JDM

Hello there fellow Fast Four Fans and Rotary Representatives,

Apologies for the amount of time it's taken to make this post. We've had some techical gremlins in the last 24 hours with backing up and updating of servers so the original post was lost. Back we're back up and ready as ever!

The Fast Fours & Rotaries Cruise on Saturday 15th was a huge success, thank you to everyone who faced the early rains and came out for the cruise, it was you guys who made it an event!

It's been such a long time since we've hosted a cruise and with such a successful event, there's not telling what we can come up with next. It's amazing to see pistons and rotaries alike, covering the whole demographic from old-school to new-tech, converging in one location to share our fondness for our rides.

Cuzza Buzza, our birthday boy who recently turned 40 was moved by the number of people who rolled out for his birthday celebrations. He asked for me to share with everyone, "Please tell everyone thanks for coming out, they're allright!", so thanks for making his day guys! Cuzza Buzza (David) is a great friend of ours here at Fast Fours & Rotaries and it's people like him, who highlight to us what's legitimate, bright, and positive about the scene.

We're happy to announce that we raised almost $1000 for our drought affected neighbours in Queensland. This is amazing for a short-notice cruise so thank you everyone for your huge support!

Also we'd like to give a special thanks to our sponsors who came aboard to support the cruise. Without them we wouldn't have been able to get this cruise off the ground. They are:

TurboSmart - Our mate Troy from Turbosmart is always keen to come out for an event and didn't fail to dissapoint! Thanks for your continuing support!

RotorMaster, Gas Motorsport and Titan Motorsports- Unfortunately Joe and the team were unable to make the cruise being caught in a manic time with the Summer Race season revving up. However, they were very generous with inputting into our prize pool!

Mainline Automotive Equipment - Have you ever had your car on a dyno? Chances are it was a Mainline Dyno! Craig was away on a trip however didn't hesitate to support our cruise!

RDA/EBC - It's the first time we've worked with Dennis and it's definitely not going to be the last! Do you folks dig your epically cool travel mugs? You can thank RDA/EBC for them!

StreetWrap - Anthony couldn't make his way out but was keen in supporting our cruise and gave us loads of products to give away.

Motive DVD - We've always been friends with Andrew at Motive DVD, be sure to check out the DVD that was in each show bag

Autobarn Bankstown - Michael Koval made it for the cruise and hung out briefly at the meet point but unfortunately couldn't hang around. Autobarn Bankstown worked together with Motul Oils to chip donations in for the raffle draw

Lachlan Cook Automotive - Locky was the fellow in the highlighter green/yellow Lotus Exige and has been friends with Cuzza Buzza for over 15 years. Like his Lotus? Just wait until you see the rotaries that he builds!

So please make sure you continue supporting the people that are supporting our scene!

A full write-up of the event will be coming out on the Juneissue of Fast Fours & Rotaries Magazine which hits shelves on the 11th of May 2010 so make sure you grab yourselves a copy. Also, remember to become friends with us on our Facebook Page so that we can keep you up-to-date with any events and news.

Well, we know you guys are hungry for some photos so check over the jump for some more.

One of the most memorable things about the Ultimate Tunes JDM Fest would have to be the people. A lot of the folks who rocked up lived in and around the ACT. These guys were legit car enthusiasts, braving the horrible weather to make it out for the event.

Everywhere you go, you'll find that some of the most loved people are the kitchen hands. That was no exception at the JDM Fest as these guys were the ones to keep us warm and fed throughout the cold hungry day. Gale force winds made it difficult to keep everything together at times but these guys were champs and held it all together. Aydan, the dude on the left with the NissanSilvia hoodie asked me to be the subject of an interview for his school project which I found very flattering. Kyle up in front here did a tops job as cameraman.

More pics over the fold

Ultimate Tunes's JDM Fest attracted all sorts of cars some weird, all wonderful. This post contains snapshots of some cars that swung by during the day. There will be a few more that I'll be writing featurettes on over the next week or so. Keep posted!

The Toymods guys really know how to roll in style. This is what we were greeted by when Fonzy and I rocked up into Canberra in the wee early hours of the morning.

More snapshots over the fold

Canberra of course didn't go without some dramatic moments. Show 'n' Shine Veterans Queen Street had a few of their cars join the party. They were able to make the journey to the show 'n' shine without hitch, however some misfortune found its way into their day.

Check out more over the fold

One thing I learned on my trip to Canberra is that car enthusiasts in Canberra are definitely not afraid of a little water. Introduce a little bit of wetness to a meet in Sydney and you can expect disaster, however not in Canberra.

As Fonzy and I arrived, we were warmly greeted by a group from the Toymods forums and Canberra Celica Group. Now these are some keen car guys. Here I am struggling with my umbrella making sure that I'm not drowning in the weather, and some of these guys strut around without any waterproof covering.

More over the fold, pictures and words, don't be shy

After poking around a couple of forums in search of a companion to travel to Canberra with, I was fortunate to meet up with Fonzy. Some of you may remember our feature on Fonzy's oldschool bosozoku  TA22 Celica from the June issue of the Magazine. If you haven't seen it, you really must order it through our Magstore website. Fonzy agreed to convoy together on our trip south. Great! This meant that I didn't have to do it alone after all!

Fonzy is a true reflection of a car guy. The 3am wake up and 4am take off in the cold, wet night proved it for me. There aren't too many people in Sydney that are hard core enough rock up in these conditions. We like to be a bit spoon fed in Sydney I think. Here we are meeting up at McDonalds in Villawood before taking off.

Click over the fold for more pics and review

Camera... Check

Drivers License... Check

Cash... Check

Change of clothes... Check

Toothbrush... Check

Next on on the agenda... Water, oil and tyre pressures

Well, things are a definite go ahead for the road trip down to Phillip, ACT for Ultimate Tunes's JDM Fest 2010, but hold on. What's this we see?

Check over the fold for more

Ultimate Tunes is hosting the 2010 JDM Fest This Saturday 4th of September. Fast Fours & Rotaries is happy to announce that we'll be making the trip from our HQ in Sydney to the ACT to catch all the thrills, spills and kills.

So who's going? Let us know! We want to know about your trip to the 2010 JDM Fest. We want to show off your photos and your videos of your trip to Philip ACT. We want to meet you up there!

Singles, couples, families, clubs, groups of friends, car clubs, we want to feature your trip and we want to meet you at JDM Fest 2010.

Shoot me an email at phil@fastfours.com.au and let me know where you're coming from. I want to know about your road trip, and I want to know about your ride.

We all have some degree of geek inside of us, and this is the side that Supanova calls to. It's clever how instead of labelling itself a "geek convention", it's aptly called a pop culture expo. It's quite eye-opening however to see how popular geek culture has become and is becoming. We can thank our old friend Mr Internets for this one.

One of the coolest things that I spotted that'll apply to all you JDMers out there and for all of you that dig drift, is Takumi Fujiwara's AE86 Trueno. It was just chilling at in the lobby so I thought I'd have a quick snap taken.

So for any of you that may have wondered... The characters on the side of that car are

藤原とうふ店(自家用)

Which is pronounced "foo-jee-wo-rah-toe-foo-me-seh (ji-ka-yaw)" which literally means Fujiwara Tofu Shop (Personal use). The 自家用 pretty much states that this is a privately owned car which also gets used for some kind of business use

What happens when you take professional drifters outside of the confines of rules and regulations of professional competition? This is what Drifters Unleashed heads out to document.

Drifters Unleashed is a project headed up by Jet Multimedia's Andrew Hawkins. Fast Fours & Rotaries covers Drifters Unleased and the DVD launch in the July 2010 issue of the magazine.

Be sure to check it out.

Heaps of sample videos over the fold!