By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Thinking back on this summer’s epic All Star Bash weekend, I’ve begun to come to the conclusion that it just might have been the best American grassroots drifting event that I’ve ever been to in my whole life. Now THAT is a pretty strong statement – especially when you’ve been to as many grassroots drifting events in different states as I have. Of course, one of the things that naturally attracts me to the All Star Bash is the presence of some pretty awesome cars, most of which are S13s and S14s.

However, there was a certain non S-chassis that caught my attention – it was a white R32 Nissan Skyline with license plates from Washington state. It wasn’t until the end of the last day of All Star Bash that I met the owner of this car – Jon Jaffe from Washington’s own Team Instant Party. When we spoke at Willow Springs, it was hot, so I just gave him props on his car and a couple stickers, and went on my way.

Fast forward about a month – on my way back from the Formula D Seattle trip, BN Sports Raymond and I found ourselves chillin out in Bothell, Washington with Instant Party driver Roland Gallagher and his dad. On the day I was supposed to return to Los Angeles, I asked Raymond if we could stop by Roland’s house on the way to the airport so I could check out his car really quick and say what’s up. Shortly after we arrived at Roland’s house, Jon took a break from his workday to come over and say hello. Perfect timing. I wanted to get a closer look at his Skyline anyway! Continue reading and view more photos at MotorMavens!

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

It’s been an extremely busy week for those of us working on the Motor Mavens site! We’re all making lots of steps toward positive growth for the site, which is exciting! This past weekend, Travis Hodges and I went out to the IDRC Finals at the AAA Auto Club Dragway in Fontana CA. We thought it would be interesting to show a little bit of drag racing content on the site, since our site is just so populated with drifting content all the time (not that it’s a bad thing!).

Fontucky was extremely hot while we were there; the sun and Southern Cali fires weren’t helping matters at all, burning through our sunscreen like a magnifying glass being held over ants. If you’re interested in play by play bracketed info on all the classes, you’ll need to check an upcoming copy of DSPORT Magazine. However, if you’re like us and you just want to check out the cars at the event, please read on!  Continue reading and view more photos at MotorMavens

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

You don’t have to have a Harvard MBA to realize that “more” is the four-letter word that drives the exotic supercar market. More power. More speed. More sex appeal. More exclusivity. And, let’s get real: when folks slide into the driver’s seat of an exotic, many of them wind up needing more room — for their egos. So what’s up with the latest-and-greatest Lamborghini Gallardo?

As its numeric designation indicates, the new 550-horsepower LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni gives up 10 ponies to the reigning mainstream model, the Gallardo LP 560-4. (Lucky you, if you’re in a tax bracket where a $233,000 car is mainsteam.) The 550-2 takes a couple tenths longer to sprint from zero to 62 mph (3.9 seconds vs. 3.7). The Baboni Gallardo even comes up short in the top speed department: 199 mph vs. a hair under 202 for the 560-4.

If this all sounds, well, backward, no one at Lamborghini will argue with you. If fact Valentino Balboni himself is the first to agree, because the car that bears his name is about going back — to basics. Basic, in this case, being rear-wheel-drive like the Countach and Miura.

Continue reading and view more photos at MOTORMAVENS.Com

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

This has been an extremely busy weekend for the Motor Mavens crew in Southern Cali. Travis Hodges and I went out to bake in the sun at the IDRC Season Finale at Fontucky Dragway (aka Auto Club Dragway/California Speedway) all day Saturday. We’ll show you some of what we captured at IDRC soon enough, but first I wanted to shine a light on a special event that took place today (Sunday) at Irwindale Speedway.

Even though I was still exhausted and burnt from our skin cancerous Saturday in Fontana, I somehow dragged myself out of bed and prepared my camera gear for yet another day at the track. While I found it extremely hard to pry myself from the ice cold air conditioning blasting throughout my house, I reminded myself that I made a commitment to show up. My friend Luke Pakula kept dropping me friendly reminders about the event the Slide Assassins guys were throwing at Irwindale Speedway, so I wanted to come through and show support of their event, on behalf of the Motor Mavens crew.

After all, the Motor Mavens movement is all about supporting grassroots drifting! Everyone on our team does their best to show how much we genuinely care about the scene by being out there as much as we possibly can. Actions speak louder than words, so hopefully people will notice that our site doesn’t only cover the big events like Formula D and All Star Bash… Motor Mavens shows love by shining a light on some of the smaller events as well. And luckily for us, some of the grassroots drifters have been showing us love back!

We just can’t tell you enough how much it means to us when we see people showing their support of the site by rocking our stickers on their cars, by leaving comments on our blog posts, by reposting our links onto different forums, blogs, Facebook and Twitter pages! It is especially means a lot to us when people voice their support when they see us at events. We love that people appreciate our site, because we put a whole lot of heart and hard work into it! Continue reading and view more photos at MotorMavens.

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

With VIP style cars so popular these days, it seems that everyone in Southern Cali always sees slammed Lexus GS and LS bodies with big wheels… It’s even common to see Infiniti Q45s with VIP treatment pretty frequently nowadays. However, it’s not often that we see a Y34 body style VIP Infiniti M45, which only came out between 2003 and 2005. The Y34 has got to be the coolest M45 ever made. Ever.

VIP originated with Japanese Yakuza members modifying their cars with dish rims, clean body kits, and limo tint. Anytime a Yakuza boss rolled down the street you would know to get out of the way! Justin Wu, the owner of this particular 2003 M45 may not be a Yakuza boss, but he definitely is gangster, and here’s why. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens.

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

I know, I know. Some of you have been dying to see our next installment of Nisei Week coverage, but it’s been hard to sit down and organize my photos because I’ve been so slammed with meetings over the past few days. It’s true, Motor Mavens was a grassroots effort that was started by a few close friends, but we are working night and day to bring you new content, broaden our reach and let everyone know about the site. We need help! We’re growing at such an alarming rate, it’s honestly quite overwhelming… if anyone is down to help the cause, please hit us up at motormavens(at)gmail.com!

But back to our unfinished story about Nisei Showoff, perhaps the thing that most impressed and surprised me was the sheer number of good offset Hondas that made their way to Little Tokyo to represent. These aggressive offset, slammed Hondas are dope as hell. In my opinion, these cars inject new enthusiasm and excitement to the Honda scene, and the Japanese car scene in Southern California overall. Hopefully the days of FR guys hating on Hondas and FF drivers are gone… I personally have nothing but respect for these guys. Their style is fresh and innovative, and all I can say is… it’s about freakin time! The Southern Cali Honda guys have now joined the aggressive offset movement, and hopefully the path has now been paved for the rest of the country… please take notes, kids!

Regarding the photo below, make a decision. The stance or the girl, which one would you choose? Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

We’ve had mega coverage of the Pacific Northwest’s incredible drift scene lately, so how ’bout a stroll down the path less traveled with some Olde World European classics? These are cars you won’t see hanging their tails out in a wall-scraping slide, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less fascinating. To find them, we had to hop onto one of Washington’s many state ferry boats and hitch a ride to Whidbey Island, about an hour north of Seattle and home of Simpson Design. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Continuing our MotorMavens coverage with more images from Seattle, I think we should put the Top 32 drivers and points standings aside right now so we can all focus on the real reason why this year’s trip to Seattle got me so hyped. The Pacific Northwest has a really strong grassroots drifting scene, and the Evergreen Pro Am really stood up to the hype, or lack thereof. That’s right, I said lack – I don’t think these Pro Am drivers get enough attention.

Pro Am drivers are the unsung heroes of professional drifting. Most of these guys don’t have any sponsors to help with travel or car building expenses. Many don’t even have much coveted tire sponsorships. However, they persistently and repeatedly show up time and time again to all the track events, paying their dues and showing what they’re made of.

It just so happens that the Evergreen Pro Am drivers impressed me; not just because of their hard work and dedication to drifting, but because their cars have style… and it’s the cars that get me hyped. I think I’ve seen enough stripped out ghetto built, busted up drift cars to last a lifetime. So let’s shine a light on the cars and drivers of the Evergreen Pro Am. This is real drifting! Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

I’m still sorting through all the photos I took during my trip to Seattle… believe me, there were A LOT. However, I thought I’d just take a brief detour from the Formula D action to showcase some of the cars I saw at the event, which really clue you in on how dope the Pacific Northwest cars are. I just don’t understand how people can sleep on the scene up there so much! All the big car magazines and media sites seem to only focus on Southern Cali, but those of us who have traveled all over the world can tell you that the Northwest has style!!! Tons of it. Let’s take a look! Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

I’m sure many of you have been waiting for my photos and stories from Formula D Seattle, so I apologize to our readers for uploading these kind of late. It’s been a pretty hectic weekend. There was plenty of drama at Formula D on Saturday, and I apparently added to it by pissing off the Formula D safety steward while grabbing a quick shot of Dai Yoshihara’s smashed Lexus IS350 as it was getting loaded up onto a tow truck and pulled off the track.
It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, the Formula D/SCCA guy Randy Hembrey got pissed off at me and pulled my hard card on Saturday (competition day), which allows me to get track access for shooting photos. This was definitely a problem, as I was expected to produce good images that weekend (I was shooting the event for clients, who helped pay my way to get up to Seattle). I had a hell of a time trying to get photos for the rest of the day, especially without access to the hot areas, but I still managed to get some photos somehow. So here it is… Formula D Seattle through my eyes. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens