Wakefield Drift Matsuri

Matsui is a wonderful thing, spanning over two days and a collective 17 hours of on track drifting to be had, its quite an experience, with its growing popularity over the last few years in qld, vic and nsw its no wonder that these track weekends will keep growing in popularity.  Added to that, this past weekends matsuri also played host to the final round of the Stadium drift pro comp held by raceline events, so quite a full two days of drifting.

Enough of that, how about some pics.

 

 Needless to say, miscilaneous items hanging from your tow hook is a must have for any drift car.

 

 

This little corolla was throwing down all weekend, got to love that zombie look!

 

 

 

 

 It was good to see the Hit and Run cars up close, ive been following their blog for some time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This extremley clean 510 was parked behind the pro comp pits.

 

 

'Nuff said

 

 

 

 You know your're throwing down when your quarters look like this

 

 

Chilling in the parking lot...

 

 

I'll leave you with this one..

 

 

 

I know i said this last time but hopefully by the next matsuri or even track day, team panda will have something to throw into the mix.

 

Dont forget our Team Hellabrush BBQ is on this coming saturday, so if youve got some change lying around come and have a snag and catch up with some friendly folk.

 

See you there!

 

-Willie

 

Clearly not enough

One fundraiser is clearly not enough, so we here at BadNewsPanda HQ have decided a mid month Movember fundraiser is on the cards as well as our planned cruise/BBQ at the end of the month.

Two weeks from today, the 17th of Movember, we'll be throwing together a fundraising sausage sizzle down at the cotter, so if you're free come down, have a laugh and fill your belly with an abundance of sausage and refreshments with some good company.

Please remember to bring coinage as there is a significant lack of ATMs and mobile service down there.

See you guys there!

-Willie

I'll just put this here...

Well its that time of the year again, and this time around the crew down here at Panda HQ have decided to throw their hat in the ring, thats right kiddies Badnewspanda has thrown a team together..

Hellabrush

So if you want to join our team or donate to the cause and help out the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyond Blue then check out our team site here.

We'll be kicking off with a bit of a get together out at the carpark at the driving range in narrabundah if your down on thursday the 1st of Movember, probs get there around 8pm.

Then at the end of the month, which falls on a friday, once all our deliciously lucious lip hairs are in full swing we'll get together at Unibar, downstairs in the city for a few cold ones, then on the Saturday morning at 9, we'll all meet out at narrabundah again for a cruise down to the cotter to have a BBQ and hopefully raise some money for the cause.

So keep an eye on the blog and our FB page as we'll most likley be posting up some dodgy progress pics.

See you guys soon!

-Willie

Yeah You Know It

We promised it, so here it is.

Courtesy of Pat from Carma impressions we give to you the rendering of what we plan on Bretts 180 to look like in the not too distant future.  He's done the 180-S15 Strawberry face conversion on his previous 180 so we thought we'd give it another crack, coupled with the fender flares courtesy of Rocket Bunny and the planed Work Equips, should look quite the goods.

Another thing that Pat did for us was a short time lapse video of his handy work, however I'm having dramas posting a video because I'm an idiot so chill for a bit and remember that all property belongs so pat and Carma Impressions!

Also, don't forget Capitol Jam this weekend, the nations Capitols premier minitruck show... or the only... anyway see you there!

-Willie

 

Sled's Dead Baby

Sleds are deffinatly not dead, in fact a few that came out to enjoy the sun in the gong this past weekend looked like they had just risen from the crypt!

And thats the way we like them!

It was a wonderful day down the coast this past weekend, while many of the kiddies were enjoying bondi and various other sydney beaches on what was one of this seasons hottest day, we, and a few other like minded enthusiasts headed down to Stanwell Park for the inagural 'Tug In The Park' show.

Bikes, customs, rats, beatniks, lowriders and customs were all present at the show.

Being postponed from the beginning of the year tunded out to be a success as the chrome and patina soaked up the early spring sun.

To be honest, we didnt really know what we were expecting, being tug in the park virgins, we were sort of just expecting a couple rods and bikes turn up and thats about it.

How wrong we were! It was a raging success and you can guarantee the team will be back next year.



It feels good being back in the saddle and covering another show for you guys, Its been a long few weeks since we last posted but rest assured that it was for the best. 

We here at HQ have been working on a few events for those of you in the canberra region, including a charity get together for Movember, deets will come in thick and fast when i get back from hols in the next few weeks so stay tuned.

Again, thanks to the ever wonderful Chelsey Kosalka for her mad photog skills!  Also, towards the end of the year we'll be organizing a skid pan day, we are currently looking at a 10 car half day then bbq, though if we get enough interest we'll look at organizing a whole day of fun skid pan tom-foolery, so stay hungry!!

-Willie

So this happened

That's right gentle readers, the FB poll for bretts drifter closed the other week with the 180 being victorious and let's face it, it was no shock.

 Last Wednesday Brett received an email from his brother, who while trawling the pickles auction listing discovered a beat up little 180, needless to say this poor Nissan had seen better days.  As it turned out, the 180 was going under the hammer the following day, many conversation were had and the decision was made to bid, sight unseen.

Upon winning the Nissan, brett drove it home with the help of a mate with a handy set of trade plates.  Didn't hit boost, we had a peek under the bonnet to discover and aftermarket Chinese turbo... Minus a wastegate, someone had done a dodgy job on the turbo, it was a bit of a mess.

Being that this car is to be registered to start with, all that needed to go.  A few other bits and pieces were among the mess, once we tore everything out, including a shitty oil filter relocation, a turbo timer that didn’t work, boost gauge, connected and rolling around on the floor, which also didn’t work and my personal favourite, 7 neons … 7.

Once the oils were changed, filters replaced, and neons thrown in the bin, the 180 sounded like a car again.

Stay tuned for more updates, including a rendering of what we plan for the lil monster, care of Carma Impressions.

See you trackside

-Willie

1:25.0200

One minute twenty five seconds and 2 milliseconds, that’s all it takes for one flying lap of Eastern Creek Raceway.

Well that is if your Warren Luff behind the wheel of the ‘Nemo’ Evo, running the blisteringly fast lap time and taking the win for the 2012 World Time Attack Challenge this past weekend and with 1:27.1820 the Tilton Interiors Evo coming in second, nearly two whole seconds off first place.

In a sport where every millisecond counts and all that crazy aero mean the difference between places, a two second win is a mind blowing feat.

Many people doubted the nemo evo coming into competition, with their engine blowing at Queensland raceway just a few weeks before competition, the haters came out in droves. Though as the day unfolded the much coveted Cyber Evo, being the reigning champ had much to defend though an engine failure early on Saturday morning saw them bow out of competition.

Being a ‘World’ invitational the call went out to some pretty high profile Japanese and British tuners.  Top Fuel came out with their S2000 running a 1:29.0520, the almighty RE-Amemiya came out with their fresh hurricane rx7 running a best of 1:29.8020. 

Pan Speed came out with their RX8 this year, ditching last year’s rx7 for the deafening roar of their NA 20B crossing the line with a best of 1:35.5750

Under the watchful eye of Suzuki, the team from Scorch racing brought their S15 out for another go, eventually running a 1:28.3290 successfully putting them in fourth place, just nudged out from third by the guys from MCA with they’re crazy S13 with a best of 1:27.8080 making it an all aussie podium finish.

The Tectaloy International Drift comp was held on Friday and Saturday nights, which saw competitors for OZ, NZ and Japan.

Being an invitational, the bar was raised pretty high, with some monstrous weaponry hitting the track.

If you haven't seen this 350 yet, you'd better.  With no expense spared by the guys at Monster Energy, this thing is quite the machine, Check out the full feature in Drift Battle Magazine.

Team Orange came out to compete with their RWD Evo and RWD WRX respectively.

These guys were hitting the first turn at around 160km on the night, shit was getting crazy.

Unfortunately for Mad Mike Whiddett and his Madbul RX8, his comp ended on Friday with some 'engine complications'.  I feel bad for the fans, as the sound of that NA 20B on full noise is quite something to behold.

 

All the action wasn't just out on track as a few clubs were reppin hard out at the show n shine area.

This killer beetle was stanced out all day

I love going to genre specific shows and seeing something out of the ordinary, this beetle would have to be one of my favourites at this years time attack.

Speaking of favourites, Nigel Peitrie from Engineered to Slide was back again this year with his comp 180 and his in the build drift hilux, if you haven't checked out his blog, sus it out here, this thing is truly amazing, i think its safe to say that Australia has a new hero.

As was the case with this year, I know next year will be bigger and better, now that Nemo has raised the bar, lets see who steps up to the plate for next year, we'll keep our ear to the ground on any builds that are in the making and give you guys the hot scoop.

A massive thank you goes out to our photographers Chelsey Kosalka and Aaron Bondarenko for their mad skills, now go like their page!

See you at the track

-Willie