NASCAR was pigeonholed many years ago as a redneck, Southeastern cultural phenomenon. It still has some of that down home feel, but when you drop the
Sprint Cup and
Nationwide series into the heart of Southern California car country, it melds almost seamlessly with so much of the culture surrounding things that go vroom-vroom.
Consider NASCAR evolved out of the uncanny abilities of drivers who spent most of their time trying to outrun the police... No, really. Most of NASCAR’s original heroes cut their driving chops running moonshine (illegal grain alcohol) in the 1920s to the 1940s. Not only were these guys phenomenal drivers who regularly escaped certain prison time, they were clever mechanics, who could tune a 1930s Chevy to outrun just about any municipal vehicle of the day.
Read more...
Posted by: Tom Stahler | Apr 02, 2013 | Categories: Coverage | Tags: AJ Foyt, Auto Club 400, Auto Club Speedway, Big Bill France, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Camry, Danica Patrick, Darrell Waltrip, Donnie Allison, Fontana, Fontucky, Kyle Busch, NASCAR, National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, Oliver Petalver, Richard Petty, SPRINT CUP SERIES, Tom Stahler, Toyota, Travis Pastrana | 4 Comments »
On October 7th,
over 1500 Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ, and Toyota AE86 enthusiasts from all over the Western United States converged at
Auto Club Speedway in Fontana CA for the very first
86FEST, and the energy was just
incredible! The newly introduced Toyota/Subaru "86" platform (sold as
Scion FR-S and
Subaru BRZ in the USA) has received international acclaim as the second coming of the legendary AE86, which has a huge cult following worldwide.
With help from sponsors like
Falken Tire,
OEM Audio Plus,
Turn 14 Distribution,
Whiteline Suspension,
Motul,
Spec Clutch,
Mann Engineering,
Flossy Shift Knobs, and
M7 Japan, it's pretty crazy how quickly our inaugural 86FEST came together! Just a few weeks ago, I was driving at a Volkswagen event at Big Willow, and got to talking with the
Speed Ventures organizers, Dave and Aaron, about how cool it would be if we could get a bunch of FR-S, BRZ, and AE86 owners together at a track day. They both expressed a lot of interest in the idea - especially since we have been thinking about ways to work together for nearly two years!
Read more...
Posted by: Antonio Alvendia | Oct 12, 2012 | Categories: Coverage | Tags: 86FEST, AE86, Auto Club Speedway, autocross, BRZ, Cipher Garage, CipherGarage, Corolla, d1 grand prix, Danny Nguyen, EcoShine, Falken, Flossy, Fontana, Formula D, Formula Drift, FR-S, FRS, GTS, Infinit Wheels, Levin, M7, M7 Japan, Mann Engineering, Mike Kim, Milltek Sport, Motul, OEM Audio Plus, Oliver Petalver, RSpec, RT615, RT615K, Ryan Bacsafra, Scion, Scion FRS, Spec Clutch, Speed Ventures, SpeedVentures, Sprinter, SSR, Subaru, Terry Pham, toshiki yoshioka, Trueno, Turn14, Whiteline | 18 Comments »
Those who have been following the
@MOTORMAVENS feed on Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter probably already know that I tested out the new
BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp-2 tire at
California Speedway (Auto Club Speedway) this past week.
According to BFG, their new
Comp2 tire promises drivers the ability to
accelerate faster,
corner harder, and
brake in a shorter distance than their competitors. When asked exactly who they consider to be their competition for this class of tire, BFG pointed to
Dunlop Direzza DZ101,
Yokohama S-Drive, Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31, Cooper and
Hankook Ventus V12 tires.
Read more...
Posted by: Antonio Alvendia | Feb 06, 2012 | Categories: Driver Seat | Tags: Andrew Comrie Picard, Auto Club Speedway, best price, BF Goodrich, BFG, California Speedway, Camaro SS, Challenger, Comp 2, Comp2, direzza, Dodge, Duane Thomas, Dunlop, DZ101, Ecsta SPT KU31, ETEC, Fontana, Fontucky, g-Control, g-Force, GTI, Hankook, Impreza, internal tire suspension, Kumho, Mopar, Performance Racing Core, rally, S-Drive, Samuel Hubinette, Scion, sidewall support, SnoDrift, Sport Comp-2, SRT8, STi, Subaru, Taro Koki, Terry Earwood, tire review, tire test, Ventus V12, Volkswagen, WRX, xD, Yokohama | 8 Comments »
It's been an extremely busy week for those of us working on the Motor Mavens site! We're all making lots of steps toward positive growth for the site, which is exciting! This past weekend, Travis Hodges and I went out to the
IDRC Finals at the
AAA Auto Club Dragway in Fontana CA. We thought it would be interesting to show a little bit of drag racing content on the site, since our site is just so populated with drifting content all the time (not that it's a bad thing!).
Fontucky was extremely hot while we were there; the sun and Southern Cali fires weren't helping matters at all, burning through our sunscreen like a magnifying glass being held over ants. If you're interested in play by play bracketed info on all the classes, you'll need to check an upcoming copy of DSPORT Magazine. However, if you're like us and you just want to check out the cars at the event, please read on!
Read more...
Posted by: Antonio Alvendia | Sep 11, 2009 | Categories: Coverage | Tags: Ali Afshar, Antonio Alvendia, Bisi Ezerioha, Bisimoto, CRX, drag racing, DSPORT, EG6, ESX, Fontana, Honda Insight, IDRC, Impreza WRX STi, Jerry Built, Lancer Evo, Subaru | 26 Comments »
Check out our newest video on Streetfire.net, which highlights video footage from the IDRC West Coast Nationals at the California Speedway Drag strip in Fontana. One of our friends, Tobin Honda from DSPORT Magazine was promoting the event, so we definitely wanted to be there to show our support.
FWD, All-Motor and Street class cars were running all day. Some of the car setups were pretty crazy, but many of them were modified street cars. It was cool to see the Honda Civics and CRX’s with wheelie bars and parachutes, but for us, seeing the normal street cars run was pretty cool because they were more stylish and were also driven to the track! You should also make note of the FWD ‘s grip tire placement. Not where you would typically see them on a dragster.
On the RWD side, you have to keep an eye out for one of our favorite cars at IDRC; the Mazda RX2 drag car that was featured in Antonio’s carspotting story from the event.
With the continued help of Antonio’s brother Dave, we were able to get some great coverage combining the footage from the small Canon HF S100 consumer HD video camera I’m testing with the video capabilities from Antonio’s Canon 5D MarkII digital SLR.
Enjoy the video and let us know what you think of the footage from the cameras!
:: Travis Hodges
More IDRC photos on MotorMavens!
Posted by: Travis Hodges | Jul 17, 2009 | Categories: Video | Tags: 5D Mark II, Bisimoto, Canon, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon HF S100, drag racing, Fontana, HF S100, Honda, IDRC, import, Import Showoff, Mazda, Streetfire, Subaru STi, Travis Hodges | Leave A Comment »
One nice thing about living in Southern California is that there isn't a shortage of events to attend if you like cars. A couple weeks ago, a few LA-based Motor Mavens went out to the
IDRC drag racing event at
California Speedway in
Fontana because our friend
Tobin Honda wouldn't shut up about it. In fact, Tobin personally called and texted me the night before the event to make sure I was going to attend, and he even texted in the morning to make sure we would show up! That's one persistent guy, haha!
Here's some background on IDRC - it's a drag racing series that's run by
Hard Media Inc, the same people who produce
D-Sport Magazine.
Read more...
Posted by: Antonio Alvendia | Jun 27, 2009 | Categories: Carspotting | Tags: Antonio Alvendia, Drag, DSPORT, Fontana, IDRC, Mazda, RX2, Tobin Honda, Urban Racer | 14 Comments »