COVERAGE> Wekfest Weekend in J-Town SF, Pt.2
For the second installment of the MotorMavens coverage from my trip to the San Francisco Bay Area last weekend, we'll take a look inside the Wekfest itself. For those who really couldn't wait, I'm sure you could have just Googled "Wekfest" and found a bunch of Flickr pages and other galleries with random photos from inside the show.
However, our story is going to be a bit different, because I'm not planning to post up photos of every single car (250+ for sure) at the show. Instead, I'm only going to focus on the cars that caught my eye; the cars that either had the best style, or cars that had something different going for them, which piqued my interest. After all, I've been lucky enough to have attended a LOT of car shows and a LOT of racing events all over the world. This being said, seeing the same old thing over and over can get kind of dreary at times; not to worry though - the cars at the Wekfest definitely had flavor.
The dimly lit parking structure in Japantown San Francisco that served as the venue for the event might not have had the best looking "background" or ambiance for photography, but it was filled with some of the West Coast's best looking cars, so we'll just let those shine through...
Up above, the entrance to the underground parking structure was packed with cars and spectators... I was surprised that the City of San Francisco allowed that many people in a place that had so few exits! Nevertheless, the show had a good vibe to it... at times, it kind of reminded me of what it felt like to be in the parking structure scenes when I was on set shooting NBC Universal's Fast & Furious 3 Tokyo Drift movie... if only you replaced the Japanese (and Japanese-looking Chinese, let's be honest here) cast members with a bunch of young Filipinos, Chinese, and Vietnamese car owners. LOL Read more...
However, our story is going to be a bit different, because I'm not planning to post up photos of every single car (250+ for sure) at the show. Instead, I'm only going to focus on the cars that caught my eye; the cars that either had the best style, or cars that had something different going for them, which piqued my interest. After all, I've been lucky enough to have attended a LOT of car shows and a LOT of racing events all over the world. This being said, seeing the same old thing over and over can get kind of dreary at times; not to worry though - the cars at the Wekfest definitely had flavor.
The dimly lit parking structure in Japantown San Francisco that served as the venue for the event might not have had the best looking "background" or ambiance for photography, but it was filled with some of the West Coast's best looking cars, so we'll just let those shine through...
Up above, the entrance to the underground parking structure was packed with cars and spectators... I was surprised that the City of San Francisco allowed that many people in a place that had so few exits! Nevertheless, the show had a good vibe to it... at times, it kind of reminded me of what it felt like to be in the parking structure scenes when I was on set shooting NBC Universal's Fast & Furious 3 Tokyo Drift movie... if only you replaced the Japanese (and Japanese-looking Chinese, let's be honest here) cast members with a bunch of young Filipinos, Chinese, and Vietnamese car owners. LOL Read more...
COVERAGE> Wekfest Weekend in J-Town SF, Pt.1
This past weekend, I went up to San Francisco to hang out with some of my old school friends from the Bay Area... but unfortunately a lot of them were out of town! Hawaii, Japan, Philippines... damn! Sometimes I have such bad timing! It was a good thing Calvin Wan was in town - he told me he had two events that he needed to attend that weekend. He needed to bring his FD3S RX7 to a motorsports show in Vallejo, and then bring his S14 Silvia (it really is a RHD Silvia from Japan) to the Wekfest Car Show in Japantown San Francisco. I've been hearing about (and seeing pictures of) the annual carshow in San Francisco's Japantown for quite some time, but this weekend was the very first time I had ever had a chance to attend it myself. I think in the past it used to be called the JDM Theory J's Gathering, but apparently they decided to rename it Wekfest (pronounced like 'weak-fest'). Or it could be that the organizers are different now? Not sure.
Anyway, the Weksos Wekfest event was pretty crazy... TONS of cars, TONS of people in attendance, and a line of impatient people that stretched around the block. Seriously... that was a pretty long line! Read more...
Anyway, the Weksos Wekfest event was pretty crazy... TONS of cars, TONS of people in attendance, and a line of impatient people that stretched around the block. Seriously... that was a pretty long line! Read more...
COVERAGE> HellaFlush Scrapes Buttonwillow, Pt.2
I know you've been waiting for it, so here's the second installment in our HellaFlush 3.5 event coverage from Buttonwillow Raceway. I'm not sure that there have ever been this many cars with aggressive fitment and stance at the Lerdo Highway exit off the California Interstate 5 highway.
Honestly, I gotta give props to all the Northern California people who came down to this event. Not only does it show that Northern Cali folks are super down and committed, but it was also great to see a lot of cars come out of the woodwork that we normally don't see on blogs and websites. I'd love to expand the MotorMavens reach from doing mostly Southern California events all the time, but it really is kind of difficult as we're doing this as privateers, and we don't have a big corporate budget of several hundred thousand dollars to spend each year like some of the other blogs out there. However, we're resourceful, so we will keep trying to break boundaries, and keep doing our best with the Macaroni-and-Cheese/Cup-o-Noodle budget that we currently have. Hope you like the photos! Read more...
Honestly, I gotta give props to all the Northern California people who came down to this event. Not only does it show that Northern Cali folks are super down and committed, but it was also great to see a lot of cars come out of the woodwork that we normally don't see on blogs and websites. I'd love to expand the MotorMavens reach from doing mostly Southern California events all the time, but it really is kind of difficult as we're doing this as privateers, and we don't have a big corporate budget of several hundred thousand dollars to spend each year like some of the other blogs out there. However, we're resourceful, so we will keep trying to break boundaries, and keep doing our best with the Macaroni-and-Cheese/Cup-o-Noodle budget that we currently have. Hope you like the photos! Read more...
COVERAGE> Simply Clean + Stance in Orlando
I made the short trek last weekend to the Winter Park section of Orlando. It was cold out by Florida standards, but was at least warmer than it had been the past two weeks. Last Sunday's event was the first of it's type (for this area) and the title stated it clearly. Simply Clean..... Proper stance, perfect wheel fitment, quality paint job.... Almost everything a car enthusiast should dream of! There were of course big horse power cars, so they filled in the missing link that we gas mileage savvy people left out. But lets think about this for a second. One one-thousand... Do you really need 500 horsepower when your car sits 1 inch off the ground and has a 95% chance of losing a bumper at every divot? Well, I know I sure as hell do! I can't think of anything better than the ability to yell louder than the passenger screaming in the seat next to you "SHUT UP! I F*CKING GOT THIS!" as you drive over your front lip, while laughing hysterically... Read more...
COVERAGE> Garage Zero in Atlanta
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...
COVERAGE> San Francisco Auto Show 2009
I got a call from the Extreme Autofest folks asking me if I want to show one of my cars again at the annual San Francisco International Auto Show at the Moscone Center this year. The only problem was that my FD3S RX7 was still unavailable because we were still working on getting it back from the Brahma Light Drift Track Opening in the Dominican Republic.
Since the FD wasn't back in San Francisco yet, I figured it would be a good chance to debut my RHD S14 and display it at this week-long show so I could show some love to my sponsors. Read more...
Since the FD wasn't back in San Francisco yet, I figured it would be a good chance to debut my RHD S14 and display it at this week-long show so I could show some love to my sponsors. Read more...
WEBMINING> Ebisu Summer Drift Matsuri 2009
This video of the 2009 Summer Drift Matsuri at the famed Ebisu Circuit is just plain awesome. It’s got tons of variety in cars and courses and lots of high speed fly-bys. I haven’t been to Ebisu yet personally, but by the looks of this video, it’s no wonder everyone is so crazy about Ebisu. I can’t wait to go!
Check it out!
::Justin Shreeve
WEBMINING> Nikko Circuit in the Rain
Nikko Circuit: Part 2 from David Dizzle on Vimeo.
As the gloomy rainy season begins for many of us, I thought I’d post up a cool rainy drift video, reminding us that the rain isn’t all that bad… it saves tires!
Chasers, Mark IIs, Soarers, Silvias, 180SXs, Skylines, Levins, Truenos and RX7s… I stumbled across this gem on Vimeo recently, featuring lots of awesome Japanese cars at the famous Nikko Circuit. The entire three-part series is viewable on MayDayGarage.com, check it out!
:: Justin Shreeve
COVERAGE> IDS Finals at Nurburgring
This is the time of year when people begin to pull coats and cloaks a bit tighter in anticipation of the weather to come. As a personal homage to this gradual increase of outer garments, I decided to fly to Germany and cloak myself with a little tire ash. Acknowledging the inevitable end of reasonable weather in Deutschland, the International Drift Series (IDS) brought the fight back to the Nurburgring for the conclusion of their season - although, Read more...
CARSPOTTING> A Well Dunn Passat
From compact commuter cars and SUVs, to GTs and supercars, most in our "scene" have seen just about every imaginable car "upgraded"- with the possible exception (in my case) of Zach Dunn's 2007 Volkswagen Passat. I must admit that I had yet to see one of these cars done right. And, since I seem to be in the mood for confession, I'm not going to lie, I've never been the greatest fan of VWs. However, the more I see of them (especially this one), the more they're starting to grow on me. Zach's 2007 Passat was the first I'd seen that had been slammed and enhanced with superior fitment - and that made all the difference in the world. Read more...
COVERAGE> Drifting is alive in Santo Domingo!
You might not immediately think of the Dominican Republic when you think of drifting, but last month, the biggest drifting club in the DR, the Club Dominicano de Corredores de Drift (referred to as CDCD) put together a huge drift event and concert together with their racetrack's title sponsor, Brahma Light. Casper Canul and I were invited to do a drift demo with our US-based Formula D cars during their drift series-opening event on September 19th, 2009.
We went out there a couple of days early to prep our cars, test and setup their new drift track, marking all of the clipping points and track outline of the course. We spoke with the drivers and setup a driver’s meeting on competition day to go over all of the judging criteria and track rules with their local judges. Read more...
We went out there a couple of days early to prep our cars, test and setup their new drift track, marking all of the clipping points and track outline of the course. We spoke with the drivers and setup a driver’s meeting on competition day to go over all of the judging criteria and track rules with their local judges. Read more...
VIDEO> Evergreen Drift Round 4
Evergreen Drift Round 4 from MotorMavens Dotcom on Vimeo.
Hey guys, it’s Justin again. Last Sunday, I visited Monroe, Washington for Round 4 of the Evergreen Drift series. The final round saw a lot of upsets as some drivers weren’t able to attend and others were plagued with car troubles. Overall, it was an exciting day, making for lots of good footage.
For more information regarding the Evergreen Drift series, please visit EvergreenDrift.com.
:: Justin Shreeve
WEBMINING>Team Battle:Drift by Stephen Brooks
Team Battle:Drift from Stephen Brooks on Vimeo.
I’ve been checking out Stephen Brooks’ work lately on Vimeo. The man from the land of tea and crumpets makes great videos, but this one really stood out to me in particular. It was shot during a team drift event (hence the name) at the Norfolk Arena, which is about 2.5 hours North of London.
Although I’m not too keen on the song choice, I think it matched the content of the video very well. Beyond that, I feel like this piece does a great job to portray all the emotions behind the scenes of a drift event. Don’t worry though, there’s great drifting footage as well!
::Justin Shreeve
ARCHAEOLOGY> JDM Allstars Action
Here are some more photos from the JDM Allstars event at Wembley. The skies over London were bright and clear for a moment... I was feeling a bit burnt and tired from standing out on track for hours the day before, so I took some time to relax around the paddock area catching up with some friends, drivers and setting up my camera before heading over to the drivers briefing tent to see what the day had in store. I soon learned that the morning session was dedicated to qualifying for the Top 32 battles.
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...
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
CARSPOTTING> Josh Herron’s S14
I can't remember the last time I was in Las Vegas when I wasn't covering an event or taking photos for work. It seems like an reoccurring thing when it comes to traveling for me, I never have time to hang with friends or just kick back. However my recent trip to Vegas was non-work related and I basically had the whole weekend to do whatever and go wherever my heart desired! After receiving a phone call from my dad asking if I would like to accompany him on his business trip to Vegas for the weekend, it didn't take me long to respond with an enthusiastic "Yes!". Once I arrived in Vegas I wasted no time getting in touch with people, while making sure I contacted a certain Internet celebrity!
Enter Josh Herron. This young and talented videographer has made some of the most creative drift videos I've ever seen, while also averaging 200,000 views on each video, and reaching the acclaimed Internet celebrity status all before the age of 21. And I thought I was a media prodigy. :D Read more...
Enter Josh Herron. This young and talented videographer has made some of the most creative drift videos I've ever seen, while also averaging 200,000 views on each video, and reaching the acclaimed Internet celebrity status all before the age of 21. And I thought I was a media prodigy. :D Read more...
COVERAGE> JDM Allstars at Wembley Part 2
I'm not sure about anyone else but I usually find I enjoy watching practice sessions at drift competitions alot more than the main twin battles. Things are always more chilled and less time pressured, also I find it great fun watching the drivers get to grips with the track, improving lines, getting braver... Oh, and the 7 car drift trains are pretty nice too! From a photography point too it gives you a good chance to spend time finding sweet locations to shoot from and hone your techniques.
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...
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> Slide Assassins Sunday Session
This has been an extremely busy weekend for the Motor Mavens crew in Southern Cali. Travis Hodges and I went out to bake in the sun at the IDRC Season Finale at Fontucky Dragway (aka Auto Club Dragway/California Speedway) all day Saturday. We'll show you some of what we captured at IDRC soon enough, but first I wanted to shine a light on a special event that took place today (Sunday) at Irwindale Speedway.
Even though I was still exhausted and burnt from our skin cancerous Saturday in Fontana, I somehow dragged myself out of bed and prepared my camera gear for yet another day at the track. While I found it extremely hard to pry myself from the ice cold air conditioning blasting throughout my house, I reminded myself that I made a commitment to show up. My friend Luke Pakula kept dropping me friendly reminders about the event the Slide Assassins guys were throwing at Irwindale Speedway, so I wanted to come through and show support of their event, on behalf of the Motor Mavens crew.
After all, the Motor Mavens movement is all about supporting grassroots drifting! Everyone on our team does their best to show how much we genuinely care about the scene by being out there as much as we possibly can. Actions speak louder than words, so hopefully people will notice that our site doesn't only cover the big events like Formula D and All Star Bash... Motor Mavens shows love by shining a light on some of the smaller events as well. And luckily for us, some of the grassroots drifters have been showing us love back!
We just can't tell you enough how much it means to us when we see people showing their support of the site by rocking our stickers on their cars, by leaving comments on our blog posts, by reposting our links onto different forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter pages! It is especially means a lot to us when people voice their support when they see us at events. We love that people appreciate our site, because we put a whole lot of heart and hard work into it! Read more...
Even though I was still exhausted and burnt from our skin cancerous Saturday in Fontana, I somehow dragged myself out of bed and prepared my camera gear for yet another day at the track. While I found it extremely hard to pry myself from the ice cold air conditioning blasting throughout my house, I reminded myself that I made a commitment to show up. My friend Luke Pakula kept dropping me friendly reminders about the event the Slide Assassins guys were throwing at Irwindale Speedway, so I wanted to come through and show support of their event, on behalf of the Motor Mavens crew.
After all, the Motor Mavens movement is all about supporting grassroots drifting! Everyone on our team does their best to show how much we genuinely care about the scene by being out there as much as we possibly can. Actions speak louder than words, so hopefully people will notice that our site doesn't only cover the big events like Formula D and All Star Bash... Motor Mavens shows love by shining a light on some of the smaller events as well. And luckily for us, some of the grassroots drifters have been showing us love back!
We just can't tell you enough how much it means to us when we see people showing their support of the site by rocking our stickers on their cars, by leaving comments on our blog posts, by reposting our links onto different forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter pages! It is especially means a lot to us when people voice their support when they see us at events. We love that people appreciate our site, because we put a whole lot of heart and hard work into it! Read more...
COVERAGE> Evergreen Drift, Round 3
When everyone leaves after Formula D in Seattle every year, many people seem to forget about Pacific Northwest drifting. Thanks to Kelly and Eddi from Evergreen Drift, the local drivers from Washington, Oregon, and Canada are able to come back to the very same track where Formula D is held at - Evergreen Speedway in Monroe Washington. This past weekend, some of the same drivers that competed in the Evergreen Pro AM came back out and tackled the 3/8s bank with all they had for Round 3 of the Evergreen Drift Championship. Read more...
COVERAGE> JDM Allstars at Wembley Stadium
Following up with our video of the JDM Allstars event in the UK, our first bit of coverage comes from a really great photographer... Daniel Bridle. When we were first introduced to Dan, we were stoked to have contributions from a local UK photographer. We were sure he was probably a good guy and a good photographer, but we didn't expect him to be friggin' 17 years old! That's awesome! This is his first posting with us, but we're already looking forward to seeing more photos from him!
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 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...
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 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...
VIDEO> Pat Mordaunt X Journeyz Store Video!
Untitled from Formula DRIFT on Vimeo.
Nice! Our boy Pat Mordaunt just got a new aero kit, new paint job, and a new TV commercial, which is airing inside Journeyz shoe stores all over the country during the month of August! (Too bad they don’t show footage of Pat driving his S14 though!)
Congratulations Pat! Just imagine all the teenybopper chicks that are going to add you on Facebook now! Hopefully some producer in Burbank sees this and decides to make a “Real World Irwindale” show around you!
:: Antonio Alvendia
COVERAGE> All Star Bash Weekend Pt.4
It has been over one week since the epic All Star Bash drifting festival took over the Mojave Desert, but that isn't stopping Motor Mavens from continuing the coverage. We had to take a very brief hiatus from updates this weekend, as some of our crew roadtripped to Chicago for D1 while others had to divert our concentration for a moment to finish other client projects that help us pay our monthly bills. This being said, we'd just like to make sure you know that even though it happened a little over a week ago, All Star Bash is not old to us.
All Star Bash is still very vivid and exciting in our minds, and we don't plan on pushing off our grassroots drifting photos to publish coverage from other big events that took place this week. We know other sites have already moved on, but we don't care. We're still all about the ASB. Drifting is where we live. It's in our hearts and on our minds, and it doesn't just stop when events are over. Even though the MotorMavens site is new, the members of our crew have been down with drifting since day one. It's like that... and that's the way it is. We show love to grassroots drifters, and grassroots drifters show love to us. This being said, we are proud to continue our coverage of the Ziptied/JustDrift All Star Bash, as we bring you the long overdue, eagerly anticipated... Part FOUR! Read more...
All Star Bash is still very vivid and exciting in our minds, and we don't plan on pushing off our grassroots drifting photos to publish coverage from other big events that took place this week. We know other sites have already moved on, but we don't care. We're still all about the ASB. Drifting is where we live. It's in our hearts and on our minds, and it doesn't just stop when events are over. Even though the MotorMavens site is new, the members of our crew have been down with drifting since day one. It's like that... and that's the way it is. We show love to grassroots drifters, and grassroots drifters show love to us. This being said, we are proud to continue our coverage of the Ziptied/JustDrift All Star Bash, as we bring you the long overdue, eagerly anticipated... Part FOUR! Read more...
COVERAGE> All Star Bash Weekend Pt.3
While many other media outlets have already finished their short stories from All Star Bash Weekend, Motor Mavens keeps it coming! Most of the people in the MotorMavens crew live in different states... but yesterday after everyone got off work, we were able to put our photos together and organize them!
So here you go... enjoy the photos! Read more...
So here you go... enjoy the photos! Read more...
COVERAGE> All Star Bash Weekend Pt.2
Continuing our coverage with more photos from the ZipTied/Just Drift Summer All Star Bash this past weekend, I'd like to start off by giving props to Charlie, Mike, and everyone behind the All Star Bash! This was the biggest All Star Bash yet, and I'm sure it's just going to get bigger and bigger. There were more members of the media shooting photos and video at this event than any ASB event in the past! But media aside, this event also had more cars than any previous All Star Bash! I'm proud to see a small grassroots drifting organization like Just Drift come up on such a bad ass event, with tons of participation from drifters all over the nation! ...and I'm sure the next event will be even bigger!
And now, on to the photos... THIS IS GRASSROOTS DRIFTING! Read more...
And now, on to the photos... THIS IS GRASSROOTS DRIFTING! Read more...
