Recently, the Targa Trophy had their second round of their triple crown series in the bay area with the help of NOS Energy Drink.  There were over 40 high-dollar performance and exotic cars on the run including Import Tuner’s Lexus IS-F.  However in the end it was Alex Andonian with his BMW 335i that came out on top with some help from his navigator.  To celebrate, all the participants partied it up at the luxurious San Francisco W Hotel.  Check out some pics below.

The other night I went to Irwindale to check out their “drift night” presented by NOS Energy Drink. It was a pretty dope situation.  They sectioned off one area of the parking lot and changed it into a playground for amature drifters as well as a few pros.  I saw 2009 Formula Drift champion Chris Forsberg joining in on the fun in his “missile car” AKA beater car with bare minimum required for drifting and nothing else!  The 3 inch exhaust pipe jutting out of the hood is what won me over.  Check it out below!

Starting at 4pm pacific time you can watch a live feed of Formula Drift Round 5 Las Vegas right here!  Just scroll down below and hit play in the video box!

Watch live video from driftstream on Justin.tv

Saturday was the 10th annual Nisei Week Import Showoff in Little Tokyo located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles.  As usual the vibe was cool, the cars were fresh, and the temperature was ridiculous!  I’m surprised no one passed out from heat exhaustion or was blinded by direct sunlight reflected into their eyes from the chrome lip of someone’s wheels.

Seriously though, the show was dope and there was a lot of quality builds on hand.  I just hope next year they can get a bigger space so even more fresh rides could be on display.  I really hope someday Import Showoff comes back full force.  The industry needs it!  Check out a few snaps below and the rest in our gallery.

If you don’t already know about this then take a moment to educate yourself on one of the most legit car shows of the year.  Ken Miyoshi has once again secured a spot in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles to hold the annual Nisei Week Import Showoff.  This event is mecca for JDM fan boys like us!  We’ll be there and we may even have a few goodies to give away.  If you’re in town DO NOT miss this event.  There, you’ve been informed and now you officially have no excuse!  Don’t say money either because it is only 12 bucks to get in!

Event Info:

DATE: August 14th 2010 (Saturday)
TIME: 11am - 7pm
ADMISSION: $12 at the door (kids under 10 free)
ADDRESS: 100 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA. 90012

Over the weekend MotorworldHype lost its car show booth virginity at RPM Event Seriesin Irvine, CA.  You may have noticed the banner on our site for a while now as we were one of the official media partners.  The event was held at Hidden Valley Park right next to Wild Rivers.  The venue was a sprawling grass area with carnival rides, a mini stadium for performances, go kart track, even a mini lake with canoe rentals!  There was a ton of vendors and plenty of entertainment.  My favorite was the street bike stunt show right in the middle of the park.  We had a good time and the Wraptivo Porsche Cayman got a lot of looks and questions which was cool and we handed out a bunch of “Super Hype Me!” stickers.  We want to thank the entire RPM Event Series team for letting us hang out with them and giving us a spot!  If you didn’t get a chance to make it out to RPM then make sure to look for us at the Nisei Week Import Showoff this Saturday.  In the meantime check out some of the pics from RPM below and in our gallery.

If you’re looking for something to do tonight head over to K1 Speed in Anaheim, CA for the RPM Event Series pre-party.  All the details are below.

**The official RPM Pre Party, is this Friday August, 6th at K1 Speed in Anaheim from 6PM-Close.

-Buy tickets for RPM on site and receive a 2 for 1 racing voucher on the spot.

-Industry model appearances

-World famous Kogi Truck

K1 Speed Anaheim
1000 N. Edward Ct.
Anaheim, CA 92806

Phone: (714) 632-6999
Fax: (714) 632-6868

Tomorrow, RPM Event Series will be making their So Cal stop in Irvine, CA at Hidden Valley Event Park.  We’ll be there with the Wraptivo Techart Porsche Cayman as well as limited edition MotorworldHype.com stickers and shirts!  Check out RPMEventSeries.com for all the info.

I caught up with Ken Block as the X Games 16 Super Rally day was drawing to a close to get some more insight about his mechanical incident in the “Last Chance Qualifier”.  In the process I got him to spill a few small tidbits about Gymkhana 3!  Check it out.

In 2007 Tanner Foust earned the nick name “Golden Child” by winning X Games Rally gold and winning the Formula Drift championship all in the same year.  Since then hes had some significant success (he followed up his ‘07 Formula Drift championship with another in ‘08) but this year Tanner is in position to raise the bar for himself yet again by winning two gold medals at X Games 16.  The first in head to head rally racing then again in the 4 car mayhem known as “Super Rally”.

Head to head rally racing could only be described as chaotic.  Things were shaping up ok but after Friday’s practice many of the rally drivers felt that the course design was too tight.  This left the drivers meeting with track officials Saturday morning about possibly re-configuring the course lay out.  The driver’s got their wish and the course was changed but by the time the changes were complete there was no time for the drivers to practice on the new configuration.  To add to the tension the drivers were feeling from no practice time was the red-flag rule hanging over their heads.  In short the red-flag rule states that if a driver deviates from the designated course they will instantly be “red flagged” and if you get red flagged it is an automatic disqualification from that heat.

This combination resulted in nearly every heads up rally racing heat ending with a red flag disqualification.  Including the final battle between Tanner Foust and fellow Rockstar Energy/Ford Racing driver Brian Deegan.  You can watch their battle below.

After the pandemonium of head to head rally racing was over it was time for the event that everyone was waiting for: the 4 car tandem “Super Rally”.  In the Super Rally race 4 cars at a time all race against each other in a 4 lap heat.  To mix things up each driver is required to use the “Joker Lane.”  The Joker Lane is a slightly longer path through the course that included the massive gap jump.  The tricky part about this was that the drivers could choose when they wanted to take the Joker lane.  Since no one knew what driver would take the Joker lane at what time no one knew what to expect or when to expect it!

After four heats the final was dominated by professional drivers as Verdier, Foust, and Hubinette all lined up against the only non-drifter Brian Deegan.  You can see how the final Super Rally battle played out below:

With Formula D drivers dominating the X Games rally, could this mean we might see more action sports and rally drivers like Ken Block and Travis Pastrana take up drifting to improve their skill set?  Probably not, but it would be interesting to see!

All in all despite the confusion during the head to head rally racing Super Rally more than made up for everything and definitely looks like the sport could have a BIG future on American soil.