Heel Up, Wheel Up, Bring It Back, Come Rewind

Guess who’s back?! No, for real this time.

Since I haven’t published any stories on Speedhunters in quite a while, and since the website continues to attract new readers every month, I thought it would be a good idea to reintroduce myself and update everyone on what I’ve been up to by writing up a retrospective piece.

Those who have been following Speedhunters for quite some time might already know that I was part of the original team that launched the site and the SH brand back in 2007/2008.

Prior to the launch of Speedhunters, I was shooting for print magazines including Super Street, Modified, Grassroots Motorsports, 0-60, C16, FHM, Battle Magazine (Japan), Drift Tengoku (Japan), and Speed (Aus), while working with the Need for Speed team as an automotive trend spotter/marketing consultant. Yes, I had the coolest job in the world; we basically identified which events and which racetracks were on our bucket list, and then Electronic Arts flew us out to those tracks to take photos and provide reports on automotive styling, which they could use in the game. It was amazing.

Fresh Wheels On My Fleet Make My Cipher Complete
CipherGarage, Cipher Garage, AE86, Trueno, Antonio Alvendia, 86FEST

After I left Speedhunters, I worked for NBC Universal – initially for The Fast and the Furious franchise – but later on I ended up doing creative ops in the motion picture marketing group. This type of work was fun, but I always knew that I wanted to continue shooting photos and writing about car culture, so my friends and I created a site called MotorMavens.

Even before I was writing and shooting for automotive outlets, I always loved old school Toyotas. I even remember riding around in my grandfather’s shiny red Toyota as a child. So naturally, when I was in high school I learned to drive in a Toyota, and eventually bought a Toyota as my very first car.

Some people might have even seen the video that Petrolicious produced about me and my twin red Cipher Garage AE86s.

When I first got into AE86s, my first three cars were really rough. They had dents and crappy paint, but they were still RWD with T50 transmissions and factory Toyota LSDs in the back. This made them perfect for canyon running, auto-crossing, and doing donuts. I spent much of my early years driving the twisty Bay Area backroads with my other AE86 friends.

CipherGarage, Cipher Garage, AE86, Trueno, Antonio Alvendia, 86FEST

We started a group in San Francisco called the ‘AE86 Driving Club’ back in 1997 or 1998, and my good friend Calvin Wan designed the logo (he owned an AE86 a long time before he bought his first FD3S and became a professional drifter). Shortly thereafter, I met an AE86 guy named Bill Sherwood who was visiting from Australia, and I gave him some of our stickers. Shortly thereafter, an AE86 Driving Club was started up in Australia (no affiliation to our original group). Fast forward to today, and lots of 86ers are rocking AE86 Driving Club stickers that look similar to the ones that Calvin first created, which is super cool.

When I finally moved to Los Angeles and found an extremely clean AE86, my automotive styling mentor/senpai Ricky Silverio told me I better keep it clean. Even back in the 1990s, he knew that the AE86 would become a cult car for collectors, and prices would eventually skyrocket, just like most sporty Japanese cars from this era. He urged me to keep this car (above), my 1986 kouki AE86, clean and preserved for future generations. I had other beater AE86s to play with back then, so even though I commuted to work with this car every day, I kept my kouki 86 garaged and away from the elements.

When I first got my kouki AE86 in 1999, it had factory red painted USDM bumpers, tinted windows, and a CD player inside. I immediately removed the CD player in favor of a period correct factory Toyota head unit, took off the tint with help from my friend Ricky DelaCuesta from DC Autosport, then immediately swapped out the bumpers with factory Japanese Toyota kouki items that I got from my friend HerbrockOne, who had been our source for factory Toyota AE86 parts since the mid-1990s. Thanks to my friend George Ciordas, I already had new old stock TRD short-stroke adjustable suspension (I still have the boxes – they’re so cool) in the car, that had come from an old Japanese guy in Toronto, Ontario. Yup, I traveled from Los Angeles to Canada’s East Coast just to get my suspension. This Japanese market stuff wasn’t even available locally back in the late 1990s; everyone else was running TRD USA suspension, which wasn’t as low, and utilized progressive rate springs (yuck) and long-stroke shocks.

I could literally write on and on about these cars for like 20 years, so let me keep this short and sweet. In the early 2000s I had the chance to get a red zenki AE86 hatchback that matched my kouki, so I jumped at it. I ended trading my friend Patrick Ng my 1974 TE27 Corolla SR5 with TRD Tosco wheels for the 1985 zenki AE86, and these two Cipher Garage AE86 twins have been together ever since, like stepbrothers (did we just become best friends?).

Cipher Garage AE86 86FEST 86LIFE SSR Wheels

I always like to change things up on the cars, so I have multiple sets of negative offset wheels for both cars – RS Watanabe Type Rs, SSR Mk2s, Mk3s, Work Equip 01s, SSR Starsharks – with lots of different choices of rare steering wheels, shift knobs, seats, exhausts – you name it.

The thing I don’t seem to have enough of is engines, because currently the zenki AE86 has a blown motor, and I need to finish building my new engine. Sadly, the zenki is on the back-burner right now.

Lexus, 3GS, GRS191

Ever since the third generation GRS191 Lexus GS came out I loved the body style, so I bought one for daily.

The car’s face gives a nod to the slant-nosed styling of the original JZS147 GS300/Aristo, but it has the four-eye look just like the second-gen JZS161. This is aesthetically my favorite body style of GS. I love the amazing factory Lexus/Mark Levinson sound system and the air conditioned seats. I do not love the crappy HID projector headlights.

Lexus, 3GS, GRS191

Anyway, thanks to my friend Robby Caballes from RSPEC Auto, the car is slammed with ISC Suspension coilovers and 19×10.5-inch Fondmetal wheels. It would be much more convenient to have air suspension to raise the car on steep driveways, but oh well.

Let’s Bring It Back To 86
Cipher Garage AE86 twins 86LIFE SSR Wheels

As some folks may or may not know, I’m the founder of an event called 86FEST. The creation of this brand happened pretty much by accident. Back in 2012 when Toyota USA (Scion USA) first began promoting its nimble, rear-wheel drive successor to the AE86, I was invited to one of their focus group events. There, I said I loved the styling of the car, but was disappointed that it had a boxer motor instead of a traditional Toyota/Yamaha twin cam DOHC ‘G head’ to keep it true to the roots of the Yamaha-designed Toyota engines, like the 2TG, 4AG, 3S-GTE, and 2JZ-GTE that made the RWD Toyotas of the ’80s and ’90s so great.

Shortly thereafter, Toyota invited me to drive the new car at Spring Mountain Raceway, prior to its public release. After tracking the car, my opinion was swayed; the boxer motor and its contribution to the car’s low center of gravity made me love how the new 86 handled, and the 4U-GSE/FA20 engine had decent enough power to have some NA fun.

We decided to do a small car meet with the old 86s and the new 86s (ZN6 chassis) to promote the creation of the new Toyota 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ, and 86FEST was born. We had no idea that the event would continue to grow every single year and attract so much participation from the automotive aftermarket industry, but for that I’m so thankful.

When you have a brand or event that grows quickly, it’s very easy for it to evolve beyond your control or beyond your initial intention.

86FEST is a polarizing event; even though there are thousands of attendees that love it, there’s also a few people that criticize it. I’ll be very up front about this: some of the old school AE86 guys began feeling incredibly outnumbered by the new chassis 86, and began criticizing 86FEST for that. That’s completely understandable, but I feel kind of like this: If it were an event with classic S30 240Z owners and new Z34 370Z owners; or classic Nissan Skyline GT-R owners together with R35 GT-R owners; or classic Ford Mustangs and new S550 Mustangs, maybe people wouldn’t be as critical. Or would they?

This being said, I’m incredibly grateful for all the folks I’ve met from the newer ZN6 86 community. The new 86 owners have amazing enthusiasm, and we’ve had people make long drives from Washington state, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Georgia, and Florida just to attend 86FEST.

I do own a ZN6 Scion FR-S project car (it’s in the body shop right now), but in my heart of hearts I will always remain a true die-hard AE86 fanatic. To this day, I still own four AE86s and an orange TE27 1973 Corolla SR5 (the grandfather of the AE86) with all sorts of TRD Japan parts.

True In The Game, As Long As Blood Is Blue In My Veins
TE27, Corolla Sprinter, 86FEST, Toyota Socal

Have I mentioned that I’m a die-hard Toyota fanatic? Even though I’ve owned other cars (read: FC3S Mazda RX-7, S14 Nissan 240SX, and a few BMWs), I still have 3E6 ‘Toyota Red’ blood flowing in my heart.

I was so incredibly honored when Toyota SoCal reached out to me to create a Toyota Owners Showcase event this past summer. We teamed up with a huge food festival called 626 Night Market to create the event, and gave away awesome prizes and free food to Toyota owners.

Even though I had a severe knee injury and was on crutches at the time, I still jumped at the chance to work with Toyota, as they’re one of my favorite brands.

This time, our event wouldn’t be catered only to the 86 crowd, but would be expanded to all sorts of classic Toyota cars and trucks to be displayed right next to newer model Toyotas. We had judges from Super Street and the Petersen Automotive Museum, and several awesome examples of classic Toyotas joined us for the show. I really can’t wait to organize another event like this.

Who Shot Ya?
Antonio Alvendia, Singer Vehicle Design, Porsche 911

Although many people tend to pigeonhole me as a Japanese car enthusiast, I have a strong affinity for European cars also, and I blame Speedhunters for that.

Back in 2007, when we went on our first Speedhunters missions to the race tracks in the UK, Germany, and Belgium, I started drooling over BMW wagons and Porsche 911s. Fast forward several years later, my long time friend Peter Bodensteiner from Stance & Speed contacted me and asked me to work with him on a new book he was publishing on Singer Vehicle Design and their amazing Porsche 911 builds. Of course I said yes; Peter was the person who gave me my very first book deal – my hardcover photo book, Drifting, which was published by Motorbooks International in 2006. I promoted the book pretty intensely using social media, but back then I used Myspace because YouTube and Facebook weren’t popular and Instagram hadn’t been invented yet.

Drifting flew off the shelves at Barnes & Noble and Borders Books pretty quickly. In fact, it was this book that started my initial involvement with Electronic Arts, which led to the creation of Speedhunters. Someone from EA’s Black Box studio in Vancouver, BC found a copy of my book at the local bookstore and brought it to work. It was because of this book that EA initially contacted me. Years later, I introduced EA to Peter, and they struck up a deal to create the Speedhunters books, which I’m sure many of you already have.

Antonio Alvendia, Singer Vehicle Design, One More Than Ten book, Porsche 911, Daikanyama, Tsutaya, T-Site

Last year while I was in Japan, I was excited to find a copy of the Singer Vehicle Design book, titled One More Than 10, at my favorite bookstore, Tsutaya in Daikanyama, Tokyo. I enjoyed working on this book a lot, as I’ve always thought Singer’s founder, Rob Dickinson, had great taste in styling cars.

I shot Rob’s 1969 911 for Grassroots Motorsports magazine long before he started Singer Vehicle Design. In fact, I think I did a write up on the car on Speedhunters in 2008? I need to search. By the way, look up the OneMoreThan10 hashtag on Instagram. You’re welcome.

You Requested It, So We Rewind
Porsche 911 GT2, 997, Leipzig Test Track

I have Speedhunters to thank for my very first trip to Germany, and my very first time behind the wheel of a Porsche – a 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport no less. Yes, this widow-maker 997 GT2 was the first Porsche I ever drove.

Due to a relationship that Need for Speed had with Porsche, we were invited to the Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany and I got to test drive the 997 GT2 at the manufacturer’s private test track. I got to launch it, and I was floored (no pun intended). At that time, that was the fastest car I had ever driven, and it was all because of Speedhunters. Amazing.

One of the many highlights of this particular Speedhunters trip to Frankfurt, Munich, Leipzig, Nürburgring, and Spa was meeting one of my motorsports photography heroes, John Brooks from the UK.

Sir John Brooks was another core member of the original Speedhunters Class of 2008, along with Mike Garrett, Rod Chong, and Jeroen Willemsen. Brooks is the one that took the photos of me driving the 911 GT2, and I’ll never forget our drive through the German countryside, blasting NWA on the Autobahn on our drive to Nürburgring. I’m so glad that because of Speedhunters, I became good friends with John, and we continued to work together on other projects thereafter.

The Sun Rises In The East
Daishin Z33 350Z Super GT

Immediately after our trip to Germany, we went straight to Japan to experience the all-new Super GT series in Japan for the first time. This was amazing for me because even though I had been to motorsports events in Japan many times already, it was my very first time going to a Super GT event.

I was somewhat familiar with the cars, as I attended the JGTC x D1GP event at GTLIVE in Fontana as a photographer and event emcee, but my mind was blown when I saw these cars on their home turf. To me, there’s just nothing like watching and listening to these cars in person, in Japan. It was a sensory overload for sure.

Super GT Suzuka 2008 Jim Gainer Ferrari

See the guy standing on the left side in green? That’s Matsuda-san from legendary AE86 parts-maker Revolver. He now works for the Jim Gainer Super GT team, but originally, he was Katsuhiro Ueo’s crew chief for D1GP. Matsuda-san came to Irwindale with Ueo for the historic D1GP USA event on August 31, 2003 where Ueo defeated pro driver Nobuteru Taniguchi’s HKS S15 Silvia using a privateer garage-built AE86 with a naturally aspirated 4A-G engine with Tomei internals. Legendary.

At Super GT Suzuka, one of my favorite cars was the RE Amemiya FD3S RX-7. It was so crazy to see an FD all done up with Super GT aero trim, as I was more used to seeing FD street cars or drift cars. The FD3S is just one of the most beautiful Japanese cars ever made in my opinion, and the experience of seeing and hearing it (more like losing my hearing, because that thing is loud) on the track was so crazy.

I got to hang with Hamada-san from Dunlop and my good friend Kenta TokyoDrive, who was writing for several Japanese magazines like Daytona and Battle Magazine at the time.

When we left and headed to Ebisu Circuit for D1 Grand Prix, we saw tons of Need for Speed advertisements in the JR trains and on the wall at the Hachiko exit of Shibuya’s JR train station. Everyone uses this exit to get to the famous Shibuya ‘scramble’ crossing seen in movies and in magazines. It was so cool to see our Need for Speed brand all over Tokyo – it made me feel proud to be connected to such a cool brand.

It Was All A Dream / I Used To Read Battle Magazine
nobushige kumakubo mitsubishi lancer evo 9 ebisu circuit south course D1GP

Everyone who follows drifting has undoubtedly heard of Ebisu Circuit. Owned and built by D1GP champion Nobushige Kumakubo from Team Orange, Ebisu is one of the world’s most famous drift circuits.

Drivers and fans from all over the globe aspire to make a pilgrimage to Ebisu, the mecca of drifting culture, and being there for a D1 Grand Prix event back in 2008 was an experience I’ll never forget.

Ebisu Circuit D1GP S13 Akinori Utsumi Night Zone

Professional drift events in Japan feel just so different from professional drift events in the United States, and professional drift cars back then looked so different than they do these days. Do you remember when pro drift cars looked like this?! Just look at this pre-grid lineup underneath the Ebisu Minami Course grandstands.

In the front, we have Akinori Utsumi from Kansai drift team Night Zone, but instead of driving his signature teal blue metallic S13 he was driving his pro car, which was this red PS13 coupe. It looks beautiful. Behind Utsumi’s S13 is the yellow AE86 driven by Ken Maeda of Team DP2 from Kanagawa. Mae-ken is such a nice guy, and I absolute love his yellow AE86 Trueno (obviously). It looks so damn good with aero mirrors and the full Goodline aero kit. Behind Maeken is the white Blitz ER34 Skyline four-door driven by Monkey Magic frontman Ken Nomura. Can you guess the drivers of the cars behind Nomuken? Fukuda and…

ebisu circuit D1GP kumakubo jun auto mechanic susumu koyama

Also underneath the grandstands, I captured this moment with two legends. Ebisu owner Kumakubo is leaning on his CT9A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX while his legendary car builder Susumu Koyama from Jun Auto Mechanic is on the phone. Koyama-san is the man responsible for the success of Jun Auto’s legendary engineering, and he told me he began working for Jun in the 1970s, when he was driving a KE25 Corolla. Since he was a fan of older Corollas, he began tinkering with Toyota engine parts, and began working on 2T-G Toyota twin cam engines for Toyota Team Tom’s. He built all of the famous Jun race cars, as well as Kumakubo’s D1GP championship-winning car, the RWD-converted Subaru WRX, this Evo IX pictured above, and Kumakubo’s RWD-converted Evo X as well.

Sadly, Koyama-san isn’t building cars for Team Orange anymore because he had a stroke a few years ago, but everyone still remembers and looks up to his engineering and craftsmanship. We miss you, Koyama-san, and I hope to see you the next time I’m in Japan.

If you have ever seen Team Orange at a live event, or if you’ve ever visited Ebisu Circuit, then you’ve most likely seen this guy pictured here, driving the Team Orange K-Truck (kei truck), which is packed full of drift spares at events. That’s Igusa from a drift team called Response Family Sessions from Gifu, Japan. He’s the manager at Car Shop K-Style, speaks English, and is super fun to hang out with. He always looks out for me when I’m in Japan, and he teaches me super funny phrases in warui nihongo (bad words in Japanese).

Everyone from the Ebisu camp has always been super nice to me. This is D1GP AE86 builder ‘Mohican’ Matsuoka san from Droo-P and pro D1GP and Formula Drift driver Toshiki Yoshioka. When we arrived at D1GP Ebisu, Matsuoka-san gave me Espelir springs for my AE86, which I mailed to myself while I was still in Japan, but I never received them in the United States. Ten years later, I still haven’t received them, sadly.

Since I hadn’t been back to Ebisu since our Speedhunters trip in 2008, I decided to go and visit my Ebisu fam last year. It was so great to see my good friend Igusa again after almost a decade. Apparently he put new wheels on the K-Truck, but some of the stickers are beginning to peel off. I hope he replaces some of those stickers to make it look more tidy. Motto ganbatte, Igu!

It was so cool and random to also bump into Akinori Utsumi from Night Zone again, nine years later. This time, he had a wife and child with him. Seeing him was a pleasant surprise, especially since he lives in the Kansai region of Japan, which is a long way from Ebisu. He just decided to bring his S15 Silvia up so that he could practice driving at Ebisu’s Minami Course (D1GP course) before the event.

I went to Japan twice last year, and spent an entire month there both times. I have a lot more photos to share from my trips, but maybe we’ll save those for a future Speedhunters post.

Fresh Out The Gate Again, It’s Time To Raise The Stakes Again
Pirelli World Challenge, Watkins Glen

Earlier this year, I did a photo story on the Pirelli World Challenge at the Long Beach Grand Prix, which was reposted by several of the teams and the series itself. This opened the door for me to travel to a couple events on the PWC tour this past year, which was really fun.

I was absolutely smitten by the amazing supercars racing in the World Challenge GT class, which includes cars like Ferrari 488 GT3, Porsche 911 GT3R, Bentley Continental GT3, Audi R8 LMS, and Lamborghini Huracán GT3. These wide-body beasts look and sound so cool on the racetrack.

Pirelli World Challenge Watkins Glen FCP Euro TCR Volkswagen GTI

Aside from the GT class supercars, I thought the new TCR class was super cool too. In this class, you find a lot of wide-body race versions of normal production vehicles, like this Volkswagen GTI TCR, driven by Michael Hurczyn of FCP Euro, a large online retailer for European car parts.

The TC and GTS classes in World Challenge have awesome cars too. Some of my favorites include the HMA Motorsports Civic Type R driven by Honda factory employee Josh Foran, seen here catching air at Virginia International Raceway, and the awesome BMW Motorsports liveried M4 GT4, as driven by BMWSF owner Henry Schmitt.

The Pirelli World Challenge series has been retitled the Blancpain GT World Challenge for the 2019 season, and I think it’s cool to see more European teams getting involved with the series from here on out.

Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everybody
retro funny car nostalgia drag racing

I think I chose this chapter title pretty appropriately, after all, knowledge is king.

American domestic cars are a genre of automotive culture that I’m not extremely well versed in, but I absolutely love the look of classic muscle cars, kustoms, and slammed hot rods.

Even though I’ve been photographing and writing about cars for well over a decade now, I still have a long way to go on my learning path. I still have a lot to learn about V8 engines, drag racing, muscle cars, kustoms, lowriders, hot rods, and the like.

slammed kustom lead sled

I saw a quote from Mahatma Gandhi (see, hip hop lyrics aren’t the only quotes I remember) that said, “Action expresses priorities.”

Therefore, in the interest of continually improving my automotive journalism with a broader range of knowledge, I’ve been actively attending hot rod events, nostalgia drags, lowrider shows, and classic muscle car events for the past few years so that I can further expand my horizons and build more relationships within the worldwide car community. After all, building great relationships within the global car community is what drives me. Just like music, food, or photography, a common love for car culture can instantly bind two complete strangers together, can’t it?

Okay, that’s it for me. If you made it this far, thank you for reading. I have lots of cool content planned for the site, but if you have any feature car leads, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! (Instagram is probably the easiest way)

Antonio Alvendia
Instagram: AntonioSureshot • MotorMavens • 86Fest

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97 comments

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1

Those are the cleanest 86s around. Can’t wait for the next 86 Fest!

Author2

I have some cool ideas in the works for the next 86FEST, so I can't wait to get started either! (But first, I need to finish gathering parts for the zenki 86 engine rebuild)

3

digging that MK7 VW racecar. Hopefully the MK8 platform is more performance oriented and more powerful

Author4

I think the TCR Mk7 is super cool! I haven't heard much about a Mk8 version of the Golf yet, but I loved test driving the Mk7 and Mk6 GTIs and Golf Rs at Willow Springs, so I welcome the addition of a Mk8 in the future!

5

"Damn! where'd ya'll confiscate these rims from, man?"- Tyrese Gibson

Author6

haha, if only I could confiscate cool wheels from people in real life, so I could add them to my collection!

7

"I'm a true master you can check my credentials, Cause I choose to use my infinite potential"

As a side note, Antonio is also a HUGE Hip Hop fan, in case none of the readers got the headings, you can google 'em and have a listen while you read this article again!

This is like the SpeedHunters version of a trailer for motion picture documentary with a legendary Hip Hop soundtrack.

decom_20ead71a504c0bc637f2607aac666a36_5c108caf45482.jpgdecom_20ead71a504c0bc637f2607aac666a36_5c108caf45482.jpg
Author8

Jover!!! Obviously, I love the quote from Jeru!

That's INCREDIBLE that you dug up that photo of me in Running Free Yamashita's AE86 Trueno from the Goodline booth at the 1999 Tokyo Auto Salon. When I was at that event, I was still driving a 1985 grey/black 2tone GTS hatchback w sunroof and LSD with 13" Panasport Race Purpose Only wheels.

That particular car started my lifelong obsession with red AE86s, and inspired me to start my own red fleet. To this day, I still don't own a Goodline hood and bumpers (yet), but that's going to change!!!

9

Welcome back!

Author10

Thank you Naveed! Next time I'm in the Bay Area or if you're in LA, we'll have to link up so I can eatwithNaveed!

11

I'm holding you to that!

12
Ronnie San Felipe

Dope to see you back with SH! Real quick, I saw references from KRS-1, Biggie, Busta and Jeru to name a few

Author13

hell yeah, thanks Ronnie! Don't forget Nas and Guru!

14

Such a dope collection of photos. After reading your story I can’t wait to see what the future brings since you’re right at home with SH. The ever growing world of Motorsports / car enthusiasts combined with your rich history and forward mindset should make for some great content.

Author15

Man, thank you for that awesome compliment! I'm planning to hit up some cool events to complement the other cool stuff the other shooters are already bringing to the site! :)

16

and there you have it, folks. the one and only, Antonio Alvendia. welcome back and I'll see you again soon, pare!

Author17

thank you!!! please hit me up if you know of any feature-worthy cars that i should shoot for the site! :D

18

Thanks for the history lesson. I know you so much better now! See you soon.

Author19

Thank you Don! Actually, I have a whole lot of lessons to learn from YOU and everyone else! See you soon!

20

Oh man, all these lyric snippets from 90's rap songs as chapter titles seem a little forced..

Author21

haha, if only you knew me you'd know none of that was forced. maybe I should refrain from listening to hip hop in the background when writing stories though... haha

22

I own a ROB zenki Trueno so you're cool in my books haha great read! You've accomplished quite a lot in car culture :)

Author23

yessssss I gotta give you a high five because I love me a zenki Trueno! thanks for the compliment - I'm just getting started over here!

24

It's great to see that name alongside a Speedhunters watermark once more.

Author25

thank you so much Jordan!!! I'm happy to be back!

26

Holy shit!
It was all about you back then and by what I've just read it's still all about you!

Me me and me! I did this, I did that! Look folks who I am! Antonio "sure shot" Alvendia....

You Sir. never understood the meaning of being humble. It ain't about you, it is about cars!
Not what you own/ed, or created, or shot!

I stopped following SH many many years ago (partially) because big-ego folks like you that always had/ have to emphasize how much you've done in the industry......that is a huge turn off.

Get off your high horse and let your actions speak for themselves.

27

Stopped following years ago.... and yet here you are.
Go do something you enjoy instead - unless it's moaning about stuff that makes you happy.

Author28

Hey Alex!!!

Believe it or not, I appreciate the fact that you took time out of your busy day to write a comment on this. Seriously, I appreciate it!

I've been gone from the site for a while, and was just re-introducing myself to some of the newer readers, but no worries. I understand that not everyone will like my personality, my cars, or my photos - and I'm ok with that! :D

I remember you now - you left similar comments on my posts 10 years ago!

Anyway, I realize you and I have never met (actually I'd like to meet you), and therefore you don't know my real personality. I'm pretty open and down to earth in real life man - sorry if my post offended you.

Either way, I WILL take your comment as constructive criticism, and try to improve from here on out. I DO have some awesome stuff planned for the site, and don't worry... there won't be any photos of me or my cars in the next few posts. haha!

THANK YOU FOR COMMENTING MAN! Seriously!

29
Jay Soh Tsu Chung

Guy's just introducing himself to new readers who doesn't know who he was and also letting people know what he has been up to since he left the site. Calm your tits.

30

Calm my tits? What's that?

Author31

haha thanks Jay! I have some cool new content planned out that I hope you guys will like!

32

This is by far one of the best articles I've read on SH since I discovered it. I love how the story takes one on a journey. Looking forward to not only reading your future articles but hopefully joining the crew!

Author33

Thank you Chad!!!

What city are you based in?

34

Coming Straight Outta CPT! (Cape Town, South Africa that is lol)
We have a pretty wild car culture down here too, some more features on our builds would be amazing. We're talking about mk1 VW Golfs, E30's and a huge fan base of old corollas, KE70's and TE72's in particular(my favourite as I own one myself). South Africa actually had their own TRD version of the TE72 released here, and very rare, so it would be pretty cool if a feature of one could be uploaded onto SH.

Author35

Amazing! I need to come out for a visit sometime!

36

Good to see that you're still as bitter as ever, Alex :)

37

Good to see you can't take constructive criticism Paddy, (and the rest of the SH team).

38

Hey Alex don't toss all of us under the bus! :P

39

I am not. My comment was directed to Antonio.

40

"Constructive" XD

41

Yes Paddy, "constructive"....as "it's about the cars here". Not necessarly fast cars.....although your site is spelled SPEED....but nonetheless about cars.
If YOU, or any "journalists" want to be in the lime light.....there are a bunch of fashion mags for that.
I used to read Antonio stuff....and it was often times about him.....I read today Antonio's.....and it is still about him and his connections.
He's a car parts collector.....shift knobs, rare JDM wheels and what not. Great! There's a lot more about cars that those things. And since you guys expect us always to worship what you write, be also ready to take some criticism instead of deleting comments.

42

Amazing that after 10 years, you still don't understand that Speedhunters is about -all- aspects of car culture, slow, fast and everything in-between, despite the fact it has been explained to you countless times.

So, either you're trolling or just dense. Either way, I'm tired of you already. See you in another decade?

43

And I wanted to add. It's quite amusing to see that whenever someone has a different opinion, it is instantly "trolling". Does everyone have to think like you Paddy?

44

When you put so much effort into following something you dislike for over a decade just to post inflammitory (you need to look up the meaning of constructive) comments yes you are a troll and one who clearly has nothing else to occupy yourself.

45

Actually I do understand what SH is all about......that is car bud. If you wanna be famous and share the story of your life, Hollywood suits your need.

46

You complain like you pay to be here.

47

YES!!!!!!!!

Author48

Yes Lawd!

49
Jay Soh Tsu Chung

Yes sir Antonio! I've seen your name on old watermarks before. Can't wait to see what you have in store. Welcome back!

Author50

Thank you sir! Speaking of which, I need to finish writing my next story...

51

great article, Antonio!!!!

Author52

thank you J.A.C.K!

what does your name stand for anyway? is it an acronym for something?

53

is it weird if the car i'm most interested that you own is the gs? like i'm a sucker for low big body sedans, especially newer ones, and seeing one with nice fitment makes me nut.

Author54

hey Terry!

i love the looks of the 3GS! it's a great car, and i love the air conditioned seats and the stereo, but lately i've been considering selling it and picking up something else. maybe an E class benz wagon? or maybe a E36 M3? or maybe even a SXE10 IS300...? I dunno, my problem is I like so many different types of cars!

55

Hey Antonio I'm down to listen to classic hip and and hit up hot rod events with you at any time,

Author56

hell yeah, that would be dope, Dave! Unfortunately, I missed Mooneyes this year, but maybe the March Meet at Famoso!

57

When is the next 86 day?

Author58

still working out an event date!

59

Who remembers Prostreet?
That gave a new style of underground racing by Need for Speed

Author60

I remember that game - that's the game that the EA Blackbox team was working on when I first began my relationship with EA. We worked on a documentary film about the scene, which was called The Birth Of Pro Street. I don't know where it is viewable now (maybe YouTube?), but it was aired on Spike TV in the USA and Motors TV in Europe.

The funny thing is, I'm not even good at playing video games. I probably have crappy hand/eye coordination cause I'm no good with those controllers

61

just here for the Gang Starr reference..

Author62

hell yeah danny, you know my steez

63

Thank u sir for this write up. So proud that a fellow filipino is behind the scenes for all these automotive materials that we have come to know growing up

Author64

Salamat Jason! Hmm... maybe I should do some Speedhunting in the PI? Hmmmm.....?

65

Loving the rap lyric titles!

Author66

haha thank you Brian!

67

Shout out to a true mensch and OG!

GO ANTONIO!!!

Author68

Thank you Hulk!
I had to google what mensch meant. haha :D

69

Awesome to see you back at SH Antonio!

Author70

Thank you sir!!!

71

Always happy to see content from Antonio! Welcome back dude.

Author72

Thank you Zach!!!!!! Appreciate it!

73
Christopher Moulton

It was pretty cool to see the FCP Euro car on here. i work right next door to them and attend all of their cars and coffee events during the summer

Author74

oh wow, no way!!! I hope you have a European car to take advantage of all the access to lifetime warranty car parts next door!

75

What a nice surprise to see you back at SH! If american hot rodding is what you want to get into, I still recommend you come out to Bonneville next August and attend Speed Week my friend! Nothing like it!

Author76

Hey Hechtspeed!!!!!!

Blast from the past! Dude you KNOW I'd love to go out to Bonneville. I have still never gone! That's a bucket list event for me!

77

Hey Antonio I loved the article, most of all love the way you tell the story seems like everyone at SH seems to have a way that makes you feel like you are in the pictures.!, I was going to say maybe for a future article you could show how you take your photos, I was was going through the archives and read most of the shooting tips and tried some myself, I follow you on Instagram and just love your style of shooting! and totally love the 86's i got a red one myself! ( life time project )

Author78

Hey Omar!

THANK YOU so much for that compliment - it means a lot! I love telling stories through photos and captions.

There are a TON of awesome photographers on Speedhunters - maybe that would be a cool story that we could all collaborate on. Also, maybe I could do a YouTube video or something on the MotorMavens channel if I could get a friend to shoot some BTS stuff for me when I'm shooting a car. This way we could discuss things like equipment, filters, focal length, composition, distance from car... hmmm! This is a GREAT idea. Thank you for bringing that up!

Dude you got a red 86!!! Congrats! Message me on IG, and let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help you find parts or anything. I know what you mean about life time project. I have a lot of project stuff to finish myself, sigh...

79

Thanks for the reply! yeah a YouTube video with a how to motor-mavens would be amazing! or even a collab with the SH crew on a shoot, and ill definitely shoot you a message on Instagram if I need something or just wanna talk 86. Thanks again! such a cool guy!

Author80

Thanks for the great idea Omar!

Right now, I have some stories already underway, but will definitely look into it!

81

What’s up Antonio? Hey man what happened to all them pics u took of us corollas on the track at 86fest? There were all these photographers around. Post them up!!!

Author82

Chunks I got you man. The images look epic, and now is the perfect time to share them my man!

83

Are you guys actually deleting comments now? It's a little confusing as to what is going on with some of the stuff I post and others have had similar complaints.

If you guys aren't I'd look into the site, but if you are you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves as journalists.

84

Marco, I've spent some time looking into this and can't see any issues or any of your previous comments which might have been held in moderation by the automatic spam systems that we have in place. If the comments aren't appearing at all, it might be an issue at your side. If they are appearing and then subsequently vanishing, then yes, they would have been removed.

In saying this, sometimes you need to refresh once or twice for all the comments to load (you'll notice the disparity between the number of comments advertised on the front page of the site versus the number of comments at the top of the article when the page loads).

Only some of the staff here have moderation rights, and those that do know not to delete comments just because they're negative. The only reasons comments will be deleted are if they are obvious spam, trolling or are hate speech of any kind. I did just delete one of your replies to Antonio below, as it was a personal attack against the author. That shit won't stand here either.

If you follow the old online rule of 'attack the post, not the poster' then there shouldn't be any issues.

Author85

I don't see any comments deleted, Marco.

I know what you mean though. Sometimes comments load and sometimes they don't. IDK what that's about...?

Thank you for commenting the site! We'll ask someone to look into it! :)

86

I don't see any comments from you that have been deleted.

However many news outlets DO in fact have moderated comments sections so you're comment about being ashamed as journalists is a little off base.

Source: I've done development on news websites and implemented such systems.

Outside of that I think history has shown there's been plenty of back and forth between SH staff and readers that reveals commenting is fairly open.

87

Maybe a technical issue on the site then. I made a reply that posted and then never showed up. A few others comments have been lost in the past to. Oddly enough, only the ones that a well worded criticisms.

Author88

haha! well THAT'S a kewinkydink... lol

89

Welcome back Antonio! :-)

Author90

Thank you so much Sebastian!!

91

Welcome back Antonio !! Such a great article to read and learn from. When I first saw your AE's in magazines back then that came into my mind that someday I will own one of those. After 30 long years, happy to say that I'm finally getting a hold of old school Toyota's . I always look up to your builds , and with the help of friends from Washington, California, Florida , New Jersey and New York, that one of these days I will be able to share to you my old school builds. Will be looking forward to seeing more photos and articles on SH. By the way, any 86fest events coming up in the near future here in NYC? Again, Thanks!

Author92

Thank you Rene!

Yeah man, I'd love to see your builds! Just msg me on IG or something!

I haven't been to NYC in a really long time. Do you think there are lots of AE86 and FRS/BRZ guys up there? I really don't know where else to do events aside from Southern Cali. Hmm... I know the 86 scene is pretty strong in Toronto though, thanks to people like Jover, Pat Cyr, DoriKaze and the DriftJam crew!

93
Arnold van de Worp

I loved your writing and pictures back in the early SpeedHunter days, hoping to see more of that :D

Author94

Thank you so much Arnold! I hope to bring some cool new content and a different outlook to the site! :D

95

Antonio's back!!!!!!

Author96

yessir!

97

Wow man.. What a journey into what only so much you can share. Although there are things I've heard or you've told me personally, it's a good write up and selection of photos on here that bring a lot of past memories that are forgotten. Thanks for sharing your story and looking forward to another decade of content coming from you.

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