COVERAGE> Formula Drift Las Vegas Highlights
Just like the gypsy camps in the days of old, this year's Las Vegas round of Formula Drift brought thieves out of the woodwork. I was really surprised to find out that former Formula D judge (and current Tanaka Racing Corvette driver) Alex Pfeiffer's helmet was stolen. I suppose someone was a fan of Alex's Hawaiian print helmet, which had the traditional Hawaiian plumeria flowers painted on one side. The only question I have about that is... Okay, thieves. Now that you have Alex's helmet, what the hell are you going to do with it? Read more...
PAPERCUTS> Project Car Magazine w/ AE86
I just realized that I haven’t posted up a “Papercuts” story in quite some time. To tell you the truth, it’s because I haven’t even bought any car magazines in quite some time. There was a time in my life when I would go to bookstores and hang out, just to check out all the car magazines that were out. My friend Kenta and I would meet up at Barnes & Noble or Borders (or better yet, the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Little Tokyo or Torrance) to check out the latest car magazines every single month. I miss going to bookstores just to chill and check out magazines… I’m not sure if I haven’t been going because I’ve just been busy, or if the magazines these days don’t intrigue me…
Whatever the case may be, I stumbled upon this copy of Project Car Magazine at the CVS Drugstore in Studio City. This issue caught my eye because I saw my friend Taka Aono on the cover; after all, he is the USA’s undisputed top AE86 driver. I thumbed through it really quickly, and decided within 20 seconds, “that’s it. I’m actually gonna buy this issue.” While my 10+ years of Living the 86 Life have led me to own just about every AE86 book or manual that has ever been produced in Japan, it’s honestly pretty rare to see magazines that actually produce good stories about AE86s stateside. I definitely think this magazine was worth the $6 or 7 (ouch!) that I paid at the cash register.
Even though he’s probably the one Source Interlink magazine editor I don’t really know, I really gotta give props to Project Car editor Gary Narusawa and his crew over there. (more…)
VIDEO> One Of One Show at Long Beach
Fatlace OneOfOne Showcase | FD Long Beach Extra Footage
So yesterday I was sitting at my desk, cleaning up my external hard drive. I realized I’ve got TONS of extra footage of Formula Drift Long Beach and quite a bit of footage from the Fatlace OneOfOne Showcase that didn’t make it into the final edit.
My girl had the car for the day, and I wasn’t getting anything else done… so I decided to make another edit. This one has a much lighter vibe than the first, with no color grading and very little audio work; just lots of familiar faces, pretty cars, and loud engines.
Enjoy.
:: Justin Shreeve
Vimeo.com/JustinShreeve
YouTube.com/Shreeveco
More Formula D Long Beach 2010 stories on MOTORMAVENS
COVERAGE> Formula D Fun at Long Beach
This past weekend was certainly an exciting one. I was excited to see all the new cars that were debuting at Long Beach, as well as seeing a lot of good friends from different parts of the world, even if it would be only for a brief moment. Unfortunately, when you're working at the event like I am, you're usually hustling about, going from one spot to the next, and you don't have as much time as you'd like to just chill and spend time with good friends. This event was definitely like that for me.
I was trying to juggle shooting photos for the website while overseeing the Motor Mavens Crew's event promotions efforts. Not an easy task! Also, on the Saturday of the event, I was asked to help out with the filming of The Grid, which is a UK-based motorsports television show that airs in 120 countries around the world! And... on top of all that, we debuted the new MotorMavens X DSTROYR "Follow The Leader" shirt at our booth, which was managed by super designer Jon Chase, the creative genius behind the brands DSTROYR and Famous Stars and Straps. I and the entire Motor Mavens Crew definitely had our hustle mode switched ON this weekend! Read more...
COVERAGE> Formula D Tech Day at UTI
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...
VIDEO> Joshua Herron's FD Year In Review
Formula Drift 2009 from Joshua Herron on Vimeo.
While 2009 may have come and gone, Joshua Herron dug through hours upon hours of footage to give us one last glimpse at what the ’09 Formula Drift season held in store for us. This video is amazing on so many different levels. The cinematography is top-notch, it is jam-packed with unreleased footage, transitions through three songs – each with a unique vibe, and it does it all seamlessly. The last segment definitely feels like a throwback to the old skate videos I grew up with.
Amazing work on this video, Mr. Herron! I’m going to go watch it again (and again, and again)!!!
:: Andy Sapp
VIDEO> AE86 Life with Taka Aono
Taka Aono 2009 Formula D video from Ross Fairfield on Vimeo.
When Ross Fairfield told me that his new video featuring Taka Aono and his AE86 was almost complete, I immediately told him to send me the link as soon as it was finished… I couldn’t wait to put this video up on the site, even though I had never before seen it until now. After all, Taka Aono is one of my favorite AE86 drivers ever… he is hardcore, and drives his AE86 with every ounce of commitment and heart that a driver could put into their car or their driving effort.
Taka Aono is one of those drivers that doesn’t need to get on top of the podium at every Formula Drift event in order to have a huge fanbase. Just look… there are plenty of guys who podium all the time, yet fans love to hate them, right? Taka isn’t one of those guys. Taka doesn’t measure his results by the trophies he’s earned or the amount of media exposure he’s gotten. Instead, he concentrates on being there. Taka is out at almost every grassroots drifting event in California, either as a driver or as a judge or an instructor. He focuses his efforts on making a real difference in the grassroots drifting community, and we can see that. We love Taka Aono! Hopefully more of the bigtime drifters follow in Taka’s footsteps and focus more of their efforts on giving back to the grassroots drifting community, building new drifters and helping new drivers come up through the ranks!
Support Taka Aono in 2010! Big ups to Ross Fairfield for choosing to debut this video on Motor Mavens!
:: Antonio Alvendia
COVERAGE> Slide Assassins Sunday Session
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> Megan Racing Drift Competition Pt.1
You don't have to say it; we know what you're thinking. Megan Racing? Yes, we're talking about THAT Megan Racing. Working with Naoki from Drift Day, Megan Racing has decided to show its support of grassroots drifters, by throwing a fully catered drifting competition (thanks for the tacos, Megan Racing!), complete with a two thousand dollar purse for the winners. (Although, we didn't stick around til the end, so we weren't sure if they actually gave out money to the winners, or just a really expensive handbag.) Either way, we think it's great that a company with products catering to the grassroots drifting community would actually give back to the grassroots drifting community by putting together an event like this! Read more...
