Just thought I’d finally try out the WordPress app for iPhone (you can find it in the App Store). Here’s a pic I took with my iPhone a while back of my boss’s Bugatti Veyron (and yes, I drove it.. and yes, its fast.. and yes, I’m at peace with the fact that it will most likely be the most expensive car I’ll ever drive in my lifetime)
It was pretty short notice.. it seemed like this year’s event was a little last-minute.. but it went OK nonetheless. Mike actually asked me to go just to check it out and snap some pics.. to be honest, I wasn’t all that excited. I told him if there was no drifting, then there’d be nothing to watch. He didn’t like that too much and bombarded me with a handful of insults. 😆
After checking out the schedule and since I’m relatively close to Cal/Auto Club Speedway, I figured I’ll check it out in the morning and get home in time to go to a friend’s kid’s birthday party. But I have to say, one big reason I decided to go was because DLo (AKA Eric Hsu) mentioned on his blog that he was going to be taking out the Beast AKA his XS Engineering Skyline R32 GT-R. I’ve seen the car in person many times, but never “mobile”. Plus, Mike and Wen said that they had contacted a handful (10-12) Skyline owners and that they’d come out for the “GT-R Shootout” at the event (it turned out to be a separate heads-up class, basically).
The event was actually much better than I had expected. There were lots of racers/racecars. I also have to hand it to the Honda drag racers who have kept at it. I saw Honda after Honda blast down the quarter mile running 9s and 10s. When I left Saturday morning, the cutoff for the Pro-Am FWD class was at 10.56 or something like that.. very impressive. I also saw a couple Hondas run 9.60s. But the highlight of my day was definitely seeing the R32-R35 Skylines line up and race down the track. One R35 (from Titek?) was running mid 11s and one that looked stock ran a 12.0 while I was there. Wen’s R33 that made 870+ WHP only managed a 12.1 (while I was there) but he figured he had broken something in the driveline, which is why the car was trying to drive itself into the wall. I heard Eric Hsu ended up qualifying Sunday and won the GT-R Shootout with a 10.40 pass.. not bad.
So anyway, here’s some of the images I took in the 2 hours that I was there.. look for full media coverage in an upcoming issue of DSPORT Magazine or on their website, http://www.dsportmag.com
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Hubie Fuh’s 10 second Mini Cooper S.. how about them gypsies, huh Hubie?
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An orange Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R
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TiTek Nissan Skyline R35 GT-R running mid 11s
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Speedline Racing & DSPORT’s Wen Lai and his Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R
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A random 10 second Honda Civic with about 1,100 more feet to go..
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A 9? second Scion tC.. who knew it existed? Not me.. but very impressive
All images were shot with my Canon EOS 40D and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L. Can you tell I’m trying to be more creative in my cropping? 🙂
At the time of this writing, this program should work on all DIGIC III and IV cameras EXCEPT for the 1D and 1Ds. The author, Astrojargon, believes it should work on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, but until someone actually receives one or tests this program, we wont know for sure.
Reading his FAQ #7, he says that most people believe this number to be correct. Well, you can add me to that list as well. My last image (a picture of Rhys Millen standing on the podium aftering winning $25,000 from his 1st place victory at the Red Bull Drifting World Championship) was numbered 9612. Astrojargon’s “40D Shutter Count Version 2” reported 9613. Its off by one, but he mentions that if you actuate the shutter without a CF card, then the IMG_XXXX would not incremement, obviously. This, I can confirm, is my case (I left the house once without a CF card and tried to take a picture before realizing I didn’t have a CF card in the camera).
So.. at last, a real way to obtain a shutter count on a Canon EOS 40D (or 50D or 450D or 1000D).
Anyway, enough BS.. you can find his program here:
Thanks, Astrojargon!
Well, I have to hand it to Red Bull.. if there’s anything worth doing that you can do better by throwing money at it, they’ll do it.. the event was pretty big.. at least as big as Irwindale, but felt bigger.. more people, more vendors, etc etc.. I’d say the ticket prices were a little steep, but I guess that didnt phase the people who were willing to spend $35 for a 2-day event.
The competition was “eh”. I expected more from the international folks.. I was VERY impressed with the Red Bull FD RX-7 from New Zealand.. it was rockin’ a 4-rotor NA motor that had a very NON-rotary sound to it.. one photographer mentioned that it sounded very “F1-ish”.. at which point a grizzled and seasoned UK photographer (John Brooks, who had photographed F1) said.. “uh, no”.. but secretly, I thought the same thing.. hey, don’t talk smack.. not like I ever been to an F1 race.. ok, how about, the Red Bull FD sounded like an F1 car on my TV? better?
Most of the international guys were ousted after the first round. Too bad really.. I mean, these guys have the most to prove to the US crowd.. the Formula D drivers could care less (aside from the big prize money).. the US cars were, overall, much more polished.. newer/current/relevant model cars.. pretty paint jobs, nice vinyl jobs, etc etc..
The winner was Rhys Millen.. he’s sponsored by Red Bull, by the way.. he is definitely one of the best.. so I wont say it looked rigged.. but to people who dont necessarily follow drifting.. um, it probably looks rigged..
I’ll be uploading pics to Flickr in a bit.. but for now, here’s one thats different from my normal perspective..
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Shot with my Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 24-70mm f2.8L, 27mm, 1/125 @ F14
Also, for you So Cal folks, check out JTuned.com’s Second Coming Meet and Thanksgiving Food Drive on Novmber 23rd, 2008 @ Super Autobacs in Stanton, CA!
I’m using the “blog this” function again from Flickr. Its actually quite useful and easy to use. But I wanted to post this photo because I’m still surprised at how well it came out.
This was shot with my Canon EOS 40D and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens. The manual exposure was set at 1/125, f2.8 and ISO1600. I cleaned up the noise using Noiseware Pro. Pureists will say that the pictute has a plastic look to it.. to which I would say STFU 🙂
Click on the picture to see my Flickr album of some of my shots from the 2008 Formula Drift Finals at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, CA.
