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RANDOM DOPE> Get MotorMavens on your iPhone!
It's so simple, there are only 4 steps! The instructions are below. (With pictures, so you don't really need to read the instructions, hehe) Read more...
CARSPOTTING> Gingerbread Hot Rod for Christmas
Hey everyone! We got these photos from our good friend Chris “Hechtspeed” Hecht from the My Ride Is Me website. We think it’s a hell of a lot cooler than building a gingerbread man or gingerbread house! Maybe we should do some sort of gingerbread car building competition next year???
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!
Thank you so much for all your loyal support of our website! It’s hard to believe that the MotorMavens website is still less than a year old! We officially launched the site in May of this year, and it’s already ranked pretty damn high because of all your site visits and comments and linkbacks!!! You guys are the best! Thank you so much – we appreciate all your awesome comments! From the entire Motor Mavens Family, best wishes to you and your families during this holiday season!
Oh, and let’s not forget the specs:
-Ford Model A Pickup, genuine Graham Cracker, Bonneville rat rod
-Licorice slicks in the rear, with licorice wide whites skinnies on the front (Notice the mad camber yo)
-Engine is a Buick GN topped with a 6-71 Gummi Blower and angle cut candy cane straight pipes a la rat style
-Green Jello Roof with high mounted candy cane side mirror
-Bright yellow Gumdrop headlights with icing trim
-Classic Mike-N-Ike grille
:: MotorMavens
NEWSWORTHY> Attend Our Christmas Party Tonight!
***** THIS JUST IN!!!
Apparently, some aftermarket car parts companies have decided to participate in the Schikane Clothing x Tokyo Drive Productions x Driftwell x Motor Mavens Christmas Party tonight! COME TO THE PARTY and win a radiator from Mishimoto, some goods from Buddy Club USA, and a bunch of oil from Eneos!
—–>Our friends at JACK DANIELS and JAGERMEISTER have just confirmed that they will come out to the party and give away a bunch of gifts too! Hell yeahhhhh! I want a bottle of Gentleman Jack and a Jagermeister Porsche! =)
To all friends and family of Motor Mavens in the Los Angeles area! We’re having a party tonight, and we’d like you to come! This was originally planned as a small, close knit Christmas party between my personal close friends (it’s an annual thing)… but earlier today, we talked about it, and said hell… we consider anyone and everyone who has supported us this year as our friends… so let’s just invite everyone!
If you’re local to Southern Cali, come down to the Schikane Clothing x Tokyo Drive Productions x Driftwell x Motor Mavens Christmas Party tonight!
This is not going to be one of those pretentious “dress shoes and VIP wristband required” events. Everyone is invited! Act like Nirvana, and come as you are… this will be a cool opportunity to “meet and greet” many of our industry friends and many of the people behind this blog!
Here’s the info!
CORNER BAR
924 S. San Fernando Rd
Burbank CA 91502
TIME: From 9pm until the bar closes!
Dress code strictly enforced. No dress shoes allowed. Hats, sneakers and other fashionable attire are encouraged. (A message to the Ladies only: No shirt, No shoes, No problem!)
Comment this post to let us know if you’re coming!
:: Motor Mavens
COVERAGE> Southeast Drift's Land of the Great
It was a lot of fun because not only was a friend of mine driving, but I somehow talked them into giving me a media pass. With the media pass I was able to get down onto the track and up close to the cars as they made their runs. It was an incredible experience, and I think I got some pretty killer shots as well. I was at the exit of the bank on the first turn. It was a pretty sick spot because I was behind the wall, maybe 10-15 feet from the cars. Read more...
NEWSWORTHY> Jtuned Meet at Irwindale ProAm Tomorrow!
SABADO SABADO SABADO!!! Sabado Gigante! Super Meet de Jtuned! By now, I’m sure almost everyone knows that the Formula D PRO AM event is happening TOMORROW at Irwindale Speedway. The best grassroots drifters from all over the nation have made their way to Southern Cali’s 626 area for tomorrow’s big event. Come to Irwindale on Saturday and show your support the grassroots drifters – these guys will become the Formula D stars of tomorrow. Sponsors, this is a good opportunity to scout potential new members for your team! And hey ladies, this is a good opportunity to hook up before these drivers get too famous to acknowledge you! JK.
If you don’t drift, you should still come out to the event. On Saturday, the Irwindale Pro Am will be the location of another Jtuned Super Meet, so make sure to sign up right away! Spots are still available, and you can sign up right here.
The West Coast arm of the Motor Mavens Family will be in attendance also, so you should definitely check the site after the event for our photos and insight into what went on at Pro Am. Our good friends from MotoIQ will also be in attendance shooting photos, so make sure to check their site after the meet too!
:: Motor Mavens
MotoIQ (The best site with technical info about cars that we’ve ever seen)
ADD US! Motor Mavens Crew on Facebook!
NEWSWORTHY> Lexus LFA Debuts at SEMA!
WEBMINING> Diary of a Serial Tire Killer
Motor Mavens has never really featured any “build videos” on the site before, but today as I was browsing the internet looking for information about MX83 Cressidas, 5-speed swaps, and 1JZ swaps… I found this video, from the Serial Nine guys in Canada. This has GOT to be the most entertaining, amateur made “build video” I’ve ever seen. Yep, gotta love those amateur videos. Wait… what? Oh… umm, well I mean the video is informative, but it’s funny at the same time! The Serial Nine crew definitely looks like they’d be fun to kick it with.
So what do you guys think…? Some of us were thinking of having a little fun by building a Motor Mavens project car on a BUDGET. Ideally, the car would be inexpensive and also daily drivable on the street without much hassle from cops. Just brainstorming, some of us were talking about maybe building an FC or an S13… but this video is sparking some MX83 dreams… what do you guys think? MX83 build? Yay or nay?
:: Motor Mavens
The Beginning of SERIALNINE. from SERIALNINE on Vimeo.
NEWSWORTHY> The Loss of an Icon: Shaun Carlson
By now, it’s no secret that Shaun Carlson, one of the true greats of import racing, passed away Sunday morning. We could go on and on about his achievements in the industry – he was a photographer and journalist; a great fabricator that built record breaking race cars; an entrepreneur that built his own company, Nuformz, around his passion for racing; a successful Sport Compact FWD racer who raced everything from Honda to Ford to Mopar – he even raced NHRA Pro Stock. And after all of that, he still found a place in the drifting community with Team Mopar.
These are all things that Shaun was known for, but Shaun was more than just that. More than anything else, Shaun was a truly great guy. He never let any of it go to his head. He was always giving his full 100% and he was always thankful for the opportunity to have a successful career doing what he loved. And he meant it.
Shaun was that guy. That guy who is serious about what he does, but never takes himself too seriously. That guy who works his butt off but still manages to give credit to all of the other people on his team who were also working their butts off behind the scenes. That guy who feels like a close friend from the moment you first meet him. That guy who turns people who think they’re going to dislike him into his best friends. An honest to goodness, really good guy. And guys like that are in really short supply.
So we here at Motor Mavens would first like to thank YOU, Shaun… Thank you for putting so much of yourself into this industry – your impact was felt and you will be sorely missed, because you were a truly great person. And we would also like to give our condolences and thanks to Shaun’s family and friends. Without all of the things that you guys poured into him, he would have had far less to pour into all of us. Thank you.
:Motor Mavens
John Naderi‘s Tribute to Shaun Carlson (on Cardomain)
Join the Shaun Carlson Memorial Facebook page for details on the memorial service
Jay Canter’s Photo Tribute to Shaun Carlson on Facebook
Jay Canter and Ed Bergenholtz’s old school photos of Shaun Carlson’s cars and Nuformz
WEBMINING> Sumo Power R33 at Santa Pod
Last year on a trip to the UK, Antonio went to Santa Pod Raceway and came face to face with this pink R33 Skyline drag monster from Sumo Power.
This car is well known in the UK – the R33 stirred up quite a bit of attention from its performance numbers and overall impact! (Not to mention its pink paint job!) We came across this video from our buddy Stephane Benini from Clash Productions (who always produces great work), showing the pink powerhouse in action.
This video is an oldie but goodie! If you live in the UK, you can check out Sumo Power’s Skyline, “Fuujin” in action at Santa Pod next weekend! According to Sumo Power owner Andy Barnes, Fuujin means “God of Wind” in Japanese… so either Andy drives it really fast, or he just passes a lot of gas. Maybe both.
Before I forget, Antonio also did a killer photo set and story on this sick Skyline sometime last year, so don’t forget to cllick through to check it out!
Enjoy!
::Travis Hodges
Antonio’s photos and story of Fuujin, the Sumo Power Drag R33
NEWSWORTHY> Socal Drift on Oct 4
Here’s some info for everyone in Southern Cali who’s down with grassroots drifting events… this event is a good place to get some seat time, and it’s still a couple weeks away so you can prepare your cars and get the day off work! So just wondering, who’s planning on going to the event?
:: Motor Mavens
WEBMINING> Elements of Bosozoku Style
Following up on the recent stuff we’ve posted on bosozoku and yanki styled cars, we found this cool old school Option video clip on Youtube that has Daijiro Inada cruising on the street with some bosozoku car owners and taking a closer look at the details of their cars. For those who are interested in making a sharknose car or even just adding a but more flair to your ride (15 pieces of flair is the minimum), this video is a great place to start!
:: Motor Mavens
ARCHAEOLOGY> The Good Old Days of D1GP
“Evvvvverybody’s talking bout the good old days, the good old days…” With the next round of the D1 Grand Prix USA series coming up this weekend in New Jersey, I can’t help but think back to “the good old days” of D1 events in the USA. It was just so exciting back then. It was so exciting to watch the D1 drivers from Japan drifting with their high end competition cars; and you got to hear the awesome mixture of turbo sounds and screeching tires. D1 was not plagued with the V8 blaaaaap blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap blap blaaaaaap that is now becoming the norm in American drifting events.
Even though Formula D was still strong even back then, what the D1 events brought to its American fans was a taste of Japanese drifting culture… it was so exciting. I really hope the new people who throw D1 events in the USA can build the series back to its former glory. It just used to be so epic.
Just look at this photo of Atsushi Kuroi from Osaka based drift team Tinker… his car is so bad ass! As is he! I miss the old days.
:: Motor Mavens
VIDEO> Sliding Through Sonoma
Formula Drift Sonoma Round 6 Locked & Loaded from Ross Fairfield on Vimeo.
Yesterday, we found out about this video from Formula D Sonoma that was produced by a friend of the MotorMavens, Ross Fairfield from Dead Pirate Productions. Since nobody from the core Motor Mavens crew made it up to the event, watching this video is the next best thing. In our opinion, it’s the best video we’ve seen from Ross thus far. Good work Ross! Keep it coming!
::Lieze Truter
COVERAGE> Retro Choppers at Ink n Iron
Since we don't have too much information on these choppers themselves, we thought we'd just present them on the site as a photo gallery, so everyone can enjoy the hard work and craftsmanship that goes into creating one of these two-wheeled works of art. Read more...
VIDEO> Calvin Wan X ThunderDrift/Graphtech/Fatlace
Calvin @ Thunder Drift from iPhilms on Vimeo.
I brought my Falken FD3S RX-7 out to Thunderhill Raceway with the Fatlace / 360 Video / Graphtech crew this past Tuesday, right after I got back from FD Seattle. ThunderDrift set up a full-track drift day, which does not happen too often at Thunderhill, because the tracks get so busy throughout the year.
I love taking advantage of these relaxing drift events to enjoy my cars and to get in extra seat time with some friends. This track has some of the most amazing rhythm sections and variety of corners that makes it super fun to drift on – you can connect turns 2 through 7 as well as many other sections of the track.
My boy Phil Velasco from 360 VideoMagazine brought out some pretty fancy gear to get some of these unique camera angles. Check it out… it’s like the drifting version of a skate video.
::Calvin Wan
Calvin Wan
360 VM
iPhilms
ThunderDrift
Fatlace
GTstickers | Graphtech Signworks, Daly City CA
WEBMINING> Rally Finland Citroën C4
With all this excellent coverage of sideways hoonage on Motor Mavens recently, I thought we could use a little dose of vertical shenanigans. Here’s a clip of Russian rallyer Evgeny Novikov taking his Citroën C4 to the very limit, and perhaps a little beyond, of its designed purpose.
Props to the roadside photographers and their balls of steel, although I must chuckle a little at the guy in the video and his missed opportunity at what would’ve been an amazing shot. Remember to always be ready for that money shot, but don’t forget to have an exit strategy too!
::Dan Hsu
WEBMINING> DeadPirates x Tommy Suell's AE86
Tommy Suell 2009 from Ross Fairfield on Vimeo.
We were looking at the Vegas Drift site just the other day, where they apparently posted up this new video from our buddy Ross Fairfield from Dead Pirates Productions. We’re still processing images from ASB, keep checking back for updates soooooon!!!
:: Motor Mavens
WEBMINING> WRC Carnage
Ahhh… WRC. The World Rally Championship is something we’re always definitely excited about. This teaser video we found on Youtube shows clips from WRC action in Greece, Turkey and Finland. We definitely NEED to get out there and shoot some footage ourselves! However, until that happens, enjoy watching WRC footage from the folks at 247 Motoring.
:: Lieze Truter
OH SNAP> Antonio + Bugatti Veyron= Ticket
The night before we left for Formula D Las Vegas, we were invited out to a bar in Old Town Pasadena with some friends, for a private party hosted by Rolls Royce Beverly Hills. There were many high end cars parked outside, but none captured our attention like this gorgeous Bugatti Veyron. (more…)
NEWSWORTHY> Lexus F-Sport Parts Discount
Forged Lexus F-Sport Wheels (You can buy 4pcs of the wider rear wheels only if you want!)
Hey Lexus owners and owners of cars with 5×114.3 PCD wheels!
Lexus is offering 20% off F-Sport (Lexus performance accessory line) parts expires at the end of this month. Consumers can print out the attached coupon and take it to their Lexus dealer to receive a 20% discount on purchases on any F-Sport accessory up to $2,000 (20% of a $10,000 purchase).
Lexus recently extended its F-Sport accessories to IS 250C, IS 350C and GS 350 (AWD and RWD) and GS 460. F-Sport is also available for IS 250 (AWD and RWD) and IS 350. Of course, F-Sport parts carry a warranty. When installed by a dealer, F-Sport parts have a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty OR the balance of the new car warranty at the time of installation (4 years, 50,000 miles) which ever is greater. If F-Sport parts are not installed by a dealer, the warranty is 12 months/12,000 miles.
Here’s the link to the coupon on Lexus’ F-Sport website:
http://www.f-sport.com/?s_ocid=IS_Acc_FSport_Overview_MicroSite#
:: MotorMavens
PS: You can buy anything in the F-Sport lineup… but we like these 5×114.3 F-Sport wheels! You don’t even need a Lexus IS350 or GS350 to rock these! If you bought all four of the wider REAR wheels… just imagine how cool those would look on a Toyota Cressida or a Previa… or Lexus IS300! Imagine the possibilities…!
VIDEO> Summertime in Chicago
summer chillin from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.
Ahh… summertime. We love warm summer nights… hanging out with good friends, washing your car, and then cruising out to kick it. We know this video is kinda old, but who cares? It’s dope. Even though this video isn’t long at all, our boy Tim from T2 films brings it back to basics and does it again, capturing the essence of why we love summertime… Enjoy!
:: Motor Mavens
WEBMINING> Crank and Piston
