The 2005 D1 Grand Prix season got into swing February 27 at Irwindale Speedway. For the first time ever, an event contested in America would count for points toward the D1 championship. Other big news saw Manabu Orido step away from the judge's table and into the RS*R Supra. Orido had a close encounter with a K-rail and failed to make the field of 30 and advance into the elimination rounds.

The Battle of the Imports road show came through Woodburn, Oreg., Sept. 27-28. People from all over the Northeast came out to strut their stuff.The best in import drag racing came to claimtheir share of the valuable BOTI championshippoints. Being that the '08 season is coming to a close, the BOTI championship races are tightening up and racers from all over are positioning themselves in their respective pro classes.

It's amazing how much can be accomplished when it doesn't matter who gets the credit. In this second segment of Tarzan Yamada's dream team collaboration, the project is finally shaping into a tangible reality. Team Tarzan's quest to tear a new one for the American time attack scene is expected to put pressure on the rest of the contenders and current record holders. When the most famous time attack and drifting personality assembles an all-star team of the biggest and baddest engine, chassis, and aero maker from Japan, the result is nothing less than stupendous.

With Formula D nearing its season-ending round, we reminisce on a year filled with plenty of heart-wrenching crashes, controversies, surprises, and upsets within each drift series. Teams getting new drivers, drivers getting new cars, and cars getting new parts, are all typical of what happens in the off-season, isn't it? Or is it in the off-season that we hear plenty of rumors and gossip about the most changes done on a vehicle, considering there is a lot of time to test and develop these changes without the concerns of making it to the next event, especially when there is usually less than a few weeks between each event when the season starts. Already in 2008, with five events down, Formula D's series is quickly coming to an end.

Presented by M2 WheelOn Aug. 16, show car participants and enthusiasts took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles and made their way to this year's annual Nisei Week Car Show. The Nisei Showoff has been a long-standing tradition among import performance enthusiasts; many old-school car fanatics back in the late '80s and early '90s can easily recall the once-popular Nisei Week carnivals that were held on the same stomping grounds. The Showoff car event became a "show your ride" cruise fest as Celicas, Supras, and Datsun 510s drove up and down the streets while hundreds of spectators looked on in admiration. This year's event proved to be another successful venue and the sweltering California heat didn't seem to deter participants from bringing out some of the hottest rides to grace the L.A. area. The event was filled with a variety of cars, from Subarus to Nissan 350Zs. With such a large turnout it was no surprise that the Nisei Showoff has maintained its strong presence of Hondas and Acuras at the venue of only the highest caliber in build quality. Some of the highlights of the event were the nostalgic old-school SSR Neo wheels as well as a set of custom Mugen M7s with a monster lip. If you missed out on this year's show be sure to check out www.showoffcafe.com to get information on next year's festivities.

On August 23-24, 2008, Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash., was flooded with the best that the Northwest had to offer. Battle of the Imports (BOTI) opened its gates at 4 p.m., and soon after there was an overflow section of the raceway filled with people and cars. One of the most notable things about the tuner fans in the Northwest is that many of the cars you would’ve suspected to be in the car show were there to race. Whatever the case, the battle in Seattle was filled with death-defying racing, super clean show cars, and beautiful women.

Let The Festivities BeginMitsubishi Motors 4th Annual Mitsubishi Owner's Day was held on Saturday, July 19 at the Mitsubishi corporate headquarters in Cypress, Calif. MOD has quickly established itself as the largest yearly Mitsubishi gathering since 2005 when the Mitsubishi Research and Design team decidedly held its first owner's event as a way to express their appreciation toward vehicle owners and faithful alike. Mitsubishi fanatics from all over the country came out in full force to represent the Galants, Starions, 3000GTs, Monteros, and Evos, as a staggereing 800 cars lined the parking lots of corporate headquarters at the crack of dawn. Vendor participation nearly doubled in size from last year's event. The more relaxed outdoor atmosphere offered ample time for attendees to ask various questions or educate themselves on new and upcoming products.

Willow Springs International Raceway held the second round of our Super Lap Battle series in sunny SoCal. While the week-end's temperature was hitting 100-plus degrees, it was the competition on the track that made it a scorcher of a weekend.

On July 15 Las Vegas Speed-way brought out the best of the best in drag racing and drifting. On the drag racing side of the event, the experienced crew from Battle of the Imports was enlisted. The Formula D crew was assigned to drifting duties. On Friday night it rained on the normally dry desert summer season to continue the weather jinx for this year's sport compact drag racing season. And just like the rest of the season, the show went on.

On Sunday, June 22, SpoCom, presented by Nitto Tires, put to- gether an amazing turnout at the Long Beach Convention Center in California with over 6,800 consumers walking the halls. This year's 75 industry manufacturers displaying their products nearly doubled venue turnout compared to last year's SpoCom- a positive note that this event was growing in both popularity among manufacturers and consumers alike. While the focus of SpoCom is a tradeshow by nature, the event was still packed with some of the hottest show cars, vouching for top honors and the thousands of dollars up for grabs. The arena was quickly filled to max capacity as lines of cars snaked around the convention center. About 250 show-worthy vehicles took to the convention floor and many of the extras, looking to join in on the automotive floss fest, had to be turned away at the doors. If you missed out on this year's event, be sure to mark your calendar for SpoCom 2009, which will be returning to the Long Beach Convention Center on Sunday, June 14, 2009. For more information, be sure to visit the SpoCom Show site at www.spocomusa.com.

Battle of the Imports at Maryland International Raceway on June 27 and 28 united professional sport compact drag racers from all over the country. It was a hot and humid weekend in Budds Creek, Md. The Pro qualifying event was rained out on Friday night, so it was completed on Saturday. Rain delays have occurred repeatedly during this year's Sport Compact drag racing season. The streak, however, continues as every event has still been completed despite weather conditions.

Nearly 10,000 people packed into the Castle Combe Racing Circuit for Japanese Fest 2008-one of the U.K.'s leading Japanese-only car shows. They were treated to a record number of car club displays-over 2,200 vehicles-covering just about anything ever made in Japan, and then tuned and modified in the U.K. Although, I failed to spot any modified Evo Xs or the latest Subarus, but it's only a matter of time. Aside from miles of impressive mild-to-wild display cars, the show is also the perfect venue to check out the hottest new styling and tuning products available from the U.K.'s top Japanese specialists-all keen to feed the ever-expanding market.

The weather in Atco, N.J.,was unpredictable. It started out warm and sunny on Saturday, but by early afternoon it turned ugly. Out of nowhere the clouds came in and down came the rain-from all directions. The wind was on the verge of blowing the tents away when all of a sudden a bolt of lightning struck a telephone pole just yards away from us and fried the tracks' timing equipment. It was enough to make this California boy wish he were home. Needless to say, the Battle of the Imports race was cancelled on Saturday.

On May 3, the Long Beach City College parking lot played host to the most anticipated event dedicated to all things Toyota.

Our first round of Super Lap Battle qualifying events took place at Firebird International Raceway in an unexpectedly cool Ari-zona May weekend. Our host Jason Boles and the NASA Arizona crew pulled out all the stops to bring out the best in Arizona road racers. For those who are unfamiliar with how our Super Lap Battle qualifying rounds work here's a little background info.

The streets of Long Beach witness a new breed of track cars The 34th annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach bid its final farewell to the Champ Car World Series as drivers and teams prepared for their transitional merger into the Indy Racing League. Will Power, piloting the KV Racing Technology machine, took the checkered flag in the final Champ Car-sanctioned Long Beach Grand Prix race in ideal weather conditions on April 20. While Champ Car was scheduled to run their final race, the parking lot/paddocks sitting adjacent to the course's straightaways entering Turn 8 and exiting Turn 9 was bustling with activity as 14 Super Lap Battle all-star vehicles began prepping their rides for their scheduled exhibition on the 1.968-mile course-a landmark event for import cars representing the time attack scene.

Battle of the Imports invaded Orlando Speed World Dragway on April 12 and 13. The event marks the season opener for the racing series. Frank Choi and his boys worked hard over the winter to generate a much higher contingency payout for all of his racers so that this year they could have a year-end championship purse for his pro racers to chase after. Don't worry they didn't forget the spectators. This year racing fans from around the world could watch the action live via the Internet. That's right you can watch streaming video of the on-track action from the comfort of your living room. It seems Frank isn't content on being named the inventor of organized sport compact racing, he's still trying to think up new and innovative things to improve his invention.

Winter is over, which means the Japanese show season is winding down and track-racing action will soon begin. But before those battles kick off, the city of Nagoya held the proper send-off. The Nagoya Auto Trend filled the massive Nagoya Port Messe exhibition hall with the best that Honshu had to offer. The show included hundreds of show cars, ranging from a Ferrari Enzo to crazy street-driven ATVs, as well as scantily clad campaign girls and toys galore. It was JDM heaven.

On April 5, Performance Nissan of Duarte partnered with HKS USA to bring their highly anticipated Performance Nissan Meet to Orange Show Speedway located in the heart of San Bernardino, Calif. Andy Kim of Performance Nissan and coordinator of the event was in charge of pulling off the amazing feat of moving the venue from the El Toro Marine base located in Orange County, Calif., due to some liability issues with the original site. Within months, the event was relocated to take place in San Bernardino and promised to be the next best thing to owning a Nissan.

Racing runs in our blood. It's a national pastime, a cult following, and practically a religion as automotive forums have become more common and popular than basketball and boxing Web sites. Almost every little town in Puerto Rico has at least one tuning shop, and more than four racetracks are on an island that's no bigger than 100 by 35 miles, with more being built as you read this.

Feb. 10 was an important day for many Chinese Americans, as they gathered amongst friends and family to celebrate the weekend of Chinese Lunar New Year's parade. Among the hoards of people who flocked to the historic L.A. district known as Chinatown, a celebration of a different kind took place within the Cathay Bank parking lot, smack dab in the middle of all the festivities. This year's annual JDM versus DTM Car Show hosted by Mainstream Productions proved to be a popular event once again as entrants and spectators had record-breaking attendance. Cali's finest show cars, including a strong crew representation by Team Hybrid came out to play, as a wide array of vehicles-ranging from classic Skylines to VIP-clad machines- battled for the prestigious honors on who would bring home the coveted JDM versus DTM king trophy. Vendors played part in welcoming show attendees as they flossed their products. While many enjoyed the scantily clad models and performance-built vehicles, a large gathering seemed to congregate around a handful of Honda Ruckus' gathered in front of the Bowl's L.A. booth. The Ruckus, otherwise known as a scooter on steroids has risen in popularity in America as plenty of aftermarket go-fast parts have made this two-wheeled vehicle a hobbyist's dream come true. If you missed this year's show, be sure to check out www.jdmvsdtm. com for the next event.

In 1997, the ILIOS group set out to hold the first Osaka Auto Messe. They did so in the shadows of the Tokyo Auto Salon. To their surprise, with local tuners growing weary of Kanto tuners catching the spotlight, the Kansai-jin irrupted at full volume to the cause, bringing 256 cars and 122 booths in two halls. With audiences topping 150,000, the time had come for Kansai to have a show rivaling Tokyo.

The weekend of Feb. 23 couldn't have arrived sooner for automotive enthusiasts and those looking to snatch up some killer deals at the official GReddy garage sale. Over the past few years, GReddy has managed to turn their traditional garage sale-packed with everything from exhaust systems to intercooler setups-into a full-frenzied "grab what you can" affair. This year's event, held at El Toro Marine base in Irvine, Calif., proved to be bigger and better than previous years, as GReddy added some twist to the usual festival. The annual garage sale that we've been accustomed to was revamped to provide a full day of drifting exhibitions, a Drift 101 instructional seminar held by Drift Association/Club 4AG, autocross, dyno testing, and GReddy/Falken Tires vehicle demo ride alongs. Dubbed the GReddy Performance Festival, the event had cars lined up well into the early morning hours in hopes of snatching up a great deal when the gates opened at 7. Along with forum clubs from the S2K and Scion bandwagon joining in on the festivities to vendors showcasing products and a competitive $10 cover charge to run the autocross beginning at 9 a.m., a steady stream of cars filled the Marine base to the count of nearly 2,000 strong. Unfortunately, the expected 4 p.m. final run session was cut short due to the El Toro Marine base leasing company shutting down the autocross and drift track due to liability issues and the event being open to the public. If you missed out on this year's GReddy garage sale/Performance Festival, be sure to keep your eyes and ears open to attend the next one-you won't be disappointed!

Auto Salon Magazine Tour
Presented By Nitto Tires, Razo And Carmate
The official '08 Turbo Magazine Tour kicked off another memorable event with Kintetsu International's arrangement of another amazing trip. It was best scribed by an attendee as "the best and easiest way to tour Japan, without getting lost, while taking full advantage of a car enthusiast's dream come true." The first two days after attempting to shake off the jetlag was dedicated toward spending some quality time at the Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) to get well aquatinted with the newest products Japan has to offer. As we recall, it was less than two years ago that TAS was filled to the brim with manufacturers seemingly force-feeding us performance products for the 350Z. This year it was obvious that the Evo X and Skyline GT-R were now the darlings of the show. From mild to wild engines and vehicles, many of Japan's performance manufacturers came out swinging with hopes of rekindling a rather sluggish performance economy. The Evo X and R35 GT-R was just the ticket needed to rebuild the passion and spirit that help skyrocket the import market to stardom.

Rev Speed invades the historic Tsukuba Circuit with their '07 Winter Time Attack Super Battle. My first impression of the participants at this event was, take the majority of the best tuner cars from last year's Tokyo Auto Salon and put them in a head-to-head battle to get the quickest time at Tsukuba. Unlike the Tokyo Auto Salon, where everyone's car is spotless and motionless, this event has everyone prove they're worthy of their reputation of being a tuning god by hitting the track. Also included in this Super Battle were a group of Aussies, who brought their best vehicles and drivers from the land Down Under.