GEAR DRIVEN> MotorMavens x DSTROYR Collabo!
Ever since the Formula D Pro Am at Irwindale several months ago, super designer Jon Chase of DSTROYR fame and I have been talking about doing a project that showcases some of our mutual interests. It’s kinda funny… we never realized it before, but we have been slowly realizing that our taste in things and our interests are actually pretty similar. To kick in the door and get things started, we decided to create this collaborative t-shirt – above is the rough concept art for the shirt. We’re pretty excited to wear this new shirt ourselves, and trust me… it has been extremely hard for us to keep things under wraps for the past few months!!!
We’ll be debuting this new DSTROYR x MotorMavens shirt and having it available for sale at our booth this weekend at Formula D Long Beach. So if you’re going to be at Long Beach, make sure to stop by our booth and get one of these shirts before they are sold out! We’ve been getting a whole bunch of messages from people wanting to buy this shirt already, so please make sure to find the MOTORMAVENSxDSTROYR booth at FD Long Beach and get it while the gettin’s good!
:: Antonio Alvendia
COVERAGE> Remix Car Show and More XDC
Meanwhile, I'm also looking forward to seeing more from Remix. I'll be pretty honest - I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to in the car show area looking at cars, because I was busy in the Irwindale grid area talking to and hanging out with all the grassroots drifters from miscellaneous regions of the United States while they were visiting Southern Cali. However, from what I've seen thus far at the Remix Show, I like it! The entire event had an intriguing vibe to it... for those of us "experiencing" the show for the first time, it was definitely different and fun. The first thing we noticed is that there were a hell of a lot of girls at this event - everything from high end "name brand" models to no-name "new talent." As I mentioned previously, I decidedly focused most of my attention on the drifters on the track and on the grid, but in all honesty, there were quite a few times I had to double take and say "damnnnnn" when I saw certain pieces of eye candy sweetening up the show. (This was definitely the type of show that our boy Yoshi Shindo would go bananas at, I'm not gonna lie.)
Back to the cars, I have to say that there were a lot of really impressive looking cars at the show. Everyone is stepping up their wheel game, and it's awesome! Read more...
COLLECTION> Cipher Garage Keiichi Collection
As some of our readers may or may not know, I've spent the past eleven years of my life chronicling as much as I could about the history of drifting in Japan, and its progress as it grew in the United States and spread to all the other countries of the world. As you might imagine, this has been an incredibly difficult and arduous process, and I've only been able to do as much as a single person without corporate/financial backing could possibly afford to.
However, because of personal qualities that include my relentless passion for Japanese car culture, my ridiculously resourceful/persistent/determined nature, and the fact that I often find myself (most of the time, accidentally) in the right place at the right time... I've been able to amass quite a collection of Japanese car memorabilia that some might consider historic. (I know I do.) Whether my personal collection of Japanese automobilia may be considered by some to be overrated or not... it is very personal to me. For every rare item in my collection, I have great stories to tell about how I found it and how it came to be in my collection. To me, THAT is the real treasure... even more so than the individual items in the collection.
Those who don't know as much about the subject matter may think it's just a bunch of magazines, stickers, toys, steering wheels, horn buttons, patches, and misc car junk stuffed into boxes, shelves, and cabinets... but over the years, I've come to realize that I've never in my life seen a collection like it - items related to Japanese drifting history... with much of it revolving around AE86s, TE27s, and vintage Toyota memorabilia. Please don't think I'm bragging - that isn't my intent at all. For the most part, I've kept all the items I own very, very private. I don't really advertise what I have or invite people to look through my things, as I never intended to collect stuff to "show off" to others. Instead, this is all just a bunch of things that I personally consider important or cool. Read more...
VIDEO> Triumph at the Mooneyes Christmas Party
Even though we don’t cover motorcycles too often on the Motor Mavens site, sometimes we come across bikes that are just so cool looking, we gotta put em on the site! We were walking around at the 2009 Mooneyes Christmas Party at Irwindale Speedway, drenched in rain when we spotted this particular Triumph motorcycle getting rained on.
All our DSLRs were covered up and protected, but luckily we had a Canon S90 on hand, which is definitely one of the top two Canon pocket cameras (the S90 and the G11 are the best in our opinions) out right now. The S90 was able to shoot a quick video in the rain, just so we could show the details of the bike before trying to shelter our camera gear underneath a tent.
This Triumph makes us want to build a bike… so cool.
:: Travis Hodges
CARSPOTTING> German Folks Wagens at Mooneyes
These Vee Dubs had their own sense of style. The color and rust spots on this blue Deluxe VW bus reminded me of the Volkswagen Single Cab from Miami that we featured just a few months ago when we started this site. I'm admittedly not a maven of VW knowledge, but I do have a strong opinion on what I think is stylish and what's not. Read more...
COVERAGE> Rainy Day Rodding at Mooneyes
This past weekend, I attended the Annual Mooneyes Christmas Party at Irwindale Speedway. I can't believe it's already been a full year since the last time I visited the show. I have to admit... cold, rainy weather makes me feel pretty lazy. Living in Southern Cali, I think I've gotten used to the weather being 73 degrees all year round, so when it dips below 55 degrees outside, it's pretty hard for me to convince myself to leave the comfort of my baffled goose down comforter behind and trudge through the rain with 30+lbs of camera gear and flyers on my back. This Saturday, it was especially difficult because I was out with my friends at a house party and didn't get back until 4:30am on the day of the show.
However, I'm really glad I did make it to Mooneyes this year. Speaking to my friend Shige (the man behind Mooneyes and Crown Classics in Yokohama Japan), we both agreed that the rain did put a bit of a damper on the event's attendance, but it was good in a way. It weeded out most of the "trying to be down" scenesters and showed everyone who the real hardcore hot rodders were. Most of the guys who came to this year's Mooneyes Christmas Party actually drove their period correct traditional hot rods with vintage whitewall tires on the 605 freeway IN THE RAIN to and from the show. Now that's dedication! Much respect! Read more...
VIDEO> The Spirit of Irwindale Formula D
The+Spirit+of+Irwindale+Formula+D
There’s just something about Irwindale Speedway at the end of the season. After all the teams in the Formula Drift Championship have faced countless trials and tribulations, dealing with mechanical problems and financial stress of how to get their cars and teams from event to event as the series travels all over the country; the Formula D homecoming at Irwindale Speedway for the last event of the year has a different feeling to it than the other events in the series.
The drivers and teams in the points race are anxious, knowing that they must be on point and professional every step of the way, as even the smallest mechanical hiccup or driver error could take them out of the running and give the advantage to an opposing team.
At the same time, the fans are excited to see the cars and drivers return to the birthplace of American drifting after they have spent the whole year on tour, cutting their teeth and taking their epic fender-to-fender dogfights to race tracks across the nation in an attempt to attract more sponsors, build more publicity, and most importantly… attract new drifting fans.
I’ve been traveling with the Formula Drift series since the very first event; since the series started in 2004… and every year, as the season ends at Irwindale Speedway, there’s a shared feeling of excitement and pride of accomplishment running through the pits.
This video, by Motor Mavens shooter Travis Hodges, is our attempt to capture that feeling. And it was captured entirely with two cameras, the new Canon 7D digital HD SLR and the Twenty20 ContourHD.
We hope you enjoy the video, and CONGRATULATIONS to all the teams, drivers, umbrella girls, and FANS that make the Formula D series what it is. RESPECT!!!
:: Antonio Alvendia
VIDEO> Through the eyes of a child
Formula D Irwindale 2009 Rd 7 “Judgement Day” from Abbitt Wilkerson on Vimeo.
It seems that most of the videographers who made it to Formula D Irwindale have been finishing up the edits on their videos this week. While many of our readers are already familiar with a lot of the “normal videographers” that travel to all the stops on the Formula D circuit, I thought I’d shine a light on a certain young videographer from the Pacific Northwest named Abbitt Wilkerson.
Devout Motor Mavens readers might recognize his name, as Abbitt is the guy behind all the AW Films drifting videos that have been popping up on Vimeo and the owner of a particular sick stanced Subaru Impreza WRX STi that has been the topic of some controversy on the site. (haha!) Abbitt is still relatively new to the car scene, as he only recently began driving and he is just starting his video production career. He’s still building up his skills and experience, because as Abbitt will be the first to tell you – HE’S ONLY SEVENTEEN! Not bad for a high school kid.
Believe it or not, there have been quite a few people on the internet that were actually hating on Abbitt and his aggressively stanced STi, saying he’s just a spoiled kid who had the luxury of getting everything paid for by his parents. It’s funny, because when I mentioned it to him at Irwindale, he got pretty defensive about it, insisting that he works his ass off to hustle enough money to pay for his car and his camera equipment.
Whatever the case may be, he gets respect from ME because while most seventeen year old kids are wasting their lives playing video games and watching TV, Abbitt is actually doing something productive, working two jobs so he can afford to build his car and filming as much as he can so that he can constantly improve his skills in shooting and editing video. Sheesh, I wish I was that productive when I was seventeen. I didn’t do ANYTHING but take pictures and listen to hip hop.
Props, A-dub!
:: Antonio Alvendia
WEBMINING> Dead Pirate at Irwindale
Formula D Irwindale Round 7 “Judgement Day” from Ross Fairfield on Vimeo.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the newest video from Formula D Irwindale, which was produced by Ross Fairfield from Dead Pirate Productions in conjunction with our friends at Streetfire.net. I think it’s the best work I’ve seen from Ross thus far, so props to him for continually working to step up his game. That’s what it’s all about… constant improvement and the never ending quest to seek out new angles and new ways to present the “same old subject.”
This video includes some great footage of all the familiar Formula D characters, plus some cameos from some less familiar faces, like our new Motor Maven from Seattle, Yoshi Shindo, at 4:39. Great job Ross – did you get some new equipment or what?
:: Antonio Alvendia
ARCHAEOLOGY> Ueo vs Taniguchi Video
For those who weren’t there, in celebration of August 6th “Hachiroku Day” that was made into a worldwide holiday by our friend HerbrockOne on Club4AG several years ago… we just thought we’d dig into the vaults for this one.
Were YOU there? We were. It was August 31, 2003. The legendary Battle for Irwindale… and the first inaugural D1 Grand Prix event on US soil. AE86 vs S15. Katsuhiro Ueo from Kyushu Japan vs Nobuteru Taniguchi from Hiroshima Japan.
The video footage may be old, but the memories from this night are vivid as ever, in our minds. What an epic event. Listen to the crowd in the video. I still get goosebumps on my neck. Being on top of the grand stands watching the cars run so close to each other. The videos we had all seen at our friends house were now real in front of us. This event was the first time the chant “One more time!” was screamed from the fans mouths cause we all were in such disbelief at how awesome each run was we just had to say wait a minute wait a minute “One more time” cause that was just too unbelievable.
Long live the AE86!
:: Steve Starr
