COVERAGE> UK Grassroots Drifting at Santa Pod!
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...
WEBMINING> Papercraft Super GT Epson NSX
Today I’ve been taking a keen interest in this years Tokyo Auto Salon, and while I was searching around for information and interesting photos I stumbled upon this little gem. Epson Nakajima Racing decided to bring not one of their real Super GT cars to TAS this year but one made entirely out of cardboard and paper!
Now I’ve seen some pretty cool little papercraft cars before. I even tried my hand at making a Nissan Skyline KPGC10 GT-R once (not that it looked anything like one by the time I was done with it) , but a full scale race car is just awesome! After a bit more searching I found the full build of the car on their website. It’s amazing to see the amount of detail gone into it.
Check it out at EPSON Nakajima Racing.
:: Daniel Bridle
WEBMINING> Meet The Drivers of JDM Allstars
Better late than never, Dan Joyce just released this light hearted behind the scenes look at last year’s awesome Round 3 of the JDM Allstars drift championship at Wembley. There’s not much actual driving but it’s great to see the drivers relaxed and having a laugh, which is what drifting should be about. Having FUN!
For 2010 I’ll be trying my best to get up and down the country armed with my camera to bring you all the latest UK drift action here on MotorMavens. Starting with the JDM Allstars 2010 season kicking off on April 17th – 18th in Manchester, with what’s going to be one of the biggest and most exciting rounds to date!
Here’s to an awesome 2010!
:: Daniel Bridle
WEBMINING> Créme Fresh Levin!
While some of the other members of the Motor Mavens Crew are busy putting together their photos from this weekend’s Formula D Pro Am event, I thought I’d show post this scan of a car I’ve been admiring.
There are some blogs that I check out frequently, and I came across this scan from a 1999 Battle Magazine that Rob from Roadster:DRIFT posted up. The AE86 Levin has always been one of my favourite cars, so when I saw this, my jaw dropped. To some this might just be another Levin, but for me looks wise this is the PERFECT Levin! Just clean and simple with a Goodline front bumper and bonnet, TRD rear wing, and a few nice subtle touches like the kouki spec rear bumper, foglights minus the grill, and what looks like stock arches rolled and flared. It’s also sitting on a set of gorgeous RS Watanabe Type R wheels in 14×8J -6.
Like I said before, for me personally, this is the perfect Levin. But AE86s are cars that can have so many different styles applied to them and I’m sure any fan of the AE86 has their favourite. We’d love to hear from our readers what your favourite style is or even a particular car e.g., Katsuhiro Ueo’s famous D1GP Trueno.
Let us know!
:: Daniel Bridle
COVERAGE> Kop Hill Hillclimb 2009
On the 26th and 27th of September, organisers decided to do a Kop Hill Commemorative Run to bring the sounds and sights and even smells (mmm, Castrol R) back to Kop Hill again. Over 250 cars and bikes were there, ranging in age from the 1900s right up to 1980s and even some very special modern cars. Read more...
ARCHAEOLOGY> JDM Allstars Action
The qualifying would be run using the new Super Lap format. With the Super Lap, drivers are given just one single run to lay down their best score, no warm up laps, or anything. The judges were also wanting to see the drivers give it their all and get their cars as close as they could to the wall. A lot of pressure, but it was definitely gonna be exciting! Read more...
WEBMINING> JDM Allstars is hungry!
Drifting at JDM Allstars – Trax 2009 Season Finale from JDM Allstars on Vimeo.
Internally, a few members of the Motor Mavens crew have been talking about this video for the past few days, but we’ve been really swamped with other work this week and we couldn’t get to posting it up until just now – sorry! Everyone in the USA seems to think of Formula Drift when they think about professional drifting. However, we’d like to take a quick moment to recognize the JDM Allstars series in the UK for all the momentum they have gained. Even though JDM Allstars started in 2007 as a small UK privateer series, they have really grown up in the past few years! Now their series is even attracting drivers from other countries within continental Europe!
There’s nothing more inspiring than seeing a group of hungry underdogs rise up and become successful because they’re passionate in what they’re doing!
Much respect JDM Allstars!
:: Travis Hodges
COVERAGE> JDM Allstars at Wembley Part 2
But the day wasn't just for practice, it was for qualifying and with over 50 drivers it was going to be a long one. Read more...
COVERAGE> JDM Allstars at Wembley Stadium
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: My name is Daniel Bridle, I’m 17 at the end of this month, and I’ve been taking photos since my grandfather gave me an old film camera when I was a little kid. Read more...
