Got out of dodge for a night last weekend and spent some time exploring Big Bear with a couple buddies.

Had a great trip down to Leon, Mexico last month to do some driving for a Hotwheels event with the International Allstars. The event was great (and hot) and the Hotwheels drivers put on a good show. Pictures can always tell better stories than I can, so on with the good:

Up to no good in the Orange Circle again, these two. The funny part is the pedal bike is way faster off the line.

This popped into my email today:

“The biz card you made me just won me free flamebroiler.

I dropped the card in & the girl liked the design and said it’d be easy to pick out next time she did the drawing. I guess good design = free food”

Mark it off the bucket list: drive on the beach and camp out for the night.

My sister Mandy outdid herself this time.

The look on the cashiers gave tells it all

Extreme Autofest down at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego last weekend was tons of fun as expected. The car show was HUGE! The other drivers were great: the Slide Society boys down from Mexico, Bigwave Dave, Moe, Darren, Note, Melissa, Jason, and the guys from Arizona. As with any successful event, preparation by the crew chief Pat Ardon was key to making the car run as well as it did:

Pat spent some time with the car down at 5Zigen before the event to ensure it would run as perfect as it did

Keeping a high-performance motor like the MX5′s Cosworth 2.3L running perfectly takes a meticulous attention to detail.

After we showed up at the are designated to have some fun, we had to unload all the goods (and 3D glasses?) from our trucks.

First thing to do after unloading the car is walk the course…

Darren, Moe, and Dave gave me a quick tour of the gymkhana-esque cone course that they set up the previous day. Dave is flexing in this picture.

These guys are just out to have some fun!

and fun we had! The Mazda MX5 was excellent as always. The Allstars really know how to put on a show.

These dapper dudes (Moe, Darren, and Dave) were killing it ALL DAY! The s13 boys were impressive with how much they could do on low power and the sound of Dave’s car has still been haunting me. I need a 1J something!

After a couple ride-alongs with the folks that were putting together a little TV pilot we called it a day

Special Thanks go out to:
Team Allstars
BF Goodrich
Motul
Yoshi at 5Zigen Wheels
Mazda
Pat Ardon
Extreme Autofest
AutoWorld Magazine
Hiromi for lending out the car she usually drives (mine is currently a frankenstein!) 

and to my best friend… Costco Pizza.

A couple pics from my trip out to Buena Park Raceway with Annie, Doug an Darren. What a blast!

Does my FJ look a whole lot classier by proximity thanks to this beautiful piece of English machinery?

Picking up a new DMax hood for the Levin. Spotted their super cool JGTC supra in the back

Was out at El Toro filming STILLEN’s 370Z today at work, I’ll post up the video and some shots when they’re done, but for now I give you an FJ on the horizon

I picked up my latest Corolla project on Memorial day. The plan is for it to be the last in the long line of Corollas I’ve put together. Something good for some fun on the street, reliable enough to drive on Sundays and to make it to the track and back.

Wheels on the car were flat and it was a non-runner so these are coming along to help us get up on the trailer easier

As it goes with picking any project up, we hit a few road blocks.

But we eventually made it there in one piece. This was the first time towing with the FJ, and it felt great. I’m getting a feeling this truck will have a lot more non-streetable cars in its rear view mirrors in the future. You can see the car tucked away in the corner there where it’s been uncovered for the past 2 years.

Naturally things were a bit dirty inside. The ITB setup is run by an oldschool HKS F-Con. And yes–there’s socks and paper towels stuffed into the velocity stacks. Yikes!

I thought this was cool too. This is part of my windshield from the old S13 I ran in Formula D. The good parts of that car have since been transplanted into a new chassis that I have out in storage.

Filling up the ever-thirsty FJ on the way home. I can’t wait to get some paint on this car and get it running.

Special thanks to Andrew and Darren for coming out to help load it up.

Just about the most heart warming thing I’ve ever seen. Sounds great too. Isn’t it amazing what these guys do with vocals only?

I couldn’t help but stop and stare/drool/snap a picture of this gold Camaro when I went by the hobby store earlier to pick up some paint. The guy came out as I was taking a picture and we talked for a few minutes.. cool car, awesome dude. Enjoy:

Big thanks to my friend Dave for letting me take his little red Gem for a spin. My ears have never been happier. How great does this car look with the 360 wheels?

at Angels Stadium!

like America’s past time..

While out having some fun at Holy Jim in Trabuco Canyon with Darren, he caught my rear locker saving me from some real annoyance on his Go Pro attached to his Titan. Making this post also made me realize Seesaw is easier to less awkward to spell/look at than Teeter Totter.

Last month I picked up an ’08 FJ Cruiser in Sandstorm Tan and have been loving it. It’s opened up a lot of (out)doors for adventuring.. in stock trim it’s handled plenty of dirt and rocks just fine.. next week

Member #20892 in the Land Cruiser Association

I found this kickass Thermo/Humidity guy in downtown Orange today at one of the antique shops. Love the type/wood!

Headed out to Grange with the nice folks at Allstars for a little filming early last week and had a great time!

The cars that ended up out on the little track looked great in the freezing cold weather. Clockwise from far right: Hurst Challenger, Dave’s SC300, Victor’s S13, and the Allstars MX5

This Microbus looked pretty ratty and cool but had its windows frosted up… temps were low enough to fill some of the cracks on the track with ICE!

Early and cold, no thanks.

as the day picked up we got to do a little driving.. (video after the jump) in the Cosworth Powered MX5 and..

This gorgeous Hurst Challenger that Evan and Regis brought out for some filming… what a blast! Over 500 supercharged horsepower, Eibach Suspension and an open track…. this car straight kicked ass.

More photos and hopefully video coming down the pipeline soon.. and I”ll post them as they come!

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently got the opportunity to do some design on a new medium–the Hyundai Genesis Coupe.  At STILLEN (where I happily spend the better part of my day) I was recently asked to play with a few ideas for the front lip on the Genesis Coupe.  Front start to finish it was a fun process to watch, and while I can’t share every detail about how it was done, I can share a few–along with some pictures:

after the initial sketches were drilled down to the best concept.. that concept was cleaned up and sent out to the modeling room and the extremely talented modelers who would take that 2D idea

into a 3D reality. Very cool.

After completing the driver’s side, the lip is duplicated over to the passenger side

…and voila! You have a cooler looking Hyundai!

To read the full post, check out the blog over at STILLEN’s website.

If you’re interested in picking up this lip for your Genesis Coupe, give them a call! It’s in the final stages of production and the mold is currently being created.

Further discussion at GenCoupe.com

The Team Allstars MX-5 that I drive is on display over at K1 Speed in Ontario right now, so if you’re in Ontario grab a race and check the car out!

http://www.k1speed.com/ontario-location.html

http://www.teamallstars.com

Forgot to post these up in a timely manner.. hit CA speedway last month on the Roval course for Mazfest.  Great event! Lots of mazdas

Pat had the cars running great, 5Zigen had them looking good with their new wheels..

Driving the Roval was tons of fun, it was my first time out on the big banks of this course, and it was nice and comfy to get back into the infield where I had some more experience.

Unfortunately though, the cars had some heating issues so while the big bank was fun, I had to take it a little easy as I kept seeing the water temp climb to ridiculously high levels.

After we came back in, Pat and Tony from AWR concluded that the issue might be due to a faulty sensor.  They borrowed a thermo from the guys over at Mazdatrix and the hard numbers on the radiator seemed to check out fine compared to what was coming up on the stack. But without a sensor, we would be putting a serious gamble on an expensive motor to run hot, so we decided it would be best to pack it up and check it out at the garage so the car could come home in one piece.

Photos thanks to teamallstars.com, 5zigenusa.com, and urbanracer.com

Headed down to Long Beach City today to Sail on a 48′ Columbia Sailboat… and it was a very cool experience.

That’s Doug walking down the dock in this pic. He actually used to work as the foreman of the assembly line for Columbia boats building 20 footers. He told us he used to eat his brown-bag lunch on the unfinished big boats and think “How am I ever going to own one of these?” You can imagine the pride he had in his vessel.

Annie, still tired from the office party the night before

The view from out front. As complex as the pulleys look.. they make sense if you take the time to trace them from the sail to the cleats.

TTYL LBC