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Posted
Nov 20 2009, 12:45 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 11 comment(s)
Well it's been one week since I headed up to Ebisu for the final Drift Matsuri of the year and I can't believe we will have to wait until next spring for another of these legendary events. The rain and freezing wind didn't for one second spoil what was an action packed weekend with cars sliding around on every track within the Ebisu compound for two days and one night. It's now time to wrap up the coverage with this final selection of my favorite shots. Once the sun began its dive...
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Posted
Nov 19 2009, 12:47 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 24 comment(s)
OK, now to wrap up my coverage from last weekend's Hellaflush III meet in Nor Cal. Was it really only five days ago? It seems like so much longer than that. Goes to show how crazy this month has been.
Anyways, on with the photos!...
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Posted
Nov 17 2009, 08:15 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 26 comment(s)
I'm dedicating this second post on the Autumn Drift Matsuri to the first ever "G1-GP," an all-foreigner drift competition that was held at the Nishi (West) course on Sunday afternoon. With so many Aussies over for the event, Andy at Powervehicles.com came up with the idea of holding a little competition, especially seeing the high level of skills these guys had. As soon as he mentioned the idea to Suenaga and Kumakubo they jumped on it and told him not to worry as they would organize...
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Posted
Nov 17 2009, 04:03 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 38 comment(s)
It's time for more coverage from Saturday's Hellaflush III meet in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was a bit surprised at the mostly positive reception the first post got, considering how this month's features have been polarizing the readers. Are the athletes and fashionistas (as termed by Rod) finally starting to get along?
Love it or hate it, here's some more flushness for you guys....
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Posted
Nov 16 2009, 02:31 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 61 comment(s)
In the days leading up to my NorCal trip over the weekend, my friends and family would ask me what I was heading up there for.
"I'm going to check out a car meet", I would say.
"Oh, What kind of car meet?"
"The Hellaflush meet".
"The what?"...
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Posted
Nov 16 2009, 11:45 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
The 2009 American time attack season is now behind us. Following the Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow on Wednesday, the Redline Time Attack series wrapped up their season at California Speedway over the weekend. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out to Fontana for myself, as I was up in the Bay Area for the Hellaflush meet. You can expect some Hellaflush coverage later today, but first I'm going to finish my Super Lap coverage from Buttonwillow....
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Posted
Nov 15 2009, 09:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 46 comment(s)
There is simply nothing like it, the Drift Matsuri is a truly unique event and this third and last one for 2009 has probably been my favorite. With the surrounding mountains around Ebisu Circuit exhibiting the most intense autumn colors drifters were as ever spoilt for choice with 8 tracks at their disposal for the whole weekend. I've selected my favorite shots for this first post, pictures that best summarize what these last two days were like up in the drifter's paradise. The rain didn't...
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Posted
Nov 13 2009, 01:08 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
Hey, I thought November was supposed to be the off-season for car events? With SEMA, the VIP Festival, and Wednesday's Super Lap Battle, it's been a busy week of Speedhunting for me - and it's not over yet. Later this afternoon I'll be hitting the road towards NorCal for tomorrow's Hella Flush meet in Milpitas. Before I leave, I thought I'd post some more Buttonwillow Super Lap coverage for you guys....
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Posted
Nov 12 2009, 01:18 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 25 comment(s)
Every November for the past several years, America's (and the world's) fastest tuner cars have gathered at Buttonwillow Raceway for a one-day battle in the dusty and fragrant Central Valley of California. Upon arriving at the track, I noticed the paddock appeared a little emptier than past years. Nonetheless, all the top players in the game were present and accounted for. Teams like FX Motorsports, Sierra Sierra, Crawford, and AMS were all ready to fight in hopes of claiming the day's fastest time, and just maybe breaking the long standing track record held by NOB Taniguchi and the HKS CT230R....
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Posted
Nov 10 2009, 02:15 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 32 comment(s)
Have you had enough coverage of slammed Japanese luxury cars yet? Hopefully not, because here's some more photos from Sunday's VIP Festival held at Autofashion USA in San Diego. Personally I was pretty excited for this event, as I was itching to get my first real VIP car fix since moving back from Japan in the spring. Sure, you can flip through the pages of VIP Car or VIP Style at the local Japanese book store, or look at cell phone pics from Japan on the internet, but nothing beats the real thing!...
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Posted
Nov 09 2009, 11:37 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 24 comment(s)
I'm going to be honest here, four or five years ago when the first VIP style cars started popping up in the USA, I doubted that the style would be able to catch on here. The key to having a legit VIP car is attention to detail, and I just wasn't sure us Americans were capable of it. I guess you can blame several Fast and Furious movies and years of over the top Spocom rides for that. In 2009 the US VIP movement still isn't quite "mainstream", but the following continues to grow, and the quality of cars is getting higher and higher. Nowhere was this more evident than at Autofashion USA's 3rd annual "VIP Festival" held this weekend in San Diego....
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Posted
Nov 07 2009, 02:49 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 31 comment(s)
Okay, let's continue right on with more coverage from the 2009 SEMA Show. I'll start with this 1984 CRX Mugen Prototype that Honda brought out. A 1980's Honda might not be the first thing you associate with the SEMA Show, but who doesn't like vintage Japanese tuner cars? It was cool to see Honda pulling old cars out of it's collection for the SEMA display....
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Posted
Nov 06 2009, 01:29 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 31 comment(s)
I'm back home in Los Angeles now, still feeling the pain from three days of traversing the Las Vegas Convention Center, and glad to be done with the crowds and madness of Vegas. Now that I'm settled in at home, it's time to dig in for some more coverage from the show. One trend that's seemed to stand the test of time is pro-touring muscle cars. Even though you can buy brand new retro muscle cars from these days, I guess you can't beat the real thing. The 'Cuda above was one of my favorites. Under the gleaming bodywork is a twin turbo Viper V10....
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Posted
Nov 05 2009, 09:45 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 23 comment(s)
As the sun set early on Tuesday afternoon the Super Class of MSC got down to the final battles. Here are the two Run Free AE86s flying past the apex of the judged corner, Yamashita grabbing second position overall making him the winner of the East-Japan league with 52 points. This is one car I haven't seen before, built by Auto Service Mori, a respected tuning shop well known for building some pretty powerful track cars. I've been meaning to drop by their workshop in Atsugi for some time...
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Posted
Nov 05 2009, 03:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 17 comment(s)
I thought that for this second post from the MSC final it would be cool to take a walk through the paddock at Mobara's circuit, a great way to get a closer look at some of the cars that compete in this drift championship. There is always a nice mix of cars at MSC, all the way from the pro-looking machinery that competes in the Expert and Super classes like this Sign 141 Silvia all the way to more low-budget projects driven by amateur drifters in the Beginner class. Needless to say they each have...
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Posted
Nov 04 2009, 06:07 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 56 comment(s)
Alright let's jump right into some photographs and impressions from my second day of walking the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center at the 2009 SEMA Show.
Up above is something that should excite the traditional "JDM Tuning" fans, a super clean R34 Skyline GT-R found in the Rotora Brakes booth....
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Posted
Nov 04 2009, 05:50 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 29 comment(s)
I found myself back in Mobara circuit yesterday, on a bitterly cold autumn morning, ready to get another drifting fix at the final round of this year's MSC Challenge. All the regulars we saw at Honjo in August were back, ready to score some final points in a last attempt to climb the point standings. There were also tons of other cool rides participating in the various classes, including a grip event, making it an even a more action packed day out than usual! Despite the chilling wind, the weather...
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Posted
Nov 03 2009, 07:01 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 41 comment(s)
Ah yes, the chaos of SEMA.
After a an early flight from LAX I rushed to the Las Vegas Convention Center this morning for the first day of the 2009 SEMA Show. Although my legs are already numb from walking so much, I've only been able to get through a small portion of SEMA's exhibit halls.
Here are some highlights and observations from what I've managed to take in so far -...
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Posted
Oct 28 2009, 08:10 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 61 comment(s)
Wow what a response we are getting to our Access Zero 42 coverage! Glad you lot like the photos, but the true testament has to go to the organizers of the show who brought a lot of fellow auto enthusiasts together for this meet. Linhbergh and I decided we were going to select 1 car from the event to shoot as the November "Slammed" theme calendar desktop. It needed to be a car that we hadn't already shot as photo features, and one that we weren't already aware of. I wasn't sure...
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Posted
Oct 27 2009, 01:20 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 78 comment(s)
We're in a bit of a video post production crunch right now as we have two videos to get completed in the next couple of days. They are going to be debuting next week at SEMA so we're putting a bit of pressure on ourselves to make these new films the hottest things ever. I'm having a bit of difficulty concentrating on writing right now to give you a review of the adventure that Linhbergh and I had in Houston this past weekend, but the site has been a bit empty this morning so let's try and get something written up here!...
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