I am being greedy, I know. The exercise for Photos of the Year was supposed to be a selection of my fav 20 photos, but I feel there are just too many great pictures from the past year, to fit into a single post! Anyway…. let’s get started.
Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood, UK: It’s hard to believe this photo is straight out of John Brook’s camera without any photoshop enhancements. Quite phenomenal really…
Los Angeles, USA: I think this might be the first mount style shot ever done for Speedhunters and possibly one of the first desktop photos ever released of the 370Z. Thanks to Chris Manacop for the snap. I’m still a bit bummed I didn’t get to do a film shoot with this car… oh well… next time.
California Hot Rod Reunion, Famosa Raceway, USA: You can almost smell the Nitro. As I look out my living room window at the falling snow; the heat of California is feeling rather far away…
Santa Pod Dragstrip, Poddington, UK: Antonio doing what he does best…. This was one of the first Speedhunters shoots ever, from this April.
Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Long Beach, USA: I love the style of this car… one of the coolest drift machines I’ve ever laid my eyes on. This photo chronicles the first time I saw this wide and low S14 in person.
Los Angeles, USA: The R35 on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. It’s an absolutely beautiful composition. I have to say, I’ve really been enjoying Antonio’s driving impressions stories. He’s been doing a great job!
Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Long Beach, USA: If only more professional drift cars in Europe, Oceana, and North America paid as much attention to aesthetics as the Mad Bull. Just look as the wheel fitment….. So good…
D1GP, Odaiba, Japan: Got dish?….. (drools)
Le Mans 24Hs, Le Mans, France: Seeing Le Mans prototypes going full tilt on the famous temple of speed: the Mulsanne Straight is a must do auto pilgrimage for any serious petrolhead. John Brooks was there this summer for us, with his lenses…
Red Bull Drifting World Championship, Long Beach, USA: Take one Le Mans photographer with 30 years of motorsports shooting experience, drop him in to a top level drifting event and what do you get? The answer: Magic.
Formula Drift, Irwindale Speedway, USA: Foust on his way to his second FD title at the Irwindale… The house of drift is a place I’ll always return to, year in, year out.
Superlap Battle, Buttonwillow, USA: Tarzan Yamada at speed. I do wonder if the west will ever be able to beat the Japanese at the time attack game….
24 Hours of Spa, Spa-Francorshamps Circuit, Belgium: I was standing next to John Brooks when he took this photo. Regular Speedhunters readers will recall, this is the same set up as the epic opening shot of the Spa GT film we released a few months back. For the life of me, I’ll never forget this moment, where 50 of the Europe’s fastest GT cars flew down the Kemmel straight directly towards where I was standing….
California Hot Rod Reunion, Famosa Raceway, USA: I think it’s sooo coooollll when the pilots of retro drag cars attire themselves in period specific helmets…. It adds to the authenticity of the experience IMO.
Le Mans 24Hs, Le Mans, France: Before I became a drifting fanboy (and I’m still relatively new to this scene remember), I was a hardcore Sportscar and GT geek. A great night racing shot like this one will still bring a smile to my face… :>
Old Spa Circuit, Spa-Francorshamps, Belgium: OK this post seems to be getting a little bit of a sentimental… oh well… It’s fun to look backwards once and a while. Here, I’m getting to grips with the new 997 Carrera4 on the old Spa Circuit in the beautiful Belgian countriside.
SEMA, Las Vegas, USA: Most of my close friends think of me as some kind of futurist, cyberpunk computer freak and this is true for the most part… until you get me near a retro race car.. then I turn into sentimental 5 year old boy. Case in point, when I look at this photo it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
MSC, Honjo Circuit, Japan: Mind you I also feel also warm and fuzzy inside when I look at the cool logos on this MSC drift car….
SEMA, Las Vega, USA: Ever heard of the Law of Attraction? The gist is like this: the more you think about and visualize a subject or a future scenario (good or bad), the greater the likelihood of it happening in your life. With this in mind I really need to visualize myself driving and owning a Lead Sled… perhaps if I do this every day it will happen!
Donington Grand Prix Collection, Castle Donington, UK: Another must do pilgrimage for any serious racing fan: the Donington Grand Prix Collection….. You can see the history of the art of downforce in one go… truly amazing.
Formula Drift, Irwindale Speedway, USA: And I leave you with this shot… The art of sliding by David Lister.
BTW can I ask you guys a question: What events would you like to see Speedhunters cover next year?
What films to you want us to make?
What scenes or automotive themes do you want us to feature near year?
We are making our 2009 plans right now so now is the chance to tell us.
Best,
:Rod
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Please!!! Desktop of the Pand Treuno AE86 Please!!!
Cover D1 USA ( :
Cover EVERYTHING (except drag (both queens and racing))!
I second Easy E's request!!
More drifting videos :> But really everything you guys do now I love (more sexy desktops please :P) and I really wish I could do what you guys do
Ya'll are lucky! So Speedhunters '09 really doesn't need to change, coverage on everything from hot rods, to super cars, to lowered out drift cars is amazing. I love you guys :,> ~Miss Lynn
More grassroots events and drift lifestyle shots!
I would be glad to see some coverage of the euro scene in japan, obviously beyond Rauh Welt's Porsche tuning, more along the lines of watercooled vw's, bmw's, mercs et cetera.
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OR! maybe some sick Alfa Romeo stuff, retrooo
More grip racing events. Also it would be nice to see some front wheel drive feature cars like the JAS Rally Civic (if you haven't already covered that car)
Some WWTC, Some DTM, some BTCC, things like that would be great too. Great photography too.)
I loved it when you covered LeMans racing. As someone who does do alot of autocross and enjoys alot of traditional tarmac racing, it's nice to see some active racing coverage on Speedhunters. (Plus I think it stands out alot, when you do
Not that I don't like drifting, but I just like building up an actual conversation over racing, rather than just hearing how 'sick and dope' things always are
Interesting things coming up next year:
Possible S2000WRC (not the Honda car) spec chassis next year, cost cutting measures in F1, teams pulling out of LeMans and AmericanLemans, but new teams entering the GT2 Class prototypes. Should be an interesting time for racing.
Also it would be cool if Speedhunters were able to take pictures of 'mule' shots of future cars. You know, those pictures of cars that are doing development testing on the race track. It would be nice to talk about those as well.
So let's see.
1) More grip racing
2) Mule Shots or Developmental Photos
3) Autonews maybe?
I dunno, just some ideas that I've had. And you asked! So it's your own fault for a long comment?!
Cover not so famous cars but unique cars that we want to know more about. Famous cars are cool and all but there are hardcore grass roots cars that always get over looked because they're not funded by sponsors and such.
I'd like to see coverage of the hot rod scene in Europe, places like Sweden and Germany. I'd also like to see some air cooled VWs. Oh, and we gotta get Mike to cover Tokyo Auto Salon since it's on in '09. Other than that, keep up the great work! Thanks for making the best site of the year!
something about road legal C groups, eg: Dauer 962.
and 90's supercars, like XJ220, EB100 and etc...
Bonneville Speed Week, those peeps are speedhunters for sure
Some rallying, and more some european grassroots motorsport would be great! I imagine a slow-mo wrc video could be amazing.
Some Irish rallying, lots of British motorsport as it is some of the best in the world and maybe some Malaysian/ Thai stuff
Haha, more action videos with less slow-mo and more NOISE!
Ooo and some BMW Tuning. Mmmm (Oh, and beyond just the M3s please. Some creativity would be great
) Haha jk
I would LOVE to see a feature on that gold Nissan S13 Onevia thats always at ASB in the near future......
also i would also KILL to see a video of Team Magician in the same kinda style as the Team Orange video that u guys did a while back.....that would rock
i just wanna say, congratulations to the speedhunters team on their 1st year running the site, and good luck to u guys in 2009
i loved the mooneyes show, but i'd love it you guys would cover some more hot rod and rat rod shows. like the Hunnert car pileup
I would like to see grassroots drifting, gymkhana, and maybe auotcross. Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, and Tennessee have great drifitng networks for the grassroots level. Also, more cars from Risky Devil or the ones in the All Star bashes. On the grip side, document how a car is built, what actually goes into setting up a car for racing and how difficult it really is.
It would be nice to see much about Tokyo Auto salon, and the 24 h race at the Nürburgring and maybe some portraits of MCR and Top Secret
Full on shoot.
Film, print, video, etc. at the next ALL STAR BASH
july 25 and 26
I want all of you there.
Driver profiles, car profiles, specs, HD video, super desktops, etc.
LESS DRIFTING - car culture is more than drifting. More posts like the BTCC, WTCC, WRC ones
.
IIRC- banzai, there was a feature on the JAS Civic earlier this year and Andy has already posted about teams pulling out.
i forget
would be nice to make a car feature about all groupe B and C...
I still love you, Bob Daly, because you want more grip racing like I do
lol I'd love to hear about more tarmac cars though.
I forgot that I whined for the JAS Civic eariler this year
MOTORCYCLES!
motorcycles yeah!!!