music, with Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop”setting the tone for this low light, half night club, half car show, half party. But the music wasn’t the main attraction, the cars were the stars of this show. With every import manufacturer holding it down with their top notch vehicles, all of which were maxed out with an endless list of parts, there was something for everyone. Whether you love Honda or Nissan, or even Mitsubishi, their finest examples of engineering were on display.

Of course along with the cars came their multi-thousand dollar parts lists, with every detail worked over. From those exact length stainless steal braided lines under the hood, to the carefully worked paint and body work, every part of ever car at Hot Import Nights DC was thoughtfully planned out by the cars owners. JDM is the name of the game in today’s import car scene, the more the better. With a handful of RHD cars in the crowd, both converted like Chris Rio’s Integra and real like the Skylines that were there, the JDM category was fierce. If you could imagine any baller part you ever saw in youtube video, heard about on a forum, or heard about on the street, it was on at least one car at Hot Import Nights. There were so many cars that the event was held in two buildings, with two stages! But you just can’t mention HIN, with out talking about the girls. The girls were as beautiful as the cars, with the parts to match. Every girl was smiling, posing for pictures, and wearing hardly anything. When the beat dropped on stage, the girls danced like you would expect in a night club, only with each other.

The highlight of the night was when two of the models started making out on stage; the crowd went wild with their camera phones and flashes from cameras. Other events on stage included a break dance battle, free style battle, and rap concert featuring local acts from the area. Hosting the event was BMX star Rick Thorne, who kept the crowd pumped as acts came and went off stage.