7's Day - Celebrating Rotary - Vintage Japanese Motor Union Downtown Los Angeles

July 7th, 2024

7s day in Los Angeles!

The first annual 7's day hosted by Vintage Japanese Motor Union has come and gone and bravo to Savant Young and his team for putting together an awesome day for the Mazda Rotary Enthusiast community. As you may already know but finding a location in LA to host such an event is very difficult due to size of venue, parking and all of the other injustices that come along with the territory.

South Anderson St has become a huge hub for automotive enthusiasts with many brands coming together to grow car culture in true enthusiasts fashion. Savant's love for vintage JDM cars and his love for racing has united all of the old school OG's from the early days of street racing, where before Hondas lined the street, the vintage RX2/3 would come slay the domestics with all of their rotary power.

I was happy to contribute to this day by producing an art poster that could be hung in any direction. On one side, it is Downtown Los Angeles and the other-side featured the motherland, Japan. Put a lot of time and love into this one, so thank you everyone who grabbed a poster to support but Cooled Collective and VJMU.

The event was a paid to enter event and when you got access to the show, you got to see rotaries in two large lots in the rear. Below is the back alley where the 6th Street Bridge lined the skyline for that LA vibe.

There was something for everyone, whether you liked it old school or neo modern with cars like the FC or FD that many of the younger generation are affiliated with.

The Main Stage

In the main arena, there was an indoor space with what appeared to be the dreamers collection of rotaries. I am sure that curating the cars for this space took quite a bit of time and energy to say the least.

One of the cars that caught my attention was this "964 Turbo" 911 that was sitting right in the middle of the room. I knew it had to be in there for a reason and then when I finally walked around to the back, there it is... a two rotor powerplant with a big turbo to match. Got around to meeting and talking with the owner, Jeff Hampton who finished building the 1966 911 recently but I will save that story for another day. Will definitely be doing a follow up story on this build.

Here is a perfectly stock RX7 FD with 50k-ish miles getting ready to hit the auction block shortly. Always nice to see clean examples like this and I am sure the next custodian will love this piece of history in their garage.

The Exit and Cruise to 6th Street Bridge

When 3pm pulled around, they opened the gates so everyone in the rear of the show and inside the main room could exit and do a cruise over the 6th Street Bridge. Now most people know how rowdy rotaries can get but when you get all of the rowdy boys together in one place, it's a riot! These cars are brapping and scary the crap out of children and their dads!

Leen Customs HQ

Visiting Leen Customs is always an adventure. You got all of the characters on the block heckling one another in true homie fashion. Always a good time no matter the occasion. Hansel below trying to show me his toy lens camera setup but I had to remind him to chill as he was getting too paparazzi on me.

Homie Cal below, never seen a man of his size squat down like a skinny Asian restaurant chef in my life. Everyday is a learning day hahaha.

Amazing to see the community come together to celebrate an iconic car on the day of its mark. Major props to the team at VJMU for putting in all of the hard work and making the day unique to Los Angeles. Can't wait to see all of the other future events on Anderson St!

Thanks for hanging out!
Drew Manley