No words. Just watch. Enjoy.
OR ELSE.
Gran Turismo East – Michelin Spot from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.
HUGE thanks to my buddy Alex for the amazing voiceover, to Will and Josh for hooking me up with some of the incredible footage, and to Cody for letting me borrow his 5DMKII!Biggest thanks of all goes to Kieran at GTE for all his amazing help and unparalleled support over the years – both to myself and to the drifting community as a whole. Atlanta drifting would not be anything close to what it is today without it.If you’re in the Southeast, keep an eye out for this commercial airing on Comcast very soon!
Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat 3 went down the day after FD Atlanta… which was awesome because it brought out a TON of FD drivers to our local shredding ground.
We towed the injured KDF van down to Turner Field so we could set up a booth and sell some swag.
The booth setup was PROPER.
Josh (left) and Will (right) were shooting the event for the DVD. Josh was looking gangster on my bro’s Dyno flexing the Slide Style™ KD Tee. I see Mr. Alvendia up in the mix as well!.
David Lee of Risky Devil was also rocking the Slide Style™ KD Tee while Shawn made a funny face..
Some drifting was had. Tons of awesome tandem with a slew of FD pros like Dennis Mertzanis, Matt Powers, Tony Angelo, Chris Forsberg, Ryan Tuerck, Tony Brokohiapa, and more. It was rad. It is great to see the pro dudes mix it up with the local-folk.
Afterwards we crept through some plush downtown neighborhoods in search of parking…
So we could all eat at an old staple of mine: La Fonda Latina. Good food, good people, and GOOD TIMES for sure.
The past three weeks have been a whirlwind of chaos and awesome. Round 2 of Formula Drift has come and gone… and with it came some SERIOUS life memories. At one point I think we had 13 people staying at my house. Every night it seemed like someone new. While I am glad things have returned to normal… I can honestly say it has left me slightly depressed! So many good times, I don’t even know where to begin. Race week started a bit early… when my good friends Will Roegge and Joshua Herron made an S.O.S. call to me. Their 1974 Volkswagen van had broken down a few hours south of Atlanta in LaGrange. The ‘Westy’ is their home-on-the-road during primary photography for their cross-country documentary, “KEEP DRIFTING FUN”.
After procuring Tyler’s trailer at midnight, Wes and Lieze and I rocketed southbound for a rescue mission. Halfway there we got a call that the van started… so we met up with them on the highway just to be safe.
The Westy wasn’t running well at all… so with cue from Eugene, we took it to Barry Palmer Auto for a diagnostic eval from an air-cooled guru. The van’s motor had no compression, and was in need of a transplant.
I picked up a new roof spoiler from paint at Jeff’s Auto Restoration to replace the one that flew off in-tow last year.
My tow-hooks came back from KILLIN’ EM. Fresh hit of satin black to hide the ol’ red. Thanks Scott!!!
Picked up a few miscellaneous parts for the car. Water temp sensor adapter from TRM and a new cabin AC filter. I also snagged a new OE radiator, spark plugs, and wiper blades (not pictured).
I re-worked the wiring for the back of my gauges… including some quick-disconnects for easier maintenance.
I got frisky with The Destroyer™ and pulled the front end apart.
So I could bake the lower light housings and hit the reflectors yellow. While the grill was off, I had Jeff hit the chrome bits with paint to match the body color… and I re-wrapped the Chevy emblem with black vinyl. I also installed a 3000K HID kit from DDM Tuning.
We adopted an awesome (outside) cat. Lieze named him Meow Meow.
I had Pho for the first time.
I gave the e46 a much-needed wash before taking her to the track…
and the next thing I knew I was being bombarded with water balloons by kids in the neighborhood.
Luckily my friends Drew Fishbein and Ross Fairfield were there to catch the action for their site OMGDRIFT!
Then Formula Drift came crashing back into my life full-force for FD Pro Am. I put my game face beard on for an amazing weekend… which I will leave for another post.
The day after FD was a Southeast Drift event at Turner (more on this later). Tons of FD dudes came out to shred with us local-folk.
Then the new 2.0L motor for the Westy arrived via freight.
We took the van back to Palmer Auto where Barry and Mikey took the reigns from there to get the van back running in tip-top shape. The larger motor with mechanical lifters will make the rest of Will and Josh’s voyage on the high-seas of FUN much better.
Slowly… all my house guests began departing to their corners of the globe… leaving behind some amazing memories and awesome times. Will and Josh were the last to return to the road in the Westy… headed north to Jersey by way of Charlotte, Richmond, Baltimore and Philly. With everyone gone, and my house back it’s quiet state, I’m left to reflect on how lucky I am. Not only has this crazy motorsport taken me places I never thought possible… it has also introduced me to some of the most creative, talented, and overall BADASS DUDES on the planet. And for that… I am truly honored and extremely grateful.
<3
If you didn’t know… this Hobo ain’t your average hobo. He ith a cultivator of fine beards, exquisite cinematography, and wondrous colour grades. Joshua “Hobo” Herron just dropped his ’09 demo reel on the world… and no, he didn’t upload it from a freeway off-ramp holding a sign that says “Why lie? I need a beer”.Bask in the omnipresent talent exuded in this three-minute sampling of work. Then, when you are done… hire this man so I can enjoy more visuals of this caliber.
I walked away from Southeast Drift’s Land of the Great at Gresham Motorsports Park unscathed and uneasy.
Newly poured asphalt adorns the raceway, as Gresham itself is a freshly renovated facility. I don’t know if they have some sort of compound additive in the pavement, but the track has an immense amount of grip… making is VERY difficult for a 180hp tank to break loose. I was attempting to initiate faster than I have ever initiated… only to have the car set and hug the bank like I was going for a better lap time. The few occasions I could snap the car loose on the bank, it sucked the power dry from my rear wheels, pulling me right down toward the inner-wall. Fast.
I (somehow) managed to qualify seventh, and was paired up with my buddy Dennis Mertzanis for the tandem comp. I didn’t feel comfortable running solo – let alone tandem, so I told Dennis to steer clear of me… that I was basically going to forfeit the run to him. Dennis went on to take home 2nd place.A fairly big-name in Atlanta’s drift scene approached me at the end of the day, and told me ‘this is the next level for drifting here’, and ‘that drivers are going to have to step it up if they want to participate’. This bothered me for several reasons… the biggest being FOR WHAT? This is grassroots drifting… it is supposed to be about having fun. What fun is wadding your car up into a wall, and having to sit the next season out because you ‘stepped it up’? For the majority of us who actually have an emotional stake in our cars – totaling it out trying to be a g-roots hero would be devastating. DEVASTATING.
I probably will not be back to drive at Gresham. The risk just isn’t worth it to me… especially when I (and the rest of Atlanta, really) have nothing to prove. Drifting already has its superstars. I just want to have fun with my friends.
The final Southeast Drift event of the year goes down this weekend at Gresham Motorsports Park. The practice event “Land of the Great” runs all day, and then once the sun sets… a comp ramps up under the lights. This will be my first time out to Gresham, and I love drifting at night, so I’m definitely stoked! Shouts to BH Design for the flyer work!
We will be down at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend for a drift demolition at the Motorsport Nationals. If you’re in or around the Atlanta-area… come on out and watch us destroy our Yokohama ADVAN Tires!I had the honour of wrenching on most of the print-collateral for the drifting portion of this event, and I think it turned out killer! I wanted the flyer to be packed with energy, and be something nobody in their right mind would throw away.
I teamed up with Southeast Drift to produce some more ‘Trophy Decks’ for the end-of-the-season “South East Drift Challenge”. Taking cues from BH Design’s killer bear motif… and following my idea from the last set of SEDC Trophy Decks, I made the decks piece together to form a giant image of a bear. Overall I’m very pleased with these.
My buddy Will Roegge was in town working with the Tripp and Tom from Spitfire Studios… and the timing couldn’t have worked out better, because the second installment of Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat II was going down at Turner Field while he was here.Will brought out his Letus35 adapter so we could try it out on my newly acquired XL-H1. I had heard a lot of great things about adapting 35mm camera lenses, but never had a chance to mess with it at all. Boy was I in for a surprise.Here you can see ‘Man of Action’ Brady Stribling helping with the merger.
With the adapter, rails, and lens… it adds a significant amount of weight to the camera. By significant, I mean a TON.
Petey says okay… the camera looks hella legit with all of that – but how does the video look?
Let’s take a look at some screen captures. These are straight from the camera – no post whatsoever. rnFor reference… we’ll start with a shot from the XL without the adapter. The focal length seems almost infinite.
T
The focal length is slightly different with the Letus35, don’t you think?
With the flick of the wrist, you can pull focus for an amazing look.
Overall… it gives the digital medium the filmic quality that I’ve been after for years.
Special thanks to Will for turning me onto this bit of equipment. My credit card hates you in advance… because I can’t wait to get ahold of one of these!
Panda managed to snap a shot before the car ran into more ECU issues forcing and early retire at Southeast Drift’s Triple Threat II. This was one of two passes that the car was operational for. So frustrating.
We’re so underground… we’re undergroundDriftMechaniks 2-3-4-5
SEDC Round 1.
An amazing snap of some team drift action from SEDCDetails soon…
photo c/o Zach Junquera
