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Posted
Mar 05 2010, 01:23 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
New Zealand once again delivers the goods. This shot was taken by Joseph Curphey at a recent Hampton Downs drift day.
More photos on his Flickr page.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Jan 26 2010, 12:04 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 24 comment(s)
Has it already been a full year since we did Mazda month? Indeed it has. No matter what month it is, I think we can all agree there's never a bad time for some rotary action, and here we have plenty of that - thanks to Roo Wills from New Zealand.
Roo headed out to the New Zealand Rotary Summer (yes, summer) Drags earlier this month and sent us some photos of his findings....
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Posted
Jan 13 2010, 04:01 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 32 comment(s)
Just a really neat photo from the always-cool Beeoneonoeoh blog.
NZ doing things right yet again.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Dec 08 2009, 11:39 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 44 comment(s)
Yesterday we got an email from New Zealand photographer Roo Wills who wanted to share some photos of a drift day held over the weekend at Taupo Motorsport Park. NZ is quickly getting the reputation for having some of the world's best grassroots drift cars, so we couldn't resist the opportunity to post up some of Roo's shots for you guys to enjoy....
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Posted
Nov 02 2009, 04:32 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
Heading into the final round of the NZ Drift Series I was sitting in 2nd place and there was only 22 points separating me from the championship leader Gaz Whiter. For me to take the title it meant I needed to finish one spot ahead of Gaz and qualify 2 spots ahead to claim the championship. My sights were set high to qualify 1st and finish 1st and I was super confident to make this happen. Pukekohe being my favorite track with the infamous entry "widow maker" sweeper which is a 5th gear full throttle 200+kmh corner! The judges had really asked for carnage when they announced they want us to run a new line, and made it an outside clipping zone around the entire sweeper....
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Posted
Oct 20 2009, 01:25 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
The final round of the NZDrift series was held last weekend at Pukekohe Raceway. After his fourth consecutive 1st place qualifying score, Mad Mike Whiddett came up with a second place finish - more than enough to claim the season championship.
Congrats to Mad Mike and his team!
We look forward to hearing more about this event from him soon.
-Mike Garrett...
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Posted
Sep 09 2009, 12:55 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
Only two weeks out from the D1NZ finals, we were scheduled to be at Taupo Motorsport Park for round 3 of the NZDRIFT series. After a 2nd and a 3rd placing at the opening rounds I was ready and confident to stand tall at this round after the changes we had made to the RX8. The car has improved so much in only 4 competitions....
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Posted
Jul 14 2009, 01:36 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 14 comment(s)
It's now starting to hit winter in New Zealand, the weather was pretty poor the day/night before round two of the "NZ Drift Series in association with NAC Insurance ", and when we turned up to Pukekohe Park Raceway, Auckland it was wet. The track dried towards the end of the practice sessions, but there were big puddles on the inside of the sweeper at the start of the judged section. Ordinarily, entry speeds would be in excess of 180kph, but the bitterly cold day and the wet track combined...
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Posted
Jun 11 2009, 09:15 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 23 comment(s)
Earlier this week Mad Mike Whiddett debuted his new RX8 drift car in New Zealand, letting our buddies at NZPC get first dibs on shooting this beast. The outside of the new car looks very similar to his RX7, with a wide BN Sports kit and of course the Red Bull graphics. In proper Mad Mike fashion, the wheels are Work Equips that are nearly as wide as they are tall. Under the hood is a three-rotor 20B fed by an HKS T51R turbine - something a bit different from the 4-rotor NA mill in the FD.
At the moment the Madbul FD is being shipped to Japan, so the RX8 will become Mad Mike's primary vehicle back home in NZ. We'll be keeping an eye out to see how Mike and the new car do in the NZ Drift series this year.
Thanks again to the NZPC and NZ Drift Series crew for the scoop.
-Mike Garrett
...
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Posted
May 21 2009, 02:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 15 comment(s)
It's been a good a while since we've ran any pro drifting coverage from New Zealand, so we thought you might like to see some of the action from last weekend's NZ Drift Series opener at Manfeild Circuit. All of the familiar faces from the New Zealand drift scene were there to compete, including Mad Mike Whiddett in his Madbul FD and Gaz Whiter in his S14 Silvia. As usual, credit for the photos goes to Brad Lord and our friends at NZ Peformance Car Magazine....
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Posted
Mar 25 2009, 12:02 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 33 comment(s)
Up until this year it was always the Japanese that were going overseas to expose the world to their drift culture, but 2009 looks like it will be the year when Japanese drifters and drift fans will finally get a taste of international drifting on their home turf. We already saw Vaughn Gittin Jr. bring his all-American V8-powered madness to Japan earlier this month, and we have just heard that another high profile international drifter will be appearing in the land of the rising sun. New Zealand's...
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Posted
Feb 27 2009, 10:43 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
"Sound Roll" would actually be a more fitting title for the post. A buddy of mine sent me this video today showing a 1UZFE V8 powered AE86 rally car built by A1 Turbos in New Zealand. You don't even seen the car in this 18-second video clip ,but just hearing the music from the ITB-fed four-cam V8 is more than worth it.
Anyone else find it ironic that the luxury cars this engine originally came in were known as some of the most quiet and isolating vehicles on the road?
-Mike Garrett
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Posted
Feb 06 2009, 01:30 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 22 comment(s)
My recent holiday in New Zealand is fast becoming a bit of a distant memory... I've been back exactly a week, and have been thrust into a rather busy time at the Need for Speed studio... there are many new and exciting projects kicking around which have my full attention....
I'm currently writing this blogpost from the set of a Grid Girl shoot for the new Need for Speed Shift game.......
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Posted
Feb 04 2009, 03:36 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
We've been looking at Kiwi the Kiwi scene a lot over the past days, and this latest NZ material comes from photographer Joseph Curphey, who sent us some shots from a recent D2NZ practice day Waikaraka Park. D2NZ is basically the amateur arm of the D1NZ series, hosting small practice events complete with instructors for those looking to improve their driving. It seems very similar to Drift Association and Just Drift events held in the US....
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Posted
Jan 26 2009, 04:50 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 25 comment(s)
Ok this post is going to disturb the purists..... If you are a person for whom the notion of an engine swap from a different auto manufacturer is the stuff of nightmares then please look away now.... This is an argument which has gone on for decades, even into the early hot rod years. For some people the notion of a Chevy engine in a Ford Hot Rod is a show of poor taste. ...Same goes for the wave of Honda S2000 engines which are finding their way into AE86s... Horrid! Sacriledge! Sin!..... V8 into...
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Posted
Jan 26 2009, 10:17 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 27 comment(s)
If you are someone who spends an unhealthy amount of time filling your life with all manner of automotive addictions, then New Zealand is probably one of the coolest places to live anywhere!... It is home to a tight knit automotive scene who have access to all manner of imported cars, tons of race tracks, incredible roads, and a fantastic lifestyle. This paradise island seems to be rather geared towards personalized cars- for whatever style tickles your fancy! New Zealand is the country that invented...
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Posted
Nov 26 2008, 04:32 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 13 comment(s)
I got an email today from Brad Lord of NZ Performance Car Magazine, and he gave me the scoop on Mad Mike Whiddett's new drift car. Wait, didn't Mad Mike just debut his new Madbul RX7 a few months ago? Yes, but now he has another new car. This weekend was the final around of the Stil Vodka Drift Series in New Zealand and Mad Mike appeared in his new drift car project, the Mazda RX8 pictured here. His four-rotor RX7 was still in the USA after the Red Bull drift event....
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Posted
Oct 06 2008, 04:16 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
Kiwi drifters have really been making splashes on the international scene lately with Adam Richards competing in the EDC , JT Wharerau driving in Formula D, as well as all the wild car builds coming out of the country, including Mad Mike's new RX7 which will also be appearing at the Long Beach Red Bull event. The most recent round of the Stil Vodka NZ Drift Series was held at the Powerbuilt Tools Raceway in Ruapuna and it marked the competition of debut of a few new vehicles. Thanks to Brad Lord, Sophie McMillan, and Luke Carpenter of NZ Performance Car Magazine we have some photos and info from the event......
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Posted
Aug 29 2008, 09:18 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 28 comment(s)
If you are even somewhat familiar with the international drift scene, then you probably know about Mad Mike Whiddett from New Zealand and his infamous RX7. If you need a refresh, you can check out the feature I did on his car a while back. Those old specs on his car are now history though because on Friday night New Zealand time, Mad Mike unveiled his new car which is now sponsored by Red Bull. Thanks to our friends Brad Lord and Adam Croy at NZ Performance Car Magazine, we have some fresh photos...
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Posted
Aug 15 2008, 02:23 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 1 comment(s)
Although there is no shortage of awesome car magazines to be found here in Japan, there are always times when I wish to read some good old fashioned car magazines written in English. A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail from New Zealand which came courtesy of Brad Lord, the editor of NZ Performance Car Magazine. Inside the package I found a couple copies of the July issue of the magazine. Although I have been learning a lot about the car scene in New Zealand over the internet, it was nice to take an even deeper look by flipping through the pages of the magazine. As I expected, I came away very impressed with both the style of the magazine, and the content featured in it....
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