Import Alliance brought their infamous meet series to Baltimore. The Mid Atlantic tuners welcomed the series with open arms. Many cars came from as far north as Massachussets and as far south as Florida for this epic one day event. When you think of Maryland you think of crabs and our nation’s capitol but it’s also the home of one of the most legit crews ....Elite
It is not every day you have a crew of guys with a very unique E46 M3, a boss Lexus LS460L, Godzilla and of course the nation’s sickest M45 owned by Shelton Smith. It seems the crew is sponsored by ViP Modular wheels since most are fitted with these incredible wheels in nice fitting offsets.
Another clean E46 M3 makes me wish I did bite the bullet and get one, with these Rotiforms this car sits real nice giving it a nice clean look.There were so many cars in attendance for just a meet that you know the Import Alliance brand is doing something right , bringing the tuner community together. Many crews from New Jersey went down to spend a day in Maryland , like the guys from Unique Auto Squad, New Image, Autoconcepts, and Pride Performance with their legit JDM cars.
The stance movement fad is still going strong and Canibeat was there to provide the stance fans their tshirts,decals, and accessories. Some of these stance crazed tuners really took it to the extreme. This Miata loked like a toy car, I would hate to hit a bump in this thing, but to each his own. Besides the fitted cars there were numerous cool and unique builds from the 2jz Toyota Cressida,a old school Mercedes, and a legit jdm old school Honda Prelude. I don’t know what it is but a 2jz Cressida gets me all tingly inside. Today’s tuners are definitely unique in the quest to make their cars stand out from the others by either writing on their cars or with a crazy wide body setup as seen on the Full Blown S2k.
Straight from the Triangle in North Carolina, Insane Stance and Offset are helping keep the scene alive in the mid atlantic as well as the east coast. The crew is not afraid to travel and has been seen at meets in Georgia. I don’t see anyone besides ISO and LibertyViP who put more miles on their cars as much as these guys do, no trailers queens, just driven hard ViP style cars.
This was my first Import Alliance event and well worth the 3 hour drive from Jersey. I look forward to Nashville meet 2012. Props to IA for a great event.
Global Time Attack the new leader in North America Time Attack racing ,brought the excitement and rain to Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL . The big teams came out to play with the main attraction being Chris Rado in the Team Need for Speed Scion TC. The Autobahn is a very technical 2.1 miles course where driver skill and suspension setup is the key to make it to victory lane. Ryan Gates in the EVO X is always impressive and it was good to seem him out there on Day 1, and he ran a good time of 1:30.692 in the Limited GT AWD class beating out Jeremy Rohrs of SSP Performance in his “back up car” Nissan GTR that ran a 1:37.180. Team SSP couldn’t go Day2 dude to transmission problems ending their trip early. The Unlimited GT AWD class was filled with great teams from GST Motorsports in the Subaru Impreza, TurninConcepts WRX and THMotorsports STi. An amazing performance was placed by Jeff Westphal with a time attack record time of 1:23.594. The times got better as the day progressed but Day 2 is a bust.
Day 2 mother nature wasn’t nice to the racers and it poured off and on all day. Numerous drivers who put down exceptional times during Day 1 chose not to run in the rain, and let those who were trying to catch podium get out there and try and beat them. The rain didn’t stop the car show from happening. The tuners in Chicago are hardcore and with some of the finest cars in the states. GT Haus has one of the finest Honda CRZ I have ever laid my eyes on.
Since it rained all day Sunday most of the times from Saturday would stand unless someone had some great rain skills, with that said the final times are as follows: Final results for the weekend looked like this: >Unlimited GT AWD 1: Jeff Westphal – GST Motorsports Subaru Impreza – 1:23.594 (Unlimited AWD record) 2: Tony Wiesenhahn – TurninConcepts Subaru WRX – 1:28.974 3: Ryan Upham – Mitsubishi Evo VIII – 1:31.445 4: Tony Szirka – UMS Tuning Mitsubishi Evo 8 – 1:32.189 5: Andrei Tsaran – THMotorsports Subaru WRX STi – No time Unlimited GT RWD 1: Gary Rubio – Performance Motorsport Nissan 370Z – 1:34.851 2: Carmine Del Aquilla – Performance Motorsport Chevrolet Z06 Corvette – 1:42.264
Unlimited GT FF 1: Aaron Byram – Pure Tuning Honda Civic – 1:31.628 2: Chris Rado – Team Need For Speed WORLD Racing Scion tC – 1:43.717 Limited GT AWD 1: Ryan Gates – Gates311.com Nitto Tire Mitsubishi Evo X – 1:30.692 2: Jeremy Rohrs – SSP Nissan GT-R – 1:37.180 3: Mark Forenbaher – Ivey Tune/Team Foren Mitsubishi Evo IX – 1:39.163 Street GT AWD 1: Daniel O’Donnell – Professional Awesome Mitsubishi Evo VII – 1:34.275 (Street AWD Record) 2: Micaiah Hackbarth – Mitsubishi Evo IX – 1:36.492 Street GT RWD 1: Bryan Hedian – Wired Race Team Honda S2000 – 1:44.034 2: Frank Hart – Chick Fil A Mazda RX-8 – 1:46.158
When you win your class it’s time to party and GTA does it right, you must love Steel Reserve, it gives the best hangovers :) After the races it’s time to celebrate and have an awards ceremony and soak that driver that was on your ass or the one you couldn’t catch with some nice brut champagne.
As Global Time Attack strives to continue to bring us the best racing series in North America, make sure you bring your race or show car , to the next round in Sonoma, CA at Infineon Raceway. Follow GTA for more info at www.globaltimeattack.com
Freedom Moves 2011 was an unforgettable weekend of drifting and typical Clubloose mayhem. Drift Alliance came through on their weekend off from their Formula Drift committments and created some awesome tandems in their missle cars. Vaughn Gittin Jr came to support the cause in his FD car and brought his sponsor Monster Energy Drinks to provide that extra buzz to the crowd on this day. This weekend wasn’t just Freedom Moves but also another round of Hold The Line Formula D Pro Am. Fresh off another win at Driftmania Canadian Championships (DMCC) Miro Ovcharik came to by to show off his new vinyl and put on a show for the crowd. With a A group with Tony Angelo, Ryan Tuerck, Chris Forsberg, Matt Waldin, Miro Ovcharik Nick D’Alessio, Eric O’Sullivan and Tanner Munson, you knew there was alot of excitement that was going to be going on this day. The A Group did one little practice lap and it was on, 4-5 car tandems so much action it was hard to keep up to all the insane action. The A group was getting the nice angles while looking over the shoulder to see which of the fellow A group knuckleheads was going to play demolition derby and bang their fenders. Suprisingly enough the event was great with no major crashes.
Our favorite import came down from the land of maple syrup to battle for that FD license, Mats Baribeau of the Gold in the Net Drift Team. Mats and his family are so welcoming they give you Canadian beer and cheese snacks. If you haven’t seen this Toyota Mark II in action, we hope to see it next year running some XDC series along side of fellow Canadian Alan Briggs. While us Americans go up north and win their DMCC series, maybe they can come down and compete for our trophies.
Clubloose isn’t all about A group and their awesome tandemness it’s also the B and C group guys who are just a little seat time away from sitting at the big boy table during Thanksgiving. A bunch of guys that came to the event like a gang of drifters were SlideNY with their awesome 240s and their Euros; at one point I thought it was Bimmerfest at Freedom Moves. Our buddy Hec Tor in his AE86 is becoming real consistent to the point that now he needs a cage and more power to graduate. You watch Hec Tor drift he is calm as can be, what a difference a season can make.
When you drive an FD Drift car for a living, most race teams will not let you bring that race car to a grassroots drift event, so you have to bring your missle car. Freedom Moves is a great event you must make it to the 2012 event. Besides East Coast Bash this is the event of the season.
Photos: Chris Herman Naujokas Words: Chris Herman Naujokas
Holley Performance and LS V8 motors go together like peas and carrots. Throw in three days of drag racing and drifting at Beechbend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky and its like Chicken Soup for the Soul.Beechbend Park is an amusement park, campground, and race track and it’s home to the “The Holley Performance LS Fest.” A three day event of strictly LS series V8 Motors by GM. Holley Performance does a great job at running a smooth and organized event. They had full schedule of events each day to keep the competitors and spectators entertained. Fridays activities kicked off with: show and shine car show, drag race test and tune and competition, with classes for 5th Gen Camaro challenge where participants must have LS based motor EFI and stock appearance,LSX all motor shoot out, naturally aspirated heads up class for LS small block gm powered and bodied cars and trucks ran on pro tree format.
LSX drag radial, single power adder class for gm bodied cars or trucks ran on a pro tree format, LSX real street for GM bodied car with a power adder running 10.5 slick or 275 width drag radial. LSX rumble, open to everyone, and then LINGENFELTER sponsored true street class designed for fast street cars. There was also a dyno challenge, autocross, speed stop challenge, countryside cruise, and last but not least drifting. The drifting portion of the event was a new addition to the venue and a great success. Drifters came from all over to attend this event and it was nothing but spectacular driving talent from the 9 drivers competing : James Evan, Carl Nadeau, Rapper Dan Savage, Ben Lewallen, Nick Thomas, Forrest Lutz, Jason Jiovani, Allan Brentzel, Friday started out with a smoke filled track as the drifters practiced with every car and driver showing great skill and serious drift.
James Evans from Maryland sponsored by SIKKY, manufacturers of top quality LS1 swap kits.
Carl Nadeau driving the BMW E36 came all the way from Canada and was looking quite impressive with tons of smoke and angle. His BMW was a top notch build with work by New Age Hotrods, makers of LS1 mount kits for BMWs E36, out of New Hartford, NY. Carl and his crew are ready to talk about their work and are proud of their car.
James was killing it all day in Friday practice with tons of smoke and angle coming from his LS ERL built 434 cubic inch bottom end. Speaking with James briefly he mentioned a few new parts in the works from Sikky; soon for production 350z angle kits and new LS1 swap kits for more platforms. Sikky also sponsored competitor Rapper Dan Savage ,who brought his A game and had killer lines, smoke and angle. Ben Lewallen in the sparkly green vinyl graphic S13 with orange battle wheels really showed a lot of style and flair with solid driving and tire smoke and professional pit crew. Nick Thomas in the Track One S14.5, running Holley’s EFI was really going hard and throwing some deep angle and aggressive manji initiation. Jason Jiovani in the ASD sponsored yellow S13 was looking very strong with tight lines and extreme angle. Allan Brentzel in the black One Fifty One sponsored Skyline on TE37 Volk wheels looked strong with serious smoke and angle. Forrest Lutz in his S14 was really going hard coming close to the wall and pushing his limits. Last but not least the grey FC RX-7, a nameless and strong competitor. Clothing optional in this really well built sleeper.
Saturday’s events started off with the show and shine packed to capacity with anything LS you can imagine from late model Corvettes to Rat rods. The manufacturers midway was packed with booths of products from HOLLEY Performance products showing off their brands: Hooker Headers, Flowtech Exhaust Headers, NOS and more. New products such as the Dominator EFI unit, LS retro fit oil pans, HI-Ram intake manifold and new individual throttle body setups for the LS engines. Speaking with Blane Burnett the marketing rep for Holley, a real car guy who owns a S14 Nissan with an LS1 motor swap himself, mentioned that Holley is excited for the growth in the drifting market and wanted to add this motorsport dynamic to an already huge venue. ERL performance was on hand showing off their latest sleeved and deckplated 502 cubic inch LS block and a few other blocks for anyone from a serious drag racer to pro drifter. Spectre products was in attendance with their air intake systems and awesome display cars.
Other notable manufacturers in the midway would be LINGENFELTER Performance, Autometer, Wilwood brakes and a few others. Later in the afternoon Joe Elmore from Horsepower TV was signing autographs and filming segments for the show. Joe was as friendly as could be, taking pictures and hanging with fans in attendance. Drag racing qualifying was intense all day and seriously low elapsed times were seen and wheelstanding launches were frequent. Auto crossers were warming up the track for drifters all day with a lot of sun and tire grip. Then at 5:30 the track went hot for the drift challenge competitors and the guys from Mid West Drift Union and Drift Indy, founders: Edgar Sarmiento, Nick Swann, and T.R Scrivner did a great job organizing and helping with the first drifting event in Kentucky. Ridiculous amounts of tire smoke in practice from all the competitors with a strong showing from them all. A rain storm rolled in to cut the end of practice slightly short. At the end of Saturday the drifters went to work on their cars to prepare for the competition on Sunday. Some cars needed rear ends, clutch slave cylinders, and lower control arm damages from brushes with the wall. After three days of LS V8 engine’s roaring all I can say is, next year is going to be even better.
The classic tuner car of the 90’s the Toyota Supra MKIV version from 1993-98 has always been on the top of everyone’s wish list even before Fast & Furious. The early to late 90’s was a decade of a twin turbo track monsters from a few Japanese brands and Toyota made sure that their Supra ranked amongst the best. Nissan with their R32-34 Skylines and 300zx, Mazda with their RX-7and the Supra battled for track supremacy. The infamous and world reknown 2JZ-GTE motor after almost 20 years of existence still remains the best motor ever built. You will find a 2jz in practically every import when they want reliable power and also in E36 BMW as well as Ford Mustangs. The Supra till this day can go for as much 40k if you are looking for a 6spd with a targa top. Eventhough the Supra performed well on the road course against the other Japanese musclecars, this Toyota is know for how well it does in the 1/4 mile. The world’s fastest Supra if I’m not mistaken has done this feat in 7.59 sec. at 189mph, that is not bad for a car that weighs more than 3000 lbs. Alot of the Toyota Supra owners choose to acheive great horsepower numbers, but this one owned by Chris in his rare Royal Sapphire Pearl 1 of 81 made remains stock and is appreciated by many Supra owners for looking factory perfect.
On this great fall day we were able to gather 6 out of the 10 available Supra colors and have them show their each unique personalities from the stock Royal Sapphire Pearl to a lightly modified and also rare Anthracite Metallic.
Chris Ingianni the Northeast Supraforums version of “The Situation” has his hands on this 1993 Hardtop one of 63 made in this model and style. He did a great job modding this in a classic Supra style. with a nice modest bumper and a 5 spoke wheel. This car is 18 years old and everything on it is so clean from the 18” SSR Professors to the rare Stillen bumper and side skirts. This piece of classic Japanese musclecar is outfitted with a 67mm Turbonetics enough to get him over 500hp on this great street turbo for those new V8’s.
Exterior.. Stillen front bumper Stillern side skirts Siebon ts style carbon fiber hood SSR proffesor 1s 18x10.5 18x9.5 Stoptech slotted rotors. Stock calipers painted black with original supra emblem
Electronics.. Greddy pro-fec b boost controller Greddy boost cut controller Apexi AFC 2 fuel controller (piggyback) HKS turbo timer HKS DLI
Engine.. Greddy titanium manifold Greddy type r wastegate Hks super sequential bov Turbonetics 67mm turbo Custom intake and downpipe Walbro Fuel Pump255 in tank All .10 Steel braided lines Egr block off plates Greddy oil cooler Mishimoto radiator with stock fan
This red devil is another example of nice cleanly modded single turbo Supra. Ming not a stranger to the 2JZ being a former owner of Lexus SC300, but this time he went to a sexy targa top Toyota Supra. He didn’t waste any time and did tons of research and went single like most Supra owners. He brought a classic Lexus look to the Supra by fitting a nice set of Work Varianza T1S and with a nice lip and exhaust this is a complete classic Supra.
Ray is a long time Supra owner from MKII - MKIV and this god of all Supra colors is called Anthracite Metallic and only being made in 1993 makes it even such a hard color to catch on the road. Ray went with a set of Volks GTC rims with a nice mild drop as to keep the ride as close to stock as possible. This Supra has seen the 1/4 mile a couple times but it’s mostly a cruiser on those Sundays with the wife riding shotgun. We all should be so lucky to have a wife that likes Supras. I think Anthracite is the way to go.
This Alpine Silver Supra didn’t come turbo from the factory but Jason after months of being harrassed for the nicest slowest Supra in the Northeast bit the bullet and went NA-T. He didn’t just go NA-T but he went a different route than any other NA-T by installing the Pro-Efi 48 standalone on his setup.This ECU a few twin turbo guys have used,but Jason is the only NA to run this unit Jason lives for the Supra Community in between college and his girlfriend, so the community was pleased when they learned he didn’t sell the car like he said but he was going in on making a very unique 97 NA Alpine Silver Supra. He fitted his Supra with some epic JDM Blitz wheels and Whifbitz lip to set it off. This NA-T makes a measly 450hp, now he can play with the GTE guys and if his little W58 tranny can take it, he will turn up the boost one day.
ENGINE:
OEM Twin Turbo HG ARP Head Studs Boostwerks Oil line kit XS Power Manifold Precision 6262 Billet turbo w/ .68 A/R AutoBahn 3 Row IC w/ 2.5 inch custom piping HKS SSQ 3 BOV TurboSmart Comp40 WG Grimspeed MBC Mishimoto Couplers Blitz Nur Spec R Exhaust Lightweight pulleys
FUEL:
Fuel: 550cc RX7 FC T2 Injectors Stock TT Fuel pump
DRIVETRAIN:
Drivetrain: W58 5 Speed Competition Clutch stage 4 New OEM Flywheel Stock NA OEM Toyota LSD
ECU:
First International Pro-efi 48 on an NA-T tuned By Danny Hong of AMP/Kova Built Performance (Wood-ridge, NJ)
SUSPENSION:
Suspension: 97 TT Complete Suspension KYB-X Shocks Eibach Pro Kit springs Cusco front and rear tower bars (both chromed with alpine silver ends)
WHEELS:
Blitz 03 with optional Blitz Silver Color 18x8.5 front 18x9.5 rear
EXTERIOR:
Whifbitz front lip (1 of 15 in the US) Complete LED conversion
This last Supra of the feature is another NA that went above and beyond to make his Supra one bad ass street car. Joe took a bone stock wingless and powerloss 1995 Toyota Supra Special Edition that on a good day made 180 to the wheels and turned it into a 700hp 2 step fire breathing beast. He used to own an MKIII Supra but nothing is like the MKIV so when he was able to get his hand on one, he knew what had to be done. Joe pulled the 2JZ-GE and found a wrecked 2JZ-GTE with a 6spd local and from there all hell broke loose. He also took his car to AMP/Kovo for the installation of his motor and trans. He always knew he wanted great power so to reach this goal he had to go with a PT7175 turbo with a .81 AR with a goal of one day hitting and passing 850hp. While he was working on all the go fast parts , he knew he had to do some exterior work to make his car worthy of the Supra name. He was able to source some 18� Comp Grey Volk TE-37s, and to get the car lower to the ground for better handling he went to Megan Racing for a set of coilovers. I may be the only one but to me a Supra isn’t a Supra without a TRD wing. This wing sets of the epic styling of the MKIV Supra.
Any good tuner knows if you are going big power you MUST upgrade your brake system to stop this heavy boosted car, so Joe chose to go with a great system from AP Racing 6 pistons up front and Supra TT rear brakes and drilled and slotted rotors. He did a great job taking a bland ol’ NA to where it is today. I can’t wait to see what Joe has up his sleeve in the future for this car. He does have this crazy dream of selling this car for a Nissan Skyline but hopefully the Forza fan boy will get out of him and he leave the Supra in his possession.