Alright everybody, I know we don’t normally feature Formula 1 and other forms of open wheel racing on this website, but I just wanted to share this because I personally am pretty excited for the start of the 2010 F1 season! This Sunday, March 14th is the kick off race for Formula 1 on the twenty-three turnGulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
This is going to be one incredible season! Not only because of the return of Michael Schumacher, racing for the Mercedes GP team; but with the new FIA rules, teams will add another set of alterations to their strategies. Last year was a huge change to the rules, but this year, a few more were added to the mix. To start, refueling during the race has been banned for the first time since 1993. Now teams are running more than triple the size of last year’s petrol tanks – which means drivers must monitor their tires and brake wear even more closely. What does this mean for pit stops? With just tire changes, we can expect to see solid 3-second pit stops for all the teams. Red Bull is boasting they can perform a four-tire-change in 1.9 seconds!!! (I can’t get 1 lug nut off my car that fast, LOL) Lets see if this gives them another advantage to taking the checkered flag! (more…)
Just so you don’t forget! This weekend, you need to head to Las Vegas for the Vegas Pro Am, which is being organized and put on by our friends at VegasDrift! This event is a perfect opportunity to get up close and personal with all the future Formula D drivers before they hit the big show… and if you’re in need of some fresh new gear, make sure to stop by the DSTROYR Booth to get some fastlane fashion, designed by one of the most talented designers on the scene right now, Jon Chase! Drifting is going to take over Las Vegas this weekend; let the battle begin!
Okay. So apparently, this week, I’ve been on a bit of a European/DTM kick. We see so many Japanese cars all the time on Motor Mavens, I thought it would be kinda cool to mix it up a bit and shine a bit of light on some of the awesome race cars that have been famous in the European motorsports scenes for quite some time.
Last time I was in London, I saw this awesome die cast vintage Mercedes Benz race car (it was 1/43 scale, if I remember correctly…), and through the technology of Tumblr, I just happened across these photos of this awesome AMG Benz, which originally appear on this Vintage Photo page on LiveJournal. I don’t know enough about these cars (if one of our readers knows a lot about this subject, please write us!), but I love them. A lot. They just look so cool; big bodied vintage luxury cars going at it with smaller, sportier coupes… SO DAMN COOL. (more…)
Since our new Eurofiend contributor (Tamer Omran) got me thinking about the DTM racing series in Germany, I thought I’d post up this cool photo I found on Tumblr. I believe it was originally posted by Gearheads and Monkeywrenches. This here is a gorgeous white DTM Mercedes AMG, driven by a female driver by the name of Susie Stoddart. (more…)
Wow, this has got to be one of the best videos i have ever seen on YouTube. I just happened to stumble upon this 2009 DTM recap video, as I’ve been really hooked on DTM cars lately.
For those of you not really familiar with DTM, heres some history behind it. The DTM Series (or Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, which translated, means German Touring Car Masters) started out in 1984 and was only exclusive to Germany. In the early years, race fans found DTM racing very exciting, due to the fender-to-fender action and violent crashes. Unfortunately, the original DTM series came to an abrupt halt after the 1996 season… so Thank God the series was revived in 2000.
In my opinion as a Euro-car nut, I don’t think any race series even compares to DTM, but I’ll let you be the judge of that. This video is from last year, but it’s still incredibly exciting to watch. Watching the Mercedes AMG C-class and the Audi A4 duke it out… I just don’t think it gets much better than this.
Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire, England is home to one of the most famous drag strips in the world, where records have been broken and legends have been made. Now it is also home to one of the most popular practice days for drifting in the UK. Drift What Ya Brung (or DWYB for short) officially started in 2007 to provide a safe place off the streets for drifters to practice their skills and for beginners to learn the art of drifting without fear of the deadly kerb dragon or getting in trouble with the police. The whole emphasis at DWYB is to have fun drifting and get plenty of seat time to build up your skills!
The drift area itself is in a fairly large plot of land on the left side of the drag strip, and is split up into five tracks, ranging from a larger "main track" for more experienced drifters (which is based on the 2008 European Drift Championship layout), a smaller "kidney track" which is set up for practicing transitions, and finally, there are 3 small "play pens" for practicing donuts, figure 8s, etc. There's also a make shift pit area for people to change tyres and work on their cars. Mint Tyres is always on hand to provide tire support for the drivers; they will fit tyres at very good prices to keep you on the track all day, and Sue's Cafe makes AWESOME cheese and bacon burgers to fill the appetites of hungry drifters.
DWYB also happens to be where I started out photographing drifting and the culture that surrounds it... so I headed up last weekend to catch up with some friends, have a lot of fun and bring back a few photos to shed some light on grassroots drifting in the UK for you Motor Mavens readers! Read more...
Back in January I covered the Simply Clean + Stance event in Orlando Florida, which was completely awesome. I am saddened to hear that the next event may not be till November of this year… sad face!! I wish these guys would do a rotating event every 4-5 months or so to help promote proper car building. Cars with sunken wheels are 8 years ago people; change with the times! Flush wheels and no drop don’t count either!
Anyway, the video is awesome and so is the sound track. Quan Vu at Bluemotion did an awesome job, and from the looks of it, it involved a Canon 5D Mark II. Rock on man – for his first car meet video, I am simply stunned. The song “More More More” is from the upcoming LP by SOY Is Real… so if you think it’s dope like I do, just watch the video over and over again.
Lastly, BIG THANKS to Simply Clean’s Nickolifor giving us the first shout out at the end of the video. You know I will be at the next one!!
If you want to view pictures of the cars that did not make it on the video and my coverage check outNickoli’s link.
For the second installment of the MotorMavens coverage from my trip to the San Francisco Bay Area last weekend, we'll take a look inside the Wekfest itself. For those who really couldn't wait, I'm sure you could have just Googled "Wekfest" and found a bunch of Flickr pages and other galleries with random photos from inside the show.
However, our story is going to be a bit different, because I'm not planning to post up photos of every single car (250+ for sure) at the show. Instead, I'm only going to focus on the cars that caught my eye; the cars that either had the best style, or cars that had something different going for them, which piqued my interest. After all, I've been lucky enough to have attended a LOT of car shows and a LOT of racing events all over the world. This being said, seeing the same old thing over and over can get kind of dreary at times; not to worry though - the cars at the Wekfest definitely had flavor.
The dimly lit parking structure in Japantown San Francisco that served as the venue for the event might not have had the best looking "background" or ambiance for photography, but it was filled with some of the West Coast's best looking cars, so we'll just let those shine through...
Up above, the entrance to the underground parking structure was packed with cars and spectators... I was surprised that the City of San Francisco allowed that many people in a place that had so few exits! Nevertheless, the show had a good vibe to it... at times, it kind of reminded me of what it felt like to be in the parking structure scenes when I was on set shooting NBC Universal's Fast & Furious 3 Tokyo Drift movie... if only you replaced the Japanese (and Japanese-looking Chinese, let's be honest here) cast members with a bunch of young Filipinos, Chinese, and Vietnamese car owners. LOL Read more...
This past weekend, I went up to San Francisco to hang out with some of my old school friends from the Bay Area... but unfortunately a lot of them were out of town! Hawaii, Japan, Philippines... damn! Sometimes I have such bad timing! It was a good thing Calvin Wan was in town - he told me he had two events that he needed to attend that weekend. He needed to bring his FD3S RX7 to a motorsports show in Vallejo, and then bring his S14 Silvia (it really is a RHD Silvia from Japan) to the Wekfest Car Show in Japantown San Francisco. I've been hearing about (and seeing pictures of) the annual carshow in San Francisco's Japantown for quite some time, but this weekend was the very first time I had ever had a chance to attend it myself. I think in the past it used to be called the JDM TheoryJ's Gathering, but apparently they decided to rename it Wekfest (pronounced like 'weak-fest'). Or it could be that the organizers are different now? Not sure.
Anyway, the Weksos Wekfest event was pretty crazy... TONS of cars, TONS of people in attendance, and a line of impatient people that stretched around the block. Seriously... that was a pretty long line! Read more...
Man. I’m not quite sure what to say. I was forwarded this link from a friend of mine, who basically said, “dude, you gotta read this. This article bashes slammed cars, negative offset, and the usage of roof racks and rusted body parts. It even bashes websites that promote that style (specifically naming HellaFlush), Miata.net and other forums.”
At first, I thought, “That sucks, but whatever… people talk shit on the internet all the time just to spike up their traffic or make a name for themselves.” But then I re-read the email. It talks shit about Corollas?! More specifically, it refers to our beloved AE86 Corollas (other cars are on the list too) as “irredeemable garbage.” Wow. That’s a pretty bold statement.
For most of the people I’ve been hanging out with for the past 10 years, talking shit about a person’s car is worse than talking shit about a person’s family. In many circles, those are fighting words. While I like to think that I’ve grown up a bit, and I like to think it doesn’t bother me when people disparage the cars I have been passionate about for the past decade… I think, perhaps, I haven’t grown up. I sure haven’t “grown out of it” – I haven’t grown out of my passion for AE86s; for negative offset wheels; for demon camber; for low stanced cars; for stretched tires… hell no. If anything, I’ve become happy that people are embracing this style, and seeing people all over the world build cars of this type is only adding fuel to the fire.
Perhaps the most offensive statement made by this article is the one that belittles the young demographic of car enthusiasts. It says “Setting up a car for drifting is usually ass-backwards to what actually makes a car handle. Still, it has managed to permeate the collective consciousness of young car enthusiasts, who are unaware that buying coilovers with absurdly stiff springs doesn’t actually make a car handle well, but rather masks a the deficiencies of a poorly designed car.” Come on now. Young car enthusiasts are unaware of what they’re doing? Last time I checked, MOST people (note that I didn’t say ALL, but MOST) involved with drifting were modifying their cars with a purpose and a mission.
I know you've been waiting for it, so here's the second installment in our HellaFlush 3.5 event coverage from Buttonwillow Raceway. I'm not sure that there have ever been this many cars with aggressive fitment and stance at the Lerdo Highway exit off the California Interstate 5 highway.
Honestly, I gotta give props to all the Northern California people who came down to this event. Not only does it show that Northern Cali folks are super down and committed, but it was also great to see a lot of cars come out of the woodwork that we normally don't see on blogs and websites. I'd love to expand the MotorMavens reach from doing mostly Southern California events all the time, but it really is kind of difficult as we're doing this as privateers, and we don't have a big corporate budget of several hundred thousand dollars to spend each year like some of the other blogs out there. However, we're resourceful, so we will keep trying to break boundaries, and keep doing our best with the Macaroni-and-Cheese/Cup-o-Noodle budget that we currently have. Hope you like the photos! Read more...
This awesome video gives a glimpse at what life is like for Formula Drift driver, Ryan Tuerck’s life may be like in the off-season. I really dig the way this was shot, and the fact that it really looks like it was done in one take. Hats off to Andy Laputka, and the DA camp for a job well done!
This weekend, many of the best stanced cars in California made their way to the HellaFlush 3.5 meet at Buttonwillow Raceway, which was located in the middle of BFE, along the Interstate 5 highway. The stretched tire movement has finally been getting a lot of attention in the past couple years, which is awesome because I've trying to promote it for quite a while... but it took a long time for it to catch on. Now that insane offset cars have been popping up all over the internet for the past couple years, people have started building their cars with a focus on aggressive stance and aggressive wheel offset. It sure took a long time for the message to spread though. I first began writing stories about how "Offset is Everything" in magazines, websites, and talked about it at drifting events/carshows that I emceed since... 2004? 2005? It's funny to think that people used to make fun of me when I would talk about rocking negative offset wheels, demon camber on AE86s, super low down (shakotan) stance, hippari tires (stretched tires), and tsuraichi (cars running aggressive offset wheels and tucking tire). In fact, I distinctly remember emceeing a Drift Showoff event out in Houston TX in 2005, and some of the DA homies were like, "Dude. It's like negative offset is all you ever talk about!" (HAHA, they were absolutely right.) I'm so glad that multiple forward thinking websites, forums and blogs across the internet have virally spread this message and made aggressive stanced cars popular; now it's a whole different ball game!
The way a car sits has absolutely everything to do with the image it projects - it all has to be just right! Aggressive offset wheels that stick out too much = lowrider. Big wheels with thin tires (non stretched) on cars that aren't slammed enough = DUB style. (Yuck.) Slamming cars to the ground without enough width, offset and tire stretch = 1990s FF Honda style.
Since neither of the aforementioned styles are desirable when it comes to making a fashionable looking car, it's nice to see that car owners all over North America have been stepping up their wheel game - a game that was rumored to have started in Europe (gotta give props to those Euro car guys... Mk1 Golfs FTW!) or Japan (Bosozoku/Yanki car builders, kyusha kai car builders, and VIP car builders). While I'm not exactly certain of the exact origins or history of this style of automotive stance, I personally first noticed it in the late 1990s/early 2000s, thanks to AE86s that were built by my favorite drift teams - Running Free and Rough World.
It was awesome to see some of the West Coast's most dedicated car owners with aggressive stances come out to the event. I saw Toyota, Honda, BMW, and Lexus owners from Southern California; Northern Cali Toyota, Nissan, Lexus, and BMW owners from as far as Fairfield CA and Sacramento... I even saw a slammed Mercedes Benz from Las Vegas! Read more...
During this off-season I teamed up with Objectify, a start-up in the San Francisco Bay Area on aniPhone / iPod Touch Appcalled Drift Sumi-e(su-me-eh).
We wanted to create an all-new game concept that incorporates authentic drifting dynamics with the beautiful art form of Sumi-e (that’s “su-me-eh”) brush painting. The game carries a calming Zen-like nature as you watch your art come to life, and a unique yet simple game play dynamic, specially designed for the touch controls. Read more...
While I was cruising the Bimmerforums website last night, I came across this particular E39 BMW 5 Series sedan that really impressed me. This car was built by a Bay Area Bimmer owner that goes by the screen name of PavelK313. This E39 just looks right. Pavel didn’t even need to modify the bumpers, mirrors and all that jazz, because he concentrated his efforts on what really matters – the STANCE.
There was actually a lot of debate on the Bimmerforums about his low stance, his stretched tires, etc… can you believe that some people actually DIDN’T like it?! I laughed out loud when I read some comments from Bimmer owners that mentioned the same old things that anti-tire-stretch people say when they see outstanding feats of mathematics like this one. “I hate stretched tires. They make your classy car look ghetto, like a lowrider Impala! Tire stretch is stupid because it lessens your contact patch with the ground!” Oh, and let’s not forget, my absolute favorite… “I hope you like curb rashed lips on your wheels, because that’s what you’re gonna get if you stretch your tires!” LOL (more…)
If you remember, back in September of 2009, MotorMavens was the first to break news of Conrad Grunewald’s brand new, Hankook Tire sponsored, Chevrolet Camaro SS entering the Formula D Championship. At the time, it was still only a concept and was still being built by Luke Lonberger at BLU808. All we had were a few mid-build photos and renderings, but they still had all of the Motor Mavens readers salivating!
Well, she’s come a long way since then! She’s up and running and looking HOT. While we were checking Facebook this morning, we spotted this video of her first drift runs at Laguna Seca during some “cone course tuning.” Can you say BEAST?! Running 305 wide tires and lighting ‘em up in third gear from 1500 rpm all the way to the redline with no problem, they can definitely check “power” off the to do list. I heard some people on Facebook saying that this car had 2300 HORSEPOWER?! Is that really true?! Twenty three hundred?!?!?!
There’s not really much more we can say about it that you can’t see and hear for yourself. Good Luck to CG Racing and BLU808 with this beautiful new competition Camaro SS! We can’t wait for the Pony Wars to get restarted at Formula Drift!
Will Roegge and Joshua Herron are combining their killer creative talents to produce a DVD about American grassroots drifting, called Keep Drifting Fun! These two filmmakers have upped the ante on automotive video content ever since their visually stunning, yet technically precise work hit the web. To hear that they are joining forces to tackle this project is definitely exciting.
This news is of particular interest to me, because the last time this sort of project was attempted was in late 2006, for a project near and dear to my heart, called Slide America. Needless to say, I am pretty pumped to see something like this come together again, and I could not think of a better duo to pull it off.
It is my pleasure to give you a sneak-peek.
Enjoy!
This past weekend, something like 70+ Toyota Supras came out to the Supra Appreciation Event at SP Engineering in Industry, California. I was pleasantly surprised; I couldn't believe how many Supra owners braved the rain and the bad drivers on the freeway with their high horsepower monsters. All the parking lots surrounding SP Engineering were packed to the hilt with Supras and other cars that had variants of M and JZ engines under their hoods. Most of the cars in attendance were JZA80s, but there were also quite a few MA70/JZA70 Supras that caught my eye... I even spotted an MA60 in the lineup!
The JZA80 Supra Turbo is normally regarded as Toyota's "top of the food chain," but at the SP Supra event this weekend, I was honestly jocking the MA70/JZA70s more. Now THAT is a big statement. Let me explain... I've been a big fan of JZA80 Supras since the very first time I laid my eyes on one... and I never really gave the JZA70 much thought (that is, until I started hanging out with the late Mike Urbano [RIP homie] and his always late brother Brian). However, this past weekend, at least in my eyes, the MA70/JZA70 Supras took the win in terms of sheer style.
You might be thinking, "What?! Are you crazy? We're talking about JZA80s here," so I should explain my opinion. I think MA70 owners need to do a lot more in terms of restoration and "clean up" than the JZA80 guys do. The JZA80 Supra is such a good looking car that all you really need to do to accentuate the already gorgeous body is lower it, get proper fitting wheels and tires, a good looking exhaust and a front lip spoiler. That's not much at all. Meanwhile, MA70 owners have to think about getting a clean body (or fixing dents and whatever), painting the car, cleaning up the engine bay, piecing together a clean interior, making sure everything works, making the car run right... and only then can they turn their attention into making the car look good. Read more...
HAHAHAHA AWESOME! I love how people have been uploading all their old VHS videos to YouTube. I wonder how many people have seen this old school video!
It’s not the craziest drifting action video or anything, but that’s not the point anyway. I love it because it shows the real style and culture of hashiriya life in Japan. This is what it’s really like… just a bunch of friends screwing around and having fun with their cars!
This particular video features a particular AE86 crew based in the Tokyo/Fussa area; these are the members of a drift team with a pretty strange name… Hey Man! (As if all drift team names weren’t strange.) I love this video because it shows old school footage of some of my real good friends that I hang out with when I’m in Japan.
The driver intros are pretty funny too… these guys look soooo young in the video! This video has a special cameo appearance by none other than Hiroshi Takahashi (Kaicho) from the legendary AE86 drift team, RUNNING FREE. The very first time I met Hiroshi was when he came out to Buttonwillow Raceway (2000? 2001?) to do a drift demo here in the United States as part of a special event hosted by SpeedTrial USA and Club4AG. (Props to Tommy and Moto for arranging that event!) Hiroshi is an AWESOME drifter, and a dedicated Toyota guy… in fact, he now works at one of the Toyota dealers in the Tokyo area. (I won’t say which one, so people don’t go and bug him at work.)
Shinji Minowa, who’s rocking an old school surfer haircut in the video, eventually became a D1 Grand Prix driver sponsored by Toyo Tires. He actually came out with Hiroshi to do the drift demo at Buttonwillow, which was the first time we met. Since then I’ve had the chance to hang out with him in Japan and the USA several times. Just like all the other members of the Hey Man crew, Shinji is super cool. He has a shop near the Yokota area called Hey Man Products… Anyway, if you’re interested in seeing more stuff about Shinji, his AE86 and his shop, let me know. I can probably arrange it!
This video also features some in-car footage with Charlie Tyson! Again, this video isn’t super crazy like one of Ueo’s sick manji videos or anything, but it’s one of the few times I’ve seen Charlie on a video, so I think it’s cool. He’s a pretty low key guy, but the crazy thing is, he’s the very first member of the Hey Man crew that I ever interacted with; he helped me get a set of redline taillights for my kouki AE86 back in 1999 or 2000 when I didn’t even know him! (Thanks a lot to PJ Peji for hooking that up!)
We also see other friends like Jimmy, Maurice, and Christine in the video… but the guy with the Hitler mustache is none other than Robbie Nishida, who most US drifting fans know. I was introduced to Robbie at the Ebisu Circuit booth at Tokyo Auto Salon in 2004. Kumakubo introduced him as a good friend of his, but then I recognized his face from an old AE86 video I had… I think it was an AE86 Club video, but I’m not sure. Robbie told us he would be interested in drifting in the United States, so my friend Kenta and I walked over to the other side of the show with him and introduced him to Nick Fousekis from Falken Tires. In fact, Kumakubo walked over with us too, and he told Nick if Falken would sponsor Robbie with tires, Kumakubo would let Robbie drive one of his own cars. (The famous K-Style S13 K-truck!!!)
At the very first American drift event he ever competed at (Formula D Wall Speedway 2005), Robbie made Formula D history by beating Mopar’s unbeatable Iceman, Samuel Hubinette in a tandem battle! It was pretty damn epic for that time. Everyone was like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! I remember the reaction in the pit area and grandstands… EVERYONE was going bananas and jumping up and down when the judges announced that Robbie won the tandem match. It didn’t matter if they were supporters of Falken or not… even people from other tire brands were jumping up and down, because they had never seen anyone beat Samuel in tandem until that day. What a good way to start your drifting career in the USA!
Anyway, Robbie will be driving an R35 Nissan GTR in this year’s Formula D Championship series, so if you see him at an event, make sure to walk up to him and say, “Hey Man!”
It looks like the new year has brought some exciting news for the east coast drift community! Southeast Drift is teaming up with Formula Drift to bring an east coast qualifier series to Atlanta for a shot at an FD license!
Atlanta, Ga. – February 2, 2010
Southeast Drift will be bringing an all new pro-am championship series to Atlanta in 2010. This five round series will enable up and coming drivers in the southeast region a place to compete for and win their Formula Drift professional license.
The Southeast Drift Championship Pro Am Series will test drivers as they compete at top notch professional level venues. Drivers who are successful here will transition well into Formula D. Details regarding the series will be available in the coming weeks on the southeastdrift.com web site.
“I am very happy with these recent developments. I can not wait to help showcase some of the immense talent in the southeast drifting scene.” said Marcos Ruiz, CEO of Southeast Drift. “Formula D is the leader in professional drifting in the U.S. and Southeast Drift is proud to be a part of it.”
