Category: sf bay area

SF Bay area: went to a drift event (part 3)

May 7, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

Last week I posted up black and white photos of the drift exhibition at Infineon Raceway and this week I’ll share the only “okay” photos from the color film I used.

You can hardly make out the Lexus GS300 on this picture:

Infineon drift exhibition: Lexus GS300
I think the exposure is alright but the duration was just a tad too long. Limitations of the camera obviously show here: my Zenit only supports 1/30th till 1/500th of a second and alternatively you will have to do it yourself with the “bulb” selection.

Also this photo with lots of light trails worked out fine:

Infineon drift exhibition: light trails
Would have been better if I would have brought along a tripod and took a picture from above. Of course there is always a next time to do so. ;)

Last but not least: at the end three Corolla GT-S AE86s were doing a tandem drift and you can still make out the trailing 2 door coupe:

Infineon drift exhibition: hachis in a tandem drift
As I said in the previous posting: with a flashlight I could have frozen the image a bit more but I’m actually quite content with the result!

Now tomorrow I’ll be heading to the Dutch JAF (Japans Auto Festival) held at Zandvoort so I’m curious what kind of pictures that will bring. If you want to meet up, just send me an email and otherwise you can recognize me by looking for an tall Asian looking guy with long hair and a vintage camera around his neck. ;)

SF Bay area: went to a drift event (part 2)

April 30, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

I finally developed all films I took with my analogue SLR (Zenit-E with Weltblick 135mm at full lens opening) at the Infineon raceway drift exhibition. I never took photos of moving objects at night so most photos were taken with a very wild guess: the light meter on the camera did not show anything at all, the Sixtomat lightmeter I use as a backup was stretched to its 1600 iso maximum and then calculated back with 5 stops since my camera had a black and white 100 iso film in it. To my surprise a lot of them actually worked out fine for some of the pictures!

Take for instance this photo of a competing AE86:

Competing Corolla GT-S AE86
I must say: not bad at all for a first time!

Also the Techno Toy Tuning 510 is still recognizable:

Techno Toy Tuning Datsun 510
Could have been better if I would have had a flash with me, but nothing whatsoever in my camera bag… Next time I’ll definitely bring along a strong one!

Here is another Corolla GT-S AE86:

Corolla GT-S AE86 going sideways
The picture is quite nice, but I’m not really getting the feeling it is going sideways. I should have either used a different angle or extended the timing a bit.

Perhaps a bit more like thiis Nissan 240SX S13 (with Silvia nosejob):

Nissan 240SX (Silvia S13 conversion) going sideways
Now I really get the feeling this car is going sideways. With a freezing flash it would have been a perfect shot!

And last but not least, a long exposure shot:

Long exposure shot
Not the best angle for these kind of pictures, but nevertheless still content with the result.

Take note that these are scans of the negatives (with a proper negative scanner) so I’ll definitely develop these five as proper photos and see if I can stretch their quality a bit more! Also next time I’ll include the next roll of film which was a 400 iso color film.

SF Bay area: Toyota Celica GT RA42 on Wats!

April 20, 2011 / banpei / 2 Comments

Just before I spotted yesterdays Datsun 510 I also spotted this Celica GT RA42 with some massive RS Watanabe rims!

Celica GT RA42 on RS Watanabe rims

If you think massive, how wide would you reckon these rear wheels would be?

Celica GT RA42 on RS Watanabe rims
8J? 9J?

SF Bay area: saw a flush 510 with deep dish wheels

April 19, 2011 / banpei / 2 Comments

When I was at Infineon Raceway I spotted this little Datsun 510 on a set of deep dish rims!

Datsun 510 at Infineon Raceway
The 510’s hood was rollerpainted and the interior was stripped to next to nothing.

Here you have a bit better view of the deep dished wheels:

Datsun 510 at Infineon Raceway
Anyone got an idea what brand/model these SSR Longchamps XR4 lookalikes are?

SF Bay area: went to a drift event

April 15, 2011 / banpei / 4 Comments

I went to a drift event in the SF bay area last wednesday. I missed a grand meetup of hachis in Daly Vale on Monday, but Michael Kee told me there would be some more action on Infineon Raceway on Wednesday night: a drag/drift charity event for Japan. After the conference was over for the day I hopped into the car and made my route through 880, 580, 101, and 37 and arrived just in time when all the action was starting.

It was dark and freezing cold so I could not make any pictures with my phonecam, but I sure did shoot up three rolls of film! I’m positive there are some really nice pictures I can post up when they have been processed. So you will have to do with this nice hachi that stopped next to me after its driver didn’t make it to next round:

Corolla GTS drifter at Infineon Raceway

Apart from that there was a lot going on in the paddock. Inside the building I found a great looking Hellaflushed Roofracked and deepdished Honda Integra:
$Hellaflushed roofracked deepdished Honda Integra$
Hellaflushed roofracked deepdished Honda Integra
The car was an excellent example of this Californian style and I was very pleased to see it IRL. I also met the owner and gave him a Bosozoku Style sticker which he, hopefully, will put on the car next to all the other stickers…

His car was pretty stickerbombed where this sidewindow was still clear:

Stickerbombed Honda Integra
Apart from the modern cars there were also a few oldies. I’ll save them for next time!

SF Bay area: everybody drives an Integra over here!

April 13, 2011 / banpei / 0 Comments

Today is my third day in the San Francisco bay area and I think I’ve shot at least 50 photos of remotely interesting cars with my phonecam and about 20 interesting cars with my analogue SLR. Time for a small recap!

First of all I found it hard to believe, but in the first 10 minutes of driving with the rental car to the hotel I spotted an 240SX S14, a Lexus SC400 and a drift style 240SX S13. I think if I would have spotted those cars in the Netherlands it would have taken me either a week to spot them or I must have been at a meeting at that moment. ;)

Second of all: everybody drives an Integra!

SF Bay area: everybody drives an Integra
Again: back home the Integra is just as omnipotent as my Carina, so spotting one is quite rare. In the bay area everybody seems to be driving an Integra!
I looked it up on Wikipedia:
A total of 301,102 Acura Integras were sold from calendar year 1994 to 2000 in the U.S.
And I bet most of them are still driving around in the bay area!

Apart from the Integras I saw many many many Nissan 350Zs!

SF Bay area: everybody drives a 350Z
The 350Z is back home a bit less omnipotent as the Integra, but here you see them on about every parkinglot. The one above was shot in downtown SF btw.

Runner up is definitely the Mazda Miata (or MX5s) and for some weird reason none of them was topless. After the Miata it gets a bit harder, but I guess it probably would be the four door Charger…

I did see much variation in the styling: from lowrider trucks to drift cars to big rim cars to hellaflush ratlook roofracked Integras:
$SF Bay area: Hellaflush roofrack Integra$
SF Bay area: Hellaflush roofrack Integra
I must say this car was pretty bad maintained and the rat look was not deliberately made.

Last but not least: I spotted many many older cars including this Cressida MX61.

From this angle it looks great, but on the right side it was pretty smashed up. Which brings me to another weird thing: everybody tends to keep on driving with insanely dented cars. In the Netherlands most people get their cars fixed as soon as they get a dent in it, but it appears as if you don’t need to fix up your car and you keep on driving as if nothing ever happened.

SF Bay area: Smashed up Cressida
That’s it for now, but I’m positive I’ll have more of this stuff in the upcoming days. ;)