Snapshot:

really cool shot by Linhbergh Nguyen from Speedhunters. ASB rules.

JDM Allstars Wembley 2009: Teaser

Today I went and watched the practice and qualifying for the main event tomorrow. I had a cool day catching up with friends and had a good mooch about, checking out the impressive line up of cars that were taking part. The track layout is a vast improvement over last years set-up. It's pretty fast and allows for some nice wall kissing moments. There are some pretty huge yet smooth bumps at both the entry and final corners which are pretty entertaining. One AE86 was managing to get all four wheels off the ground in mid-transition.

I spent the best part of the day hanging out with friend of SO, Sid Crowfoot, top bloke and driver of one of the coolest cars there. Blame me for this silly picture..


"Look gangsta!" I said. Sorry dood. LOL

The qualifying runs were really showing the skill differences in the drivers and the ones having most success were driving hard and consistent. Sid was worried he was a little rusty after next-to no practice this season but put in consistent, clean, fast, smooth runs that earned him a final qualifying position of 5/6.. Can't remember exactly what it was.

The best part of the day for me were the practice sessions. With several cars out at once all hooning around it's a lot more fun.

You can see Sid and his JZX90 bunny hop over one of the huge bumps at the end of this clip.








Everyone seemed to be enjoying the day with a good track, good weather and a pretty chilled and well organised set up by the JDM Allstars crew that was getting the best out of the drivers.

More pictures and videos of the main event tomorrow.. tomorrow!
I can't wait. (Please don't rain!)

S.O. Whip: Secret seven

The FC is gone. Welcome to the shady world of the secret seven.

JDM import 735i Mtech.

Slammed on Bilstien shocks and springs.

Manual with Mtech LSD.

540i wheels.

Full leather with sports front seats.

Two 12" subs, amp and aftermarket head unit.

Smoked hella front lights.

Future plans include wider wheels, de-tango the rear lights and streeto.

Ridin dirty.

Snapshot:

Drift Documentary: We are community. We are drift.

If you are into drifting you are sure to have stumbled upon and enjoyed one of Luke's videos. There are a few guys out there making some really great promo videos, Joshua Herron, Will Roegge and Clashproductions, immediately spring to mind. Luke however is pushing things that little bit further.

Passion. The word is a pet hate of mine. It gets thrown around and so watered down it's rarely used to describe anyone worthy. Luke however has it.. In shed loads. For the love of his life, Drifting and it's community within.

Your heart, like mine may have sunk a little after reading Matt's report below of his experience at the recent round of EDC. You start to wonder if people actually still get what drifting is and why they are doing it. Some drivers over here, obsessing with getting stickered up with sponsors and forever winging about having no money.. For fucks sake! Get the spanners out, see your friends, fix you car.. and learn how to drive it! Sorry. It's not like me to rant but, Jeeeeezus! Where was I? Oh yeah.. Passion. And Luke. He has it and "get's it." I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of his project. If his preview videos are anything to go by, it's going to be truely awesome.








You can see more of his work here, read his Running Life blog here and get all gooey inside reading about the project here.

Keep it up Luke.

EDC Rd 5 Santa pod: The good, the bad and some more bad.

I got a shout last Friday asking if I was going to Santa Pod for the fifth round of EDC as the Driftworks crew were there in force as Bonbon was doing the round as a one off. I'll be honest, I don't really keep up-to-date with EDC so I didn't even realise it was on! The event was mixed in with Rotorstock, the UK's biggest Mazda show, so I thought, why not! and headed down early sat morning in the FC. After meeting up with the DW crew and Gunni there was time for a walk around the show and to get a seat ready for the main event.

There were only 21 cars at the event sadly so all were put through to the twin battle, except one driver when had to borrow an AE86 for the weekend as he'd blown his 12th engine in his drift spec R32 GTR. He couldn't get to grips with the 86 so pulled out.

In practice both DW cars, frenchy in the Touge Heroes/Dragon FD, Pete Barber in his FD and Brett Castle in his S14 were doing five car trains. It was awesome to watch as they were just messing around and having fun, how it should be!

The Touge Heroes/Dragon FD has a new paint and graphics scheme which was chosen from a design comp held on Driftworks which anyone could enter. Luke, writer of the excellent blog Running Life put forward the winning design.

I really like the look of the car and it gets driven really hard. Although not sure on the rear hatch cover.

Polo, who I'm sure has been at every event on the mainland so far this year, was showing off his mega steering lock mods.

I really wasnt impressed with EDC. There weren't enough cars and apart from the top few cars, the driving standard wasn't really good enough. It seems alot of EDC licences have been given out because of a lack of cars in the event rather than keeping standards up, either that or I missed the promotion on Coco pops when they came free with every box. The track was also really poor. It had a fast sweeping corner which lead to a couple of really tight corners, which everyone was calling "technical". I really don't like it when really slow corners get labled as "technical." They aren't. They are just slow and boring and dont allow the cars much room to move or keep an advantage gained else where on the track. The track layout could have been so much better and normally is at the DWYB practice days held at Pod. The driver intro went on for a life time too.

There was some awesome battles between the top drivers and Royal was doing some great entrys in practice, using baller flick to enter the first corner!

With BDC getting better and better with each round and Prodrift being head and shoulders above everything, I think EDC really needs to step up its game or its not going to be around for much longer because overall the EDC event was a massive disappointment. I'd really advise people to go to a Prodrift or BDC round if they can as its so much better. Prodrift 1st, BDC 2nd, JDM allstars always and EDC if you can get in for free.. and its not to far from your house.. and you've got nothing better to do.

The highlight of the show for me, and alot of others, was this drag toyota hilux! It's been fitted with a V8, drag wheels, fuel cell and a ford 9inch axle.

There were a couple of really nice Cosmos at the show. I'd love one of these for a daily driver.

Topi was at there in his Nissan President lowrider, pimpest car ever? I recon!

A day of highs and lows, great to catch up with alot of people but I'm not sure I'll be at another EDC event anytime soon.

Snapshot:

There's a lot right with this picture.. and the blog that it comes from, NORIYARO. It's definitely one of our favourites to follow. Ace pics and well written. Check it out if you haven't before.

Lowness: a terrible disease

If you're infected like I am, you find yourself endlessly typing on car forums "you just need to lower it a bit more" or "more low!" or "fucking hell mate! you going for 4x4 spec or what!?" you hear yourself spouting useless phrases to your friends as they show a face of concern at the noise coming from the bottom of your car when they catch a ride with you "if you're not scraping.. you're not trying" you say, with a demented grin on your face.

But there is something incredibly satisfying and ultimately badass about a car with the proper ride height and wheel fitment. To the point where a car can be a rusty ratty shit heap and still out cool anything shiny and expensive parked next to it. Hell! There's websites out there like Hellaflush, Rimtuck and Wheelwhores dedicated purely to this ultimately foolish pursuit. So take solace that there are plenty of sufferers just like you out there.

Some say there is a magic formula.. Wheel rims flush with the wheel's arch, ample tyre stretch and at least 1/3 of your tyre side wall tucked..

(my own pic no less. D1 visiting Silverstone 200oanssomething.. 6 I think. Yeah. I was there bitches.. and the year before. Cue dorky fan picture)



Anyway.. The easy way for me to tell if the car/height/fitment is right is that it doesn't make me itch. There's no niggly voice in the back of my brain saying "it's just not quite right.. if only it was a little more.." none of that. just silence and a warm feeling of satisfaction.

So I present to you a collection of photos and cars that in my opinion appease the ill effected. Find peace and tranquillity in the following. Perhaps return here for nourishment after any particularly itchy car of fail cake ride height you may find on your internet travels.



(more about that very special car soon)

and I'll sneak in some euro goodness too me thinks.


ahhhh all better ^_^ that was a good fix.