I met up with Antonio Alvendia today to shoot some snaps of the E46 for a new project he’s working on called Speedhunters. Byron Hill brought his s14 down, and Marcos Ruiz towed his s13 with insane wheel fitment out to be shot as well. Cody Wellons from S3 Magazine came out… Erik Jacobs and Eugene Chou from DGTrials were in effect as well.
Speedhunters is going to be a world-wide collaboration of sorts… bringing you REAL automotive culture from across the globe. I’m really excited to see it launch. Personally, I like to see coverage of real cars that are built with passion, and actually DRIVEN. If I know Antonio… then I know Speedhunters will have plenty of that… not to mention plenty of slammed rides with insane offset.I won’t give any shots away from the shoot… just some random snaps only.
The 2nd round of Formula Drift went down this weekend up at Road Atlanta. This was my first time since the 2005 season that I wasn’t out there competing. I had a great time kicking back, chilling with old friends, and enjoying America’s best attacking the 10a-10b complex… but it just wasn’t quite the same for me this year.
Making our way down to the pits, we saw this GORGEOUS E30 M3.
I had the E46 down at the Everything Drift booth, where we managed to sell a ton of Slide Styleâ„¢ shirts. rnHuge thanks to Jacob & Thao for hooking it up, and to Lieze for helping with the sales.
This year’s attendance was the largest I’ve seen it since Formula Drift’s first event here in 2004. It was PACKED.
Point-and-shoot action.
Southeastdrift threw a practice event up at the Braves Municipal Stadium in Greenville, SC on Saturday. The asphault DESTROYED tyres, but the event was a blast! It was definitely laid back, and rad to chill with the crew for the weekend.
Chris Rhoad let me slide his GTS hatchback around until the tyres popped. It definitely made me miss my li’l eight-six!
This car looks so sexy without 20lbs of vinyl & stickers.
I heart vitaminenergy.
Chris Rhoad on cone detail:
Aftermath.
Support Drifting.
I took the NEW Racing Dynamics RGP up to Gran Turismo East today. I had to get tyres mounted up for this weekend. This wheel was so new and gorgeous, that I really did NOT want to even use it. But I paid what I paid to get it here from Japan to use it… not to look at it sitting in my living room.This wheel had serious glow to it (pictured top). It even made my newest looking wheel look old and dusty.
The wheel had this sticker on it.
Some of the others lined up for tyres.
I took the e46 up to Foerst Motorwerks today so we could get her prepped for the Southeastdrift event in Greenville next weekend.
Delicious Steve stopped by sporting his custom Slide Style™ Hot Wheels. He just picked up some aero for his ride… I can’t wait to see it kitted out!
We loaded up the E46 on the trailer this morning, and took her up to Chateau Elan for ClubBimmer.net’s attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest caravan. The old record was 269 Mini Coopers, which was broken by this attempt with 271!The weather was less than optimal… and I think more BMW’s enthusiasts would have made it out if it wasn’t storming. The drive was 10 miles in length, from Chateau Elan to Road Atlanta.
Famed Gumballer Alex Roy led the drive in his polizei wrapped E39 M5. It was definitely a sight to see BMW’s in a single line from horizon to horizon!
It was pouring the whole time… so I didn’t take too many pictures.
There’s a news article about the drive here.
The chrome RGP’s made it in. They are breathtaking. I decided these aren’t going on the car until I get her cleaned up a bit. Ol’ grrrl needs some dents pulled and some paint first.
This guys wins the award for best packing job EVER. This is how you’re supposed to ship rare wheels!
Dripping wet chrome in all it’s electroplated glory.
Southeastdrift.com threw their “All You Can Drift Buffet” down at Watermelon Capital Speedway on Friday night. This was the first legal night event that Georgia has seen.This was also my first drift event since I shattered my collarbone in September. With the E46 fully stripped of all her graphics, and all pressure and politics lying in a dumpster somewhere south of Atlanta… this event was single-handedly the MOST FUN I have had at a drift event EVER. Multi-car tandems, enough flashing lights for a year’s supply of seizures, and a leprechaun’s bag of colored lights underneath my car… this event will be tough to top.
Photos by PandamoniumPhoto.com.
We started pulling graphics off tonight. Can’t there be an easier way to get this stuff off? I can’t feel my fingers. Backing all the holographic vinyl with plain black was the best idea EVER. It made removing most of the graphics SO much easier.
I went out and snapped a few shots of the E46 tonight. These are the last few pictures of her all suited up with graphics.
Tomorrow it is all coming off.
These wheels are VERY impossible to find these days. The fitment is meant for E34 5-Series & E38 7-Series BMW’s… but on my E46, the fitment is AMAZING. I managed to snag a staggered set off eBay today… and I’m VERY stoked about it.
Racing Dynamics RGP’s: 17×8.5 ET+13 Fronts, and 17×9.5 ET+20.5 Rear. CHROME.
I cannot even stress how rare these things are… let alone in such great condition. The chrome is refinished… but beyond gorgeous. I have actually had better luck importing these wheels from Japan than finding them here in the states. These wheels were posted on eBay for 30 minutes before I snagged them!
My rim finally made it in this week. I stumbled upon across the wheel on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I couldn’t read anything on the auction, but luckily Nendel had a friend on Velocity that was stationed over there. He was super awesome, and bid on the wheel for me… then shipped it my way.It took a long time to arrive – but it was worth it. This is the 2nd time I have snagged these wheels (or in this case… wheel) from Japan… officially making them easier to find there than here. Seems odd for an Italian-designed wheel fit for a German-designed sportscar. This rim is BRAND NEW… no refinishing here. These things are rare enough to find in bent/curbed shape… so to have one of these wheels in it’s pristine, original condition is just amazing. Work Wheels?
All wrapped and packed up.
Centercap peeking through.
Gorgeous.
Lip.
The second pair of the set of non-staggered RGP’s (17×8.5 ET13) I bought off eBay came in this week. The guy shipped them via the US Postal Service. I can’t really understand why anyone would do that. I barely trust the USPS with my bills… let alone some ultra-rare BMW wheels. Not to mention that shipping these with UPS would have been cheaper anyway.Sure enough… the box was found upside-down on a brick doorstep – with the box ripped, and the wheels scratched.
The wheels don’t even fit inside of the box… and what about some kind of padding?! Newspaper isn’t that expensive.
Close-up of some of the scratches:
I tried to file a claim with the USPS for the cost of repair. The lady got hella attitude with me, said they don’t do that kind of thing, and if they did… they keep the wheels. That would be awesome if I could drive down to Pep Boys and just buy these off the shelf. The moral of the story here is A: Sometimes you get what you pay for on eBay… and B: PURCHASING INSURANCE WITH USPS IS A WORTHLESS SCAM. I would imagine if your item is lost, they would pay out… but otherwise – SCAM.
The 2007 Nopi Nationals was host to the Nopi “World Drift Finals”. Unfortunately… I don’t have much good to say about the weekend. Rather than go into detail… I will just say that this was the worst drift event I’ve competed in to date. I honestly left the speedway on Sunday hating drifting… and left wondering if all of this is even worth it.
Despite a mechanical failure rendering my car useless for the weekend…
I did manage to get some solid face-time with Jason and the crew from Speed TV for an interview!
