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...
POINT&SHOOT> Toyota MarkII on SSR MarkIII
[I received an email yesterday from an Australian guy named Ian Hancock. Ian is crazy about Japanese nostalgic cars, and is currently on vacation in Japan (or as he says it, he's "on holiday") to check out a bunch of his favorite cars. He sent in a photo of this MX32 Toyota MarkII (Toyota Cressida) that he carspotted in Japan, because he knew it would be just the type of thing that Motor Mavens readers are into! Well, he was absolutely right. Here's what Ian had to say about the Mark II...]
The white Cressida belongs to Naoya Yamaguchi, who owns an old school Japanese wheel shop in Moiyra called Bellezza Auto Produce, about 15km from Tsukuba Circuit. I had been at Tsukuba for the day to watch drifting (and get taken for a ride!), and was going for a walk from my hotel to find some dinner when I came across the shop! I thought I was delirious – it was just too good to be true!
When I walked into his store, he was in the corner smoking, wheelchair bound because of a motorbike accident. Naoya “didn’t want to know me” until I started saying the names of the wheels in his shop, and I showed him pictures of my KB110 Sunny from Sydney. He couldn’t believe that an Aussie 20 year old would be interested in old J-tin. He couldn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak Japanese, so we talked for an hour and a half using a translator on the computer.
The Cressida wears huge SSR 15×9Js (-37 offset) on the back and 15×8J SSR Mark IIIs up front. From what I could gather, it is fairly stock mechanically aside from a healthy lowering, carbs and exhaust. A nice little front lip spoiler and rear spoiler finish it off, and although there are some fender gap issues, it has definately been built in the shakotan style! The body is straighter than straight, and some nice fender mirrors really set it off. I’m buying a set of 7.5J SSR Starsharks from him, and he has invited to take me out in his car next time I come over!
:: Ian Hancock
ARCHAEOLOGY> Keiichi Tsuchiya Tanjoubi
I was talking to a new AE86 friend earlier on Facebook, and he told me that today was Keiichi Tsuchiya's birthday. Those that follow the drifting scene in Japan obviously know that Keiichi is highly revered in Japan's automotive media industry; nicknamed Dorikin, or "Drift King," Keiichi basically became the media darling of Sanei Shobo Publishing, which is the media powerhouse that owns and produces Option Magazine (and all its variants), Drift Tengoku Magazine, and Video Option.
Video Option may well be the most powerful media outlet in the group; after all, most of my friends might agree with me when I say that the first time I (we) ever watched an Option Video tape, we were dumbfounded and immediately hooked on drifting and Japanese car culture. (Yes, that's right... I did say video TAPE... I'm showing my age here. I know that many of our readers have never used video tapes, only DVDs.) However, this isn't a story about Video Option... after all, it's Keiichi's birthday, so I thought it might be fitting to share some old school photos of my first (only) encounter with Keiichi's famous white TRD AE86, which inspired the hell out of us at an early age.
I realize that most people might think, "What the hell? A post about Keiichi on his birthday? You JDM fanboy!" Haha, it's okay, I'll admit it. When I first learned about drifting and Video Option and Best Motoring and AE86s and Keiichi Tsuchiya and Initial D in the mid 1990s, I was a fanboy. I don't care if you think that's lame, either... because at some point in our lives, we all idolized someone... whether it be a sports figure or famous celebrity or whatever. The only difference is, I have enough confidence to admit it. As I was growing up, I definitely looked up to guys like Keiichi Tsuchiya (and Nas and Blackthought and Q-Tip and De La, but that's another story...). Read more...
Video Option may well be the most powerful media outlet in the group; after all, most of my friends might agree with me when I say that the first time I (we) ever watched an Option Video tape, we were dumbfounded and immediately hooked on drifting and Japanese car culture. (Yes, that's right... I did say video TAPE... I'm showing my age here. I know that many of our readers have never used video tapes, only DVDs.) However, this isn't a story about Video Option... after all, it's Keiichi's birthday, so I thought it might be fitting to share some old school photos of my first (only) encounter with Keiichi's famous white TRD AE86, which inspired the hell out of us at an early age.
I realize that most people might think, "What the hell? A post about Keiichi on his birthday? You JDM fanboy!" Haha, it's okay, I'll admit it. When I first learned about drifting and Video Option and Best Motoring and AE86s and Keiichi Tsuchiya and Initial D in the mid 1990s, I was a fanboy. I don't care if you think that's lame, either... because at some point in our lives, we all idolized someone... whether it be a sports figure or famous celebrity or whatever. The only difference is, I have enough confidence to admit it. As I was growing up, I definitely looked up to guys like Keiichi Tsuchiya (and Nas and Blackthought and Q-Tip and De La, but that's another story...). Read more...
WEBMINING> New Shoes on the Shakotan S12!
Guess who got some new kicks? This is Henry Nguyen’s shakotan S12 200SX sure is breaking hearts with its shiny new shoes. Forget those played out Bapes, kid… it’s all about the classic Japanese styling of Speed Star Wheels.
More specifically, 15×9J (-17) SSR Mk3 up front, and 15×9J (-27) SSR/Longchamps XR4 wheels out back. With the front chin spoiler, and rear wing. Definitely a Heartbreaker, damn son.
:: Antonio Alvendia
CARSPOTTING> Lowdown Heartbreaker S12 200SX
While I was walking around the sea of nostalgic Japanese goodness at the Japanese Classic Car Show last year, a particular S12 Nissan 200SX caught my eye. To be completely honest here, I've never been the biggest fan of S12s. Most people pretty much disregard the S12 as far as "cool Nissans" go... to most people, the S12 is definitely the red-headed stepchild of the 1980s Nissan family, especially when you compare it in popularity to S13s, Z32s, and Z31s... hell, even Nissan Sentras are more popular for some reason* than the S12 200Sx. (*Well... I think one of the reasons the Sentra was so popular for racing is because of all the R&D that Mike Kojima did with them when he was still working for Nismo as a race engineer) Either way though... I'd way rather have an S12 than a Sentra. There's no question about that... especially after seeing Henry's S12?! This has got to be the dopest looking Nissan S12 I've ever seen in my entire life.
So what was it about this particular 200SX that caught my eye? It just had to be the style in which it was built up. Let's take a closer look... Read more...
So what was it about this particular 200SX that caught my eye? It just had to be the style in which it was built up. Let's take a closer look... 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...
GALLERY> SoCal Hondas Swarm Norm Reeves
Two weekends ago, my friend Scott Toshima invited me to come out to a meet he was hosting at Norm Reeves Honda, off the 605 freeway in Cerritos CA. I've never owned a Honda in my life, so I never had a reason to go there previously, but I was definitely down to support whatever function Scott was throwing... plus, he said that several of the best offset Hondas in Southern Cali would be attending.
Well, Scott wasn't lying. I was honestly quite impressed with the level of the cars that came out to this gathering, which wasn't even a major carshow or anything; it was just a simple Honda meet in the parking lot of a local dealer! Even though it wasn't some sort of big event like Import Showoff or something like that, the H crowd showed up strong to show off their new wheels!
That's right, I said wheels! It seems that there are more and more Honda owners catching on and joining the low offset/stretched tire movement, and I think that's a good thing. Sure, there are a lot of people who hate on this new trend in the Honda scene, saying that it makes no sense to stretch the tires and camber the rear wheels on a Front Engine, Front Wheel Drive car... but hey, Volkswagen guys have been doing it for years, and their cars are FF too! Read more...
Well, Scott wasn't lying. I was honestly quite impressed with the level of the cars that came out to this gathering, which wasn't even a major carshow or anything; it was just a simple Honda meet in the parking lot of a local dealer! Even though it wasn't some sort of big event like Import Showoff or something like that, the H crowd showed up strong to show off their new wheels!
That's right, I said wheels! It seems that there are more and more Honda owners catching on and joining the low offset/stretched tire movement, and I think that's a good thing. Sure, there are a lot of people who hate on this new trend in the Honda scene, saying that it makes no sense to stretch the tires and camber the rear wheels on a Front Engine, Front Wheel Drive car... but hey, Volkswagen guys have been doing it for years, and their cars are FF too! Read more...
WEBMINING> 4×114.3 Wheel Boner Jams 09
Usually I’m not a fan of videos just made up of pictures, but this is quite the exception. As a self-proclaimed Japanese wheel geek/nerd/aficionado of 4×114.3 wheels I approve of this PSA. The collection of wheels in this video makes me feel that all my wheels and even Antonio’s wheels are weak. That, and listen to PUNK music kids.
Damn, I wish I had this many obscure and retardedly deep dish wheels in my collection!
Can you point out all the different types of wheels? Let’s start making a list!
:: Jover Papag
COVERAGE> Japanese Classic Car Show 2009 Pt.1
I know many have been eagerly awaiting our photographic coverage of this year's Japanese Classic Car Show in Irvine, CA. I would have wanted to post up our photos immediately on Saturday night or on Sunday, but it has been an extremely hectic weekend full of photo shoots with out of town cars!
There were TONS of people at JCCS this year. I really need to give props to Koji and Terry Yamaguchi for creating this show and making it better and better and better every single year. Instead of droning on and on about the history of the JCCS show and talking about how many people traveled from all over the USA to bring their cars to this event, let's just dive into the photos of the cars! After all, that's what you came here for! Read more...
There were TONS of people at JCCS this year. I really need to give props to Koji and Terry Yamaguchi for creating this show and making it better and better and better every single year. Instead of droning on and on about the history of the JCCS show and talking about how many people traveled from all over the USA to bring their cars to this event, let's just dive into the photos of the cars! After all, that's what you came here for! Read more...
VIDEO> Offset is Everything at Nisei
Most Motor Mavens readers have been following Antonio’s photos and stories from Nisei Showoff, so we’ve decided to release a video of the event as well! We really wanted to highlight something that impressed us at the show – the fact that so many of these great cars are stepping up their game with aggressive offset and negative camber!
Forget the trophies – for us, the super slammed cars with the best wheels, stance, engine mods and paint jobs were the stars of the show. Nisei Showoff wasn’t about the models (although there were a few that showed up, haha); it was about the hottest street cars. Events like this are becoming more and more rare. We feel privileged that we were there to support Ken Miyoshi on his last Nisei Showoff, because of the great feeling that this show produced. Props to Ken and the Mainstream Productions crew for bringing us an awesome day of street cars and good friends in the middle of Little Tokyo.
We hop you enjoy the video, and don’t forget to leave comments!
:: Travis Hodges
ARCHAEOLOGY> Honda Love at Nisei Showoff
Sorry today's update took so long... the site had some software issues, so thanks for being patient with us as we deal with these growing pains! Before I transfer my Nisei Showoff photos to one of my terabyte hard drives for archival, I thought I'd just put a few more photos up on the site.
Reppin Los Angeles... is the Phaze 2 crew, bringin it hard with some of the sickest Hondas at the show. Phaze 2 is all about slammed cars with aggressive offset and stretched tires, and they all seem to have contrasting color engine bays with super clean wire tucks. They floss it hard too - they all rocked their cars hoodless, so other crews would realize just how much effort they would need to put in to get to the Phaze 2 level. Read more...
Reppin Los Angeles... is the Phaze 2 crew, bringin it hard with some of the sickest Hondas at the show. Phaze 2 is all about slammed cars with aggressive offset and stretched tires, and they all seem to have contrasting color engine bays with super clean wire tucks. They floss it hard too - they all rocked their cars hoodless, so other crews would realize just how much effort they would need to put in to get to the Phaze 2 level. 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...
CARSPOTTING> AE86 Turbo at Goods
Every time I'm in Seattle, it's usually for a drift event. While traveling around the country/world may seem glamourous to some, to be completely truthful, it isn't really what most people imagine it to be. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love traveling with friends; and when you're traveling to all the different nationwide stops of a big drifting series, it really is fun. Especially because if you have many friends in the drifting community, it's like every single city becomes a party destination. One thing that I hear pretty commonly though, is that many times people who travel for work don't get to spend much time enjoying the cities they go to. All too often, city visits consist of airport-to-hotel, then hotel-to-racetrack, then racetrack-to-hotel for a few days, then back to the airport. I didn't want my Seattle trip to be like that this time. Last year, I visited so many amazing places, but I felt like I was rushed through them by people I was traveling with, so I didn't really get to enjoy my stay like I would have if my coworkers hadn't been there.
So when all the drifting had ended at Evergreen Speedway, I linked up with my friends Raymond and Melanie and headed to Seattle for a day of relaxation and chillin in the city. One of the places we stopped was at Goods, a rather well known streetwear/sneaker shop in Seattle's Capitol Hill area. The funny thing though, is even when I'm not purposefully hunting for cars, sometimes the cars find their way to me anyway. Such is the case with AE86s and vintage Toyotas! No matter where I am in the world, usually if there's an AE86 or old school Toyota around, I'll accidentally find it. Read more...
So when all the drifting had ended at Evergreen Speedway, I linked up with my friends Raymond and Melanie and headed to Seattle for a day of relaxation and chillin in the city. One of the places we stopped was at Goods, a rather well known streetwear/sneaker shop in Seattle's Capitol Hill area. The funny thing though, is even when I'm not purposefully hunting for cars, sometimes the cars find their way to me anyway. Such is the case with AE86s and vintage Toyotas! No matter where I am in the world, usually if there's an AE86 or old school Toyota around, I'll accidentally find it. Read more...
COVERAGE> Nisei Showoff Grand Finale Part 2
It has been a very long and busy week for those of us working on the Motor Mavens project! We're an extremely small staff, but we've been keeping ourselves real busy with back to back meetings and photo shoots! We have also spent quite a bit of time this week on planning out the next stages of development for the website. We have a few new contributors coming on board, so the next few months will be very exciting!
So let's get back to our Showoff photos. Although Import Showoff was founded way back in 1994, with the first event held in March of 1995, the first actual Nisei Showoff didn't take place until 2000. As Showoff founder Ken Miyoshi explains it, "the people that organized the Nisei Week festivities in Downtown LA's Little Tokyo wanted to bring enthusiasm from younger people back into the Nisei Week Festival, so I decided to work with them by throwing the first Nisei Showoff."
"Back then, all the JA (Japanese-American) guys with dope cars used to go to OCBC (Orange County Buddhist Church) during their Hanamatsuri (Flower Festival) and cruise with their friends," Ken continues, "This was also happening in Little Tokyo; there always used to be a carnival in the original Nisei Showoff parking lot location (2nd Street and San Pedro) and a parade as well. People from the carnival used to chill out on the curb, and wait for all the fixed up cars to cruise through Little Tokyo. Back in the day, we used to see crews like Black Magic from SGV (all black cars with different types of SSRs; SSR Superfins, Supermesh, Neos, Work Emotion, Gale Racing, Bang Vecs), Shoreline Racing (old school Toyota guys from Gardena/Torrance area), NRG from Cerritos, Split Second from Carson area, Redline Racing from the San Fernando Valley, and a whole lot of others." Read more...
So let's get back to our Showoff photos. Although Import Showoff was founded way back in 1994, with the first event held in March of 1995, the first actual Nisei Showoff didn't take place until 2000. As Showoff founder Ken Miyoshi explains it, "the people that organized the Nisei Week festivities in Downtown LA's Little Tokyo wanted to bring enthusiasm from younger people back into the Nisei Week Festival, so I decided to work with them by throwing the first Nisei Showoff."
"Back then, all the JA (Japanese-American) guys with dope cars used to go to OCBC (Orange County Buddhist Church) during their Hanamatsuri (Flower Festival) and cruise with their friends," Ken continues, "This was also happening in Little Tokyo; there always used to be a carnival in the original Nisei Showoff parking lot location (2nd Street and San Pedro) and a parade as well. People from the carnival used to chill out on the curb, and wait for all the fixed up cars to cruise through Little Tokyo. Back in the day, we used to see crews like Black Magic from SGV (all black cars with different types of SSRs; SSR Superfins, Supermesh, Neos, Work Emotion, Gale Racing, Bang Vecs), Shoreline Racing (old school Toyota guys from Gardena/Torrance area), NRG from Cerritos, Split Second from Carson area, Redline Racing from the San Fernando Valley, and a whole lot of others." Read more...
COVERAGE> Nisei Showoff Grand Finale, Part 1
I know that many people have been waiting for our coverage of this weekend's Nisei Showoff carshow, which made its final show in Downtown LA/Little Tokyo. Since I knew I'd run into a ton of old friends at the show, I knew that it would be smart to come to the show early; that was a very good decision. Travis brought his Canon DSLR and his video camera to help capture the event too, since we knew that it would be hard for me to make my way around the whole show, in between saying hello to all our old school friends that come out the woodwork just for the Nisei Showoff. For some reason, some of these guys don't go to Formula D events or Just Drift events, but they always make it to Nisei. So for many of us, Nisei Showoff is a time for us to reconnect and chill with good friends who we don't have the pleasure of seeing all the time, due to the busy work and travel schedules that we all have.
I was happy to see several media outlets at the event covering the show as well; I'm hoping that all the magazines and websites out there run coverage of the show. Super Street Magazine and Project Car Magazine both had a strong showing at Nisei, with booths and a build-off competition of the magazine editors' personally owned cars. I also saw people from Import Tuner, Japanese Nostalgic Car, Urbanracer, Auto Otaku/Speedhunters, DSport, even an ex-Jtuned guy and several other media outlets out there to support and shoot photos of Nisei Showoff. Make sure to check out their coverage of the show as well.
For any other media outlets who weren't able to make it to the show, but still want to run coverage of the event, please contact us at motormavens(at)gmail.com and we will supply you with photos for free, just to help out our friend Ken Miyoshi who runs the show.
While it may seem to some outsiders that we've been hyping this event quite a lot, it's only because Nisei Showoff really is a big deal to those of us who go there with our friends and family every year - it's a tradition that we've all kept up for the past nine years.
In fact, the very first time I ever put my own AE86 in a carshow was at Nisei Showoff in 2000 - the first ever Showoff event in Little Tokyo. That year, I linked up with several of my other AE86 friends and old school Toyota heads, and we lined our cars up all in a row, parallel to 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. We all thought it was so cool to be in a carshow in that area, since we would always hang out in Little Tokyo after work. My friends and I were always there, whether we were buying Japanese drifting magazines at Kinokuniya Bookstore; renting Japanese car videos at J-Wave; getting ramen at Orochon or Daikokuya; buying Japanese market limited sneakers at the shoe store inside Japanese Village Plaza; or of course, getting drinks at Oiwake. Read more...
I was happy to see several media outlets at the event covering the show as well; I'm hoping that all the magazines and websites out there run coverage of the show. Super Street Magazine and Project Car Magazine both had a strong showing at Nisei, with booths and a build-off competition of the magazine editors' personally owned cars. I also saw people from Import Tuner, Japanese Nostalgic Car, Urbanracer, Auto Otaku/Speedhunters, DSport, even an ex-Jtuned guy and several other media outlets out there to support and shoot photos of Nisei Showoff. Make sure to check out their coverage of the show as well.
For any other media outlets who weren't able to make it to the show, but still want to run coverage of the event, please contact us at motormavens(at)gmail.com and we will supply you with photos for free, just to help out our friend Ken Miyoshi who runs the show.
While it may seem to some outsiders that we've been hyping this event quite a lot, it's only because Nisei Showoff really is a big deal to those of us who go there with our friends and family every year - it's a tradition that we've all kept up for the past nine years.
In fact, the very first time I ever put my own AE86 in a carshow was at Nisei Showoff in 2000 - the first ever Showoff event in Little Tokyo. That year, I linked up with several of my other AE86 friends and old school Toyota heads, and we lined our cars up all in a row, parallel to 2nd Street in Little Tokyo. We all thought it was so cool to be in a carshow in that area, since we would always hang out in Little Tokyo after work. My friends and I were always there, whether we were buying Japanese drifting magazines at Kinokuniya Bookstore; renting Japanese car videos at J-Wave; getting ramen at Orochon or Daikokuya; buying Japanese market limited sneakers at the shoe store inside Japanese Village Plaza; or of course, getting drinks at Oiwake. Read more...
CARSPOTTING> We Dig Northwest Style!
I'm still sorting through all the photos I took during my trip to Seattle... believe me, there were A LOT. However, I thought I'd just take a brief detour from the Formula D action to showcase some of the cars I saw at the event, which really clue you in on how dope the Pacific Northwest cars are. I just don't understand how people can sleep on the scene up there so much! All the big car magazines and media sites seem to only focus on Southern Cali, but those of us who have traveled all over the world can tell you that the Northwest has style!!! Tons of it. Let's take a look! Read more...
ARCHAEOLOGY> Ebisu Drifting Matsuri AE86s
It's about 5:00am and I haven't slept yet. (I'll set this to publish later on during the day though) While the rest of us in the West Coast prepare to make the trek up to Seattle for Formula D, on the other side of the world, another big drifting event is happening...
This weekend, Ebisu Circuit is holding its Summer Drift Festival. In celebration of 8/6 Day, I just thought I'd post up some AE86 photos from my favorite place on Earth... Ebisu Circuit. Read more...
This weekend, Ebisu Circuit is holding its Summer Drift Festival. In celebration of 8/6 Day, I just thought I'd post up some AE86 photos from my favorite place on Earth... Ebisu Circuit. Read more...
POINT&SHOOT> Artchis AE86s at Sugo Raceway
In celebration of our beloved "Hachiroku Day" today (8/6/2009), I thought I'd post up some photos from my archive of AE86 photos. I have sooooooo many AE86 photos in my hard drives and photo albums it's ridiculous. So many in fact, that I could start an AE86 only blog site if I felt like it! But no time for that right now, as right now we're concentrating on building Motor Mavens and telling the whole world about our site!
I wasn't sure if I should categorize this as "Point&Shoot" or "Archaeology" since these pics seem to fit into both categories. I just decided on "Point&Shoot" since these pics are more that style anyway... they aren't artistic or photographically dope, but it doesn't matter. The subject matter is off the hook!
These pics are three years old - they were taken back in spring of 2006, to be exact. I was in Japan for a "work/vacation," just hanging out with Team Orange, and I decided to roll up to D1 Sugo with them. When we arrived, the lower division D1 qualifying had just ended, and I was so happy to see all these dope AE86s around! I must have looked ridiculous as hell, taking a million photos of these AE86s on their loader trucks... the owners of the cars laughed at me, probably thinking "damn, this guy is going bananas taking all these photos! Read more...
I wasn't sure if I should categorize this as "Point&Shoot" or "Archaeology" since these pics seem to fit into both categories. I just decided on "Point&Shoot" since these pics are more that style anyway... they aren't artistic or photographically dope, but it doesn't matter. The subject matter is off the hook!
These pics are three years old - they were taken back in spring of 2006, to be exact. I was in Japan for a "work/vacation," just hanging out with Team Orange, and I decided to roll up to D1 Sugo with them. When we arrived, the lower division D1 qualifying had just ended, and I was so happy to see all these dope AE86s around! I must have looked ridiculous as hell, taking a million photos of these AE86s on their loader trucks... the owners of the cars laughed at me, probably thinking "damn, this guy is going bananas taking all these photos! Read more...
COVERAGE> AZ Drift “Drag&Drift” at Firebird Raceway
Arizona drifting - two words that aren't put together very often by people. However, the drifting scene is strong in AZ, and it's about time we MotorMavens shine a little much-deserved light on the grassroots drifters out in the land of desert and cactus.
Firebird Raceway is the backdrop for Arizona's monthly AZ DRIFT Drag and Drift event, with all types of drivers from amateur to professional coming out to practice and showoff their skills. With it being summer in Arizona, we're very reluctant to make a trip outside into the 109 degree heat. 109 degrees! However being blessed with beautiful weekend weather it was a perfect day to take photos and it seemed like everyone was out at track either driving or spectating. Read more...
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