Following up to my latest Lexus postings. Here is a sneak peak at the Lexus LF-CH concept that will be unveiled at the 09 Frankfurt Motor Show (Sept. 15-27). The 5-door compact body and Lexus Hybrid Drive feature has an electric-only driving capability allowing for virtual silent urban driving and zero emission. More news to be announced soon.

When the opportunity arose to take the new Lexus IS 250C for an extended test drive I jumped all over it. After my previous review of the vehicle I was given the chance to check out the car for myself for a full week.

The only way I feel to fully get to know a car is to take it for a road trip and so the adventure begins. Delivery of the vehicle came one day early and I was able to first test the car on the way to the office from Downtown Long Beach to Downtown LA and for those that know this route it involves a couple freeways and a whole lot of traffic. The IS 250C (without the F Sport package) complete with rear-wheel drive and 6-speed manual transmission was not ideal in the heavy traffic, but it was very manageable. But the real test would come at 4 AM the next day when I had to head out to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma for Formula DRIFT Round 6: Locked and Loaded for the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma weekend. My mission get to the track by 11 AM.

Before any long trip the essentials were packed including energy drinks, water, Silvia (my Tom Tom), blackberry fully charged and with charger, V-moda headphones w/ mic (can’t stand bluetooth ear pieces), camera (thanks Em – Panasonic Lumix LX2), sunglasses, iPod, and a whole lot of music.

To set the mood watch this Bay Area inspired video

For this trip (LA to SF) I knew I would be spending a lot of time in the car and so I prepared myself with the latest mixes from some of my friends and favorite DJ’s including DJ Bandoma, DJ Vice, DJ Hollywood, Colossal Knxn, DJ Fashen, and the “Fix yer Face 2″ mix from (the late and great) DJ AM x Trvs Brkr. Most of the latest mixes can be downloaded on Beezo (if you haven’t checked this site out before it’s worth taking a look at).

Since I can only listen to so many club mixes before I get tired of LMFAO and Kid Cudi remixes, it was a good thing that the car is equipped with not only a multi-disc CD player, but also Aux outlet for iPod’s, USB, and is standard with Sirius / XM satellite radio. The system is clean and clear even with the top down. The only thing that could be somewhat annoying was when the sound would adjust based on the speed, which is a cool idea, but in reality just speeding up to overtake a car the volume would jump up and then stay up. The multiple controls on the steering wheel became my friend through the hours spent in the driver’s seat.

The gas mileage on the car was not bad at all and only having to fill up once on the way to SF. Which came just as the sun was rising and time to grab a quick bite to eat along the way. I don’t even know where I stopped, but I can tell you that there were cows, farms, and lots of nothing.

I did make my goal with plenty of time to spare and reached the track before 10 AM (I swear I wasn’t speeding either). Infineon Raceway is one of the best tracks in California and probably has the best scenery. The track is surrounded by rolling hills and is located next to wine country in the heart of Sonoma and next to Napa Valley.

Formula DRIFT came and went and after a great breakfast with Fatlace’s Mark, Jose, D, and Kel. It was off to start the real test drive – SF to LA by way of Highway 1. The route consists of passing through Santa Cruz, Monterrey, the infamous 17-mile road through Carmel, Big Sur, Cambria, Paso Robles (great wine town), Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, Solvang (another wine town from the movie “Sideways”), and Santa Barbera. Point B in the above map shows our dinner stop at the “Hitching Post” restaurant in Buellton (again from sideways) and this is my 2nd time now trying the Ostrich steak…great spot.

With 2 additional passengers it was time to start the journey back home. This route is a bit longer, but well worth it and was a great way to test the car’s suspension, handling, and overall driveability. The gorgeous drive consists of views of ocean and cliffsides but also plenty of twists and turns. One false move and an accident can happen at any time especially with the spectacular views to draw your eyes away from the road, but with the Lexus’ superior handling there was nothing to fear. The car nimbly drove through the tight turns with the traction control on and the 6-speed transmission helped make the drive very enjoyable. I was able to pass slower traffic with no problems at all with the 2.5 liter V6, despite the initial 0-60 speed isn’t as quick as the IS 350. The car is great to cruise around in.

Of course part of this drive was made enjoyable by the fact that the car is a hardtop convertible. Within 20 seconds the top drops with 1-touch of a button. The convertible as much I hate to admit was rather nice to drive with the sun shining down and a cool ocean breeze. I do have to also mention that my two passengers were female and they enjoyed it just as much. The backseat was not as tight a fit as I thought it would be, but rather had some headroom and was comfortable according to my passenger with both the top up and down. With the top down the backseat passenger will get pretty cold towards the end of the day though.

The only draw-back is the limited trunk space with the hard top down, but that’s the price to pay for some extra sun rays. We packed light so it wasn’t a problem. With the top up there is plenty of room for luggage, golf clubs, groceries, etc.

After spending hours upon hours in one vehicle it better be comfortable. The Lexus IS 250C left me with minimal complaints. The leather seats were great and didn’t have me regretting my decision for the long drive. One feature that left me very happy was the not only heated seat option, but the cooling seat option. Both had various levels 1-3 for amount of heat or cool to be distributed via the perforated leather. Great touch of detail. I found the seatbelts (as I’m towards the shorter side) to be a little bit bothersome as they sat up really high and with the hard top there were no adjustments. The clutch and shifter were smooth and easy to work (note Reverse can be tricky if you’re not used to a 6-speed as you have to pull up on the shift boot to go into gear.) Another gripe was the touchscreen display which was nice, but the Navigation itself (possibly due to this being a pre-production vehicle) did not have all the cities or locations inputted or available, whether I typed in the address or just the surrounding area. Good thing I brought trusty “Silvia” along. With the top down the screen can also not be seen if the sun is behind the car with the glare. Another function I found to be great was the auto dimming function on the rear view mirrors, which came in handy after a lifted truck decided to tailgate me on the freeway. Overall, the car performed and excelled in every aspect and was a great vehicle for a road trip. Now I’m sad that I have to return the car as I was just getting to know it. This road trip did inspire me and I would love to one day do a cross country trip as I found with the right luxury components and vehicle even extended hours and thousands of miles can become fun. A hybrid might be a better option for longer trips though.

Here are some shots from today’s Round 6: Locked and Loaded championship at Infineon Raceway. Live Results are available HERE. Live Round by Round FD Blog. Live Tweets for Formula D.

packed crowd in Sonoma

NOS Energy Drink drivers from IndyCar Dan Wheldon and Formula DRIFT Chris Forsberg

Miss FD and MYX host

Opening Ceremonies

More photos after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow may be the very last Import Showoff car show. This is a sad day as it’s an end of an era. For 15 years Import Showoff was the most respected car show in the nation and helped start the import tuning car scene way back in 1994. If you won at Import Showoff that meant you deserved to win and your car was basically the “shit”. Ken Miyoshi, the founder of Import Showoff, helped build a generation of car enthusiasts and helped spark the tuning movement that paved the way for many companies and even careers, mine included. For those that don’t I started as a car show fan turned Tuner and haven’t looked back since. Eventually, my hobby became my work and long story short that’s why I still work in the automotive industry.

This news has given me some new motivation to weed through the old hard drives and CD’s (before memory sticks and thumb drives were popular) to find the images from the good old days of car shows. Car shows including Import Showoff and Hot Import Nights easily took up 3 years of my life, but in that 3 years I was able to forge great friendships and relationships that still exist. So after Formula DRIFT Round 6: Locked and Loaded in Sonoma next weekend I will be sure to post some photos from the Garage Life archive.

But wait, the producers of Import Showoff are back with a new show called “Mega Matsuri” (Mega – Short for Large: megadose, Surpassing other examples of its kind; extraordinary:
Matsuri – Japanese for “Festival” Derived from a verb meaning ‘to attend to’, ‘to entertain’)

Too bad I’ll be in Sonoma that weekend, but if you’re in the LA area be sure to check it out. Car show, car parts on sale, Ruckus, Fixies…

Last week I brought Formula DRIFT drivers Dai Yoshihara, Rhys Millen, and Chris Forsberg to Turn 10 Studios, the makers of Forza Motorsport, in Seattle. The next edition of the popular series will launch in October and we were able to get a behind the scenes tour on the making of the game. The tour started with a demo on the game play and graphics. The game features the ability to change everything from tire pressure to designing your own car graphics and has over 400 vehicles to use. But we brought both Import Tuner and CarDomain.com to cover the technical aspects of the game.

Here is my behind the scenes tour of Turn 10.

Rhys, Dai, and Chris at the Studio

The creative space complete with Foosball and Kegerator.

Where the magic happens.

For the rest of the Tour… Read the rest of this entry »

For Immediate Release

August 10, 2009

Formula DRIFT Round 5: Breaking Point Results;
Chris Forsberg Takes the Victory and Maintains the Championship Points Lead

Long Beach, Calif. – August 10, 2009 – Formula DRIFT returned to Evergreen Speedway for Round 5: Breaking Point in Monroe, WA. Chris Forsberg in the NOS Energy / Maxxis Tires Nissan 350Z takes the victory and maintains the lead in the Formula DRIFT Championship Points race. Forsberg also maintains the lead for the Tires.com Triple Crown bonus prize.

“What an unbelievable finish to a great weekend,” said Chris Forsberg, winner of Round 5: Breaking Point and Formula DRIFT Championship Points leader. “We were leading the points chase for the series and the Tires.com Triple Crown and just wanted a strong finish. We could not have asked for a better turnout this weekend.”

The 2-day weekend event treated the fans to both Formula DRIFT Championship action and a Pro Am competition. The drivers came prepared for any weather conditions at Evergreen Speedway as this venue hosted the first rain event in Formula DRIFT history last season, but the event remained dry all weekend with cool weather. With only 3 events remaining in the season the pressure was on for the drivers to make their mark and didn’t fail to disappoint the excited crowd.

Vaughn Gittin in the Falken Tires Ford Racing Mustang GT and Eric O’Sullivan in the Hankook / Rockstar Subaru WRX put on an exciting match, which had O’Sullivan moving on to the Finals, but would fail to run due to damage from the previous round giving Forsberg the victory. Tyler McQuarrie in the Falken Tires Nissan 350Z and Gittin fought for 3rd place and after an intense battle McQuarrie would come out on top of his Falken Tires teammate. Entering the event with the points lead, Chris Forsberg was a marked man and battled through the tough competition meeting McQuarrie in semi-finals and proved to be one of the most entertaining match-ups of the evening with both drivers putting it all on the line with their fast entry and great angle along the banking of the course. Forsberg got the best of McQuarrie in the battle of the 350Z and took home his second victory of the season, which also was the 2nd event of the Tires.com Triple Crown in which he also won the 1st event at Road Atlanta.

“It’s hard to describe the Seattle event in words. I can only say that with all the excitement and drama that unfolds on track its hard to imagine the story we are seeing could even come out of Hollywood,” said Ryan Sage, vice president of marketing and co-founder of Formula DRIFT. “The championship is on and there are more than a few drivers that can still take the championship going into Round 6: Locked and Loaded at Infineon Raceway.”

Formula DRIFT returns to Infineon Raceway for Round 6: Locked and Loaded later this month on August 21-22. This is a special event with Formula DRIFT joining the IndyCar weekend. The best drifters in the world will share the track with the best drivers in the world including Helio Castroneves, Danica Patrick, and Scott Dixon. Ticket packages are available now.

Formula DRIFT Professional Championship 2009 Point Standings

1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z 410 Points
2. Tuerck, Ryan Gardella Racing / Mobil 1Pontiac Solstice 363 Points
3. McQuarrie, Tyler Falken Nissan 350Z 347 Points
4. Hubinette, Samuel NuFormz Dodge Viper 338 Points
5. Gittin, Vaughn Falken Tire Ford Racing Mustang GT 336.50 Points
6. McNamara, Darren Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky 316 Points
7. Nishida, Robbie Hankook Tires / Dynamic Autosports Nissan 350Z 314 Points
8. Foust, Tanner Rockstar / Hankook Scion Racing tC 303.50 Points
9. Pawlak, Justin Bergenholtz Racing / Nitto Mazda RX-8 298 Points
10. Brakohiapa, Tony Cooper Tire Ford Mustang 282 Points
11. Petty, Ross Garage Boso / Falken Nissan S15 280.75 Points
12. Maeng, Joon Maxxis / LS Auto Nissan S13.5 275.75 Points
13. Aono, Taka Technosquare Toyota AE86 Corolla 273 Points
14. Mordaunt, Patrick PM Racing Nissan S13 268.25 Points
15. Verdier, Stephan Cooper Tire / Crawford Performance Subaru STI 263 Points
16. Yoshihara, Daijiro Falken Tire / Discount Tire Lexus IS350 260 Points

Round 5: Breaking Point Event Results
1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z
2. Eric O’Sullivan Hankook / Rockstar Subaru WRX
3. Tyler McQuarrie Falken Tires Nissan 350Z

Tires.com Triple Crown Point Standings after 2 of 3 events
1. Forsberg, Chris NOS Energy Drink / Maxxis Nissan 350Z 205 Points
2. McNamara, Darren Falken / Sears Auto Center Saturn Sky 150 Points
3. Tuerck, Ryan Gardella Racing / Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice 149 Points

Next Stop Infineon Raceway for Round 6: Locked and Loaded in Sonoma, CA! Be sure to check back for more info on the Formula D x Fatlace Event 2.

I’m here at Evergreen Speedway for Formula DRIFT Round 5: Breaking Point. Today the is mostly practice for the drivers and set-up for the weekend’s event. Here’s a couple really short videos I took while watching the drivers practice (not up to par as some of the recent videos from Josh Herron, Will Roegge, and DC Chavez, but hey I’m just having some fun).

Someone got a new paint job

UFC president Dana White held a press conference today and made a few announcements including the return of “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz, who many though the bad blood between White and Ortiz could not be settled, but I guess it is all good now. This raises some interesting matches that could be in the future as Tito came close to beating Rashad Evans and “almost” submitted Machida giving him a great fight. According to the press release we probably won’t see him in the ring until November or December and maybe against UFC veteran Mark Coleman.

More news comes with the change in the headlining fight of UFC 103 with Rich Franklin and Vitor Belfort. The match orginally had Franklin vs. Dan Henderson, but with Henderson’s domination over Michael Bisping another title shot with Anderson Silva could be in his future. Belfort is a great fighter and has wins over Wanderlei Silva and Randy Couture.

But the biggest news is that with the cancellation of Affliction’s league after Josh Barnett tested positive (again) for steroids and the main event of Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko being cancelled, which pretty closed down shop for the organization. Rumors had Fedor coming to the UFC to fight Brock Lesnar, which would be the largest UFC match ever and probably the highest rated pay-per-view of all time for them. Things get tricky as Fedor’s management want to co-promote and ride what the UFC has built over the last 10 years. I would love to see this fight happen and I’m sure most would as this could catapult MMA into the limelight even further.

Next weekend is the boy lightweight champion BJ “the Prodigy” Penn vs. Kenny Florian at UFC 101 and with BJ’s new training program at the RVCA gym he is looking to be in great shape. I hope that BJ wins in a big way and puts all doubts aside after his loss to GSP. The other main event fight is with middleweight champion Anderson Silva stepping up a weight class to fight former light weight champion Forest Griffin. I really think this will be a good match, but Anderson will get the win in the end.

Despite Economy, Businesses Still Spending in Motorsports
by Dan Frio (thanks Dan!)

It may be the worst economy seen in several generations, but companies are still spending money marketing their brands in motorsports. It’s an idea that might give most CEOs insomnia. Slashing marketing budgets in downturns is custom. But to then spend those fewer dollars in motorsports sponsorships, never a cheap arena to begin with?

Foolhardy.

Not so, say some marketers. For companies that can stomach the risk, downturns provide an opportunity to capture market share at the expense of cautious rivals.

“Motorsports is a very important avenue for us,” says Nick Fousekis, Falken Tire Senior Manager Consumer Marketing. “It’s another opportunity to get in front of people that already know, or may not know, our brand. They can see that we’re not just a tire manufacturer peddling black, round objects. We’re out there. We’re active.”

As 2009 opened, the motorsports headlines were not encouraging.

To read the rest of the article
Read the rest of this entry »

Another long weekend is in the books from Agenda to US Open to the Fatlace party and that was just til Friday. Mark and crew should be posting pics from the party soon and from what I remember it was an amazing time.

Saturday was spent helping a friend move and then it was late night drinks to celebrate my friend’s 30th b-day. Sunday evening to continue the celebration we headed out to Culver City to Gyenari Korean BBQ restaurant to both have a b-day and also to watch Food Network’s “Next Food Network Star” with contestant Debbie Lee. Unfortunately, Debbie didn’t make it to the Finals, but her food is really good and we were able to sample some of her “Seoul to Soul” recipes.

Steve and Debbie

The layout of Gyenari is great and I really dug the decor. Great use of backlighting, urban design mixed with some modern influence.