Tag: Fatlace

Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Slammed Society x Fatlace Car Show – Long Beach v.1

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Like I had said in my previous post, I hadn’t planned on going to Formula D, and I really didn’t plan on inquiring about a media pass (although from the looks of it I probably should have!).  So, to say I was lucky I got in would be an understatement.  I didn’t get many great shots of the actual tandem runs because the track was pretty well fenced off and the parts that you could have possibly shot through had huge banners covering it.  That, and my zoom lens is a piece of shit.  Seriously, worst lens ever.  I don’t even know why I bother lugging it around.  It’s OK though because I have another new prime on the way – a must for the Super GT & Taikyu races I’ll be shooting soon.  Anyway, there was some serious down-time in between rounds so I had some good opportunities to snap the show that was going on in the parking lot.  Every year Slammed Society and Fatlace put on a car show concurrent with the Formula D event.  I never really bothered with it all the other times I went to Formula D here, but since there was nothing else to do I decided to check it out.  There was the usual mix of awesome and not so awesome cars.  I did get a chance to meet up with a few people, and make friends with some new faces which was great.  Take a closer look at the show past the break.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Feature: Thunder Drift IS400 – 2012 Build Progress

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For those of you who are regulars of NDF, this Lexus (…is that what this is?) will be a familiar site to you.  It belongs to Joe McGuigan and is in the process of quite the transformation.  If you’re not familiar with what Joe does, check this out.   If you aren’t familiar with what he does it with, check this out.  Last year, Joe ran Thunder Drift with the stock 2JZ; underpowered to say the least.  Well, as you can see, things have changed.  With the 2012 season approaching and new targets in his site, he’s decided to ditch the OEM power in favor of some V8 juice!  Check out more of the 1UZ swap progress past the break.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest 2012 – Fort Mason, San Francisco v.3

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By now I’m sure there is extensive coverage of this show up on every forum, blog, and auto site across the entire internet – so let me first thank you for sticking with NDF.  There are a grip of sites out there to get content from, but I want you to know that, although new, NDF is here to stay.  From where we are now, we can only get better.  So I’ve gone through hundreds of photos and it looks like I still have two or three posts left for this show.  Most car shows I just breeze through because I end up seeing the same stuff over and over; but since I don’t go to shows in the Bay area that often (I don’t go to care shows that often anyway; although I may attend more than I think!), I really got to see a lot of different things not from So-Cal.  Enough with the talk, let’s get into some more coverage!  I got some interesting stuff in this post, so click past the break for part three of NDF goes to Wekfest SF.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest 2012 – Fort Mason, San Francisco v.1

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According to the internet, there are currently around 800,000 or so people living in San Francisco; I think roughly half of them were at Fort Mason this past Sunday to attend Wekfest.  Yes, that is a gross exaggeration, but the Weksos crew did manage to more than oversell the show.  The massive following the show has garnered over the years resulted in an attendance number much larger than what was expected; so large in fact that the police and fire departments had to refuse entry to some people due to fire code regulations – which was obviously out of the hands of the organizers.  Other than that, from the eyes of a photographer, this show was unbelievable.  The venue is by far the coolest I’ve been to, the lighting is great, the people are all awesome, and the selection of cars was really well thought out.  Before I start the coverage I’d like to say thank you to the guys at Weksos and everyone one else involved in the organization of this show – something as large as this isn’t easy to pull off, and the hard work is appreciated.  Click past the break to kick this off.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Feature: The San Mateo Terror – TD Pro Am Lexus IS300

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The one thing that continues to amaze me in this industry is the amount of great, down to earth people there are.  No matter the discipline, whether you’re a driver, a spectator, a mechanic, or involved in media coverage, it just seems hard to come across a person you won’t get along with.  Case in point; Joe McGuigan.  Joe drifts in the Thunder Drift: Pro Am series here in Northern California.  The series basically serves as a gateway for amateur drivers looking to get into national series like Formula D.  As this season comes to an end, Joe is already looking to next year where, with an all new engine setup, will be shooting for his Formula D license.  Let’s take a closer look at his weapon of choice past the break.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Encounter: Drift Prepped IS300

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I flew up to San Francisco on Tuesday to visit with a few friends and visit for a few days.  I hadn’t been back to Nor-Cal for years now, and it was nice to get back to my roots.  On the way back to the airport, just before the 101, I saw this IS come rolling up next to us, so I grabbed the cam real quick and snapped some shitty pics of it.  Turned out to be Joe McGuigan’s ProAm built Altezza.  I thought it was a pretty cool catch.  Click past the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.3

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I might as well just dive into part three of Wekfest coverage.  This post is going to have a lot of Honda’s, and a lot of S2000’s – as if that were a bad thing.  I was pretty surprised at the amount that were in attendance, and all of them were awesome.  By this point I pretty much lost all determination to cover this show in an organized fashion, so most of these will appear scattered.  Enjoy.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.2

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Let’s get on with some more Wekfest LA coverage from Long Beach, CA.  I ended up writing this entire post before I even wrote the introduction.  I never know how to start off the second part of event coverage.  This second part has a huge variety of cars, which is pretty cool, but it made it look kind of sloppy.  The grass section was gigantic and hard to cover methodically, so my pictures are a bit scattered.  At this point I was also running purely on Red Bull and Skittles, so it’s likely that I got a little sidetracked. Oh well, enjoy.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.1

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Up until Friday I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to attend Wekfest LA.  Requesting days off isn’t as easy as it used to be with my new position.  Somehow, last minute, I managed to get my shift covered; so what did I do?  That’s right – I went to Las Vegas.  Good idea right?  I hopped on a flight out of LAX Saturday afternoon, chilled on the Strip for 10 hours, and made my way back to Long Beach in time to shoot Wekfest.  Well, it turns out it wasn’t such a good idea.  I ended up losing way more than I intended, got no sleep, and smelled like cigarettes all day.  I gotta say though, Wekfest more than made up for it.  On top of that, it was probably the most beautiful day in Long Beach this year.  Unbelievable cars, good food, music, friends and great weather; can’t ask for much more.  I’ll  do my best to try and walk you through the show a little before I go ballistic with the pics.  Click past the break for more.

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