Here is a snapshot Jon from DSTROYR sent me from the other night. I am in Daijiro Yoshihara’s Discount Tire S13 that we released how to build on Monday at Wrecked Magazine. Jon is in the DSTROYR x Van Halen IROC.
To find my interview, hit the On Demand button and find the section labeled Dave Mirra and I come in around 14 minutes.
So once you hit the 14 minute mark I come in the show for around 10 minutes with Jarod DeAnda. We talk about my favorite SEMA car, my true thoughts on the Rhys Millen RM450, and the first time I have talked about our 2010 project Fantasy Drift that we are excited about in our staff. We also brought up our UTI Nissan 350z Project Car and my fun 1966 Mercedes to finish out our interview. Thanks to Jarod for giving me a minute to chat on the live stream for SEMA.
While reading the LA Times today I learned that 40 miles of Angeles Crest Highway is closed indefinitely due to the Station Fire. Just before the fires I took out this 2009 Scion tC RS 5.0 for a photo shoot and drove around half of the highway. I hadn’t been up the highway and up Mount Wilson since December 2004 when I came to visit for JGTC. With the whole area closed down for quite a long time I am glad we captured the area in it’s beauty before the fires attacked it.
According to Caltrans the reason for the long road closure isn’t from the pavement being damaged but the fires have ruined guardrails, street signs, and the road stripping. Lucky we took the Scion tC up when we did because I am guessing the road will be closed close to the rest of the year. Anyone that has any recommendations for any other roads I can use to shoot on in Northern/Western Los Angeles I would love to hear suggestions.
You can check out my review of the Scion tC 5.0 Release series over in our Road Trips section of Wrecked Magazine. I know next month we will be testing the new Nissan 370z for our website so stay on the lookout for that hitting the Road Trips section as well.
2009 Pre Season Sit Down: Daijiro Yoshiharagood
We made a trip to SPD so we could unveil to the world Daijiro Yoshihara’s new Lexus IS350. With a sponsorship partnership between Discount Tire and Falken Tires they were able to bring on Daijiro Yoshihara from his Pontiac GTO to take on this Lexus. The car was getting it’s finishing touches done at SPD before pre season testing when we came to visit.
Jonathon Bradford from Falken was super accomedating and Daijiro was quite some fun on the microphone with us. These two photos are of this gorgeous Lexus V8 motor that I couldn’t get enough of.
My favorite part about Daijiro Yoshihara’s Discount Tires x Falken Tires Lexus IS350 is the new rear radiator setup. A gorgeous mount job which will prevent putting this car out of comission on a front end collision. If this works out I wonder if the whole Falken team will convert to a rear mount setup.
On Daijiro Yoshihara’s GT Channel blog he posted a photograph of the Wrecked Magazine crew after we shot the interview. Check it out!
Follow Daijiro more here: http://www.gtchannel.com/user_blog.php?uid=38
I twittered about this a few weeks ago and I keep passing it since it’s on my way home off I-10 from my new place. Today I snapped a photo of it for all of you DTA x Rogue Status fans out there in the blogoverse. It’s at the intersection of Crescent Heights and 3rd if I remember correctly. Sadly nobody has scaled the building to deface it yet.
Last week I drove out to Fontana to visit Falken Tires and get some new tires for Bertha (My G37). I put them on the car last Friday and wanted to get a couple hudnred miles on them before I posted my thoughts on the FK452 Falken Tire. I am running 245/40/19’s in the front and 255/40/19’s on the the rear which are placed on the stock OE upgraded wheels.
Upon my intial test of the tire I was shocked how little road noise they produced and the intial feel driving on the tire. The tires we removed off the car cost over double per tire if you compare MSRP (around $850 total) and the Falken’s in every aspect matched or out performed the old tires on the vehicle.
The biggest difference in the tire I found was the quality of grip and when you are getting maximum grip in a tire. My old tires I had similar models on my G37 and my G35 and got very use to a progessive loss of grip which I must admit could get annoying under spirited dirving. Basically at a normal operating temperature the tire held maximum grip which is great for the mini vans of the world but not a performance vehicle. As you started to drive in a spirited fashion the grip would slowly deteriorate as you were needing it most. You would lose grip with tire heat and it was rather frustrating but I kind of excepted it as the norm when it came to tires, especially street legal DOT approved tires mind you.
Now on the Falkens the grip at intial normal operating temperture isn’t it’s peak grip which is great because normal temp. grip is sitll amazing and it just gets better. As you the tire heats you gain grip in the tire providing when I am ready to go have some fun in any of the canyons around here of Sunset Blvd. I am gaining grip in the tire when I am wanting more of it and that has been a very exciting experiance, finding more abilities in the G37 than ever as of late as a performance oriented vehicle. I have not been able to test them in the rain yet due to the amazing sunshine blessed upon Southern California and that is something you won’t hear me complain about!
If your interested in the FK452 tire I can suggest you go make a purchase of them at Discount Tire Direct! That way you can support two companies that support Formula D and your sport of Drifting while providing yourself with a great product. The 255/40/19 on Discount Tire falls right around $199 a tire which is a great price point in the category and much cheaper than some other tires in that same category.
Check out my Flickr gallery for tons of personal content from my Redbull weekend. We even caught up with Yoshioka and went out with him in Hollywood. Sadly he was not a seeded driver over the Redbull weekend but he came as a spectator. During the event the wildfires ripped through Los Angeles and caused some amazing colors and look to the sky along with some ash all over everything.
Flickr Gallery:http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeyredmond/sets/72157609173348558/
So after all the Chris Rado drama that was started by this post http://wreckedmagazine.com/blog/2008/10/24/chris-rado-ready-to-leave-the-sinking-ship-spotted-drift-testing/ and left me and Chris as frienemies or something? I’ve been watching to many teen dramas and TMI weekly lately (sorry). We talked it out and I told him he could come on the site and say whatever he would like. Above is his 5+ minute interview where he told us he is building a Toyota RWD factory drift car that isn’t a “Scion.” This sounds pretty interesting, for those of you still bent out of shape about the Chris Rado incident, check out the interview, hear the guy out at least. I cared so much that I conducted the interview instead of Kelly. Truthfully, somewhere between the last booth and Chris Rado’s interview she quit for like 5 minutes so I suffered it out with no voice, sick, dead, and no sleep. So bare with me on that part. I cannot wait to see him in Tony Angelo’s S13 this weekend at Redbull for his first public runs at Pro Am. Don’t miss it this weekend.
So I have so much I need to talk about. SEMA 2008, the death spiral of General Motors, LA Auto Show, new content, and new features across Wrecked Magazine. We even have tons of new and excited stuff going on at Wrecked’s parent PM Lifestyle right now as well. So I haven’t forgotten about you blogites, great stories are coming soon. Right now I have to tackle some P/L charts, clean up the palace, and pay our 31-60 day late utility bill that was buried on my desk under some Fuze bottles and misc. credit card offers. And yes, that is me laying dead on Thursday at SEMA and Evan from Exedy sitting on top of me. I have no idea what is going on, who took this picture and why it’s on my blog. Ok this post is done.
Now that Issue 7 has come out I feel it is one of my favorites we have produced to date. While it is already special to everyone that has worked on Wrecked Magazine since it marks our one year anniversary issue. After some long late night talks and debates with friends and Industry people the Top 10 Wrecks in Formula D history was a very nice touch to Issue 7. Justin Pawlak’s piece was amazing and I learned a good bit about him in his interview including why his National Wave sponsorship is a passionate sponsor to him and his family. When you have a few minutes make sure you open up this issue and check it out.
Read Issue 7 of Wrecked Magazine: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue7/issue7.html
