NEWSWORTHY> Daigo Saito Wins Formula D Atlanta
Daigo Saito for the win! Driving the Achilles Radial Lexus SC430 powered by a 2JZGTE engine and AEM Electronics Infinity ECU, defending 2012 Formula Drift champion Daigo Saito took first place honors at Formula D Round 2 this weekend at Road Atlanta.
The changes in weather made it extremely difficult for the drivers at Road Atlanta. The rain slicked track proved to be a challenge as the event entered into the Top 16 portion of the competition. (more…)
COVERAGE> Scenes From Formula D Long Beach
Formula Drift on the Streets of Long Beach is always an event not to be missed! The start of racing season (drifting season, actually) always feels like the first day of school. The drivers have new cars and new liveries, the race teams have new umbrella girls and updated outfits, and even photographers come through with new camera gear to capture the happenings at Formula Drift. This year, we had to contend with lots of clouds blocking out the California sun. We even had a little bit of rain fall at the event, but it certainly didn't dampen out spirits! Read more...
COVERAGE> IDRC Draggers vs Drifters at Fontana
This weekend, the members of the MotorMavens Crew were straight up hustlin. (When are we not?) As a collective, we spread out to cover FIVE events in different geographic parts of the world. In Southern Cali, the first event we hit up was the IDRC Finale at California Speedway in Fontana, CA. We knew this weekend was going to be hot... real hot. At California Speedway, deep in the Inland Empire, the temperatures reached 107 degrees, but on the track it felt even hotter, with heat bouncing up off the tarmac, penetrating through sunblock and clothing to sizzle the skin of event goers. To be honest, hardly anyone from the MotorMavens collective was super excited to bake in the sun on Labor Day weekend. We wanted to chill out in the air conditioned comfort of our homes, or head to the beach to hang out and enjoy all the beautiful scenery of Southern Cali's last days of summer.
However, a couple weeks ago, we received a call from DSPORT Magazine's Marketing Director, Tobin Honda, asking for MotorMavens help in promoting the event, and we made a commitment. In the automotive aftermarket industry, there are often times when people make a lot of promises, but they don't have much follow through... Motor Mavens tries not to be like that. Since we're always out at events speaking to car owners and such, we made a concerted effort to promote the car show and the drag event, and we were extremely happy to see many of our good friends in attendance, showing their support! Read more...
However, a couple weeks ago, we received a call from DSPORT Magazine's Marketing Director, Tobin Honda, asking for MotorMavens help in promoting the event, and we made a commitment. In the automotive aftermarket industry, there are often times when people make a lot of promises, but they don't have much follow through... Motor Mavens tries not to be like that. Since we're always out at events speaking to car owners and such, we made a concerted effort to promote the car show and the drag event, and we were extremely happy to see many of our good friends in attendance, showing their support! Read more...
CENTER STAGE> Superfine Serial Nine Cressidas
I can't imagine that, back in the mid 80s to early 90s, anyone thought of Toyota Cressidas as performance cars - after all, they were stuffed to the gills with power options and a plush interior. They were pseudo luxury cars that were made for taking trips to the grocery store and picking up the kids from school.
That perception of these four-door beauties changed when engines like the 1JZGTE and 2JZGTE started to become more accessible with the spike in JDM import parts coming into the US within the last decade. With minimal work, and a good knowledge of cars, one could have a powerful car with less investment than, say... a 240SX or AE86. Opting for the straight six turbo 1/2JZ engines was a no-brainer if you had a Cressida. Read more...
That perception of these four-door beauties changed when engines like the 1JZGTE and 2JZGTE started to become more accessible with the spike in JDM import parts coming into the US within the last decade. With minimal work, and a good knowledge of cars, one could have a powerful car with less investment than, say... a 240SX or AE86. Opting for the straight six turbo 1/2JZ engines was a no-brainer if you had a Cressida. Read more...
COVERAGE> Drifting at Houston’s Import Reactor
For those of you who aren't familiar with Import Reactor, it is a multi-faceted automotive event that takes place in Houston, TX during Anime Matsuri - one of the biggest anime conventions in the country! It consists of three parts - a special dyno day and tuning session, a drift day, and then a show that spans the entire weekend. The atmosphere is unbelievably unique - it's definitely an experience! I was at the event all weekend covering it for MotorMavens!
One of the great things about this event was that it brought together the drift enthusiasts and the show scene here in Texas. The guys at Import Reactor had the brilliant idea to allow car show teams to sponsor a driver. Each team had a driver whose entry they paid, while the driver ran their sticker on his car. It was great to the drifters bringing their cars to the event, only to be greeted by 20+ members of the team that sponsored them - cheering them on the entire time! Read more...
One of the great things about this event was that it brought together the drift enthusiasts and the show scene here in Texas. The guys at Import Reactor had the brilliant idea to allow car show teams to sponsor a driver. Each team had a driver whose entry they paid, while the driver ran their sticker on his car. It was great to the drifters bringing their cars to the event, only to be greeted by 20+ members of the team that sponsored them - cheering them on the entire time! Read more...
COVERAGE> Supras Swarm SP Engineering
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...
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...
COVERAGE> Simply Clean + Stance in Orlando
I made the short trek last weekend to the Winter Park section of Orlando. It was cold out by Florida standards, but was at least warmer than it had been the past two weeks. Last Sunday's event was the first of it's type (for this area) and the title stated it clearly. Simply Clean..... Proper stance, perfect wheel fitment, quality paint job.... Almost everything a car enthusiast should dream of! There were of course big horse power cars, so they filled in the missing link that we gas mileage savvy people left out. But lets think about this for a second. One one-thousand... Do you really need 500 horsepower when your car sits 1 inch off the ground and has a 95% chance of losing a bumper at every divot? Well, I know I sure as hell do! I can't think of anything better than the ability to yell louder than the passenger screaming in the seat next to you "SHUT UP! I F*CKING GOT THIS!" as you drive over your front lip, while laughing hysterically... Read more...
CENTER STAGE> Now That's Ameen MX83 Cressida
While many of the best grassroots drifters in the United States (oh, and don't forget Canada, eh!) were out in Southern Cali for the Formula D Pro Am at Irwindale, I had the chance to catch up with Ameen Rizvi from 786 Motoring in Houston, Texas, the driver of everyone's favorite metallic brown MX83 Toyota Cressida.
Since Ameen and his Cressida were busy doing another shoot on the Irwindale banking on the actual day of the Pro Am, I asked Ameen if he'd be down to meet up with me and the other members of the Motor Mavens Crew the following day. Ameen and his brother Amir graciously obliged, and decided meet up with us for a late, late breakfast at Flappy Jack's on Route 66 in Glendora CA, with a whole bunch of other trucks from Texas with drift cars in tow not too far behind.
Those of us who have been following the drifting scene pretty closely have known about Ameen and his Cressida for quite some time now. After all, it's not often you see a four door, non-240SX rise up through the ranks of grassroots drifting competition in the USA. Wait a minute... but Ameen did drive a 240SX. To clarify things, Ameen used to drive an S13, but when he first began drifting in 2001, he was doing it in a Mk3 Toyota Supra (MA70). Since he started out in a Supra, it was only natural that he would become enamored of Toyota's mighty 1JZGTE straight-six engine, which came as stock in the Japan-market JZA70 Supra Turbo. Well, that and he blew up a ton of US-market 7MGE engines when he was trying to use them for drifting. Bad idea. 7MGE engines are notorious like BIG for blowing head gaskets, overheating, and cracking the stupid OEM plastic intake piping. Just like Biggie, they're ready to die.
So if he started out with a Toyota Supra, why move to a four door family car like a Cressida one might ask..? Well, when Ameen was doing research on building his MA70 Supra, he discovered that the chassis of the MA70 Supra and MX83 Cressida were extremely similar, and many of the engine and suspension parts were the same as well. The tipping point was when Ameen saw an internet clip of D1 driver Tsuyoshi Tezuka's JZX81 Chaser. "When I saw Tezuka's 81 on the internet," Ameen explains, "that's when I knew I was gonna build up a Cressida for sure." Read more...
Since Ameen and his Cressida were busy doing another shoot on the Irwindale banking on the actual day of the Pro Am, I asked Ameen if he'd be down to meet up with me and the other members of the Motor Mavens Crew the following day. Ameen and his brother Amir graciously obliged, and decided meet up with us for a late, late breakfast at Flappy Jack's on Route 66 in Glendora CA, with a whole bunch of other trucks from Texas with drift cars in tow not too far behind.
Those of us who have been following the drifting scene pretty closely have known about Ameen and his Cressida for quite some time now. After all, it's not often you see a four door, non-240SX rise up through the ranks of grassroots drifting competition in the USA. Wait a minute... but Ameen did drive a 240SX. To clarify things, Ameen used to drive an S13, but when he first began drifting in 2001, he was doing it in a Mk3 Toyota Supra (MA70). Since he started out in a Supra, it was only natural that he would become enamored of Toyota's mighty 1JZGTE straight-six engine, which came as stock in the Japan-market JZA70 Supra Turbo. Well, that and he blew up a ton of US-market 7MGE engines when he was trying to use them for drifting. Bad idea. 7MGE engines are notorious like BIG for blowing head gaskets, overheating, and cracking the stupid OEM plastic intake piping. Just like Biggie, they're ready to die.
So if he started out with a Toyota Supra, why move to a four door family car like a Cressida one might ask..? Well, when Ameen was doing research on building his MA70 Supra, he discovered that the chassis of the MA70 Supra and MX83 Cressida were extremely similar, and many of the engine and suspension parts were the same as well. The tipping point was when Ameen saw an internet clip of D1 driver Tsuyoshi Tezuka's JZX81 Chaser. "When I saw Tezuka's 81 on the internet," Ameen explains, "that's when I knew I was gonna build up a Cressida for sure." Read more...
WEBMINING> The Best JZA70 Supra Ever.
Here’s something real quick. I was just browsing through one of my new favorite blogs, Kyusha Kai (in Japanese, it means something like modified old school car), when I came across this supeerrrrrrrrrr super dope Supra. This has GOT to be the best JZA70 Supra I’ve ever laid eyes on. Ever. EVERRRRRRRR.
Just look at that stance. The wheels. The flares. The front chin spoiler and front bumper. The aftermarket vented pieces that replace the turn signal indicators..??? The crazy looking hood and sideskirts! The wangan wing out back. And does it have a roof wing? Can’t tell from here. And it has an old school sha-ken sticker.
If this doesn’t inspire you to want a JZA70, I don’t know what will. I think if more people made JZA70s look like this, maybe the MA70/JZA70 body style Supras might be as popular as S13s or FCs.
Holy crap. Leigh Roto, Brian Urbano, Jose Valle, and all the other MA70/JZA70 owners I know… this is for you guys. Be inspired!
:: Antonio Alvendia
COVERAGE> Nisei Showoff Grand Finale, Part 1
I know that many people have been waiting for our coverage of this weekend's Nisei Showoff carshow, which made its final show in Downtown LA/Little Tokyo. Since I knew I'd run into a ton of old friends at the show, I knew that it would be smart to come to the show early; that was a very good decision. Travis brought his Canon DSLR and his video camera to help capture the event too, since we knew that it would be hard for me to make my way around the whole show, in between saying hello to all our old school friends that come out the woodwork just for the Nisei Showoff. For some reason, some of these guys don't go to Formula D events or Just Drift events, but they always make it to Nisei. So for many of us, Nisei Showoff is a time for us to reconnect and chill with good friends who we don't have the pleasure of seeing all the time, due to the busy work and travel schedules that we all have.
I was happy to see several media outlets at the event covering the show as well; I'm hoping that all the magazines and websites out there run coverage of the show. Super Street Magazine and Project Car Magazine both had a strong showing at Nisei, with booths and a build-off competition of the magazine editors' personally owned cars. I also saw people from Import Tuner, Japanese Nostalgic Car, Urbanracer, Auto Otaku/Speedhunters, DSport, even an ex-Jtuned guy and several other media outlets out there to support and shoot photos of Nisei Showoff. Make sure to check out their coverage of the show as well.
For any other media outlets who weren't able to make it to the show, but still want to run coverage of the event, please contact us at motormavens(at)gmail.com and we will supply you with photos for free, just to help out our friend Ken Miyoshi who runs the show.
While it may seem to some outsiders that we've been hyping this event quite a lot, it's only because Nisei Showoff really is a big deal to those of us who go there with our friends and family every year - it's a tradition that we've all kept up for the past nine years.
In fact, the very first time I ever put my own AE86 in a carshow was at Nisei Showoff in 2000 - the first ever Showoff event in Little Tokyo. That year, I linked up with several of my other AE86 friends and old school Toyota heads, and we lined our cars up all in a row, parallel to 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. We all thought it was so cool to be in a carshow in that area, since we would always hang out in Little Tokyo after work. My friends and I were always there, whether we were buying Japanese drifting magazines at Kinokuniya Bookstore; renting Japanese car videos at J-Wave; getting ramen at Orochon or Daikokuya; buying Japanese market limited sneakers at the shoe store inside Japanese Village Plaza; or of course, getting drinks at Oiwake. Read more...
I was happy to see several media outlets at the event covering the show as well; I'm hoping that all the magazines and websites out there run coverage of the show. Super Street Magazine and Project Car Magazine both had a strong showing at Nisei, with booths and a build-off competition of the magazine editors' personally owned cars. I also saw people from Import Tuner, Japanese Nostalgic Car, Urbanracer, Auto Otaku/Speedhunters, DSport, even an ex-Jtuned guy and several other media outlets out there to support and shoot photos of Nisei Showoff. Make sure to check out their coverage of the show as well.
For any other media outlets who weren't able to make it to the show, but still want to run coverage of the event, please contact us at motormavens(at)gmail.com and we will supply you with photos for free, just to help out our friend Ken Miyoshi who runs the show.
While it may seem to some outsiders that we've been hyping this event quite a lot, it's only because Nisei Showoff really is a big deal to those of us who go there with our friends and family every year - it's a tradition that we've all kept up for the past nine years.
In fact, the very first time I ever put my own AE86 in a carshow was at Nisei Showoff in 2000 - the first ever Showoff event in Little Tokyo. That year, I linked up with several of my other AE86 friends and old school Toyota heads, and we lined our cars up all in a row, parallel to 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. We all thought it was so cool to be in a carshow in that area, since we would always hang out in Little Tokyo after work. My friends and I were always there, whether we were buying Japanese drifting magazines at Kinokuniya Bookstore; renting Japanese car videos at J-Wave; getting ramen at Orochon or Daikokuya; buying Japanese market limited sneakers at the shoe store inside Japanese Village Plaza; or of course, getting drinks at Oiwake. Read more...
CARSPOTTING> We Dig Northwest Style!
I'm still sorting through all the photos I took during my trip to Seattle... believe me, there were A LOT. However, I thought I'd just take a brief detour from the Formula D action to showcase some of the cars I saw at the event, which really clue you in on how dope the Pacific Northwest cars are. I just don't understand how people can sleep on the scene up there so much! All the big car magazines and media sites seem to only focus on Southern Cali, but those of us who have traveled all over the world can tell you that the Northwest has style!!! Tons of it. Let's take a look! Read more...
COVERAGE> All Star Bash Weekend Pt 1
All over the USA, this has been a pretty exciting weekend for grassroots drifting enthusiasts. On the East Coast, many of our good friends made the trek to Virginia International Raceway for the North vs South drifting competition. However, in Southern California, the hottest thing happening is definitely the Just Drift/Zip Tied All Star Bash drifting festival at Willow Springs International Raceway. I've been to many All Star Bash events in the past, but it just doesn't seem to get old for me. In fact, the more events I go to, it keeps getting better and better. In the United States, the All Star Bash is the closest you can get to the actual look and feeling of an authentic Japanese grassroots drifting event, like the legendary Drifting Matsuri events at Ebisu Circuit or the regional MSC events.
Willow Springs is in the high desert - the Mojave Desert to be exact. It's two hours north east of Los Angeles, and the summertime sun just seems to sear anyone or anything it sees. As I write this, the event is far from over! In fact, we're about to leave the hotel in a few minutes to get back to the track, where the course just went hot - literally and figuratively.
This weekend's All Star Bash was exciting because there were drivers and cars that came from all over the United States just to drift with California's best. Cars came from as far as the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, Las Vegas, Chicago, and even South Dakota! Read more...
Willow Springs is in the high desert - the Mojave Desert to be exact. It's two hours north east of Los Angeles, and the summertime sun just seems to sear anyone or anything it sees. As I write this, the event is far from over! In fact, we're about to leave the hotel in a few minutes to get back to the track, where the course just went hot - literally and figuratively.
This weekend's All Star Bash was exciting because there were drivers and cars that came from all over the United States just to drift with California's best. Cars came from as far as the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, Las Vegas, Chicago, and even South Dakota! Read more...
