One of the issues that was preventing us from going quicker in the ISF build (aside from my driving) were the soft spring rates of the KW V3 coilovers. Much of it had to do with the softer, more comfortable nature that is inherent in the V3, but we at least needed to try and alleviate some of the negative side effects of that on track.
After an arduous and rather busy off season, we’re finally back behind the wheel of the ISF for more testing. Scaling up the company this past year had unfortunately pushed this project down on the list of priorities, but we’re excited to be able to post some updates again.
We last updated the Koyorad x NDF ISF project in late January after some testing at Chuckwalla Raceway. In the past 2 months, the car has undergone some pretty drastic, albeit, unseen modifications in our quest to tweak the ISF into the car it should have been from the factory.
This past Friday, the team headed out to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway to drive the Club Racer open test day that took place over the whole of the weekend. Two days of open track was great for dialing in the ISF and I was able to collect more baseline data before the next round of modifications.
Back in June, after several months of owning the car, I introduced the new ISF project and sort of explained the direction I’d be taking the car. After a short Summer hiatus, I’ve accumulated a little more data, or what I’d think is at least is enough, to post an update.
Despite it’s pivotal role in guiding Lexus towards an evolutionary trajectory of car design, the ISF was a project that was often forsaken in favor of it’s European competitors. However, with over a decade since its initial release, many enthusiasts are finally realizing just how special this car really is.
Over the past few months, while we’ve all been confined to our immediate places of residence, I’ve had the unique opportunity to devote some time to this new (sort of) project of mine; the NDF ISF.
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Adam Mao; the owner of the GS300 you see here. Adam, a very easy going and very talented young guy, was nice enough to meet […]
Last week, while I was up in the bay, I stopped by San Jose to take a couple snaps of Adam’s 2JZ Aristo. Check for the full set soon. I apologize for the lack of […]
This past weekend I flew up to the Bay area to photograph Dino’s Corolla. We were strapped for time on Saturday evening, so we agreed to meet up again to finish up some interior […]
This past week AJ from Risky Devil made the drive across country to hang out on the West coast for a little while. Friday night, before the 626 Drift event at Balcony, some of us […]
It was bad news to hear about the Kazama D1 car getting stolen just prior to this event, but good to see that the team doesn’t give up so easily. Regardless of the bad […]
As you’re all aware of now Tokyo Auto Salon 2013 has come and gone this pass weekend and, as usual, there were a few gems that stood out amongst the halls of Makuhari Messe. My […]
…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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A few weeks ago Super GT held the final official test day for the 2012 season. The venue; Twin Ring Motegi. While the majority of the teams set out to gather data for the upcoming […]
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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.
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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.
. New wallpaper available of the ZENT GT500 SC430 at Fuji Speedway in scene – click here to go to the desktop page to see it in high resolution. .
. Eneos GT500 Lexus SC430 | Fuji Speedway .
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It’s almost been a week since Wekfest LA, and I’ve just about wrapped up all my coverage. I’m going to try and squeeze everything I’ve got into this final post – so it’s going to be massive. I went ballistic on this one so, by far, you’ll see the most diversity in cars throughout this post. I’ve also included another slideshow gallery at the bottom for the masses. Hope you see your car! Also, if you want some special VIP only coverage of the show, check out our friends down under at Street-Cover. I supplied them with a few shots to help spread the Wek love over in Australia. You should probably check the site out anyway because it’s pretty rad. Again, special thanks goes out to all those at Weksos Industries involved in organizing such a massive tour, as well as the city of Long Beach for being cooperative. Let’s just jump right into the coverage. You know the drill – click the break for more.
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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 .
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We continue the coverage of Super GT Round 2 from about the middle of the race. By now I had wandered myself around the better half of the track and started making my way back to the paddock area to get something to eat. While doing so, I managed to miss the massive crash of the Art Taste Porsche driven by Tim Bergmeister that ended up sending him to the hospital. I’m not sure if he had a puncture in one of his tires that threw him off, or if it was a driver error, but the accident was pretty horrific. This delayed the race for a good 30 minutes while they cleaned up and got the car off-track. It didn’t take long though for the GT cars to start up at full throttle again. Click past the break to check out more racing action from Fuji Speedway.
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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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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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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!
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With the hype surrounding Lexus’ LFA slowly dying out, it’s easy to forget just how bad ass this car really is. I was happy to run into the 2012 model at the LA Auto Show last week, so I decided to put up this shot and an accompanying spec sheet with all the little details about the car we all drool over. Click past the break for the breakdown that will melt your face off…
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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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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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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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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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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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Race day – it truly is special. As the purpose built machines line the grid, the quiet idling of their hungry engines a deceiving tone. Just minutes before the red lights go out; the exhaust notes scream held back only by the bouncing rev limiter of the launch control. The paddock thick with anxiety. The rivalry, the tension, the noise and drama. As the green flags drop the machinery comes to life, and a torrent of power is unleashed across the asphalt. Exciting right!? But there is a lot that goes into getting everyone into position on time. Our friends at JDM Clips got some great behind the scene shots in and around the Pit area of the first Super GT round at Fuji Speedway. Click past the break to check it out!
JDM Clips comes through again with some great media of the Eneos SC430 Endurance GT Racer. We’ve all driven this car at one point in time…right? Well, in Gran Turismo at least. So you already know how awesome it is. This car is unique in many ways, especially because of the rarity of the platform in racing. You don’t often see SC430’s competing in organized motorsports. I can only think of the other 4 which competed in GT500 also. So, if you haven’t driven it, and don’t know how awesome it is, click past the break and I will tell you.
