In recent years, we’ve seen the “scene” shift from one trend to another and the Honda community has been arguably the most changed chameleon of them all. Yet one crew, if you wish to call them that, has adapted to the ever-changing technological landscape while remaining true to the simple Honda aesthetic. ATS has gone from the brainchild of a few friends to an Internet icon, thanks largely to a slew of builds that are at the least highly-inspirational. They’ve been featured on the cover of nearly every import magazine including the one you’re reading right now.
Some might view ATS as a group of “elite Honda enthusiasts” but really they’re just a bunch of down-to-earth gearheads, no different from you or me. They like older Honda chassis and they like fitting them with parts from Japan and engines from the K-series family. They’re highly creative and have set many of the trends currently embraced by the Honda community. They build cars and they do it well, and on top of that, they do it right. A recent trip to the Bay Area was all the excuse I needed to drop in on some old friends, here’s how it went down.
Super Street: So, tell us about the humble beginnings of ATS.
Fred Chapman: Well ATS started in ’04. It was me, Ferd and our friend Vince who unfortunately passed away back in ’06. Then from there we started getting together with some of our friends like Chris, AJ, Ron…
Chris Sakai: And Ken.
FC: Those were the main ones at first. It all started by friends hanging around.
CS: Then it went to friends of friends. We’d have people that would know somebody that was down with what we were doing and we’d take a look and see if they fit well with the group. That’s something that we’ve always focused on is finding out who meshes well with the group, it’s kind of like a family thing.
FC: Of course, cars are the thing but it comes down to friends also. We do a lot of other stuff together that isn’t car-related.
SS: If you had to describe ATS, what would you call it? A crew? A club? Friends?
FC: It’s hard to say. It’s a mix of things. Of course, when we go out to events people look at it like “oh that’s a car club.”
SS: When you guys originally got together what did you envision ATS would be? Did you just think “hey lets come up with a name and make some stickers” or what?
FC: It’s funny because Ferd had this thing back in the ‘90s, just between him and his cousins. Then me and Ferd were talking about starting something and he was telling me back in the day he had this thing, it was nothing serious, but maybe we could build upon it.
SS: So just for clarification, what does ATS stand for, if you’re allowed to say?
FC: (Laughs) We can say. It stands for Always Talking Shit. It’s like how you saw everybody here today, just bullshit loud – that’s how it is. We’re always in the garage at somebody’s house working on something or hanging out.
CS: I think that’s where it all originated from, getting all the guys together working on cars and having fun and just hanging out.
FC: And everybody talks shit. (Laughing)
CS: But it’s nothing serious like we’re talking against anybody.
SS: Random tangent time, let’s talk about EK Squad. It seems like half of ATS is in EK Squad, how did that all come together?
CS: I started EK squad back in ’02-ish time frame, actually before I started hanging out with these guys. With EK squad I was just trying to bring together some of the elite hatch owners that were out there. Then it just so happened that a few years later when I hooked up with these guys that a lot of the friends that I knew and started EK Squad with became ATS members. But I don’t really push EK Squad as much these days.