CENTER STAGE> A Touch of Class in the Party
Washington mornings are crisp in the fall. Past the hustle and bustle of Seattle's technology saturated east side lie country roads that meander through the landscape. The dew turns to light frost and everything seems to quiet down. So when Mark Couts and his 1997 BMW E36 328i hit the street, you hear it long before you see it.
Mark is as tall (6'7") as the reputation that Team Instant Party has in the Northwest, and despite being a relatively new crew, most have been around for a long while. He's had different drift cars in the past, and they have come and gone for one reason or another. Having drifting as a hobby isn't easy for a poor college student trying to make ends meet, as I'm sure a lot of you can relate. While making the best of it, Mark has built an amazing looking E36. Clean and mean. Read more...
Mark is as tall (6'7") as the reputation that Team Instant Party has in the Northwest, and despite being a relatively new crew, most have been around for a long while. He's had different drift cars in the past, and they have come and gone for one reason or another. Having drifting as a hobby isn't easy for a poor college student trying to make ends meet, as I'm sure a lot of you can relate. While making the best of it, Mark has built an amazing looking E36. Clean and mean. Read more...
DRIVER SEAT> 25 Hours in an E36 M3 at Thunderhill
I don’t know how we did it, but we somehow managed to talk Robbie Montinola and the Track Concierge Racing crew into running our sticker on their E36 BMW M3 for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill enduro that’s taking place right now!
In between laps, pit stops, and a little incident they just had with their header cracking, Robbie and the crew have been managing to provide us with some live updates through the MotorMavens Twitter page and on the MotorMavens Tumblr page. Stay tuned through your browsers or cellphones for up to date info on the race, from their perspective!
Meanwhile, here’s the official press release, after the jump.
::Jose Gonzalez
COVERAGE> Irwindale Pro Am, Part 1
It's true. I'm overdue again on posting my event coverage. This time, the coverage is from the Formula D Pro Am that took place at Irwindale Speedway this past weekend. However, I don't think it's a bad thing necessarily.
While all the other media people that attended the event (let's be honest; there weren't that many) rushed home to be the first to post photos on their websites, blogs, Twitters, and whatnot... I decided to spend time hanging out with my friends instead. I love that I was able to do this and not feel bad (this would be absolutely unacceptable behaviour if I was writing for a different website). But everyone in the Motor Mavens Crew understands. Hell, some of them were even there with me for all the non-car related stuff we did that weekend... like rolling 30+ heads deep to Dino's in Covina for some spicy grilled chicken; or taking Yoshi on a wild goose chase to meet up with some import models at a cafe in OC; or using trucks and trailers with drift cars loaded onto them to make parking difficult in the small parking lot of Flappy Jacks on Route 66, just so that Ray from Garage Autohero could get his traditional American style Sunday breakfast and complain that coffee in California sucks compared to Seattle's. LOL. Oh yeah, but somehow in between all the chillin we did with all our out of town friends that came to Pro Am, we did somehow manage to squeeze in a little bit of time to take some photos. Read more...
While all the other media people that attended the event (let's be honest; there weren't that many) rushed home to be the first to post photos on their websites, blogs, Twitters, and whatnot... I decided to spend time hanging out with my friends instead. I love that I was able to do this and not feel bad (this would be absolutely unacceptable behaviour if I was writing for a different website). But everyone in the Motor Mavens Crew understands. Hell, some of them were even there with me for all the non-car related stuff we did that weekend... like rolling 30+ heads deep to Dino's in Covina for some spicy grilled chicken; or taking Yoshi on a wild goose chase to meet up with some import models at a cafe in OC; or using trucks and trailers with drift cars loaded onto them to make parking difficult in the small parking lot of Flappy Jacks on Route 66, just so that Ray from Garage Autohero could get his traditional American style Sunday breakfast and complain that coffee in California sucks compared to Seattle's. LOL. Oh yeah, but somehow in between all the chillin we did with all our out of town friends that came to Pro Am, we did somehow manage to squeeze in a little bit of time to take some photos. 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...
