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:
In any form of motorsport, finding sponsors isn’t exactly easy. Having a quick media package on yourself to hand out can make life easier. I did this 3-pager for Formula Drift / Megan Racing driver Cyrus Martinez, who needed something that would be a quick professional read for sponsors to hand out at SEMA, but not so lengthy that it felt impersonal.
Using a short intro proposal like this is a smart move to get your foot in the door when starting relationships with companies. Keep in mind, a full-length (media and number heavy) proposal should always accompany a specific proposal.
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.
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.
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!
Got to do some driving last weekend with International Allstars at the home of my favorite team: Angels Stadium. Event was great, cars ran great (thanks to Pat and Eric) and the guys from Mexico were super nice. Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of space to work with, but it didn’t stop us from burning through the awesome tires that Bridgestone provided for the team.
My ride for the weekend was the yellow-nosed car #2– a carbon fiber laden cosworth-powered supermiata. It was the first weekend out on Eibach’s new coilover setup which felt like a great street/track setup. On this unit the rears weren’t adjustable, but the valving that Eibach set up was a bit on the softer side, which felt great at higher speeds but was a little hard to transition at lower speeds. It’s not much of a price to pay for a coilover that would also work well for a daily driver. I’m betting Eibach has another setup coming the way of the MX-5 for the more hardcore enthusiasts.
As video and pictures come, I’ll update the posts, but here’s a promo video from Lexani that has a little action towards the end:
Here’s one of the latest projects I’ve been playing with. It’s a proposal to Lexus for a project car I’ve been working on for drifting.
The big idea behind it is to create an iconic car for Lexus’ in house tuning parts company: F Sport. So, when people see the car they don’t think “that’s a sweet car,” but rather “that’s the F-Sport car.”
Between graphics, media (print & online), and promotional events we should be able to turn this car from just an IS350 into “The Icon.”
I wish I could post all of the pages, but I’ve had trouble with other teams plagiarizing my proposals before, so here’s a few of the more design-centric pages:
(11×8.5 – center bound)
The logo has some meaning of its own behind it. The F Sport icon (created by Lexus) is modeled after the first corner at Suzuka raceway, where the first F-Sport car (the IS-F) was developed.
When I started on my Icon logo, I was considering where this car would be tracked most; Willow Springs Raceway. WSIR has quite a few tracks, but one of the fastest and most popular is the track nicknamed “Big Willow,” which is known to racers as “The Fastest Road in the West.” And it is fast. I took a look at the track and decided to design the “n” in Icon after turns 3-5 on the Big Willow course:
Which ended up coming out like this for print:
