COVERAGE> More Photos From SEMA Show 2011
CENTER STAGE> Royal Flush Subaru STi Scraper
When Austin rolls out to car meets and shows, he and his friends from Royal Flush crew definitely roll deep, with more than enough slammed cars to back up the name. For those of you local to Southern California that have been to many of the larger car shows, you might have seen several of the Royal Flush "VIP" style cars. Whether it's a Lexus or Infiniti on air ride or Austin's STi, they mob out in big numbers to all of the events they go to. While some of the cars in the crew scream for attention, the clean subtle look to Austin's STi was actually what caught my eye when I saw his car for the first time. Read more...
VIDEO> Risky Running the Windy City Wangan
Last night, when I asked Leigh and Dave from Risky Devil to pick me up at Chicago O’Hare Airport’s baggage claim, I had no idea what I would be getting into. I didn’t expect much… I thought maybe we’d go to a bar and get some deep dish pizza or something. Instead, Leigh and Dave texted a bunch of friends, and picked me up from the airport in a long procession of Chicago’s finest drift cars!
A simple “airport pickup” somehow turned into high speed freeway running and drifting through city streets in Chicago IL with all our boys from Risky Devil, Grip Gambler, Touge Factory, and JUNKHOUSE. Here’s a short, completely unprofessional looking video snippet of the experience. More to come later… it’s time for pizza! (more…)
COVERAGE> The Nürburgring 24Hour With Falken
I was recently chatting with Antonio Alvendia about a trip I took to the Nürburgring on behalf of Falken Tyres Europe and the Team Falken UK drift team and he kindly allowed me to show you my shots and experience of the N24 Race here on MotorMavens. Read more...
COVERAGE> Scenes from Nisei Showoff 2011
COVERAGE> The Spocom Experience at Anaheim
When we were contacted by the organizers of the Spocom Tour to work with them as a promotional partner, we were definitely excited by the opportunities it would bring! Although the Southern California-based members of our MotorMavens Crew gained a little experience in throwing and promoting a big outdoor automotive event (Mass Appeal at Ken Block's Irwindale Gymkhana event), we had little to no experience in seeing what it's like to run a big indoor car show. We thought it would be extremely interesting to see the inner workings of a big car show series from people who had a track record of doing it, and so began the relationship between MotorMavens and Spocom.
The first thing we noticed about the Spocom Tour - it didn't feel like a normal car show from our standpoint! It felt like a big, fun party - a hype party that just happened to have a bunch of friends and cars crowded in between the vendor exhibits! Read more...
COVERAGE> The 2011 Formula D Seattle Experience
Since most drift fans outside of Seattle were able to watch the event play-by-play on Justin.TV's Formula D Driftstream, Seattle-based MotorMavens sharpshooter Yoshi Shindo and I decided we'd post up photographic highlights from the event, based on our own experiences there! Read more...
VIDEO> Hoshino Car Style at Ebisu Minami Course
Hoshino Car Style : Customer Drift Day お客様のドリフト日 from Luke Huxham on Vimeo.
I just got a link to this video from Facebook (Connect to MotorMavens on Facebook!), and it really got my attention for some reason. Why? While there’s certainly no shortage of drifting videos online (most of them are pretty bad), but this one was fun and refreshing! This video from Luke Huxham features my fun loving friends from Gunma, Japan tearing it up at Ebisu Circuit‘s South Course; they are a strong drifting family (I say family because the word ‘team‘ doesn’t accurately depict how close these guys are) called Geki Kassou Dan.
The members of the Geki family are certainly a popular bunch of misfits in the Gunma drifting scene. They are easy to spot, with bright orange paint adorning their cars as an homage to their revered friends, Ebisu Circuit’s own Team Orange. (more…)
GALLERY> The Forza Motorsport 4 Experience
On one of the nights I was back in LA, I was lucky enough to attend the exclusive Forza Motorsport 4 launch event/E3 Expo afterparty at the LA Live Event Deck in Downtown Los Angeles. Since my time in LA was so brief and packed with errands, I unfortunately didn't even have time to go to the E3 show itself, even though I had passes at the ready.
Even though I didn't make it to E3, I didn't feel too bad, because the Forza Motorsport 4 event had it all - hot cars, hot girls, catered Korean BBQ tacos and sliders from the Kogi BBQ truck, an open bar, an appearance from The Stig from the world renown BBC show Top Gear (or at least, a person dressed in the Stig's racing suit), special exclusive performances by legendary drummer Travis Barker from Blink 182 and Mixmaster Mike from the Beastie Boys, and did I mention... an open bar? Read more...
VIDEO> A Tribute to Ayrton Senna da Silva
Seventeen years ago today, at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy, the racing world lost the legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna, who many racing fans consider to be the best Formula One driver of all time. The death of the three-time Formula One World Champion on May 1, 1994 occurred as a result of his car crashing into a concrete barrier while he was leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
Because of today’s date, I felt it was appropriate to post the trailer to the Working Title Pictures documentary film, SENNA, which will be distributed by Universal Pictures and released in US theaters later this year. The documentary film was actually produced by passionate Brazilians (rightfully so), and was released as a test in Japan, before it went on to win at the Sundance Film Festival. (more…)
VIDEO> Straight Outta Compton with Mad Mike
If for no other reason than getting a last minute “before they were famous” view of certain icons in West Coast gangsta rap, you should check out this video. In this second installment of interviews we did with the judges of the new SPEED Channel program Car Warriors, we meet the very down-to-earth Mad Mike, who most people might recognize from the television show Pimp My Ride.
If you were alive in the last six years and had any exposure to MTV, you probably think you know Mad Mike, but this interview introduces you to someone you’ve probably never met before – Mike Martin, a shade-tree, car stereo installer from Compton (in his own words). Whatever your preconceptions about Mike might be – leave them at the door. Nothing you see on TV is real… not even “Reality TV.” (more…)
COVERAGE> Formula D Long Beach Experience Pt.2
COVERAGE> Formula D Long Beach Experience Pt.1
If you live in Southern California, you need to drop everything you're doing and head down to Long Beach RIGHT NOW. The line at the gate is already huge, and everyone is amped up from all the excitement (or it could be from all the energy drink sponsors giving out free drinks at the track). This is what Formula Drift is all about! Let's go through some of the photos that the MotorMavens Crew has collected from Long Beach thus far! Read more...
GALLERY> Formula Drift Review in Pictures
NEWSWORTHY> Further Development on FT86
VIDEO> Ken Block Gymkhana Grid Invitational
The very first time I ever posted a video by Joshua Herron on the internet, I was still writing for Speedhunters, he had just finished editing his 2009 Tokyo Auto Salon video (he didn’t even have an HD camera yet), and Josh’s name was pretty much unknown in the automotive scene. Man, have things changed – and in such a short amount of time!
Our own design guru Andy Sapp just sent me a link to Josh’s latest video, which showcases his coverage of the Ken Block Gymkhana Grid Invitational at Irwindale Speedway on December 4th. I’m pretty sure that pretty much everyone will agree with me when I say that this is the_best_video I’ve ever seen from the ‘Hobo’ from Las Vegas! Check the footage of Ken Block’s Ford Fiesta, Toshiki Yoshioka rocking the Driftspeed S15 Silvia, Alex Pfeiffer and the Battle Version SC300, Mike Essa in his M5-powered E92 BMW, and Tanner Foust getting sprayed at the podium once again! (more…)
VIDEO> Japan Cup Gymkhana Is Still King
A long time ago, in a country far, far away… long before drifting became mainstream; long before fake GAB wheels existed; long before energy drinks and MTV cared about motorsports… gymkhana was already going pretty strong in Japan. Even before I ever had a chance to see a Japanese gymkhana video on VHS tape, I used to go to the Japanese bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area (Kinokuniya in Japantown SF or Yaohan bookstore in Saratoga CA) and look at photos of all the amazing cars in the Japanese magazines that I couldn’t (and still can’t) read.
This is a YouTube video of the 1989 Japan Cup Gymkhana’s C3 Class, which features some pretty amazing looking cars! The Ken Block Invitational event at Irwindale was super fun, but I wish the cars in gymkhana competition today looked as incredible as the ones in this video! Vintage cars with period correct graphics, widebody AE86s that are actually used for racing, AW11 MR2s spinning around cones… I love it!
This Japan Cup video definitely brings it back to the roots for me, because of the amazing cars featured in the clips! To steal a quote from a friend of mine named Kero One, “innovation is useless if you forget the essence.” This statement definitely holds true when it comes to motorsports! Even before all the big sponsors and professional drifting existed, this is the type of motorsports activity that got me excited about driving! Traditional gymkhana is fun, skill-based, relatively low speed, and has a relatively low barrier to entry in terms of money. (more…)
COVERAGE> The 2010 Mooneyes Christmas Party
Last weekend, the MotorMavens Crew traveled to Irwindale to hold our first-ever MotorMavens Mass Appeal Car Show and the Ken Block Gymkhana Grid Invitational. During Mass Appeal and the Ken Block Invitational, Irwindale was filled with a mixture of professional drivers, action sports athletes, and owners of modified streetcars. This weekend's festivities at Mooneyes were very different. Several of the people in attendance at Mooneyes were of roughly the same age as most of the drifting/gymkhana fans, but the cars, culture, and people that the Mooneyes Christmas Party attracted definitely were of a different style altogether.
I'll be the first to admit that I don't know as much about traditional hot rods and lead sleds as I'd like to, so I'll keep my captions very short, so I don't embarrass myself too much! Read more...
COVERAGE> MotorMavens Mass Appeal Experience!
If you’re into muscle cars, then screw those four bangers. If you're into rotary powered vehicles, then screw those pistons! If you're into road racing and time attack, then screw drifting. If you’re into Formula One, well, screw everybody. If you’ve been around car culture for any length of time, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You also probably know that not everyone feels this way. As we get a bit older and experience some of the great aspects of other car cultures, more and more of us are discovering that we’re all the same under the hood – we're all just car guys.
In the middle of 2009 when we started MotorMavens, we established the site on a basic principle – that everyone’s voice is validated by their passion for the cars and car culture because the one thing that brings the entire spectrum of car culture together is passion. We call it the “passion principle.” Wherever you find some mind blowing interpretation of the automobile and the lifestyle that revolves around it, you also find some passionate person wrenching away – usually with a ton of pride and satisfaction in his/her accomplishments but very little money to show for it. That’s exactly what the MotorMavens Crew searches for; we look for that passion in every possible niche of car culture so that we can broadcast it loud and clear to everyone when we find it.
So, what does all of this have to do with the Mass Appeal Show? It’s simple. When Ken Block and the Gymkhana Grid team approached us to produce a car show at their Ken Block Invitational, we already knew that it would need to be different than what most people might expect. We knew our car show would need to represent the driving principles of MotorMavens... the car show would have to be multi-car-cultural; reflecting the wide spectrum of car culture that we love so much. It would have to have mass appeal - get it? Read more...
CENTER STAGE> Garson x Rocket Bunny Odyssey
I had just returned from Las Vegas, and was still reeling from a sleepless week of meetings, afterparties, and overall hustling at SEMA. However, I remembered that I made a promise to my friends at AutoFashion in San Diego - I told them that I definitely would be going to their VIP meet to show MotorMavens support, and to shoot photos of the event! I was still sleepy as hell, and I didn't feel like driving by myself, so luckily I was able to talk Tamer Omran, Lambert Paat (and his gf Daisy), and Driftwell founder Herbrock One into rolling to SD with me.
Right as we found parking at AutoFashion, this gorgeous cream-colored 1997 Honda Odyssey (RA1) immediately caught Tamer's eye. He immediately hunted down the owner, who drove it all the way from Tempe, Arizona to attend the show!
We found out that it took four years for the owner, James Cherry, to collect parts for his Odyssey and ship them over from Japan. Even though he was building on the car one by one, he decided that he would put it all together at once instead of bolting on parts one at a time - this way, the Odyssey would have more impact when it came out! Good move. Read more...
CENTER STAGE> Bisimoto Turbo Hybrid Honda CRZ
As the owner of Bisimoto Engineering, and somewhat of a legend in the Honda community, Bisi is an overachiever when it comes to wringing every last ounce of power from any of the projects he accepts - often with ground-breaking results. MotorMavens crew members Antonio Alvendia, Herb Policarpio and I took a visit to his facility to see his latest masterpiece. We arrived just in time to see him adding the finishing touches to his Norm Reeves Honda purchased, 2011 Honda CR-Z.
As he went about his work, he took the time to explain his vision for this build which was to benchmark the CR-Z hybrid versus the newly released Porsche 911 GT3 hybrid which boasts a hefty 480hp at the crank and to do so while retaining the drivability, reliability, and eco-friendly nature of the original. In his own words: ìto really show them what Bisimoto Engineering could do.î In a matter of six weeks, not only had Bisi met his goal, he had exceeded the Porsche's horsepower numbers by 53 horses and developed 22 new aftermarket performance parts for the CR-Z. Did I mention he was an overachiever? Read more...
PERSPECTIVE> Formula Drift Irwindale 2010 Finale
Flying standby, which may be cheap, is very risky and can be stressful when flights that were empty the night before, are full in the morning. Luckily, only the first flight out of Atlanta that morning was full and I could hop on the second flight to John Wayne at Santa Ana. If time had not been an issue, I could have arrived much later and taken an easier flight, but since I had to be there by 1:30pm PST to make it to the (all-caps) MANDATORY media meeting, I was starting to stress when I noticed the flights starting to fill up. I’m no stranger to the pre-Formula D stress syndrome though. I almost didn’t make it to this point after all.
Media passes are a hot commodity, and the MotorMavens Crew rolls pretty deep, so actually getting a pass to cover the event for the site was an episode in itself. Even though we're an official Formula D Media Partner, and we have a legitimate high traffic automotive site, Formula D's PR agency didn't want to approve all our media pass requests. I didn't really understand the thinking behind that, but I suppose we did have a lot of photo and video shooters asking for passes!
This being the last round of the year for Formula D, and me traveling all the way out to Irwindale CA from Atlanta GA, I had to do it big. I always like to say ‘go big or go home.’ It’s corny but it’s a great way of seeing things - try it and see where it gets you. Read more...
COVERAGE> IDRC Spells Fast Times in Fontana
Rather than bringing our readers the same stories as the other guys, I thought I would just publish a few more photos of cars that caught my eye. I'll be the first to admit - I don't know a whole lot about drag racing or Hondas, so if I don't go into as much detail as you might expect from one of my stories about drifting or Japanese nostalgic cars, then please bear with me. Actually, I'd love to invite a Honda Maven to share information with us, and even blog on the site! It would be pretty cool, as I know I certainly have a lot to learn when it comes to drag racing and Hondas... Read more...
