David Pitlyuk

This past weekend was Hot Import Nights, Washington DC. For those of you who do not know what Hot Import Nights is, it’s a car show, but much much more. The event is indoors, with lights off, hot models, music, vendors, entertainment, cool lighting and more. In the past few years, I’ve always had my car in the show, but I’ve recently sold my show car 350Z, so I was there to gawk at all of the other cars this time around. Going to HIN also gives me a chance to see what the latest trends are in the aftermarket car market, meet with vendors, and network with owners and people that I know. This is all very helpful for my aftermarket parts manufacturing business, ActiveTuning. I did happen to see a few instances of ActiveTuning represented at the show:

Here was a Nissan Altima in the parking lot with our S2 Grille

This was an older Nissan Sentra in a vendor booth. The car was track-ready and had our popular rear strut tower brace as part of their suspension setup.

This is a rare (at least in the US) R32 GT-R Nissan Skyline that is owned by a good friend of mine. The car is very powerful (over 700hp to the rear wheels), with a ton of modifications done to it.

Here is an ActiveTuning decal on the side of the Skyline

It’s always really nice and inspirational seeing my company represented on cars randomly. We have thousands of customers, and there are cars all over the world sporting our products.

The parking lot at the show always has nice cars as well, since there are many car enthusiasts checking it out:

This is my friend Brent’s Lotus Elise. The car handles amazingly right from the dealership. In fact Brent raced it across the country in last years AKA Rally. I met Brent a couple years ago because he has a ridiculous convertible Nissan 350Z (800+ whp and full show car) that was in the show.

Somebody brought their Lamborghini Diablo to the show. I didn’t see any handicap tag, but I don’t think anybody cared just for the chance to see the gorgeous car.

This is a blue/white Dodge Viper that was owned by the guys at Infinite Speed & Performance who had a section in the show with some of their other cars. I know the car has a lot of modifications because I actually saw it on eBay before they bought it. I’ve been on the lookout for the same Viper for a while now, and hope to have one in my garage at some point. If you look closely you will notice another identical Viper behind it.

I had to grab a picture of this bike, it’s the one that I would like to get to replace my Honda CBR600 F3.

There were many other cars in the lot that I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of such as a Porsche Carerra GT, BMW M6, and many many more. Here’s some select pictures of the cars from the show:

A very nice Lexus IS350 which came out not too long ago

An RX-7 in the Mazda booth. This car was at the front entrance of the show last year.

Aston Martin in the Bridgestone tires booth. It’s always awesome seeing expensive cars modified.

Some huge rims! They look much bigger in person.

Ferrari F430 and a highly modified Dodge Viper SRT10

Pretty wild Nissan 350Z with a wide body kit. You can’t see the trunk setup, but it was very extreme.

Smart Cars have barely even been in the US, but that doesn’t stop anybody from modifying it.

A done up new Ford Mustang. I love the bumble bee paint scheme.

A mini that was completely extreme with it’s audio and fiberglass setup. That is the engine compartment! The trunk and interior were just as wild, and no, I don’t know who that guy is.

This is a really slick Nissan 240SX that has been converted to a Japanese S15 Silvia. I’ve always loved this conversion, and hope to have a project 240SX at one point for myself.

A Toyota Supra with one of the models from the show. There were a lot of Supra’s at the show.

An slick looking Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R. There were a good amount of Skyline’s at the show, and this had to be favorite.

The motor from an R33 Nissan Skyline. Notice the two polished turbos! The engine was clean enough to eat off of.

This style of modifying is called V.I.P., and was done quite well.

Here’s me standing in front of a seriously lifted Chevy truck. The thing was a monster.

A well done 1989 Nissan 240SX. The car looks amazing for the year it is.

A highly modified Ferrari F360 Modena Stradale edition. This is my original dream Ferrari, and I plan to have one of these in my garage one day.

This car was one of the best done from a show-perspective. It was a Toyota Celica, but the front half of the car looks just like a Nissan 350Z.

There were three NSX’s at the show, and this was my favorite. I love the hood scoops!

This Audi had a neat concept, they created holes in the hood to mount the turbo’s for maximum air flow.

This is a buddy of mines Nissan 350Z, you may recognize him as the host from a couple of the episodes from SmashMyViper.com.

Not all of the show is cars, they had a main stage with music performers, model contests, and more.

Shell Gasoline had a booth setup where you can race remote control cars that can drift.

Overall the show was a good one. The weather turned out perfect, but there were definitely less cars than last year. They should have had more cars, and I was actually told that they had overbooked the show, so they were turning some cars away. HIN shows are all over the US, if you’re into cars, definitely check it out.