COVERAGE> San Francisco Auto Show 2009
Since the FD wasn't back in San Francisco yet, I figured it would be a good chance to debut my RHD S14 and display it at this week-long show so I could show some love to my sponsors. Read more...
GALLERY> The Irwindale Experience
When I arrived at LAX on Thursday, I got my rental car and drove straight into L.A. traffic to get to Irwindale Speedway, working my way though all that traffic while trying to find a good radio station to listen to. I finally arrived at the Speedway about 45 minutes later.
Walking though the pits, watching all the vendors getting set up for the event, I noticed the pit area is so much bigger than the one we have at Evergreen Speedway where Round 5 was held . This was a subtle hint that more vendors and drivers would be attending this event than the one at Evergreen.
Another thing that I noticed was the weather. Seattle summer includes two months of decent heat and sun after which it's back to the infamous rain season that happens to have started a couple of weeks ago. So, even though I caught myself wiping sweat off my forehead every few minutes, I was enjoying every minute of the sun. I wish it was like this in the Northwest.
Fast forward to the opening day of the Final round of Formula Drift. I got there bright and early to start taking photos and meet lots of new people. Since I'm pretty new to MotorMavens, a lot of people didn't know my name or my face. I took that as the perfect opportunity to introduce myself to the locals. The attitude that California people have is really great! Everyone was friendly and awesome to hang out with! Read more...
COVERAGE> Drifting is alive in Santo Domingo!
We went out there a couple of days early to prep our cars, test and setup their new drift track, marking all of the clipping points and track outline of the course. We spoke with the drivers and setup a driver’s meeting on competition day to go over all of the judging criteria and track rules with their local judges. Read more...
COVERAGE> Sevenstock Rotary Festival, Pt.1
In fact, one of the dedicated RX7 owners in attendance was our own Calvin Wan, who flew down to LA with his wife just for one day because they scored some super cheap plane tickets to Orange County for only $29 on Southwest! After picking them up at the airport, we went to eat dim sum at Capital Seafood in Irvine before heading to the show. I suppose the entire day had a "rotary theme" because Calvin noticed that even the plates that our dim sum was served in were round and triangular in shape, just like the rotor inside a 13B. Crazy. Read more...
VIDEO> Calvin Wan X ThunderDrift/Graphtech/Fatlace
Calvin @ Thunder Drift from iPhilms on Vimeo.
I brought my Falken FD3S RX-7 out to Thunderhill Raceway with the Fatlace / 360 Video / Graphtech crew this past Tuesday, right after I got back from FD Seattle. ThunderDrift set up a full-track drift day, which does not happen too often at Thunderhill, because the tracks get so busy throughout the year.
I love taking advantage of these relaxing drift events to enjoy my cars and to get in extra seat time with some friends. This track has some of the most amazing rhythm sections and variety of corners that makes it super fun to drift on – you can connect turns 2 through 7 as well as many other sections of the track.
My boy Phil Velasco from 360 VideoMagazine brought out some pretty fancy gear to get some of these unique camera angles. Check it out… it’s like the drifting version of a skate video.
::Calvin Wan
Calvin Wan
360 VM
iPhilms
ThunderDrift
Fatlace
GTstickers | Graphtech Signworks, Daly City CA
WEBMINING> Calvin Wan’s FD3S at ThunderDrift
Team Fatlace at Thunderhill Raceway from fatlace on Vimeo.
While most people still have the recent Seattle event fresh on their minds, some of our Northern Cali friends stopped reminiscing and kept on drifting. Geoff Pitts hosts the ThunderDrift Events at Northern Cali’s Thunderhill Raceway. He told me about his events when I saw him at All Star Bash Weekend, and again at FD Seattle, but unfortunately, it was only two days after Seattle and I wasn’t able to make it all the way up there for his event.
Either way, we want to show our support of his events! Northern Cali peeps should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to drift at high speeds on a track like Thunderhill! I’ve never been up there myself, but I can’t wait to drive that course. It looks AMAZING.
Thanks to Twitter, I just saw this new teaser video that was produced by my friends Mark Arcenal (Fatlace), Philip Velasco (360 Video and JDM Insider). It features car-to-car footage of our homie Calvin Wan driving his FD3S RX7 at Thunderhill… check it out!
:: Antonio Alvendia
COVERAGE> Formula D Seattle, Part 3
It's a long story, but in a nutshell, the Formula D/SCCA guy Randy Hembrey got pissed off at me and pulled my hard card on Saturday (competition day), which allows me to get track access for shooting photos. This was definitely a problem, as I was expected to produce good images that weekend (I was shooting the event for clients, who helped pay my way to get up to Seattle). I had a hell of a time trying to get photos for the rest of the day, especially without access to the hot areas, but I still managed to get some photos somehow.
So here it is... Formula D Seattle through my eyes. Read more...
VIDEO> Riding the Wall at Ebisu Circuit
So last night on Facebook, I was talking to Luke Huxham, an Aussie-living-in-Japan who is producing a documentary film about drifting in Japan called “We Are Drift.” Undaunted by hard work and a shoestring budget, Luke spends most of his waking hours either shooting drifting footage or urging others to support his new documentary film. In my experience, I’ve come to learn that relentless persistence like this can only mean one thing – EVERYONE is going to know about this film in the drifting scene.
As Luke showed me the newest teaser video clip he shot at “The Holy Land of Drifting,” Ebisu Circuit just this past weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar faces in it! Namely, Formula D driver Calvin Wan (and his RHD zenki S14 Silvia) and Naoto Suenaga (and his white RPS13 180SX) from Team Orange. We even see a brief cameo from Team Orange’s hilarious crew chief, Igusa, driving his girl’s black R32 Skyline 4-door.
Look at how close Calvin gets to the WALL at Ebisu’s School Course! Awesome! And look how close these guys lead and follow! Since this is just a small sampling of the action we can expect in Luke’s video, I can’t wait to see the whole documentary film!
:: Antonio Alvendia
PS: Bonus Points>> Can anyone spot other D1 drivers in the video? And can anyone recognize the shirt Naoto is wearing?
We Are Drift Documentary Film Website
COVERAGE> Formula D Brings Heat to Vegas, Pt 1
As a member of the media with a trackside photo pass, I remember being extremely uncomfortable because of Formula D safety rules requiring us to wear long pants instead of shorts at the track. However, just think about what the drivers must be feeling like - wearing full fire suits and Nomex underwear and HELMETS, sitting inside hot cars without air conditioning; with hot metal roofs working like a broiler due to the lack of headliners and insulation in a professional drift car.
Nevertheless, the crowd at Formula D remained upbeat and excited, due to the level of driving prowess they were treated to. Vegas drift fans are hardcore! Regardless of the heat, these fans were down to sit outside in the stands, sweating and cheering as their favorite professional drifters slid past them, dousing the grandstands in a bath of tire dust. Read more...
COVERAGE> Motorsport Auto Z-Car Nationals 2009
We took tons of photos at the event yesterday, so we'll have to spread out the Z photos into more than one posting. We admired Japanese Classic Car Show organizer Koji Yamaguchi's gorgeous orange 240Z as it basked in the sunlight, with it's straight up Japan-style look, fender mirrors and all.
Click here to check out more of our Z-Car Nationals photos after the jump! Read more...
WEBMINING> Calvin Wan’s S15 on Streetfire
We just saw this awesome video of Falken Tire works driver Calvin Wan on Streetfire.net, which features Calvin driving his S15 Silvia at a pre-season private practice event.
The “test track” in the video is an EVOC facility in San Bernadino CA, which is actually an Emergency Vehicle Operations Center used by the California Highway Patrol for training. However, we’re pretty sure that the CHiPs don’t get drifting training yet. And certainly not in a vehicle as stylish as Calvin’s S15 Silvia, his 2009 Formula D competition car that we’ve seen previously in red and yellow and black and yellow liveries. You know which liveries we’re talking about, right?
::Motor Mavens
