Last updated January 6th, 2012

As dawn broke over the Tsukuba Circuit, the light dusting of snow that greeted teams as they began to set up for the 2011 Rev Speed magazine’s Tsukuba Super Battle didn’t fill them with a lot of confidence in seeing too many records fall. Despite the miserable start to the morning, entries were still quite strong with all 71 listed entrants showing up and setting up their pits. The largest group of cars (43 entries) was entered in the Street Class, which requires submission to an emissions check, current inspection papers, and the installation of street-legal radial tires. As the first sessions began, it was clear that the track was going to remain wet for the first half of the day, so drivers were encouraged to head out in an attempt to dry up the racing line as soon as possible. All but three entrants in the Open Class passed on the first session, but former D1 Street Legal champion drifter Naoki Nakamura was out sliding around and enjoying the open track in his competition S15 Silvia, albeit with some minor changes to the suspension alignment and tire pressure settings.

After years of doing the Import Tuner AWD Shootout it’s time we changed it up. No longer will we be putting EVOs against Imprezas. This year, we’re going to make it available for any chassis FR-based (front engine, rear-wheel drive) vehicle. Everything from the new Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ, to older models like the Nissan Z, Honda S2000, and Mazda RX-7 are welcome to compete. This is an all-out competition with very little limiting factors. The race will occur at Willow Springs International Raceway in California. The deadline to enter is June 1, so email us now. Submissions require car specs and a recent photograph.

The fall season is a time of beauty and transition for the Northeast portion of the United States. The leaves change color, temperatures drop, animals begin gathering food for their winter hibernation, and an incredibly diverse group of quality lowered automobiles gather at Princeton Airport in Princeton, NJ. Marking their second year of flooding the web with seamless automotive culture coverage, Canibeat.com put on their, now annual, show First Class Fitment.

Import Alliance hosts some of the biggest car enthusiast meets in the nation, and this year marked their first Northeast event in Baltimore. The meet kicked off early in the morning when high-quality cars lined up before the gates even opened. Regardless of the rainy forecast, people from all over the East Coast traveled to check out the affair that was hosted in a two-lot location overlooking the beautiful bay. Good weather, great community, and even better cars make for a fun-filled and interesting event. One of the aspects that made this event especially stand out is its diverse feel. Cars in attendance along with the vendors catered to the crowd. From various performance cars to show cars, there was something for everyone to thoroughly enjoy. As expected, the major trend was the popular low and wide stance movement found in many cars.

After years of doing the Import Tuner AWD Shootout it’s time we changed it up. No longer will we be putting EVOs against Imprezas. This year, we’re going to make it available for any chassis FR-based (front engine, rear-wheel drive) vehicle. Everything from the new Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ, to older models like the Nissan Z, Honda S2000, and Mazda RX-7 are welcome to compete. This is an all-out competition with very little limiting factors. The race will occur at Willow Springs International Raceway in California. The deadline to enter is June 1, so email us now. Submissions require car specs and a recent photograph.

The SEMA Show—short for Specialty Equipment Market Association—is the biggest aftermarket auto event in the world. The show draws the industry’s top manufacturers and newest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center. This year’s convention played host to more than 60,000 domestic and international buyers. With over 1,500 new product displays that ranged from parts, tool, and specialty components, the show offered a plethora of automotive eye candy, including hot models and a glimpse into some of the hottest products for the upcoming year.

The Formula DRIFT 2012 Season Opener Round 1 at Streets of Long Beach started off a huge success with advanced tickets sales entirely sold out. Fans finally got to witness Ken Gushi's highly anticipated Scion FR-S in action. In the end, Team Falken took both first and second with Justin "JTP" Pawlak picking up his second win in a row at this venue in his Falken Tire 2013 Ford Mustang and Dai Yoshihara placing second in his Discount Tire/Falken Tire S13 240SX. Third place went to Daigo Saito in his Achilles Tire/Bridges Racing 1,200HP 2JZ-powered Lexus SC430.

Formula Drift returned to the Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA, for the final event of the 2011 season in front of a sold-out venue that eclipsed previous attendance records. The jam-packed event forced fans to park their cars and walk more than a mile away from the speedway to witness history in the making. This year’s finals marked the closest and most competitive chase for the championship in Formula Drift history. Each of the five top competitors had a statistical chance to win the championship going into Irwindale—the top three drivers were separated by a mere 34.5 points.

The 71st Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival served once again as the backdrop to the Nisei Week Showoff Car Show, located in the heart of Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. Showoff surprised both show attendees and competitors alike with its glorious return. Initially, CEO and founder Ken Miyoshi brought the longest running import car show to a halt following last year’s event, upon receiving news that the parking lot was sold to a new developer. The demise of Nisei Showoff, however, was temporary as the property management was hit with economic hardship. This proved to be a blessing in disguise for the import car scene, as the land was never redeveloped, allowing Showoff to continue its Little Tokyo tradition.

The Super Lap Battle Finals held its annual time-attack event at Buttonwillow Raceway in California under perfect weather conditions. The venue is approximately a two-hour drive from Downtown Los Angeles through the rural landscape of Bakersfield. Since its inception in 2004, SLB has continued to be considered the most anticipated event. Tuner shops and professional drivers from around the globe come out to beat lap records in their class and gain bragging rights for the year.

Celebrating its seventh annual event, the Japanese Classic Car Show’s eclectic collection of perfectly restored cars and crazy projects was once again held at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. Ranging from rare cars to bikes and “relics” you simply won’t find anywhere else, the event offers the largest variety of vehicles and is one of those car shows you really don’t want to miss. An early dawn rainstorm greeted the event, but by mid morning the clouds had parted to host ideal show car weather.

City of Industry, California - Motion Auto Show & Expo 2012 Show Date

Let’s take a minute to rewind and reflect. The Wekfest meet started in San Francisco a few years back. Since then it has been a huge success, drawing in crowds by the thousands that no other show is able to do these days. In 2011 the gang decided to expand and take the show to Chicago, Dallas, and later Hawaii. What is Wekfest? It’s one of the leading car shows in the import scene that was started by the same guys who run the Weksos online retail car shop. We recall way back in 2001 when it was Weaksauce.org, one of the first online forums with a huge classifieds section dedicated to JDM parts. Times have changed and the brand evolved from forum, to e-commerce shop, to one of the scene’s best car shows.

Tired of hearing about the FT-86/FR-S and not being able to actually see it? Well, all the teasing is over. Just before the production model was released we were invited to Scion’s private party unveiling the FR-S. Of course, all concept cars are way cooler than production cars could ever be, due to all the regulations and practicality of a real production car. But the FR-S is still the coolest new car you’ll see all year. Trust us, in person this car is something else. Stay tuned, we can’t wait for the FR-S to hit U.S. soil; next month, we’ll be flying over to Japan to testdrive the car before it’s even officially sold.

Drag racing fans took to Texas Motorplex near Dallas to see some of the fastest import dragsters of today. After Carlos Rivera’s car broke down, Alfonso Manriquez ran a 7.94-second pass in his Mazda RX-3 to take the Outlaw class victory. The popular front-wheel-drive class went to Tony Palo with an 8.48-second pass in his Acura Integra. Previously, during qualifying, Tony set a new record with a 186-mph pass. Although Max Ramos didn’t beat out Tony, he’s still tied in points with Aaron Lopez for the season championship. Forced Induction Pro class went to Roger Martinez and his Mazda RX-7 with an 8.98-second pass, while All Motor Pro class went to Jason Lumpkin and his Honda CRX with a 10.78 second pass. On the show side of the event Team 16Niss took Best Car Crew, while Marcus Chin took Best of Show with his Honda Fit.

The SoCal car scene has never skipped a beat, and it is still going strong. Although it’s Motion Auto Show’s first event, they’re the same group of people who have brought you this show for the past four years (just under a different company name). Always held at the Long Beach Convention Center, on exhibit were a wide variety of compact cars, luxury sedans, and sport cars.

Formula Drift prepares to finish off its eighth season and final competition for 2011 at the “House of Drift”, Toyota Speedway at Irwindale CA. The championship race has come down to the narrowest of margins with the Top 5 drivers coming all within striking distance to take home the championship. Follow along as we recap both Round 5 and 6, leading to the final FD Irwindale event while we wait to see who emerges the Formula D 2011 champ.

After drifting in three continents, Dai Yoshihara decided that in-between Round 6 and 7 of the stateside Formula D series, he’d take a little break and go compete in a couple of drift events in Europe. First arriving in Ireland, Dai drove a unique SR20-powered Toyota Altezza at the Mondello Circuit. He was only able to finish in Fourth Place, being knocked out by fellow Falken teammate D-Mac McNamara. Up next, Dai headed to mother England to drive Driftwork’s 2JZ-powered Nissan S15 (man, they sure love cross-manufacturer swaps over there) at the Drift Allstars European series at Wembley Stadium. Dai went on to finish Eighth in this event.

Married couple Doug and Miriam Macmillan of Hondata recently came out to the Bonneville Salt Flats and once again broke records with their Hondas. For the fourth time Miriam took her 1.5L turbocharged ’90 CRX to a new record of 220.258 mph. Although, she actually went a top speed of 234.6 mph, the results are calculated from an average speed over two runs.

The Formula Drift championship once again returned to “The Gauntlet”, otherwise known as Wall Speedway, located in Wall Township, NJ. During Friday practice, the track was blindsided by a monsoon that destroyed tents, damaged cars, and wreaked enough havoc to cancel Top 32 practice. With the weather cleared up for Saturday’s event, the drivers went to work slowly chipping the competitors down to the Great 8, which included Ryan Tuerck, Matt Powers, Conrad Grunewald, Tyler McQuarrie, JR Vaughn Gittin, Justin Pawlak, Dai Yoshihara, and Chris Forsberg.

“Y’all traveled all the way from New York for some cars?” is the first thing we heard from our astonished server at Waffle House when we tried to explain why all these “tuner cars” were invading the streets, hotels, and gas stations of Nashville.

Coming into new hands, the SpoCom show is off to a great start and the SoCal show in Anaheim was no exception. The SpoCom Auto Life Exhibits tend to start in the late afternoon and run until 11 p.m. No, this isn’t an HIN wannabe dark-lit nightclub for underage kids. For five hours, thousands of people came through the doors to check out the hundreds of cars on display. Bikini, model, and dance contests broke up the monotony of cars. Whatever your pleasure is SpoCom had it. We can’t wait to see what the Hawaii show has in store. www.spocomusa.com