Now that the big gravel parking lot next to the space used to hold the Street Car Nationals has been fully resurfaced, we might as well think of it as the show’s annex, such is the selection of cars that you can run across. About an hour before the show was due to end I [...]
Although it’s something that I’d love to be able to do, there is literally no way you could shoot every single car at the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals before the event closes at 3pm. So this year – like every year – it was all about being selective and concentrating on the cars that exhibited [...]
If you missed a certain American flair in the previous Spotlight-O-Rama from the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals, then this selection I’ve put together should balance things out quite nicely. What better way to get things pointing in the right direction than by taking a look at a couple of traditional hot rods – the rawest [...]
No matter how many times I attend the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals, I never quite get over the visual impact the event creates on the streets of Tokyo’s Odaiba neighborhood. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t into customs or hot rods, the sight that these cars collectively create is simply breathtaking. Throw in an ever-expanding [...]
“No, he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he rubbed you. And rubbin’, son, is racin’.” Probably my favorite quote from the movie Days of Thunder, which isn’t just one of my favorite movies about NASCAR, it’s the only one I’ve ever seen. Coincidentally, it’s also where 90% of my knowledge about [...]
It’s not often I get nervous when I’m thrown the keys to someone else’s car, but then again the ’56 Cadillac I just buckled up in certainly isn’t your average ride – or at least the average when it comes to cars that I’m accustomed to driving. Piloting, or in this case ‘captaining’, a left-hand-drive [...]
Corvette. It’s a name that stands apart in America’s automotive history, shorthand for a unique take on the sportscar genre. It’s a model that has always trod its own path, often forging ahead into uncharted territory for American cars and remaining obstinately uncluttered by national tradition or dogma. Corvettes have been muscle cars that never [...]
It’s time to head full tilt into our USA theme now here on Speedhunters: three days of Americana from around the world. I’ll kick off proceedings with a recent visit to a hot rod garage, something that perhaps epitomises the American automotive way. It had all looked perfectly normal – as I walked into the garage [...]
The 2013 Geneva Salon International De L’Auto opened today, and as has been heavily trailed in the weeks leading up to the event there has been a whole slew of new cars and concepts revealed at the show. I’ll be taking a more detailed look across the myriad of manufacturer, styling and tuner displays in [...]
The latest version of the most iconic of American sportscars has just been revealed on the eve of the North American International Auto Show: behold the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette. The C7 will be officially launched in 2014 but available towards the end of next year to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the famous Chevy model. [...]
Time to take a look at a final selection of cars from this year’s Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show, an event that year after year not only continues to get better, but defines how seriously and passionately the Japanese take this scene. I’ve kept the best American rides I came across for this last [...]
For those of you that somehow missed yesterday’s post, let me bring you up to speed. I recently spent a weekend in Sin City getting reacquainted with the crazy machines of the good old thirteen-twenty variety. While the weekend as a whole was a massive display of shock and awe, there were some cars that [...]
Ah yes, drag racing. At its core, it is motorsport of the purist kind, and one with a very low barrier to entry. All one needs to enjoy a good drag is a car, a strip of relatively straight road surface of a predefined length and, preferably, someone else to find out whether or not [...]
I have making the annual pilgrimage to SEMA since 2008, but this year would mark my first venture through the Convention Center as a Speedhunter; which meant I had an entirely new agenda. I have to admit that SEMA is typically a week in time that I dread for months prior, but since my focus [...]
Pairing drifting and big American V8-powered muscle cars is always a good formula – mix some ’70s nostalgia in there as well and it’s a pretty much perfect combination. Finnish drifter Mikko Viitala has taken a Z28-78 Chevy Camaro, anti-facelifted it for an even more early ’70s look and stuffed it full of horsepower.
His Camaro now mounts a 6.2-litre, 505hp LS3 engine from a 2010 Corvette and weights 1280kg when race ready. The underpinnings include the cream of modern mechanicals, with Bilstein shocks, Corvette disks and S14 coil-overs just part of the serious amount of kit installed under the fibreglass body. It’s Mikko’s third drift car since dipping his toe in the water with an Opel Manta back in 2004; an Opel Kadett then made way for the Camaro – quite a step up!
This video reinforces the evidence that muscle-cars go just fine around corners: this beast pretty much only goes sideways, and puts anything in its way to the smoking sword. Awesome.
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