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Posted
Nov 13 2009, 06:39 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 15 comment(s)
With the Mustang, Ford is in possession of a very valuable property: a modern car with soul and character. Think about it: the vast majority of car companies these days make all of their models with uniform styling features. It's even hard to distinguish between different cars of the same class these days. It's for this reason I've developed a bit of a soft spot for this retro macho machine, especially the hotted up versions that companies like Shelby and now RTR are putting out. The...
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Posted
Nov 13 2009, 11:40 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 23 comment(s)
Last year, together with Rod, John Brooks and Antonio, I visited the Spa 24 hour race in Belgium and saw the Donkervoort D8 GT for the first time. I'd heard about it on the internet previously, but when confronted with the real deal, I was amazed how good it looked. The car screamed for a closer look, and I knew I had to visit the company someday -fast forward to last Tuesday. After some email contact with Donkervoort , they invited me to come over and take some pictures of the new factory and...
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Posted
Nov 01 2009, 10:44 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 39 comment(s)
While researching this blog post, I didn't want to make a standard Driver Profile of Paul Vlasblom like what we've been doing with the Formula D drifters. I wanted to turn it into a Q&A type of feature with lots of pictures of his cars, build projects and driving skills instead. Paul's career got started in 1998 when he was working for a Porsche dealership and and was racing a E30. He already loved to slide the little BMW but it never occurred to him it was a real sport. He won the...
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Posted
Oct 31 2009, 09:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 22 comment(s)
These are the posts I love the most, allowing readers to get a more down-to-earth look into companies and personalities. Away from the limelight it is always so refreshing to see just how normal people are and the guys at T&E were a great bunch to spend the best part of a day with. I dropped by their main shop in Yokohama to try to get a behind the scenes look at what is one of the most respected aero parts makers in Japan. The man behind it all is Takahiro Ueno, who currently drivers the 2JZ...
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Posted
Oct 27 2009, 02:53 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 18 comment(s)
Tucked away in a small industrial area of Gardena, California you'll find one the most legit drift shops on West Coast - Garage Boso. While I was there on Saturday shooting photos of Ross Petty's S15, I also spent some time checking out the shop itself and the nice selection of toys that can be found there. I always get all giddy when I visit a shop full of cool projects, and Garage Boso more than delivered....
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 09:30 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
It's going to be several hours before the sun rises in Vancouver, Canada but I'm already up and am working away on my last few BMW feature stories. The first subject to check out is another bit of Munich based Speedhunting that Dino and I did in Germany last Wednesday. We took our two BMW press cars and drove south from Munich for around 100 kms on the world famous Autobahn freeways. This journey is a story unto itself, but I'll let Dino talk about that in a separate post. I'll just...
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Posted
Sep 02 2009, 04:00 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 34 comment(s)
Well BMW Month seems to be off to a good start huh? I'm pretty excited about what's in store for the site for September but am also a bit stressed out by how much work there is to do!... Oh well... All part of the game I suppose. For my first proper BMW feature I thought I'd take you on a quick tour of Rahal Letterman Racing, the team that runs the two M3 GT2s in the American Le Mans series. Based in Hilliard, Ohio, RLR is based out of a whopping 60,000 square foot facility split between...
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Posted
Jul 28 2009, 01:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 36 comment(s)
Having posted a few R35 GT-R features so far I thought it would be interesting to see how the most affordable supercar on the planet is actually put together. It's not often that manufacturers let you wander around their production lines, but Nissan has nothing to hide and gave us an in depth tour of how a car of this caliber comes together. It all begins at the Yokohama plant, where the mighty VR38DETT is put together. The GT-R's engine couldn't have been assembled in a better place...
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Posted
Jul 22 2009, 12:30 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
When I arrived at the home of Crawford Performance in a quaint industrial park in Oceanside, I wasn't sure what to expect. Would this be your standard tuner shop? Or maybe something a little more unique? After being greeted by founder Quirt Crawford in the office, we headed out to the shop - which is where I saw the scene above.
There was Ken Block's original Gymkhana car, the Crawford time attack car, and the new Gymkhana 2 car - all sitting neatly in a line. Surely I'd entered paradise for Subaru fans. Now I may not be a Subaru owner, but after talking to Quirt and getting a tour of the shop, I felt like I wanted to be one....
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Posted
Jul 15 2009, 02:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
Last week when I was in Torrance at Harman Motive checking out JC Meynet's Impreza time attack car, I also spent a little time looking around the shop. There's just something about the natural environment of a garage that makes these shop tours so fun to do. Besides, JC's race car there were a few other notable cars spread around the shop during my visit....
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Posted
Apr 27 2009, 08:45 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
A few hours after I got back to Long Beach, from Pomona and the SO-CAL Speed Shop, I went out with Marc and Eric from Twins Turbo Motorsport to taste some fine local cuisine at their favourite Korean restaurant. The Twins are rather clever, politically minded people, and the conversation is always quite spirited and interesting... So unless you have some debating skills in your arsenal, it's perhaps best to keep the subject on cars! I couldn't help myself though, and got into a lengthy discussion...
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Posted
Apr 24 2009, 07:51 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 27 comment(s)
While I was in LA last week, I made a point to pop back over to the SO-CAL Speed Shop to see how their various Hot Rod projects were developing. Some of you will remember that we visited them last October and were very impressed with the in-progress builds we saw that day. So you can imagine, I was feeling very eager to swing by their Pomona facility, to check in and see what's up....
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Posted
Apr 22 2009, 11:49 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 15 comment(s)
April is themed Drift Month on Speedhunters, but it seems like we've been a little distracted with all the Long Beach GP coverage on the site... I probably should have also visited some Drift shops like Garage Boso while I was in LA last week, but didn't quite get around to that... oh well -- next time!... I did make it out to three shops though: Twins Turbo Motorsport, SOCAL Speed Shop and Chris Rado's World Racing. They aren't drift shops per se, but I think you'll be pleased...
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Posted
Jan 13 2009, 11:08 AM
by
Antonio Alvendia
with 22 comment(s)
I've been reading about the legendary Bergenholtz brothers in magazines since something like 1996 or 1997. Do the math... that was over 10 years ago! When I think about those days, which some consider to be "the glory days" of import drag racing and car shows in the USA, it trips me out. I can't believe it was so long ago; 10 years sounds like such a long period of time. Then again, 10 years isn't that long, when you put it in context with the grand scheme of motorsports in...
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Posted
Nov 06 2008, 01:56 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 8 comment(s)
I was originally planning on running this story last month, but since old school Nissans play a pretty big role here, I figured I would save it until Nissan month. Earlier this fall, I took a trip down to Toride City here in Ibaraki Prefecture where I had made arrangements to visit a classic car dealer and restoration shop called East Car. Although I have seen plenty of cool vintage Nissans at events here in Japan, I was pretty excited to check out the facilities at East Car and get a deeper look at the world of Japanese classic cars. We were greeted by the manager Akihiko-san who kindly took some time from his day to show us around and talk a little bit about the shop and what they do....
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Posted
Oct 30 2008, 11:10 AM
by
Antonio Alvendia
with 16 comment(s)
When I mentioned to my good friend Felix Tang that I'd be interested in shooting some garages and car shops that were relatively close to where I live, he mentioned that I should check out Smoothlinez , which is in San Gabriel Valley. I had never previously heard of Smoothlinez, because apparently the way they get most of their customers is from word of mouth advertising; people posting photos of their engine builds or swaps on the internet, etc. I'll admit that I don't normally check...
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Posted
Oct 30 2008, 06:19 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 11 comment(s)
One item that was quite noticeable while touring the SO-CAL Speed Shop was that most of the guys working on the cars looked like they should be on MTV abusing musical instruments. At what point in time did all the new school hot-rodders start to look like rock stars? Somewhere along the line, wrenching on vintage american cars and making regular visits to the tattoo parlor started to go hand-in-hand. Of these coolguyswhoalsohappentobuildamazingrods , there was one person that stood out from the others...
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Posted
Sep 02 2008, 05:29 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 41 comment(s)
Dictionary.com defines as warrior as follows: 1: a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier. 2: a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics. Definition number one is a relatively straight description of a soldier, but definition number two more points to the character of the warrior. Occasionally I'll meet people who very much have this feeling of warriorism about them, even though acts of soldiering may be the last thing on their...
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Posted
Aug 29 2008, 11:55 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 8 comment(s)
Mine's; A Japanese household name in tuning, made famous by numerous Hot Version and Best Motoring DVD's. We all remember the battle between the Amuse Supra and Mine's R34; the battle of the straight inline six. The mastermind behind Mine's is Michizo Niikura. He started his career at Bridgestone but turned his attention to tuning cars. Established in 1985, Mine's makes parts for the Skyline R34, Lancer EVO, Impreza WRX and the 350Z. Mine's have had a lot of success with their...
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Posted
Aug 15 2008, 10:09 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 13 comment(s)
I'm realizing that the rhythm of life in this small Japanese town of Nihonmatsu is quite a lot slower than I'm accustomed to. I seem to be permanently hardwired to a high speed pace: go, go, go - at all times! It's that or I am the most impatient person in the world.... or I have the attention span of a three year old.... or probably all of the above. I seem to have something inside of me that needs to keep pushing forward at all times. Call it drive or ambition, I don't know, all...
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