November 29th saw Melbourne Honda Club return with Honda Network, Melbourne’s biggest and best meet dedicated to what is arguably the most passionately (both for and against) followed marque in our late-model car scene.
If you love Hondas, Honda Network is the Sunday you look forward to all year.
Walking up to the Foresite Training Facility entrance, having parked my Nonda (non-Honda) away from the actual meet, the size of the meet quickly became apparent. Marshalls were directing cars to head down the street and to u-turn at the end, just to keep the queue from spilling out onto them main highway.
Apart from the static car show, the guys at RoadTrackRally were manning the dyno throughout the day, allowing those that had pre-booked to give their cars a run. There was a steady crowd in front of the garage all day, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get many photos.
This rad little Motocompo got just as many- if not more- admiring looks as the crazy engine swapped DC2R’s!
There were of course, various vendors that helped make Honda Network such a great day. ZenkiWear had all of their awesome automotive themed apparel on sale; SaintSide brought down their merch as well as their awesome lowrider bikes; and local businesses like OTR and Bubbleblue came down to tempt everyone with a myriad of options of what to do next on their cars. My good friend Jacky was manning the Garage460 stand, along with Dikki’s S2000 and CarX’s R35. Can’t thank Jacky enough in his ongoing help in sourcing parts, and even helping to work on my own car in his own time. Definitely check them out!
As impressive as the cars outside were, inside the garage was where the centrepiece cars were located.
Front and centre was Oxer’s newly revealed and rebuilt EG Civic, “Jessica”.
The last time many people had seen this car, was back in 2011, with this little infamous road-side incident:
(Photo from Oxer’s build thread on StanceWorks)
In 2012, Oxer’s head gasket went, and the car had been sitting ever since. But now it’s back, and more insane than ever!
Walking around outside one last time before heading off, I’d seen that more and more Nondas had turned up, including this rather rare machine, with some notable Omori stickers around it.
Now, I know this was a Honda meet, and I actually drive a Subaru, but I’m a Nissan man at heart, so I’m going to geek out here a bit: back in the day, you used to be able to take your GTR to the Nismo Omori Factory and buy various tuning packages for your car. This “Sports Resetting”- while I’m not sure exactly what’s included- was their entry level package, with the more well-known S-tune and R-tune packages available, and even a trickle-down GT500 package if I’m not mistaken. Like almost every other man and his dog, I vow to own one of these one day.
Thus concludes my time at Honda Network 2015. As I said before, if you love Hondas and live in Melbourne, this is THE Sunday you should mark on your calendar. Honda meets are unlike any other marque-only meet. The vibe is different, the style is different. There’s a subtle grandiose style that comes with Honda brand, that makes Honda Network a seriously cool event.
If you’d like to keep up with Melbourne Honda Club’s news and more of their events, be sure to check them out here on Facebook!
Extra: Walking back to my Nonda, looked like I’d made a friend while I was gone!
