370Z Party

After walking the LA Auto Show hall all day we went to Nissan's 370Z party down town.  There were a lot of faces I knew and it was nice to chat and enjoy drinks with them.  Mr.Shiro Nakamura who is the Sr VP and Chief Creative Officer of Nissan was also there so I got to meet him and talk a little bit about the design of the car.  He said if you compare this Z to the old Z, it's a lot more skinnier and has more curvy lines.  If you look at the back from the top the waist line is thinner but hips come out a little more.   It was though he was talking about a woman.  I personally did not like the unique head lamp shape at first but once I got used to it, it's not so bad.  Besides that I like the front and rear balance of the car because it resembles the old Zs like the 240 and 280s.  The tail is shorter and the nose looks longer. I'm looking forward to driving it very soon.  

CHECKING OUT DAI DO HIS THING AT THE RED BULL WORLD DRIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Dai follows in a tandem run. He ended up winning this run. I think this is Forsberg who later put his car into the wall.

Amid the fires that devastated Southern California, I went to check out the Red Bull Drift Championships this past weekend. I told fellow GTC blogger Dai Yoshihara that I was putting big money on him to win the thing. He said he would. And man, was he ever aggressive. He was entering corners at high speed and really going it for it...I think it's the most aggressive I've ever seen him drive. In any case, it was a fun event and the stands were pretty full. The location was cool too, right on the docks at Long Beach. The water was far away, so no cars even came close to going into the ocean, but there were plenty of accidents. Some of the guys from Europe were still not at the same skill level as the Formual D guys. Dai took second place, taking a back seat to his boss Rhys Millen. (I suspected Dai let his boss win, but Dai said it wasn't so.) But great finish for Dai! 

What happens when a drift car goes a bit too wide, Forsberg does some body damage./Rhys and Dai, who finished 1-2 at the end of the competition.

These were the Prom/Am guys. And you can tell by this photo, they were really good.

The sun sets on the Long Beach docks. It turned out to be a nice place for the event, but the parking situation for spectators could have been a lot better.

Mine's VS Gyros

Here's Mine's president Niikura-san having a taste of his first gyro with his main man Masa at the Mad Greek on the way back from Las Vegas.  These two are so tight that Niikura even wears Masa's SEMA credential tag.  Can't see it?  Click here for a larger image.    He probably wouldn't have gotten so pissed off if it was Masa he was to share rooms with in Vegas.  Everything got sorted out and we got him a room by himself.  But man talk about screwing up the travel plans for the prez.  All in all it looks like Mine's had a good week at the show and he was quite satisfied with how things turned out.  There are always happenings and stories to tell about the SEMA show...

Congratulations to Rhys and Dai for taking 1st and 2nd place at the Red Bull World Drift Championships!  Too bad this was the last time the two would drive as team mates but it's great they were able to pull off a 1-2 finish at the very end of the season.  Now Daijiro will prepare for next season with Falken in the Lexus IS.  As for Rhys, I'm not sure what his plans are just yet.  

Oh and appologies for some glitches on GTChannel.com lately.  As we posted on the news blog, our video partner Revver is going through some rough times and we aren't getting much support from them any more.  A better GTChannel.com is getting ready to launch in time so just hang in there for a little while.  

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2009 Nissan 370Z rolls out early in So. Cal

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Nissan 370Z live

As a rain of ash fell on most of Southern California the crew from Inside Line set out to introduce enthusiasts to Nissan's new sports coupe, the2009 Nissan 370Z. The gathering took place at the advertising offices of Chiat/Day, which supplied a striking background for the next generation Z model. First impressions of the 370Z in person were no different than those formed after viewing the initial images. The design intentions, to blend between the outgoing 350Z and stylings pulled from the Z cars of yesteryear, was especially apparent. However, it was certainly strengthened when the new model was parked in close proximity to examples of both the Z33 and its forebears vehicles. Getting a real life view of the new Z was nice, but a vehicle is best defined by the ease of human/machine interaction. The 370Z meet and greet offered the first opportunity to poke around in the coupe. Unfortunately, this blogger did not get a chance to peek inside the vehicle before the Inside Line crew put her on the spot for an opinion. The end result of the interrogation can now be seen on Inside Line's preview video.

After breaking away from the Inside Line crew I eventually secured a spot behind the steering wheel of the Z34. I was most curious about the side view offered by the larger rear fender and C-pillar combination, and as I suspected, the view was non-existent. The rear hatch also angled more sharply than the 350Z, which combined with the 370Z's smaller physical dimensions, meant less space for piling up junk in the trunk. The trunk held other surprise: an on-off switch for a rear differential cooler pump was hiding underneath the mat. The cooler addition is a typical Japanese trick for protecting sporty vehicles from abusive drivers, also known as members of the press. A shiny anodized fitting for an oil cooler was also spotted in the Z's front fender well. The extra hardware prompted rumors and questions about NISMO upgrades, but currently there are no answers on that front. One question that did receive attention was aimed at hashing out more details on the downshift rev-match option. According to those on hand, it will be a feature available on sport models and will operate through feedback on clutch engagement, brake pedal position, rpm, throttle position and gear selection.

Check the galleries below for everything we've amassed in the lead-up to the new 2009 Nissan 370Z's introduction, which should tied you over until the official unveiling at next week's LA Auto Show.

Long Beach

Red Bull Drifting World Championship is held this weekend!  It's gonna be very exciting  event! Please come out if you are close!!

GTChannel.com videos affected by Revver's troubles

Videos on GTChannel.com have not been displaying and showing properly for about a day now.  The reason is not because we failed to pay for bandwidth while the whole team was out partying at SEMA last week.  Our videos are served through our video partner Revver.com.  Revver.com was bought out by Live Universe a while ago and it looks like some serious restructuring is going on now at Revver.  We are not clear if LU intends to continue with the service or let Revver die out.  For video partners like GTChannel, this situation surely sucks because they could have told us before they were going to fire everyone at Revver and let everything down.  Although we knew they were not in a good place, it would have been good to know when they were actually going to pull the plug.  

Albeit the situation, have no fear because everything on the site except for videos are working, like our Driven features and blogs all work fine.  Also we don't put all of our eggs in one basket.  GTChannel videos are not only on GTChannel.com but actually all over the internet.  A good place to see all of our original production videos while we sort out this ordeal is our Youtube GTChannel page.  

or the GTChannel Streetfire profile page.  

We'll keep you up to date on the situation.  Thanks for your patience and understanding.  

THE FAIRER SIDE OF EUROPE AND SEMA

There was plnety look at while in Paris and Las Vegas, as there always is. I took a few photos of some of the girls I ran acorss. Some of them were aboslutely beautiful, while some were a bit  rough around the edges. In any case, I have a few more posted at Sam's Blog.

Buttonwillow

I drove stock STi and Evo at Buttonwillow Raceway for the article of Import Tuner magazine. There were a lot of drivers who I know there, because it was the day before the super lap battle. It's always fun to drive a car at the track!

                                                    Tyler and Andy. They are my grip driving teachers! They can drive super fast with any kind of cars!

FAB2 report on G4TV's Attack of the Show

Thanks to G4TV for coming out to FAB2.  It looks like Alison had a good time. :) Oh one correction, they say the modified Scion tC is a converted RWD but no it's a FWD.  But this is all good, our little event is getting a lot of traction and momentum.  

There is a post on Motortrend.com too. Return of the J-Turn: Flip a ***