Peace Out 2008

Its finally December 31st. It's been a quick year and a year of many suprises and new beginnings.

Rob left for Japan in March, and now drives an S15

Earl made his car cool and drove the hell out of it.

EarlQHan from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

TF Mike finally drove the S14 after a long hiatus.

TF Dave finally began "The Rebuild"

Risky Devil came out strong and hard.

T2FilmsXRiskyDevil 2Legit to Quit from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

I finally got my car in check at the end of the season.

Teaser from Sad Panda Productions on Vimeo.

Cheers to 2009, dope cars, great drivers, awesome events, Bruce finally driving, Eric finishing his car, me driving a full year, and the revival of Grip Gambler!

T2s gift to you

DVD intro teaser from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope you all got what you want.

And some December memories.

Heiruspecs

Took a trip to Minnesota this past weekend for the Heiruspecs CD release concert. If you have never heard of Heiruspecs buy their CD. If you have heard of them, why weren't you at the concert, this definately hits top list for best Heiruspecs concert. Thanks for putting on a great show Chris!

For you Chicago guys Heiruspecs will becoming down to Chicago soon!

GTR..

Someone had asked me some time ago what car I would buy if I could buy any. I think the answer is a PPI Razor. It is an Audi R8 variant. Brings the R8 up 40hp and 26ft/lbs to 460/343. Add on carbon fiber aero, bigger carbon fiber/magnesium wheels and a fancy interior.

If that is not enough for you, then adding GTR to something always makes it better. Same goes for the PPI Razor. This time GTR adds a supercharger and bring the car to 580/443. Bigger brakes, full carbon fiber shell, and more goodies.

QR Codes

[Nerd]

So I have had my G1 for about a month now, loving every bit of it. One of the features on it can scan barcodes. Now the main usage in the states is you can scan any product at say Best Buy, the program will take the UPC code or whatever and do a web search for prices. You can either look at online prices and it will show you the cheapest price online and give you a link to the purchase page. Or you can do a local search and it will look at all stores near your GPS area and put it on google maps with prices. You can also put in price points so that it will alert you when the product is at the price you want it.

Now thats is not the coolest part of barcode scanning. The best part is QR Codes or 2D Barcodes. You don't see them in the US much at all, but in Japan you see them all over. I think one of the first phones to feature it was the Nokia Rob was trying to buy when Cloverfield came out. 

So as odd as that thing looks it contains information. It can contain a link to a number to call, or a number to text, it can also display text such as instructions, or a nice message. It can also contain a web url, the above is a link to this blog, on the G1 you simply open the barcode scanner then scan and click the link and it brings you here. If you go to Japan you will see these all over, you probably have seen them in Japanese magazines, or on some blog sites.

I hope more phone makers begin adding this function to their phones and it will get used more in the US.

[/Nerd]

And Clash with what looks to be another great video on the way.

RED BULL DRIFTING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Teaser from Clashproduction on Vimeo.

RedBull WDC

Redbull Drifting Championship by Joshua Herron

Really nice video from Joshua Herron, I hope it makes its way to Vimeo and in HD.

St. Louis

Gateway from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

EQH at Gateway STL from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

Drift Matsuri with ribs 2009??...??

♥♥♥

Teaser from Sad Panda Productions on Vimeo.

Teaser vid of Gateway. According to those fancy gear calculators this thing does just over 100mph in 3rd... Must go faster!

Imeem

Whether or not you love Kanye West, you should love imeem. I especially love it because it is on my phone (I finally got my G1), and it's linked to my imeem account, so makes for a great streaming music app!

Now for music.

Onevia vs Silvia

On one hand I have this.

Stay onevia, keep lowering, do funky things thing to my wheels (for some reason I really like these back wheels)

While on the other hand I have this.

Put on the silvia headlights, new aero, new look.

Dary

Jetsons

New Kanye video, video is kinda cool.

Heartless from kwest on Vimeo.

This past weekend was a drift/grip day at Gateway International Raceway. Mike, Earl and myself took our cars down there. This was my first time at this track, and first time drifting at the top of 3rd gear. My power steering was not working, and I broke 2nd gear at USAIR so the beginning of my day sucked, but by the end of the day I got it and this track is badas!! Everyone MUST go to this track.

Some pics

Ms. Dash

Oh sweet sweet Ms. Dash

KanYe West ft. Syleena Johnson- All falls down from мiхаил on Vimeo.

Time Attack

There is soo much greatness about this car, Earl do it!

Roger Clark Motorsport Time Attack PRO Winner 2008 from Clashproduction on Vimeo.

P.S. Clashproduction is dope!

G Phone

I recently broke my Blackberry, the last few days without it have been hell. I ordered a G1 though, it came out earlier this week, but I won't get mine till Nov 10th.

What is a G1? To most its just a knockoff of an IPhone with a keyboard, but it is very different. So it obviously is a touch screen phone, it has a slide out keyboard like a sidekick. The lack of a real keyboard was what I hated most about the iphone. The big thing about it is it runs on an OS called Android, which is an open source OS, so for geeks it means you can basically create any application for it without having to cut corners and make illegal shit. So in general on the software side it is limitless. The G comes from Google, so you know it has big potential.

Mo got his a few days ago so I had a chance to mess with it. First impressions is it feels good. My big quirk about the iphone vs. my blackberry was although it was thinner it never fealt right in my hand. G1 feels like a phone, its a little bulkier, but not as wide, and just as tall as the iphone. 

Now to get away from the iphone vs. g1 talk, the G1 has some great apps. I only played with some for a breif time and read about them. Some of my favorites include ShopSavvy, CompareEverywhere,  or GoCart. In general they ar

e all the same, they let you scan a barcode which brings up the product. Then it searches for online prices, then you can go direct to the site and buy, or it searches local stores, then integrates locations on google maps. One of them even has the option to set a price point, the app will alert you when the price goes below it!

Some other cool apps include Locale, lets you set area

s in which your phone will do different things. For instance, say you are within 100 feet of a certain addy, such as your work, the phjoen will automatically change to vibrate, then swithc back when done!

For all you Imeem users, it also has that so you can stream music live on your phone. And the one app that is more of a gimmick but cool none the less, is compass mode in google maps. Basically when you are in street view and compass mode is on, you can move the phone, up and down, side to side and the image you are viewing in

 street view will move with you. Coupled with 3G it loads really fast. 

When I get it I will post a real review...

Finally driven

So DD24 has come and gone, finally got to drive my car. 355HP feels amazing, until you break 2nd gear... 

Pics courtesy of Keith

Dyno with black and chrome mags

Finally got the car dyno'd. I am a bit suprised by the numbers, higher than I expected. Pulled 355hp/281tq at only 15psi and on old shitty plugs.

I will have one more date with the dyno when I fill up on some race gas and boost to 21 pounds, but its almost winter time.

VIR Synopsis

Wrap up on GT Live/Pro-AM and VIR.

The weekend was great. It is nice to just hop in the car and head a few states away. It was one hell of a trip. I was up for 43 straight hours (only took about an hour nap). I survived on NOS energy drink, coffee, and Arizona teas.

The drive was uneventful until VA when we hit the Appalachians, it was around sunrise when we got there, so coupled with the beautiful roads we had some nice scenery. Earl drove the touge portion and made Eric and John sick, and me fear for my life. Reverse back to about 2 days ago when I was scrounging around to try and get some replacement rear tires for my fit since they were bald. I did not get the tires, so we were to savor the tire tread...

Get to the track and help setup. VIR is different than a lot of tracks, its like an amusment parks for Cars... The track is soooo large, there are even tracks in the middle of it, go kart tracks, ;pdhes, even a CDOC. It is the perfect setup. ProAM took place on the Patriot course, all  this made me do was want to drive. It is such a fast course but still technical, at some day I will go.

STANCE/Origin booth was a success, lots of people came by and bought stuff, great location, great sales. It was also great meeting a bunch of people from ZT, great bunch of guys!

Overall great weekend. The drive back we finished season 2 of How I met your mother, but Earl forgot a disc so we missed a bit of it. I decided to sleep and just download the rest. Ended up only driving when we hit Chicago. Made it home by 6AM.

Here is some eye candy from the event. Be sure to check out Kaizo Photo for Keiths amazing pics.

GT Live 2008 - Team Hot Property Drift Teaser from Kevin Trinh on Vimeo.


T2FILMS VIR pro-am slowmo from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

VIR last leg

On the way home stopped at Sonic for the first time. Not too special, just like a dairy queen, but with drive thrus...
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You are winner

Congrats to Brian from MA for the win!

Team drift tomorrow.
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VIR Comp

Stu aka johny 5 qualified first place, just broke an axle during tandem. In process of fixing it.

From the midwest boys only black magic qualified for tandem. Ryan had car issues, clinton just missed the boat, and the indy boys just missed the cut
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VIR show

Sickest M45 ever.
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VIR Trip 4

Found the touge. So did tako chi.
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VIR Trip 4

Found the touge. So did tako chi.
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VIR Trip 3

Made it to virginia. Sun is coming up. Almost done with How I Met Your Mother season one.

And no trip could be made without good gas mileage. Its 3.47 out here.
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VIR Trip 2

We are pretty far into the trip now. Stopped in Indianapolis for some food. The downtown is on the verge of being a nice mini chicago. But where are all the people? The streets are empty, the stores are empty its friday night.

But we did find an arbys. And that seems to be where everyone is, atleast all the dubs and caddys and spinners.

We are now in the touge portion of the trip and in west virginia. We are watching How I Met Your Mother. At this point john is pissed that he hasn't met the bitch.
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VIR Trip

Headed to VIR with eric john and earl. First sign this is a bad place is changing my weather on my phone to the area. Only place I can take weather from is lynchburg virginia.

Pray for me.
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So is this why women go to the bathroom in groups?

N.E.R.D - Everyone Nose (Remix) from now8p on Vimeo.

MSC @ Nikko

For some reason Nikko has always been a track I wanted to drive at, its nothing but 90 degree corners, but it was just really appealing. Here are some pics from Wrecked

Every event needs a little Magic!

Sexy Style!!

Black wheels, black vinyl, do it Earl

Well built corollas are such a rarity these days.

Bright ass S14 kouki with my favorite wheels, Weds Kranze LXZ. They will be mine!!

Tandem, can't wait.

Check out the rest of the gallery HERE

Drift Day 24

Winter is approaching fast. DD24 is on October 19th. Am I still allowed to drive? If so you fools better be ready to tandem.

Register Here

ARCA

Eric Francisco hooked up Eric Scott and I with some ARCA (Nascar for shitty drivers) tickets at Chicagoland speedway. We got there at the start. Began with about 5 or 6 parade laps, course was a little tricky to learn....

First race lap begins these things are loud! First lap and there is a crash... Clean up crew comes out, as I type this it has been about 40 minutes of cleaning the track and it still is not over with.

Why do people watch this...?
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Vimeo

All you longboarders out there got nothing on these two.

Adam Kimmel presents: Claremont HD from adam kimmel on Vimeo.

T2Films is on Vimeo now too, two new vids from Tim!!

T2FilmsXRiskyDevil 2Legit to Quit from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.


T2FilmsXRiskyDevil HIN Drift Demo from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

Mismo?

So why is it that Nismo LMGT4s always fall in the hands of non Nissans? First there was Lindsay's FC.

Now TF Dave has them on his Evo X.

They should just rename them to Mismos...

On a side note if you saw Rob's post about Mad Mike from Aussie teaming up with Red Bull and putting a 4 Rotor in his FD. Here is another vid. Sounds dope, I hope he puts it to good use.

Favorite Car

So a cousin of mine from the UK came into town, she saw that I was into cars and mentioned her dad got her into F1. Obviously she is a Lewis Hamilton fan and goes to F1 every now and then. She invited me out to come watch it next year, so I may be headed there...

Anyways she asked me what my favorite car was, I sat there for a second and couldn't answer. So I posed the question of what is the use? I don't think I have one favorite car, but here are some of my purpose centered favorites, keep in mind this is about the chassis not the car in the picture.

Truck:


2008 Toyota Tundra - I am not a truck guy, but would really like one for trailering my car. Why this one, maybe it is because I work for Toyota, maybe because it looks like an Evo X, or maybe because it is capable of towing a few cars no problem. Production on these things has gone so low (shutdown for 3 months), prices must be dropping...

Sedan:
Lexus LS - I seem to have this loyalty to Toyota... But how can you not love this thing, its huge, the stylying is amazing, throw some wheels and lip aero on it and its hard to pass by without staring. Complete comfort, quiet ride, some decent power.

Daily:

Honda Fit - You probably are wondering why I would think a car I already have is my favorite, but the more I own this car the more I realize if I had the choice I would do it all over again. The car is small on the outside, but big on the inside, it is a comfortable car, great for long trips. Magic seats help me fit almost anything in it. Gas mileage is on par or better than most hybrids, and its a Honda, gotta love Hondas.


Race Car

R34 Skyline - Sure the R35 seems to surpass it in many which ways, but its hard to not want an R34. It holds the majority of the top times at Tsukuba Circuit. Obviously its hard to ge, so an Evo would fall close to second.

Drift Car


180SX - A lot of people might disagree with me, but when I though about a favorite drift car this is the car that kept coming into mind. Every which way of the 180SX is amazing with the proper setup. Sure a JZX something would be cool, or a 350Z, but I think I will always miss having a hatch. I blame part of this on the rebuild of TF Dave's hatch, I don't really know what he is doing but I know the aero and in general what it will look like... Perfection.

Sure theres no Porsches, Ferrraris, Ariel Atoms, etc... But in the realistic world of cars I really love, this is it. What about you?

Night Shift

HIN Nightshift was this weekend, some Origin drivers and Risky Devil guys were out doing the demo. These demos are always interesting, parking lot was a little small, but the crowd was still hyped up.

Here is a little youtube clip of Josh and Chob, these boys were doing a great job all night!

Drift Day 23 part deux

Here is a synopsis of the event.

About once a month in the "lovely" town of Shawano ClubFR and its various members invade the town. This weekend is Drift Day 23, and round 3 of the Midwest Cup Series. This event would be a special event as it was a feeder for the Pro-Am Championship. ClubFR would be gathering drivers for the East Division Championship at Virginia International Raceway during GT Live on October 3rd-5th (visit www.proamdrift.com for more details).

This event was overfilled with many drivers coming from all over the Midwest, MN, IL, WI, and IN. Lots of new faces and cars came out for the days events. To even up the playing field a new course was used consisting of a high speed slightly banked entry into a downhill right, followed by a hard left towards the finish.

For today's competition the judges were Formula D driver Brian Peter, Pro-AM invitee Clinton Florczyk, and ClubFR President Simba Nyemba. Morning practice was kept short to bring out the best drivers under pressure. Despite the short practice the competition was tough. Qualifications had various drivers putting thier best runs out there. A few drivers slated to be on the top missed the tandem rounds, but various others stepped it up.

After a long hiatus in drifting Bill Cook from Indy took the top score in qualifications with an almost perfect score from the judges. Mike "Black Magic" Pollard took second in qualifications with his RB powered S13, and Ryan "I came to get down" Clemens took the 3rd spot for qualifications.

During Tandem rounds there were quite a few close runs. tMF Opposition member Mike Pollard closed in on Juan Marquez to advance to the next round against Bill Cook. Mike was looking promising to make it to the finals until his power steering gave up in the middle of his run advancing Bill Cook to the finals.


On the other half of the bracket Ryan Clemens and his S13 went up against Leigh Roto and his MK3 Supra. First round went tied and they went one more time. In the sudden death match Ryan kept the gap to a minimum and advanced to the next round against Doug Artus.

Doug Artus in his borrowed pirate car who has been putting together amazing runs in his KA powered S13 went up against Ryan Clemens in the semi finals. Doug had been consistent all day, until Ryan put some pressure on him and was able to take the win and head to the finals.

In the final round tMF Opposition member Ryan Clemens and Bill Cook both had amazing runs, almost perfect mirror runs. In the second run Ryan and his SR20 edged over Bill and his CA18 to take the win.

The podium saw Ryan Clemens on top, Bill Cook in second, and Doug Artus in third place.

As this was a Pro-Am feeder event, the top drivers from the day were awarded an invite to the Championship event. The judges were highly impressed with all of the top 8 drivers that an invite was awarded to all Top 8 drivers.

The Pro-AM invitees include:

1. Ryan Clemens
2. Bill Cook
3. Doug Artus
4. Mike Pollard
5. Mike Feiock
6. Leigh Roto
7. Juan Marquez
8. Jacob Cook

Special Thanks to ClubFR, Drift Association, USA International Raceway, Kaizo Photo, all the drivers and fans and last but not least the MWC Series Sponsors: Central Motorwerks, Drift Line, Equilibrium, and T2 Films.

Some more photos from the event.








Photos by Kaizo Photo