OH SNAP> Tyler McQuarrie Wins Formula D Vegas!
Wow. Formula Drift at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was sooooo HOT. Ridiculously hot. Intensely hot. We just got back to Los Angeles, after an eight hour excursion, creeping at around 10mph in traffic-swamped freeway lanes all the way back to Southern California. This being said, we aren’t posting up our event story just yet… everyone in our group is about to pass out from the heat and exhaustion.
However, we just wanted to take a minute to congratulate Tyler McQuarrie on his First Place victory in Las Vegas! In case you weren’t following the Formula D Driftstream, Team Falken emerged victorious, with an all-Falken podium sweep once again, with Tyler McQuarrie bringing home First Place, Daijiro Yoshihara winning Second Place, and Vaughn Gittin Jr taking home Third Place.
We’d also like to welcome Las Vegas-based photographer Farrel Dee to the Motor Mavens Crew! We’ll let him write up a proper introduction later, but for now, we’d like to invite YOU to upload your Formula D Las Vegas and Vegas Pro Am photos to the MotorMavens Forums! We saw a lot of people shooting photos this weekend, and we’d love to see your photos with links to your website and/or Flickr pages! Post them up so everyone can see!
That’s it for now… sleep calls! However, don’t worry… we’ll be back very soon with our photos and observations from Formula D Las Vegas!
:: Antonio Alvendia
Upload your FD Las Vegas and Vegas Pro Am photos to the MotorMavens Forums by clicking here!
COVERAGE> Big Guns at Formula D New Jersey
Formula Drift at Wall Speedway in New Jersey was definitely fun to watch. For me, it's always fun to travel and attend all the events in the tour, but this past weekend, I had some other commitments and couldn't make it to New Jersey. Luckily for us all, Larry Chen was out in New Jersey representing MotorMavens and capturing all the action!
Thanks to our friends at YoParts and Belle 1 Communications, we were able to watch Formula D live; the DriftStream live feed was really fun and entertaining! It was like an old school AOL chat room with tons of drifting fans blurting out information and opinions; I was impressed at how many people got involved in the live chat, cheering for (and sometimes clowning) drivers and teams! All in all, it was super fun - and I quite honestly was pretty disappointed that I had to shut down my computer in the middle of the Top 16 so that I could drive to my friend's house for a party/bbq (it was my fault - I should have just driven over there early so I could watch the entire thing at his house).
Wall Speedway is a pretty interesting track. It was originally built for circle track cars, but somehow was able to re-purpose itself for drifting, thanks to a lot of phone calls, legwork, and planning by the Formula Drift staff. Wall Speedway is also the most extreme banking that Formula Drift competition cars run on, with the most extreme sections of the track being 30 degrees - a really big difference in comparison to Irwindale Speedway's 18 degrees of incline. Read more...
Thanks to our friends at YoParts and Belle 1 Communications, we were able to watch Formula D live; the DriftStream live feed was really fun and entertaining! It was like an old school AOL chat room with tons of drifting fans blurting out information and opinions; I was impressed at how many people got involved in the live chat, cheering for (and sometimes clowning) drivers and teams! All in all, it was super fun - and I quite honestly was pretty disappointed that I had to shut down my computer in the middle of the Top 16 so that I could drive to my friend's house for a party/bbq (it was my fault - I should have just driven over there early so I could watch the entire thing at his house).
Wall Speedway is a pretty interesting track. It was originally built for circle track cars, but somehow was able to re-purpose itself for drifting, thanks to a lot of phone calls, legwork, and planning by the Formula Drift staff. Wall Speedway is also the most extreme banking that Formula Drift competition cars run on, with the most extreme sections of the track being 30 degrees - a really big difference in comparison to Irwindale Speedway's 18 degrees of incline. Read more...
COVERAGE> NWP4Life’s Honda Meet at Eibach
Yesterday, at NWP4Life's annual Eibach Springs Honda Meet, thousands of enthusiasts gathered to share the love of their favorite automaker. This event gets larger every year and always draws record crowds. The Eibach parking lot may only hold 600 or so cars, but the meet pretty much extends for a mile outside of it, where the cars are almost all exclusively Hondas! This is my fourth year attending this meet, and each year I am surprised by what I see. Many people choose the Eibach meet to "debut" something new on their car. I know people who have repainted their cars and changed up their entire car just for this meet. As with previous years, the cars and modifications range from clean & simple to outrageous and just downright unnecessary. By following the best cars from this meet, it is easy to spot what will be popular and "trendy" for the next couple of years. Read more...
COVERAGE> Drifting at Mineral Wells, Texas
Mineral Wells is a small city nestled deep in the countryside west of Dallas, Texas. It is a calm, rural town surrounded by rolling hills and farmland. The atmosphere is generally peaceful and quiet, but occasionally through the year the silence is broken by the sounds of screeching tires, exhausts, and blow off valves as drifters roll in to participate in one of the most premiere drifting venues in the state!
The drifting is held in a lot located just behind the runway at the Mineral Wells Airport. It was built over sixty years ago as a Cold War helicopter landing pad and decommissioned shortly afterward - sitting empty for years until automotive enthusiasts began renting it out for grassroots events. What makes this venue so incredible is the vast expanse of open area. With enough cones, you can build a course easily capable of triple digit entry speeds. You won't find a faster venue in the state. The large size also allows plenty of room for trucks, trailers, and tents as well.
Aaron Losey of Fabricated Motorsports (the guy in the striped shirt and beanie) is the man behind the majority of the drift events in Texas. His events are always very well organized and safe, with a fun and laid back atmosphere. The attendance level is usually very good, with driver experience ranging from some of the best talent in the nation to absolute rookies with no driving time whatsoever. Luckily, the more experienced drivers are always willing to offer assistance and Aaron usually spends the majority of his time giving hands-on training. Read more...
The drifting is held in a lot located just behind the runway at the Mineral Wells Airport. It was built over sixty years ago as a Cold War helicopter landing pad and decommissioned shortly afterward - sitting empty for years until automotive enthusiasts began renting it out for grassroots events. What makes this venue so incredible is the vast expanse of open area. With enough cones, you can build a course easily capable of triple digit entry speeds. You won't find a faster venue in the state. The large size also allows plenty of room for trucks, trailers, and tents as well.
Aaron Losey of Fabricated Motorsports (the guy in the striped shirt and beanie) is the man behind the majority of the drift events in Texas. His events are always very well organized and safe, with a fun and laid back atmosphere. The attendance level is usually very good, with driver experience ranging from some of the best talent in the nation to absolute rookies with no driving time whatsoever. Luckily, the more experienced drivers are always willing to offer assistance and Aaron usually spends the majority of his time giving hands-on training. Read more...
COVERAGE> Formula D Tech Day at UTI
There sure were a lot of car events to hit up this weekend in Southern California, and the Formula D season hasn't even started yet. Man, it's going to be a super hectic year for sure. On Saturday morning, Formula Drift held their annual pre-season tech inspection at Universal Technical Institute in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. This tech inspection is open to the public, and it gives drifting fans an up close and personal glimpse at the cars that will be running in the series before the season starts.
For those who don't know, Universal Technical Institute is a mechanic's training school, located out in the IE (Inland Empire), right across the street from the old Falken Tire headquarters, and right next to Kumho on Sixth Street and Haven. I've had an increasingly extremely full personal calendar, filled with things I need to do and places I need to be... and this weekend was no different. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't even make it out to the tech day myself, so I am super appreciative that new MotorMavens contributors Horacio Flores and Mike Kim (no, not the Mike Kim from UrbanRacer) offered to go to UTI and see what was going on. Thanks a lot guys! Enough about these details though - let's have a look at the cars! Read more...
For those who don't know, Universal Technical Institute is a mechanic's training school, located out in the IE (Inland Empire), right across the street from the old Falken Tire headquarters, and right next to Kumho on Sixth Street and Haven. I've had an increasingly extremely full personal calendar, filled with things I need to do and places I need to be... and this weekend was no different. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't even make it out to the tech day myself, so I am super appreciative that new MotorMavens contributors Horacio Flores and Mike Kim (no, not the Mike Kim from UrbanRacer) offered to go to UTI and see what was going on. Thanks a lot guys! Enough about these details though - let's have a look at the 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...
GALLERY> More Scenes from JCCS 2009
Cressidas and Levins and Sprinters and Skylines, oh my! I was just clearing out some images on my Mac and transferring them to one of my terabyte drives when I stumbled upon these images I shot at the Japanese Classic Car Show last month. Before I transfer them to the HD archive and forget all about them for another year or so, I thought I'd just share some more pics of these awesome Japanese nostalgic cars! Read more...
