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July 27, 2009
Formula D Las Vegas, Through the Lens of the MotorMavens
Antonio Alvendia
The latest round of the Formula Drift Championship took place this past weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was sooooo incredibly hot in Las Vegas this past weekend; the Formula D teams had to work hard to make sure the drivers remained hydrated enough to perform at peak levels (last year, I remember seeing one of the drivers pass out because of the intense heat inside the car).
As a member of the media with a trackside photo pass, I remember being extremely uncomfortable because of Formula D safety rules requiring us to wear long pants instead of shorts at the track. However, just think about what the drivers must be feeling like – wearing full fire suits and Nomex underwear and HELMETS, sitting inside hot cars without air conditioning; with hot metal roofs working like a broiler due to the lack of headliners and insulation in a professional drift car.
Nevertheless, the crowd at Formula D remained upbeat and excited, due to the level of driving prowess they were treated to. Vegas drift fans are hardcore! Regardless of the heat, these fans were down to sit outside in the stands, sweating and cheering as their favorite professional drifters slid past them, dousing the grandstands in a bath of tire dust.
Continue reading how Formula D Brings Heat to Vegas
CLICK HERE for more MotorMavens Coverage of Formula D Las Vegas (Stories, photos, and videos)
July 26, 2009
Angry Goes West: Day 1
By Mike Musto
RideLust.com
The first leg of our cross country journey is now coming to an end, which is good… cause’ I’m really flippin’ tired. We hit the road Saturday morning at 7 am and drove 467 miles to Akron, Ohio. Thankfully the Charger ran like a top and according to our GPS, we had an average speed of 81.6 mph. Not to bad for a a 41 year old muscle car. Gas mileage, as predicted sucked. We pulled a pretty consistent 10-11 mpg cruising the old 440 at 3000 rpm.
Continue reading after the jump!
Redline Attacks Time in Nashville
By John Naderi
StreetFire.net
Are you from Tennessee? We rolled into to Nashville to check out round four of the Redline Time Attack. The stage was set for a big battle between two very different Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions: the Evo 8 of Sierra Sierra Enterprises and the AMS Performance Evo X. We’ll bring you a full video on StreetFire.net later on the week and I’ll have a more complete blog entry with more stories from the weekend. Until then here is a quick rundown. Mark Daddio reigned supreme in the AMS Evo X with a scorching 1:01.296 good for U AWD gold and the overall. Hit the jump to see how Sierra Sierra ran as well as Christian Rado and his Fwing’d Scion tC.
Pink Dragon
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
The paint on this Silverado blew me away. Check out Marco’s ride page for more pics.
July 25, 2009
Hardcore Yaris
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
The guys at Kaminari did an amazing job with this little Yaris. See their ride page for more pics and details!
July 24, 2009
Angry Goes West
By Mike Musto
RideLust.com
Well, it’s time. The Charger is packed, stickered-up and ready to rock and roll. We leave tomorrow morning at 6am. This will be the third time in three years that I’ve driven this old sled across the United States. Coming with me is my good buddy Johnny “The Wrench” Sigismondi. Some of you may recall hearing his name a few weeks ago when we ran the 24 Hours of LeMons in the 1963 Covair. Johnny’s the one who build it and got it to run like a Swiss watch.
Continue reading after the jump!
Munich Evolution's BMW M1
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
When Matt at Munich Evolution told us he was getting the BMW M1 that John blogged about last year, we knew we had to check it out. This is a one-of-a-kind 1979 M1 coach built by Spezialkarosserien in Germany for the former Prime Minister of Qatar. It’s got flared fenders, a big rear wing and a front spoiler from the race spec M1 Pro Cars. It also has a wild custom pearl white paint job with the BMW M tri-colors. And of course it has some custom BBS Racing wheels.
So we just got back from driving, taking photos and shooting video. We’ll have the video ready in a week or so, but for now, here are the pics. It’s got old tires and we were just in the park near the zoo, so we didn’t get too crazy with it. But man, what a car!
More pics after the jump!
Seattle Formula D August 7-8
By Ryan Porter
IN-N-OUT Editor
We hate to admit it, but we don’t get out to as many of the Formula D stops as we’d like. But we definitely make it out to Evergreen Speedway every time FD comes to town. Last year Rob and I walked the pits and hung out with Bob from Drift Office. This year John Naderi will be joining us, so it should be nothing less than a good time. If you are around the Seattle area, we hope to see you at Formula D!
If you need some tickets, PM me as to why I should give you a pair of tickets and I’ll give away a couple sets.
Burnout Fail
By Rob Einaudi
Editor-in-Chief
New Camaro owner attempts burnout, wrecks, and gets arrested. Doh! Via Jalopnik
Japanese Widebody Mercedes-Benzes
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
VITT is a rarely discussed Japanese tuner with a penchant for producing widebody Mercedes-Benz street and show cars. Since widebody Benzes are hard to come by already and JDM tuned Benzes are even rarer, I thought it would be a unique topic to share here.
VITT also produces various other tuning parts for Mercedes to accompany their aero parts for a full conversion. As expected from JDM VIP style tuning, VITT uses wide three piece rims with stretched tires to complete the aggressive look.
I must say that although I appreciate what they are doing, I don’t think they’ve quite hit any home runs as far as design goes. I wouldn’t say any of their design is bad, but for a commitment as big as a widebody is (both the produce and to buy/install) I’d like to hope that it would be something spectacular. Their newer stuff like this CL widebody below is seeming to improve a bit over their older widebodies. I like the lines of the rear fender and rear bumper on the CL, there are some nice design concepts in there.
Continue reading after the jump!
