After
Walker Wilkerson finished 18th overall in the 2011
Formula D season and barely missed the
Rookie of the Year finish, Walker knew he had to step up his game for the 2012 season. Being in the Top 20 wasn't good enough for him! He told me about how much he has learned as a driver and mechanic to keep his car maintained for each event. Which led him into big changes for the 2012 season.
While talking to Walker about his future plans, he revealed that he realized he would have to ditch the SR20DET and go V8 to be even more competitive. I was shocked but I knew that this could help him out in the long run. However, I (and many others) will miss the sound of a stroked SR20 coming out of his exhaust.
Read more...Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | Mar 24, 2012 | Categories: Carspotting | Tags: Alpinestars, AWFILMS, chevrolet, corvette, Factory 83, Falken, FAST, Fatlace, Formula D, Fueled Racing, Garage Autohero, Ian Dillon, LS7, Nissan, Parker Peck, Ray Stonehocker, S13, S13.4, S14, Seibon, Silvia, Stack, Walker Wilkerson, YAER Productions, Yoshi Shindo | 17 Comments »
This past week, the Pacific Northwest experienced a snow storm which left thousands without power. I was even stranded at home for a little while! I can’t even remember the last time Washington got so much snow! However, as I pondered the situation more, I realized that this could be one of those “lemons into lemonade” moments (or, is that “ice into ice cream“). (more…)
Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | Jan 27, 2012 | Categories: Oh Snap | Tags: 510, Datsun, Garage Autohero, Nissan, Northwest, Ray Stonehocker, Seattle, Yoshi Shindo | 1 Comment »
Fall is arguably one of the most beautiful times of the year in Washington - aside from the rain that is. The normally muted palette caused by an overcast sky suddenly comes to life with bright orange, red and yellow leaves amidst the evergreens that stand fully dressed all year. It's in times like these that the Seattle car community shines; auto enthusiasts like
Karim Kerawala keep their rides looking fresh all year round. Where the question of, “Is this your daily driver?”, is met with a slight smirk, because this
Montego Blue 1997
Mazda Miata is, in fact, Karim’s daily driver and any other suggestion would be more than absurd - there's no other way to roll.
Read more...Posted by: Lucas Perez | Dec 21, 2011 | Categories: Carspotting | Tags: Acura, Brandon Thai, Civic EG, Evo IX MR, Garage Autohero, Hard dog, Honda, Karim Kerawala, Lucas Perez, Mazda, Megan, Megan Racing, Miata, Mitsubishi, Pacific Grand Prix, Racing Beat, Ray Stonehocker, RSX Type-S, S2000, Scion FR-S, Sparco, Starlet, Touge Factory, Toyota, Washington, Work, Work Meister S1, work wheels, Yokohama | 8 Comments »
If you dont know who
Walker Wilkerson is by now - you will soon enough. From seemingly out of nowhere, he showed up to the first event of the 2011 Formula Drift season and had an incredibly strong showing. Walker outscored many Formula D veterans in qualifying, moving forward to wow the crowd with exciting tandem performances, much like fan favorite
Fredric Aasbo did with his JZA80 Supra last year.
With limited seat time he wowed the judges in his purple widebody
Nissan S13 240SX coupe, equipped with a
stroked 480hp monster
SR20DET, during qualifying. Eventually landing high at 7th place, deep within veteran territory. And with that explosive entrance in the pro arena - he secured his spot in the big show on Saturday in the Top 32. Not bad for a first timer in, well, pretty much everything for the day.
Read more...Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | May 05, 2011 | Categories: Center Stage | Tags: 240SX, 326 Power, Apex'i, AW Films, Brian Crower, EastInde Records, Exedy, Factory 83, Falken Tires, Fatlace, Garage Autohero, Intec Racing, KAAZ and DOC Race., Lucas Perez, niassan, NorthwestNissans.com, Ray Stonehocker, Rick Wilkerson, Seibon, SGear Gauges, ShaftMasters, SPL, SR20DET, Team Instant Party, Walker Wilkerson, YAER Productions, Yoshi Shindo | 28 Comments »
BIGFOOT BASH FINAL VERSION from Ryan Davis on Vimeo.
The very first Bigfoot Bash was held over this past weekend. A two day event that started with action at the Evergreen Speedway for the first day, followed by an overnight camp at Pacific Grand Prix to wake up for more drifting action the next day! Rob Primozich is the guy to thank for this awesome weekend. Because of him, everyone who attended had a great time! The drivers had tons of runs and Ray Stonehocker even brought out his tire machine to change tires. Ryan Davis made the drive from Oregon to attend this event, as well as our boys Justin Shreeve and Joe Ayala.
Ryan Davis is an up and coming videographer who has been making a big impact on the Northwest scene. After watching this video, I noticed that his style of video is far different from most videos that I see I simply had to ask him “What made you make your video the way you did?” This is what he told me:
I wanted to make this film a representation of the vibe and feel I got from each stage of the event. I have had so much fun at both of these tracks before: Formula D at Evergreen and the crazy tandem events at PGP. I knew that, whatever happened, it was going to interest people, so I edited accordingly. Justin Shreeve was singing the Tom Petty song on the ride back and that fell in so easily with the Evergreen section. The PGP portion was so high-energy and I knew Supernova by Loyale, an up-and-coming artist, was going to not only show the difference in pace, but also stick in peoples’ heads leaving them wanting more.
Honestly, I think this video is one of Ryan’s best yet! It’s great to see different videographic visions of the same event. It’s amazing to me how diverse these videographers’ artistic perspectives can be. Great job Ryan!
::Yoshi Shindo
Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | Sep 30, 2010 | Categories: Video | Tags: 240SX, AE86, Bigfoot Bash, BMW, Canon 7D, Darren McArdel, E30, Evergreen Speedway, F20c, Joe Ayala, Justin Shreeve, Matt Gehr, Nissan, Pacific Grand Prix, Ray Stonehocker, Rob Primozich, RPS13, Ryan Davis, S13, S15, Toyota, Yoshi Shindo | 24 Comments »
Building a car from the ground up isn't an easy task to do - physically or mentally. Some might already know exactly what they want to do, while others may have a general idea and focus on one thing at a time. Plans always change (which is the exact reason why my S14 has been sitting for over a year) but one thing that all these owners have in common is...Dedication.
This
Datsun 510 project was started 13 years (and three owners) ago. The original owner (Joe Smith - sounds like an alias), had the body and paint done. He also accumulated a lot of NOS (new old stock) parts though the Nissan dealer he worked for but the car was never finished. Eventually the car ended up seeing two other owners before
Dom Stokes bought it.
Read more...Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | Sep 13, 2010 | Categories: Center Stage | Tags: 510, Advan, Autometer, Autopower, Bob Harold, Datsun, Datsun Comp, Dom Stokes, Ermish Racing, FJ20, Garage Autohero, Ground Control, HKS, Japanese Classic Car Show, JCCS, JCCS 2010, Knife Edge, Mikuni, Nismo, Nissan, Perrin, Ray Stonehocker, Recaro, Ron Davis, Saenz, sakura, SSS, Subaru, Tomei, VG30.com, Volkswagen, Wilwood, Wolf Creek, Yayoi, Yayoi Sakura, Yokohama, Yoshi Shindo | 40 Comments »
I always feel a strong sense of pride when I go to a hot rod show. Hot rodding is
as American as you can get - home grown and originating fully here in the States. Starting with young servicemen after World War II, restless and full of
testosterone, the whole sub-culture that has emerged from it has even influenced styles for clothing, current cars, and music. So, I'm pretty sure you would be hard pressed to find a car enthusiast who didn't like old American rods - there is just an appreciation for the whole lifestyle.
Yoshi Shindo and I were able to make the trek down to Chehalis, WA on June 26th to attend the third annual
Billetproof Hotrod and Custom Car Show, which bills itself as the
"World's Least Important Car Show!". Sounds a bit self-deprecating to me as it is one of my favorite hot rod shows and, since this marks the second year I have attended, it's clearly important to me.
The show is a bit different from most current hotrod shows, as you can guess by its name, because no cars with billet are allowed to participate. You might ask why, since so many parts are now being produced with this technology specifically for the custom car industry, but it's because the technology didn't exist back in the classic days of hotrodding. Only cars that are traditionally modified and those that precede 1964 are allowed to attend.
Read more...Posted by: Lucas Perez | Jul 07, 2010 | Categories: Coverage | Tags: Avon Bellamy, chevrolet, Chevy, Custom, Edsel, Ford, Hotrod, lead sled, Lucas Perez, Mercury, Model A, pinup, ratrod, Ray Stonehocker, Slo Poks, Yoshi Shindo | 9 Comments »
As with most things in life, there are goals that people set for themselves in whatever they do. Some aspire to be the best in their field and pit themselves against others to see where they stand. For others, just being a part of the camaraderie or community is enough. They participate just for the sheer excitement rather than competition. Luckily, in the North West, we have a huge mix of both ranging from the new
Formula Drift Pro and
Pro-Am drivers to the guys who keep it strictly fun. Whatever category any of these guys fall under, it's with great pride that I can say
all of them are grassroots drivers. Which brings me to
Comrades.
For those that don't know, Comrades started from humble beginnings when four local drift teams decided to unite under one banner years ago. Now that banner has grown to include all NW grassroots drifters from Oregon to Canada.
May 15th set a new benchmark for drifting in the NW when the Comrades were invited to tear up the track at
Pacific Grand Prix in
Kent, WA. New Pros and old schoolers came out to drive on this newly created track, owned and operated by
Paul Zalud, that spans a little less than a mile with a layout "that kinda gives you that
Bihoku vibe."(Haha, it's a reference to a Japanese race track,
Bihoku Highland)
The
Mighty MotorMavens Crew was out in full force as well. Covering the entire event from the driving (by me), video from
Abbit Wilkerson and
Justin Shreeve to, of course, photos from
Yoshi Shindo and new comer
Jeff Santiago - both armed to the teeth with their new
Canon EOS 7D cameras.
Read more...Posted by: Lucas Perez | May 21, 2010 | Categories: Coverage | Tags: 240SX, Abbitt Wilkerson, AE86, America Knife, Avon Bellamy, Chris Crisostomo, CJ Kofoed, Comrades, Darren McArdel, DJ dunnDIRTY, Drift Office, Formula D, Garage Autohero, Gerard de Peralta, Gleb Antonov, Ian Fournier, Jeff Santiago, Justin Shreeve, Kevin Petersen, KPR Engineering, Kyle Zalud, Lucas Perez, Mike Lukomskiy, MX73, MX83, Nathan Feigion, Nikolay Konstantinov, Pacific Grand Prix, R32, Ray Stonehocker, Rob Primo, S14, S15, S31, Seattle, Serial Nine, Skyline, Team Instant Party, Trent Strmokins, Tristan Gay, U.P. Garage, Victor Moore, Wa-tang, Walker Wilkerson, Washington, Xtreme Drift Circuit, Yoshi Shindo | 36 Comments »
Whenever I hear the words
Datsun 510, I picture either a fully restored and super clean car or a moss-covered, stock car that has been hiding under bushes for the past 10 or more years. Either way, in my opinion, this is one of the most amazing cars built to date. These days, everything possible has been done to modify them including SR20DET, KA24DE, and VG30 swaps. But, no matter what kind of fancy wheels or paint jobs they may have, they are always a dime in my eyes. Apparently the guys at
Garage Autohero feel the same way.
The story begins with
Ray Stonehocker and his desire to build a daily driven showcase car for his shop -
Garage Autohero. He wanted something completely different from everyone else so he stayed away from the obvious Nissan Skylines or Toyota Supras that are crazy fast with the very expensive paint jobs. Ray wanted to take a step in the opposite direction. He chose to go with the Datsun 510. He had a chance to buy an old 510 from a friend not too long ago - but not in pristine condition. The 510 had some rust issues, fading paint, and the years had just taken a major toll on the poor car. That didn't stop Ray though. In fact, it was exactly what he wanted.
Read more...Posted by: Yoshi Shindo | Oct 02, 2009 | Categories: Center Stage | Tags: 280zx, Avon Bellamy, Datsun 510, Garage Autohero, JCCS, LZ22, PL510, Ray Stonehocker, RS Watanabe, Yoshi Shindo | 58 Comments »
