The Dog Goes Retromantic 2012

A few years ago, a number of various pre-90s auto clubs decided to form a way to unite themselves in order to better communicate ideas and to strengthen solidarity. It was then Japanese Retrocar Forum (JRF) was born and Daihatsu Charmant Community is amongst the JRF members. One of the annual events by JRF is Retromantic which is basically a huge meet up of all the clubs where all the members discuss upcoming plans, show off their cars and awards for cars with outstanding features are held. This year marks the third time for the highly anticipated event and is the first for The Dog to attend.

This year's Retromantic is held on December 8th at KM72 Rest Area on Cipularang high way in Sadang, Purwakarta just 50 kms shy of reaching Bandung from Jakarta. Exhausting 4 hours of driving and 3 hours of ferry ride didn't seem to matter anymore once i reach the meet up area and witness this spectacle.

That's about 700+ old Japs crammed into the open parking lot on the Highway Rest Area. Definitely the biggest event i've attended for now!

Some of clubs that attend this event are Datsun Jakarta, SL Never Die, Retro Galant Indonesia, Bogor Corolla DX Community, Tangerang Retrocar, Oldskool Syndicate and of course our beloved Daihatsu Charmant Community. You can see the club logos on the stickers given away on this event.

The event was held for the whole day from early 9.00 AM until 15.00 PM, gathering even more beautiful cars as the joyful hours go by.

With so many nice cars showing up at the show, it was very difficult to pick some to be shown here. However, here's some of the interesting ones. First, as you perhaps realize first is that there are a lot of E20 and E30 Corollas so here's some of them that manage to tickle my fancy, starting with this flushed one.

Rat/shakotan/bosozoku/whateverthisis from Triple C autoclub.

Moving on to the rarer ones such as this Levin with Castrol livery, a member of TRC (Tangerang Retrocar).

Or this station wagon E20.

Now this is a rather familiar looking sticker, isn't it?

It belongs to this nice KE30 riding some Enkei wheel which are commonly referred to "starfruits" here.

Let's move up a generation shall we? Here's some E70s..

Normally, i'm not easily impressed with E70s with them being the go-to retro car preference but here's one that caught my attention. This Sprinter looks sweet riding on those Equip 01s..

.. add this huge Garrett snail and 3S-GTE and you have an impressive package overall.

How about some A170 Lancers from SL Never Die?

Of course, being a Lancer, we need one rally-look to complete the deal.

This one is also from Mitsubishi, can you guess what model is this?

This angle should give you a hint..

There were quite a number of Datsuns at the event as well, as evidently shown by some of these pics. It's quite nice to see some Bluebird 510s with such mint condition.

Some were sporting these 2000cc beasts underneath their hoods.

Here's a slightly lesser seen B310 (that's a B310 right? lol not really sure..)

Some of those that showed up really is one of a kind at the event such as this Toyota Kijang KF20 pickup.

Definitely one that managed to steal the show, a Supra Mk.II.

A sixth gen rat-look Toyota Crown, with a huge Southern cross on the hood. LOL.. Some people really have questionable taste. Well, as long as it works for them, it's fine i guess..

A shark-nosed shakotan Accord.

Some of the guys decided to make some cash at the event..

Really dig that 15x9 Watanabe.. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it's not that time for me to be spending any cash for The Dog.

Here's the award trophies..

Here's a Daihatsu Charade that apparently got me feeling that car crush again. Took many shots of this G11 as i love every angle of it.

Ah.. here's a familiar sight.. My fellow Daihatsu Charmant Community members.. There were only less than 10 of us coming to the event but we had a good time, nevertheless.

Or course, last but not least, The Dog to complete this post.. My girlfriend accompanied me to the event as well. We were still tired from the long hours of drive and reached the event area late so we had to park The Dog a bit far from the other participants.

Daihatsu Charmant Community 6th Anniversary

Sunday, April 29th 2012.. It was a cloudy morning. I forced myself to wake up early at 5.30AM and feeling a little drowsy, obviously because i only got 4 hours of sleep that night. Why bother especially on a Sunday morning? Because today is the day we've all been waiting for.. It's time for Daihatsu Charmant Community's 6th Anniversary Meetup!

I didn't attend last year's due to overwhelming work at that time. I did, however, attend the 4th Anniversary where it was held in Ragunan, Jakarta Selatan. This time we decided to celebrate a bit away from Jakarta and agreed that Jatiluhur Dam would be the best place. It's not that far yet challenging enough for our 30 years old Charmants. Good way to see if these old farts are still good for long drives.

At 7AM, us Jakarta boys first gathered in Cikampek highway's Rest Area at Kilometer 39. From Jakarta to Jatiluhur, there's an interconnecting highway where Jakarta is Kilometer 0 and to reach Jatiluhur, we exit the highway at Kilometer 84,some 40 km short before reaching Bandung city. From the highway exit, it's another 8 km before we reach the dam.

These are when we gathered first at the highway Rest Area KM39.

Anky's custom front bumper. I believe he got the idea from the late bumper version.

Look who decided to accompany me to the meet up. Me and girlfriend departed from Lampung to head off to Jakarta on Thursday evening and reached our destination on very early Saturday morning. We were still both tired from the long drive and Saturday's full schedule but glad that we came to the meet up.

At 8.30 AM, we left the Rest Area and start our drive to Jatiluhur. These pics are taken along the drive from the highway to Jatiluhur.

We stopped just before the Jatiluhur dam entrance for a head count to pay the entry fee.

My pride and glory

Deva's Taxi. LOL.

It was a relief to know that no one encountered any problem with their Charmant. Only a minor overheat problem was found on Anky's but it was quickly resolved.

After about an hour and half, we finally reached our destination..

Me mesmerized by the sheer size of the dam. This is the biggest dam in Indonesia and i could barely see the other side of the reservoir.

Silly fun games were had..

Just before lunch time, we sat together and discussed some plans for the next phase, welcomed our newer members and awarded Charmant of The Year and Most Favorite Charmant which go to Anky and Dimas, respectively.

You can check out Dimas' Charmant on 4AC-Powered forum here and you'll understand why his is the Most Favorite Charmant. Anky's can be checked on his Facebook page here.

The newer members get their inaugural rear window stickers also.

Unfortunately, me and The Dog had to leave early as we still have another 8 hours of drive to get back to Lampung ahead of us. Just before i left, we took the obligatory banner shot.

It was definitely fun to be able to see the Daihatsu Charmant Community guys again after so long. Seeing so many new faces since my last time can only mean one thing: DCC is getting bigger and stronger! Go DCC Indonesia!