8pm on a Thursday night. Time for late-night shopping for many, but there’s another weekly tradition that goes on right alongside the hustle and bustle of the Sydney’s shopping centres. A weekly ritual for some car enthusiasts to show and shine up and down main streets, others prefer more organised car meets at spots such as the iconic Orange Grove Krispy Kreme car park, or next door at Harry’s Café De Wheels. Tucked around the corner away from most main road attention, is Cabramatta Hand Car Wash. Simply known to most as ‘Cabra Car Wash’ or ‘HJ’s’ (due to the venue being adjacent to a Hungry Jack’s), it has been an integral part of Sydney’s south-west car culture, providing a meeting point for many from far and wide.

Written by: Alain Sihaphone / Photos by: Ly Heng

As the sun goes down, cars start rolling in one after another. Small circles of friends gather to talk cars, bikes, or just to have a laugh. Tonight though, most cars rolling in tonight are adorning a trademark white cursive vinyl sticker up the passenger side of the windshield. Coup De Grace. Their first meet of 2012 and a meet and greet for newer and older members to get acquainted. What started off as a few friends with Hondas eventually grew to a largely exclusive 50+ strong crew of a large selection of cars and bikes, even adding a Track-ready Suzuki Swift Sport and a VW MKV Golf R32 to the crew.

Coup De Grace has been arguably the most diverse car crew in Sydney, participating in drag events at WSID, to circuit events at Wakefield Park and drift events at Eastern Creek. With cars ranging from the aforementioned Suzuki Swift Sport built for circuit, to Mohammed Dubdub’s show-ready EG Civic, there is a myriad of styles within the crew. Not catering to a niche, there are no formal prerequisites to join Coup De Grace, there’s not a certain type of car you need to have, and it doesn’t even matter if your car is modified or not. But the crews exclusivity stems from its beginnings from close friends. It’s like trying to join a family. You either are a part of it, or you get adopted.

Now to the cars. A couple of stand out cars from tonight’s meet were Mohammed Dubdub’s EG Civic.

Apart from rocking a smashed rear passenger window from a flying rock earlier that day, (Damn those flying rocks!) his interior is almost completely gutted, and fitted with a roll cage. Under the hood, there’s a custom airbrushed wood-grain rocker cover,  and a complete wire tuck.

You may recognise this car from an earlier BLOW&TREES photoshoot with Bettina Banks when it used to wear the custom painted blue CE28’s, but now Dubdub has fitted these Work Equip 01’s in front of slotted rotors. Also fitted is a BYS front bar and rear spoiler. Expect more soon from this little rocket.

Next is Phillip Do’s well-known yet elusive JDM-52K. Fitted with a hard top, and carbon fibre side skirts and rear caps, and also an AP2 front bar with OEM front lip.

Beautifully stanced on BBS LM’s, Phil’s car is the envy of every S2000 owner in Sydney. Can’t say too much about what’s under the hood, although it is assured that Phil has a stack of the most-wanted carbon bits and bolt-ons in town!

If you ever wanted to know who Coup De Grace was, we’re just a close-knit group of mates who love our cars, and love to get together for a chill and a chat ever now and then. Yes, I say WE, because yours truly also belongs to Coup De Grace, and has been watching the group grow for years now! Definitely will be more about this crew and other Sydney car crews in more stories to come. Stay tuned.