Name: Antonio Alvendia

Location: Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA, Tokyo Japan

Previous Locations: San Francisco Bay Area

Career Path: International NFS Speed Hunter, Commercial Photographer, Youth Automotive Consultant, Photographer for www.motormavens.com

Previous Career Paths: Owner of a young company specializing in commercial and editorial photography - Cipher Media Group ( www.ciphermediagroup.com ). Constantly working with automotive and lifestyle magazines all over the globe. Emcee for youth automotive lifestyle events, including Motoring J Style and nationwide Drift Showoff Series. Founding member of Cipher Garage - AE86 and vintage Toyota crew.

Notable Projects/Wins: Authored the photographic documentary book, DRIFTING: Sideways from Japan to America, the world's first hardcover book on the culture and history of drifting. Behind the scenes work and on-camera talent for Birth of Pro Street film on the history of tuner based street racing. Special effects set photographer for NBC Universal's Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift.

Cars:

1973 TE27 Toyota Corolla 1600 SR-5

1985 AE86 Corolla GT-S hatchback

1985 AE86 Corolla - TRD USA/SCCA race car

1985 AE86 Sprinter Trueno 3-door

1986 AE86 Sprinter Trueno 3-door

1986 AE86 Corolla Levin 3-door

Fav Past Cars: 1969 KE17 Toyota Sprinter, 1974 TE27 Corolla SR-5, 1982 KP61 Toyota Starlet, 1984 AE86 Corolla SR5-GTS conversion, 1986 ST162 Toyota Celica, 1992 UCF10 Lexus LS400, 1987 FC3S Mazda RX7

Next Car: 1974 Corolla Levin (Japanese version), 1970 Toyota Hi Lux truck

Car Passions: Curator of the Cipher Garage collection: negative offset wheels, rare steering wheels, horn buttons, shift knobs, books, and memorabilia, with huge collection of rare die cast AE86s & TE27s from all over the world. Also amassed an impressive library full of Japanese drifting magazines, nostalgic Japanese racing magazines, and Vintage Toyota related books. Fan of drifting, WRC, and JGTC photography. Also collect Japanese drift team stickers, race track stickers, and phone numbers from cute import models and Japanese race queens.

Personal Style: 1990s hip hop. I'm all about rocking fresh kicks and Kangols.

Favourite Band of the Moment: Kero One from the Plug Label Famalam ( www.pluglabel.com )

Personal Motto: Don't waste any opportunities to do something that drives you.

Okay, so get this. What if you woke up one morning, and got a phone call from Lamborghini headquarters in Italy, asking if you could fly out immediately to test drive the fastest Lamborghini ever built by the factory? Just how quickly do you think you could brush your teeth, pack your bags, and head to the airport?

This crazy scenario was actually a true story for a person I know. Four weeks ago, he was personally chosen by Lamborghini to fly to a high security aircraft hangar located in Hamburg, Germany. His mission was to test drive a prototype Lamborghini, for the filming of a new car debut film, which would be played at the Geneva Auto Show. The car in question would be the previously unreleased Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 Super Veloce - one of only two prototypes that exist in the entire world.

This new Murcielago LP 670-4 Super Veloce produces 670 horsepower, and is 220lbs lighter than a normal Murcielago. It truly is a supercar - it does zero to sixty in only 3.2 seconds! It's limited too - only 350 of these LP 670-4 SVs will be produced.

So imagine YOU were the person that was called on by Lamborghini. Just how fast could YOU pack your bags?

BONUS Points: Can anyone guess who was driving the Murcielago SV in the film?

-Antonio Alvendia

Even though we currently don't show too much footage of SCCA Solo2 events on Speedhunters, I have to admit, I really love autocross. Sure, it's not as exciting to watch as, let's say, Formula Drift or the FIA GT Championship series, but I think autocross is extremely fun to participate in when you're sitting in the driver's seat.

Shortly after I first began driving, I discovered autocross events in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is what got me hooked on racing and vintage Toyotas in the first place. It was an an SCCA Solo2 event that I drove my first TE27 (Arnold Escano's white-yellow-green-orange race painted 3TC powered TE27 Corolla), and a lot of the fast guys at the track drove either bone stock Miatas, CRXs, or old rear wheel drive Toyota Corollas or Starlets.

Living this fast paced lifestyle, traveling to shoot all these different cars and events in different cities, I've realized that I've actually been hard pressed to participate in what got me into cars in the first place - racing. One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to make every effort I can to get as much track time as possible. I love driving as much as I love shooting photos of racecars. It's definitely time to get some new tires and refresh my cars for track action.

Many drivers out there want to have the fastest car on the track... however, regardless of how much horsepower is under your hood, the best way to improve lap times on a racetrack is not by improving the car, but by improving the driver.

As I searched the internet to find a schedule of SCCA Autocross events in Southern California, I stumbled upon this video from Evolution Performance Driving School. The Evo School is a group of dedicated autocross instructors who tour the nation giving autocross driver improvement clinics in your hometown! After watching this video online, I was immediately motivated to sign up. After all, my birthday is this weekend; and I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday this year than to refresh my skills in autocross. I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

Evo School is having an autocross school at El Toro Airfield in Irvine CA this weekend, February 28 and March 1st. Who else wants to join me?

Cmon, Speedhunters readers! Sign up and let's go driving! I'll be giving away free Speedhunters stickers to anyone who asks for them!

-Antonio Alvendia

Evolution Performance Driving School