In early November, when the push to prepare for Global Time Attack Finals was in full swing, I stopped by the RS Future/Art of Attack headquarters to see how Amir and the crew were getting along in their preparation of the new unlimited class NSX.
Tag: BMW
Encounter: コクピット館林 E46 M3
Cockpit Tatebayashi, purveyor of all things under the umbrella of Japanese automotive parts, proves to us once again that they are not restrained by chassis or make when it comes to tuning cars. No doubt the producers of variety, their newest car to make an appearance at Fuji is this tastefully tuned E46 M3.
Encounter: ジーコーポレーション E36
I had messaged Nakamura-san a few weeks back in hopes I could catch him one evening to shoot the new G Corp demo car. Sekinei and I had dropped by one afternoon on the […]
Event: Wekfest LA 2013 – Long Beach v.2
Continuing my walk around of the Queen Mary grounds where Wekfest was being held, we pick up around 1:30 pm when the crowds started to get bigger. The tour of shows that Weksos organizes has […]
Event: Super GT Motegi 250km – The Final Battle V.2
…and as the rain began to fall ever harder, the Super GT cars charged on; fueled by the calm determination only those behind the wheel know. We pick up on the continuing coverage mid […]
Event: Super GT Motegi 250km – The Final Battle V.1
After my well deserved break after the Super GT practice session, it wasn’t long before the final race of the season got underway. In typical Japanese fashion, as soon as the flag dropped, so did […]
Event: Super GT Round 8 At Motegi 250km – Pre-Race Practice
So, it was 5am and the only thing I could think about was getting caffeine into my system; not if my friend was going to be late, not if it was going to rain […]
Garage Life: Veilside Exhaust Evolution
So, last Sunday turned out to be a little less than typical; well, kind of. Typical in setting and happening, it just had a little twist on the medium. We swung by Jay’s house to […]
Event: Wekfest East 2012 – New Jersey V.3
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Well, it’s about that time to start wrapping up the show coverage. I was planning on posting the third and final round of coverage this weekend, but ended up working, as well as temporarily acquiring a vinyl cutter. The latter occurrence took up the majority of my Monday so I wasn’t able to work on getting the post up. Oh well, I have some time tonight and will do just that. We pick up mid-afternoon when the show was really getting busy. The turnout was really, really good for it being the first East coast show that Weksos has put on. I was very happy for everyone involved at the success of the day. I don’t really have much else to say in this post that hasn’t already been stated. In this post we’ll take a closer look at some of the nice Hondas at the show, as well as a look at the roll-out. Again, you’ll be able to see the insane amount of variety that these Wekfest shows provide. Just click past the break and enjoy the rest of the shots.
Event: Wekfest East 2012 – New Jersey V.2
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It’s 2 am on Saturday morning, I don’t have work tomorrow (edit – I DO have work today), and I’m stacked up on caffeine; I may as well get started on posting the second round of Wekfest East. Yuta’s civic was having some work done at a shop in Upland this past week, and this evening we drove up there to pick it up. While in the area, we decided to meet Kodi Chan at Maxim off the 60 in Rowland Heights. I don’t get to see Kodi that often so it was nice that it worked out that way. I ended up drinking way too much coffee though, and as a result am writing this right now. I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow…err..today, and read this and it probably won’t make any sense to me. I just thought for some reason you should know why this post will be comprehensively poorly written. Right. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the New Jersey convention center to check out more of the cars at Wekfest. In this post, I’ll wrap up what I have left of the roll-in and get started on showing the masses of cars that were in attendance. I gotta say, as I look back on each car as I edit them, I’m finding more and more cool things I didn’t notice initially. I’ll point some of the things out as I go. Also, you can once again see the thought that went into the variety of cars showing. If you’re not familiar with the tour, not just anyone can come show. The Weksos staff hand pick out of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of applicants to ensure a great show. For now, click past the break to see part 2 of the coverage.
Event: Wekfest East 2012, New Jersey V. 1 – Roll In
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I had first played with the idea of coming to New Jersey for Wekfest East back in June during the LA show. Towards the end of the show at the Queen Mary, I had been talking to Geoffrey and Kenneth a little bit about the turn out in comparison to the rest of the tour. LA had a great turn out, a close second to the Fort Mason show in San Francisco, but the home show is hard to beat. I had asked him about the general turn out and response to the rest of the stops, and they basically responded with an invitation to come see for myself. I’m in a pretty unique position compared to most people as far as traveling goes, so the idea wasn’t too farfetched. I’ve made it to the East coast and back in less than a day, so there was really no reason why I couldn’t make it work with a car show thrown in there somewhere. I’m not really affected by jet lag or time zones anymore as I fly quite often. In fact, I’m sitting in an airplane, writing this, right now on the way to Phoenix; on a non-car related trip unfortunately. As the show date neared, I was able to rearrange some things in my work schedule, so I decided I would make the flight out to Newark. The show was on a Sunday, so I elected to take a red eye on Saturday night to avoid an additional night in a hotel. I would land Sunday morning around 5am and shoot straight over to the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison in time to catch the roll-in and setup of the show. Leaving on Monday would give me a good night’s sleep and an opportunity to cruise into New York for a little bit; and by little bit I mean a good 35 minutes or so – I’ll get to that later though. Click past the break for part 1 of my exploits in the East.
Event: Nisei Showoff 2012 V.1
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Nisei Week in Downtown Los Angeles; a time to celebrate the Japanese-American culture in the best way; good food, great location, lots of celebration, people dressing up in Japanese attire and of course the Nisei Showoff. I wasn’t actually planning on attending this year for a few reasons, but because I sort of volunteered my car to help Yuta out, I ended up attending later in the day. I had work in the morning all the way in Orange County, so I didn’t actually end up getting to Little Tokyo until a little after 3. I had been driving Allan’s Fit because he had to drive my car to LA that morning to set up at the Wheel Flip booth. Actually a really good thing because his Fit has great air conditioning, and it was basically the hottest day of the year. So due to my time constraints, I didn’t get as much coverage as I usually do – which I don’t really mind as I wasn’t planning on going anyway. The cars I did really want to get shots of, the Loi-Spec Integras, all left a bit early so I never got the chance to photograph them. Not too big of a deal though as I’m sure I’ll see them at a Raceline event in the near future. It probably didn’t help that the first thing we did when we go into the show was…leave the show. I couldn’t help it though; I was starving and in Little Tokyo – I needed ramen and a beer. If I were to be completely honest, it seems like the turn out wasn’t anything like the previous years; the lot was not as full, and the crowds just weren’t there. This could be for a few reasons; one being that the Infamous Hellaflush meet was being held on the same day in Long Beach, and the other being that this event seems to always be ‘up in the air’ as to whether or not there will be a next year. Why the Hellaflush meet was planned for the same day is beyond me. It seems almost suicide for the ‘scene’ to plan two huge events on the same day, 20 miles apart from one another and tear people between which to attend. Anyway, most of my shots were from later in the day as people were getting ready to leave, so I apologize if it seems strange. Click past the break for the first part of the coverage.
Event: AutoCon 2012 Los Angeles – Roll In
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When I started the drive out to Arcadia for AutoCon yesterday morning, I had been under the strange impression that media will-call was at 9am; where I got that impression and why I thought it was perfectly normal I’m still not sure. When I got to the site and saw about 400 cars waiting to be rolled in I kind of figured I had some misinformation. Well, there was nothing else to do really so I thought I’d make the most of it though and start snapping away. The route into the Santa Anita grounds is through an underground route under an overpass to the Westfield mall that’s across from the park. So I just posted up under the shade of the bridge, and did my best to avoid the already intense inland heat. I talked to Justin from AutoCon when I saw him pass through and he had no problems with me starting early. I’m typically late to car shows, so this was kind of cool for me. The roll-in process was much smoother than last year, and it seems they were much better staffed this year. Grab a cup of coffee and click past the break for the first of many Auto Connection 2012 posts.
Event: Super GT Round 2 – Throwdown at Fuji Speedway v.3
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In two weeks the Super GT teams will make their way over to Malaysia for the third Round of the series that takes place at Sepang International Circuit. So, that means I have two more weeks to show you coverage of the Fuji race! Just kidding; I have a few more shots of the race left, so I’ll throw them into this post. I also have some cool shots from qualifying that I’ll sprinkle around throughout the rest of the week. Judging by the traffic, it seems like you guys are enjoying this series. It’s really a unique race with some awesome cars – for me it was really enjoyable to watch, photograph, and now share. Hope you are enjoying it – click past the break for more .
Event: AutoCon 2011 v.2
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A little late, but it’s time for round 2 of AutoCon coverage. Let’s kick it off with this shot of Big Mike’s Prelude. The front fascia is now equipped with a molded Chargespeed lip. It looks a bit more aggressive than his previous setup, especially without the bumper lights; I really like it. The newly coated black Volks add to the upgraded look. Click past the break to see more of the show!
Event: AutoCon 2011 v.1
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I haven’t really had time to read on forums and other blogs about AutoCon because I’ve been so busy, but if I had to guess at what people are saying about it I would imagine some of the comments would be unjustly negative. People have a tendency to exaggerate things when they don’t go their way; but that’s just human nature. Anyway, aside from a few hiccups during roll-in that caused delays, I had a great time at this show. I didn’t attend last year, and had been really look forward to this one. I assumed the show would draw quite a crowd, so we showed up pretty early to have some time to shoot before gates opened at 12. Justin was great at organizing the media list, but unfortunately, due to the somewhat unorganized parking, media didn’t get to go in until general admission time. Again, not a huge deal, but it defeats the purpose of having a media list. With that said, I’d like to thank Justin and everyone else involved with Auto Connection and the cause it supports. I look forward to a bigger and better show next year – and of course, with time, things will get more organized. OK, if you’ve read this much your probably wondering why I opened with a shot of a M3. NDF is mainly Japanese, but I couldn’t help snap some shots of the German’s at this show. There were some awesome BMW builds. Click past the break for volume 1 of the coverage!
Event: D1GP お台場 Pits
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I apologize for my absence as of late. While I may have been invisible, I didn’t forget I ran a blog. In fact, I’ve been working on new graphic designs for some vinyl that will be available at the end of the month. I know I keep saying that, but I mean it this time. The more I looked at my previous designs, the less pleased I became with them. So while I toil away behind my monitor, I’ll let you soak up some eye candy at last month’s D1GP event in Odaiba. Let’s take a little walk through the pits past the break.
Event: It’s JDM Yo! 1st Anniversary Meet v.3
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The stragglers. Leftover pictures that didn’t make it into an event post. This is what you’ll get with the final It’s JDM Yo! event post. Seriously, these events are getting so big that it’s near impossible to methodically post every car that was in attendance. It’s too bad too because some really good builds go unnoticed sometimes. Anyway, I’ve been working mad 12 hour shifts at work and haven’t had anytime to dedicate to the site in awhile. I wanted to finish up with the final pictures before I go out of town once again. With that said, on with the pics.
Feature: Good Smile Racing Z4-GT
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Following up that pink Studie BMW post, I have an awesome feature on this unusual GT300 contender. The Studie built Hatsune Miku Good Smile Racing BMW Z4 (初音ミク グッドスマイル) is unique to say the least. For starters, the team’s theme is based on a character that was originally created to market Crypton Future Media’s new ‘Vocaloid’ software, a synthetic singing application that can be used to add vocals to backing music – sounds like something from a science fiction movie. Anyway, as you would imagine if you’ve been to Japan before, the character soon became overwhelmingly popular (Check this video out). The second unique feature of this team, and probably the coolest, is that it gathers it’s racing funds from individual fan donations. The individual sponsorships range between 3,000yen to 300,000yen, and allows the fans to get a chance to visit the team pit during a race, have their name on the car, get a special team sticker, and other perks. Thanks again to JDM Clips for providing coverage and information. Check out the feature past the break.
Encounter: Studie AG 3
. Can I post another BMW? At least it was tuned by a Japanese tuner. This vibrant Studie built 3 series was also spotted in the lot. Not sure about that color, but those forged […]
One Shot: BMW GT
. I know, I know, it’s not Japanese. It’s still awesome though. One of my favorite Le Mans GT cars – the M3. It’s also one of the fastest; at least in Long Beach. The […]