Larry Chen, an Los Angeles-based automotive photographer and a community figurehead for the car community, hosted the third iteration of Type S Night Lights Long Beach April 9. Known as one of the most prominent car meets in the area, this Night Lights event was hosted in the parking garage of the Aquarium of the Pacific in partnership with the City of Long Beach as well as a variety of companies such as Toyota Gazoo Racing, Pennzoil, ST Suspensions, Type S, and Formula Drift.
The first of these Night Lights car meets began as far back as 2021 in El Monte in partnership with Fujiwara Tofu Cafe. The themed cafe, inspired by the popular drifting anime, “Initial D,” became a small, beloved area for car enthusiasts to meet up from its opening in 2018 all the way to its closing on March 9th of this year, even going on to host four Type S Night Lights meets up until 2024.
As the event grew in popularity, Type S Night Lights would expand with an additional meet in Atlanta, partnering up with Koru Works, a drift-focused tuning shop, their first year and would subsequently change partners to Z1 Motorsports, a performance OEM, original equipment manufacture, then to Nappy Boy Automotive, founded and run by rapper and producer T-Pain focused on making content about his and the team’s car journey, and finally Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, a historical racing track that has famously hosted Nascar, Formula 4, and a variety of other races.
In 2024, Washington would be the third location to have Type S Night Lights hosted. Seattle would be the first and was hosted by The Shop, a car storage facility located in Seattle’s SoDo area that also acts as a country club for automotive enthusiasts. The following year, Griot’s Motors, a classic car restoration shop, hosted the car meet in Puget Sound, becoming the fifth unique city to host Type S Night Lights.
Following the end of the El Monte meet, Chen would bring back Type S Night Lights to the Greater Los Angeles area in a much larger fashion with two events. Both were in partnership with the City of Long Beach.
The Queen Mary was the first of the two meets, which had people backed up into the highway just to try to enter the event. Later that year, Chen would bring Type S Night Lights to the Long Beach Convention Center Garage for its second iteration of Long Beach’s Night Light car meets.
Chen kickstarted his 2026 Type S Night Lights meet ahead of Long Beach’s Formula Drift inaugural race of the year and to the Acura Grand Prix for the IndyCar Series. The event began at 6 p.m. but by 10 a.m. that morning the top two floors of the 99 Aquarium parking were essentially filled with the exception of a handful of cars that Larry personally allowed in due to their rarity or coolness.
Even with several hours remaining before the start of the meet, much of the top floors of the adjacent parking structure, Pyke Garage, were filled with attendees. This miniature gathering transformed into a small car meet of sorts, becoming an appetizer to the automotive weekend.
Japanese vintage, American-made and European classics lined the parking structure of the mini-meet. A wall of Honda Civics were lined towards the north side of the lot while a pair of classic Toyota Centuries at the north corner of the lot. A handful of first-generation Miatas were trying to meet up at the center of the lot, several beautiful classic corvettes were being studied on the level below.
At the actual meet, approximately two hundred cars were lined up on the top two floors. A line of people waiting to buy stuff and to be able to meet Chen formed on the top floor. The Toyota Gazoo Racing booths are a staple of car meets, displaying historical and iconic cars.
Littered around the meet were the popular Japanese Domestic Market classics, cars only created for the Japanese automobile market and not sold anywhere else. Several Supras were seen throughout the event alongside Nissan’s famous Z-series cars. Another Toyota Century was seen at the end of the second row and a pristine condition Series II Mazda Cosmos could be seen four rows in.
Although some of the most common and popular cars at the meet were made in Japan, the meet attracted cars from around the world. A Ford GT was parked next to the ramp leading to the top floor and a classic VW EuroVan was in a parking spot a few cars down. Another pair of classic Corvettes were sitting near the end of the parking structure.
As the sun was about to set, Type S Night Lights would bring up the Formula Drift cars. These are normal performance sports cars built for drifting. In front of the pack of these drift cars was Sung Kang, an actor known for his role in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, in his very own AE86. Later on, the cars drift around the roundabout in front of the Aquarium of the Pacific as a small showcase of what to expect in the next day’s Formula Drift qualifiers.