"Drifting will continue to grow, but that's only if we continue to support drifters on the amateur level, and most importantly, the people who organize the grassroots drifting events. After all, it is those people who are building new drifters and teaching them how to drive." - Antonio Alvendia in Drifting: Sideways from Japan to America
Despite the obvious plug (forgive me), what Antonio said in 2006 is evident five years later.
These grassroots events are where many of the nation's best drifters first made their marks. While Japan was fortunate to have small, frequent drift events, Americans were left to figure out ways to get their tracks open to such a sport.
Now, after years of consistent growth and the expansion of our own small drift events, we've come to see plenty of tracks around the nation become accustomed to drifting. These events have been paramount in molding skilled drifters, some of whom have made it in the big leagues.
However, for many years now, the San Francisco Bay Area hasn't been able to provide a consistent outlet for its "home grown" talent. Sure, the ThunderDrift events are great, but those are nearly two or three hours away from The Bay. Many drivers simply don't want to make a four-to-six-hour round trip. Now they won't have to.
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A couple of weeks ago, I shed some light on the Comrades FC3S Truckasaurus RX7 from Fatlace WordUp!, a drift and gymkhana session in held once a month in Santa Clara, CA. The event is only open to 15 drivers and members of the media - no spectators are allowed. It is the closest thing we have to Drift Day in the Bay Area and is centered on providing a safe venue for those who wish to better their skills in a safe environment.
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With the Formula Drift series starting up in only three and a half weeks, this means that the Pro-Am series will be starting up as well. New drivers from around the country will be competing for an opportunity to drive on the next level. One such an event, is Thunder Drift, held just outside Willows California. Read more...
Earlier this month, NonStopTuning and Fabricated Motorsports hosted the first round of our local Formula D Pro-Am series, complete with cash payout and points. It’s been a good minute since I’ve posted a video on MotorMavens, but like many of you, I have been all too busy these past few months. However, if I told you I haven’t made anything since then, I would be lying.
Allow me to cut straight to the point. I’ll be the first to tell you I really dislike AE86s (*gasp* Antonio), however my good friend Robert Lee for some reason or another still drives one without it completely falling apart. He doesn’t just drive it though… he drifts the piss out of it… just like a real man should. And that’s exactly what he did at the Houston Pro Am at Gulf Greyhound Park.
Robert easily had one of the lowest powered cars (if not THE lowest powered car) out on the grid. On a good day, Rob’s purple thunder lays down an INSANE 113whp. However this past Sunday, he managed to take home a much deserved win, beating everybody, including Chelsea DeNofa (last year’s XDC champ in case you forgot) – check the vid and to see how he did it. (more…)
Drift Union‘s Shawn Browne and Logan Noël make a huge presence everywhere they go and you’re about to find out why. Their driving and style speak for themselves, so there’s no point in me trying to describe this awesome movie. With content from Canada to Southern California, this video is nothing short of amazing. Just know that if you like grassroots drifting, you will love this short film. End of story. (more…)
The other day, I stumbled across some unused ContourHD footage of John Russakoff in his F20 powered Corolla at Ken Block’s Gymkhana GRID Invitational. He ended up doing very well that evening, so rather than letting the clips get lost in the endless sea of footage that is my hard drive, I decided to upload them raw for all to enjoy. (more…)
We call it 'webmining' for a reason - we slave away tirelessly in the dark and the heat. There's lots of dirt everywhere and our little canary to let us know when oxygen gets low. However, every now and then we'll come across a nice little gem like this.
While browsing through our forum's introduction section, a super clean AE86 Corolla from the great state of Texas stood out to me. In his thread, the owner, Angelo, quickly introduced himself and his car, which, in his own words, he "loves dearly and abuse like a red headed step child." Frankly, that's what I like to hear. Trailer queens aren't at all my thing. Read more...
If you are at all a drift fan, you have probably watched old Option videos on VHS or you have seen videos on YouTube or posted around the Internet. At some point you and your friends have dropped your jaws and yelled at the screen after witnessing truly epic driving. Unreal angle, physics-defying early entries, and team tandems that looked like they were choreographed in a dance studio - all things you would scream at the top of your lungs for. Well, if you were one of the many spectators in attendance at PGP (Pacific Grand Prix), then you witnessed some of the same electrifying driving that you would expect from one of those videos from way back when. Read more...
My recent trip to Las Vegas for round 5 of Formula Drift was one of minimal luxuries. Joe Ayala and I could only afford one night in a hotel and a rental car was out of the question. Day one, we got up around noon, grabbed some “breakfast” at the Blueberry Hill next to the hotel, and began our journey to the track at around two. The trek consisted of roughly 2-3 miles, on foot, in 108 degree weather. Luckily for us, we found a shopping cart to carry our backpacks, camera cases, laptop bags, and of course my skateboard. Before long, we had covered the cart in MotorMavens cards (gotta represent) and found fun stuff to do on the way, such as drifting and dirt dropping the cart on the side of Las Vegas Blvd. Joe and I had fun overall, but boy were we glad when an old woman (with a legit mustache) stopped and asked us if we needed a ride. She drove us about a quarter of a mile to the gift shop of Las Vegas Motor Speedway, complaining the whole time about how she would be late to work. Haha!
Anyone will tell you that there’s really no way to describe a trip to FD Vegas other than “hot.” I had a great time making new acquaintances, like when my buddy Josh Herron took us by Forrest Wang‘s shop to BS and look at all his rad cars. I also had fun catching up with friends, like when the amazing Drew Fishbein and Ross Fairfield from OMGDrift let Joe and I stay in their hotel room because 18andFamousAbbitt Wilkerson was too busy napping to answer his door. Haha!
Regarding the video, I apologize for taking so long to finish it. The song I chose has a small introduction that requires specific footage to go with the audio. Hobo and I had arranged beforehand to film what I needed while in Vegas. Unfortunately, the lovely security team at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was very strict about when and who could drive in or out of the gates, so we just couldn’t make it happen. That being said, I had to acquire the help of up-and-coming photographer, videographer, actor, and stunt driver Joe Ayala to finish the timeline.
Special thanks to Jason at ContourHD for hooking us up with the cameras. These things are a blast to use! Definitely one of the most fun moments of the trip was running around the grid, sticking cameras on cars. Thanks again!
As I was walking through the airport, waiting for my flight back home to Los Angeles on Sunday, I passed one of those airport newsstands, and saw this month's issue of 0-60 Magazine sitting on the magazine rack. Suddenly, I just realized that I forgot to publish a Papercuts story about this month's issue. The current issue of 0-60 is pretty cool, because it pretty much beats the content that a lot of the "major" automotive magazines of their genre have been putting out lately.
It might have been just a kewinkydink, but since we all celebrated Hachiroku Day, August 6th, this past Friday... I thought it would be cool to point out that O-60 Magazine just printed an in depth article about the AE86 this month, in their column, The Sixty.
0-60 knows that most die hard AE86 owners are pretty crazy about their cars, so they were looking for a super clean AE86 to shoot for this month's feature. They apparently heard that I had some pretty clean AE86s in my collection, and called me up to ask if they would be able to do a photo shoot with one of my cars. Actually, they were asking if I'd be willing to shoot one of my cars for the magazine... of course! Everything was all going to be good, until we spoke further, and I realized that they were actually looking for a bone stock AE86 Corolla GT-S. Ummm... oops. None of my cars are bone stock. Read more...
Let me start this off by saying that it was a blast to return to the United States for a drift event this year. It’s been a solid year at LEAST (maybe a year and a bit even??!) since I’ve been in the Land of Freedom and Hotdogs, and I gotta say it was good to be back. This video covers the one Drift Posse member who was available to make it out to XDC Round 4 at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey; Pat Cyr in his F20 powered AE86 coupe, as well as the stylings of some of the top players in the Xtreme Drift Circuit today. This includes event winner Matt Waldin in the two-tone 350z, Steve Angerman in the Gardella Racing Solstice, and the series points leader Chelsea Denofa in the wicked green NST BMW E36.
The competition was fun and everything, but honestly the most exciting part for me was just being in a different country, and realizing really how different our cultures can be, even though we only live a few hours away from each other. The biggest and most obvious difference though, is food. Crossing the border into the States is kinda like crossing this line of sugar, chips, and fast food, and I love it. My first order of business once we hit a gas station across the border was to buy myself some Mountain Dew Code Red, along with some Milk Duds; with a5th Avenue Bar for dessert (I can still feel my teeth hurting). It may surprise you, but none of these is available in Canada, and as a self-proclaimed sweets aficionado, you can imagine that I was in heavenly bliss for basically the rest of the ride to New Jersey. (more…)
Last weekend’s Formula Drift Seattle event at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington was unforgettable. Tons of familiar faces and unusually warm weather made for the best FD experience I’ve ever had. Since I’ve been shooting at this location so much lately, I was able to take my time and really enjoy the event, rather than scrambling to get shots.
Last weekend also marked a milestone for me, as it had been one year since shooting my first FD event with a media pass. FD Seattle ’09 was also when I met quite a few friends in the industry, such as Antonio Alvendia, Larry Chen, Drew Fishbein, Ross Fairfield, Will Roegge, and Josh Herron, among many others. Last year around this time, I knew next to no one and now I can comfortably say I feel at home in the professional and grassroots drifting communities.
With this video, I chose to take a much lighter approach than last year as a representation of the comfort and relaxation I now feel among my fellow videographers, photographers, and drivers who congregate for these great events.
This year, I also met a guy named Jason from ContourHD/VHoldr, who was nice enough to let me test out a couple of his HD 1080p wearable/mountable POV cameras for some of the shots!
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me along the way, especially the MotorMavens Crew, Formula Drift, Evergreen Drift, and KP Race. Without all the love, it just wouldn’t be worth it.
A few of Texas’ notable drifters descended upon Gulf Greyhound Park about a month ago for a day of drifting. It was ridiculously hot, but everyone seemed to mow through all their tires by the day’s end.
I’ll go ahead use this post to make my formal introduction as well – My name is Henry Swasey and I’m from Houston, Texas. I’m a photographer/videographer who has a thing for drifting (street drifting specifically). As you may have seen in my other videos that were previously posted on MotorMavens, I’m with a local drift crew called Team Silhouette, and we have a shared interest in dope street drifting and getting it captured on camera. I have a few big projects in the works, so stay tuned to MotorMavens for more Lone Star drifting!!
When I first heard that JDM Allstars was coming to Donington Park for Round 2 of the championship, I was a little confused as to where the event would be held. Would it be on the actual race circuit? Since it's currently under reconstruction, any idea of that went out the window. Would it be on the large plot of land off to the side of the track known as the "Launch Pad"? Well, since two other drift series have used that area in the past, it didn't seem to fit JDM's approach which usually involves coming up with fresh and exciting course designs.
I later heard that the plan was to hold it on something called the Donington Alpine Circuit. I had no clue what that was until I came along to the shoot of the promotional video a few weeks back. Then it all became clear. On the outskirts of the main track and the Launch Pad is a fast, wide, almost mountain road-like track that the JDM Crew decided to use. It's made up of four corners and a steep uphill straight where the cars seemingly come out of nowhere and fly over the top. There's a right transition into the second turn, aiming for a clipping point close to the deadly armco, then a transition left into the third turn where you plant the throttle and bring the rear of the car to the armco on the straight, leading to another transition right into the final hairpin turn.
Fast corners, armco barriers on all sides and beautiful scenery all around. This was looking to be one of the most unique and exciting drift events in the JDM Allstars calendar. Read more...
A dude from a crew on the north side of Houston TX, showed us this amazing drifting spot in an abandoned neighborhood. It’s known as “the graveyard” among them for the many ditches that suck cars in from time to time.
We had this shoot planned two weeks in advance, but due to a spook from the local fuzz the last time we were there, we had to be quick. I managed to grab all my still shots prior to the actual drifting so as not to draw unnecessary attention. Once that was done, we got the cameras mounted, and off my boys went. About 45 minutes later and lots of running around with the tripod and dolly, we were outta there… The cars emerged unscathed; no one got hurt, and no one got caught. Props to everyone from Team Silhouette that helped.
A lot of times when you buy a car, you have a plan. Sometimes it can be just a mild street car build, or full on race car that will never see a day on the streets. In my experience my builds are always unexpected, starting off with just a daily driver that turns into a full blown money eating machine. Either way, planned or not planned we all have the same passion on getting our cars to become what we imagine in our minds. It always amazes me how far we go to do that. (more…)
Things have been extremely busy for the Motor Mavens Crew over the past two weeks. We’ve been turning our attention to some general “housecleaning” operations and important meetings to plan for future expansion of the site. Unfortunately, these things were extremely time sensitive and had to take priority over website updates for the past week. Pretty wack, I know. We should be back to our usual schedule after this; thanks for being patient and for your continual support!
We have some cool features to post this month, but before we get into all that, I wanted to turn your attention to the 808 state for a bit. This past weekend, many of my friends from Hawaii’s island of Oahu got together for an Old School Toyota meet. People might not realize it, but there are lots and lots of really amazing cars in Hawaii. All the local braddahs over there have much love for vintage Japanese cars.
Just look at how many clean TE27s came out to the meet! I’m drooling over two especially… a particular blue 1973 1600SR and a clean orange1973 1600SR. More on these cars in the near future!
Props to Justindabull for his video work. Justin is really, really young (still in high school?), but he’s been hanging out with all the old school Toyota guys in Hawaii for years, because his dad, Mike, has owned some pretty awesome vintage Toyotas. Good job Justin! And congrats on getting your video featured on MotorMavens! Can’t wait to see you all again!
The guys at Georgia-based Garage Zero had an open-house to their newly-acquired facility located just outside Atlanta's perimeter. Aren't familiar with Garage Zero? Well, it is time you get acclimated. These guys are all about old school Japanese car lifestyle and culture. To put it in simpler terms, these guys make "keeping it real" seem passé. Their new facility houses an eclectic mix of classics and wild project-cars. Read more...
Cressidas and Levins and Sprinters and Skylines, oh my! I was just clearing out some images on my Mac and transferring them to one of my terabyte drives when I stumbled upon these images I shot at the Japanese Classic Car Show last month. Before I transfer them to the HD archive and forget all about them for another year or so, I thought I'd just share some more pics of these awesome Japanese nostalgic cars! Read more...
One day this week while I was organizing my photos from this past weekend's Nisei Showoff carshow in Little Tokyo, my homie Matt came over and showed me this link to a forum post that included some photos that car owners took at Nisei. It was funny, because normally when I chill with Matt and his girlfriend Joyce, we only talk about which dope grub spots we should hit up next time we kick it (They love us on Yelp! LOL Add me if you want) and going to Japan. The first time I met Matt and Joyce, it was at the Boiling Crab in SGV, and then in line for Kogi in Little Tokyo for crying out loud! So thanks to the homie Matt, I was able to find these pretty dope Nisei Showoff photos from Hasback Photography.
So as I finish organizing my own photos of the 2009 Nisei Showoff Grand Finale and prepare them for posting (I should have like 3 more posts to make on the last Nisei Showoff), I thought I should shine some light on these photos, which were taken by a non-pro photographer that I don't even know. Good work Hasback! Now on to the pics... Read more...
Arizona drifting - two words that aren't put together very often by people. However, the drifting scene is strong in AZ, and it's about time we MotorMavens shine a little much-deserved light on the grassroots drifters out in the land of desert and cactus.
Firebird Raceway is the backdrop for Arizona's monthly AZ DRIFT Drag and Drift event, with all types of drivers from amateur to professional coming out to practice and showoff their skills. With it being summer in Arizona, we're very reluctant to make a trip outside into the 109 degree heat. 109 degrees! However being blessed with beautiful weekend weather it was a perfect day to take photos and it seemed like everyone was out at track either driving or spectating. Read more...
For years and years, we've been real big fans of J's Tipo Magazine, which started life as a Japanese magazine devoted to old school modified cars, or kyusha kai. J's Tipo is a product of Tokyo-based Neko Publishing, which also produces a lot of other cool car magazines. Since J's Tipo has a different chief editor than when it first started, the magazine's content shifted slightly to reflect the tastes of the new editor-in-chief, so unfortunately, we no longer see as many old school cars in J's Tipo as we used to. Read more...
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