Modified CR-Z at SEMA 2010
This year at SEMA, Honda is showing off their CR-Z's in full force. Apparently, there are 12 on display at their booth. Not only in stock form, but in many different modified versions. Let's see if the CR-Z takes off in popularity like the classic CR-X. Only time can tell! Enjoy.
for more pics of the CR-Zs in SEMA 2010 click here
-infamousjj
SNEAK PEEK: LoganBuilt 2010 Nissan Cube SL
SEMA is just around the corner and our friends over at microcarmag.com have shot us a little sneak peek of their SEMA project car, the Nissan Cube. This little guy is the first concept out of LoganBuilt, which coincidentally, is the brainchild of Thomas Musante, founder of MicroCar Magazine. So far, they have done a good job with the Cube and we are looking forward to seeing this little guy in person as well as other project cars to come!
The FN2 Civic Type R Rally Car
Oh I love rally. And oh how I love the European Civic Type R. Put those two together? *gasp* Here is Honda Australia doing shakedown runs of their rally Civic. Tuned by JAS Motorsports and powered by Mugen, this little guy will be driven by Evans Motorsports driver Eli Evans and co-driver Glen Weston in the 2010 Australian Rally Championship.
The 2010 ARC starts this weekend and will be pitting my beloved hatch against the likes of Eli Evans' brother, Simon, in a Subaru WRX STi along with a field of TRD Toyota Corolla hatches and Mitsu EVOs.
LA Street Food Fest 2010
The Roach Coach Craze in LA began when Kogi's started making waves among the late night crowd, with some unfamiliar truck food. Korean tacos? Who'd have thunk - thus sparking a wave of various food trucks/catering companies mixing the traditional roach coach affair with some ethnic flair. Soon, there was a truck on every corner doling out gobs of upscale truck food that Angelenos willingly follow with a passion. Which leads us into this pinnacle event - the LA Street Food Fest.
The Los Angeles Street Food Festival occurred this past Saturday and brought together a good amount of LA food trucks in one spot for about 6 hours. Located at the LA Studios Center in Downtown LA, there were the familiar Fishlips Sushi Truck and the Grilled Cheese Truck, to the not so familiar India Jones Truck and CoolHaus Truck. Entry was $5 and most food samples ranged between $1-$6, from what we saw, so you could pretty much taste the best of a couple trucks for the amount of a full course meal at a local restaurant. Wonderful concept and for the most part did not disappoint with the amount of options available to the local foodies (30+ food vendors present!!!).
After spending the better portion of our morning here trying to fill up our bellies, we realized that the biggest gripe of the festival were the lines. The line to get in was already wrapping itself through the parking lot before the gates opened at 11am. By the time we left, it was snaking around the entire block and they ended up turning away folks hours before closing time. As if the line to get in wasn't enough, the lines inside became somewhat confusing and unbearable. Even more unbearable than just following a truck to some bar parking lot on a Saturday night. With an estimated attendance hitting far north of 10,000 people, most lines stretched 2-3 trucks past where you wanted to go, with most in line having no clue what they were in line for. Ask the internet - anything that has been posted in reference to this Food Fest will no doubt bring up the situation with the lines.
Next time this event does come around, which is said to be again later on this year, be sure to bring all of your friends and start early (before the doors even open). Each person takes a truck and orders for everyone else. Meet up in the middle and share war stories over Chinese Tacos from Don Chow's, Japanese Hot Dogs from Dogzilla and fried chicken from Ludo's. This is the only way to circumvent missing out on a truck you wanted to check out, it'll cut down your overall wait time, and will not spread out your munching time to every hour or so.
Surprisingly the truck that "started it all," the Kogi Truck, didn't join the festival. Asking around, no one really could tell us why. That, along with the absence of the infamous Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog Carts was a small let down also. Well, hopefully the good folks at the LA Street Food Fest crew can squeeze those guys in the next time around...that'd make me happy enough to go again.
-Tanker
More pics after the JUMP!
Formula D 2010 is Upon Us!
This came through last night and I haven't gotten around to posting it up, but tickets for the season opener of Formula Drift in Long Beach has just gone on sale through formuladrift.com, Ticketmaster, and the Long Beach Convention Center Box Office. The two day event will take place on April 9th & 10th along turns 9, 10, 11 of the Long Beach Grand Prix street course. Should be another great season for Formula D! Consider purchasing your tickets soon as this event has been known to sell out... (Tickets for Road Atlanta, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Infineon Raceway have also gone on sale!)
On a side note, Team Honda Research should be there with their RWD Element. You know, the Honda Element with the twin turbo Acura V6 pushing out 550hp? :drool: Count me in! Haven't heard of this monster Element? Check the video from Nation of Go that touches on THR and their Drifting Element:
TEAM HONDA RESEARCH from Nation of GO on Vimeo.
Mullholland Drive: Secret Racing Circuit in LA
I know, I know, we usually talk about cars... but what's a car without somewhere to drive it. In this video Jay Leno goes in search of Hollywood's Hidden Street Circuit in the Mercedes SLS AMG 2010, and boy does he find it. Maybe one of these days you could see Tanker and I zooming around Mullholland, I mean come on, they even turned it into a disney ride! P.S. I liked the disney ride before they put the protective railing on the carts. It was more fun that way!
-infamousjj
Hopefully We Get This One…
Honda is considering bringing its European market Civic Type R to the United States for the 2010 model year, according to a published report. The Type R is equipped with a 2.0-liter iVTEC engine delivering 220 horsepower. It also features sportier suspension and an appearance kit. Check out the video... the newest Civic Type-R even gives the NSX Type-S a run for it's money. The video is slightly longer so pop some popcorn and enjoy.
-infamousjj
Import Junkiez 2010
Welcome back to Import Junkiez! A lot has been going on behind the scenes here at Import Junkiez so we took a little break from the site for the Holidays. In that time a lot has passed us by, such as SEMA in November, the LA Auto Show this past December as well as the NAIAS that's going on as we speak. (Have you seen that Ford Focus?! Geez, finally Ford.) Not to mention this past week was CES and the introduction of the 3D TV hype machine as well as the introduction of the Google "SuperPhone", the NexusOne. For New Year's I was able to join 70k other Angelenos down in Long Beach, CA for Red Bull New Year: No Limits to watch Travis Pastrana jump his car off the Pine Pier onto a barge 200ft out in Rainbow Harbor. That was a good way to ring in the New Year...well the East Coast's New Year, we still had 3 hours till the West Coast actually saw a second of 2010. Good thing there were ample bars and demos to pass the time, like the DriftingX stuff along Ocean Drive. Fun.
Which brings us to now...we are now back, full of energy (thanks Red Bull rep for all the free Red Bull I could ask for) and ready to go to town with Import Junkiez. We did some upgrades to the back end of our site, so new stuff should be coming up on a regular basis...well as regular as it gets for us. :/ So sit back, relax and check out the site. If you want to comment on stuff we are pretty open about letting anyone comment. We just ask that you register first as to avoid the crazy spam that tries to creep in on a regular basis. The only rule is..."Make it a good first comment, or else we just might ignore you." Also, if you feel you got something to contribute (like articles, media, tips or constructive criticism) send a friendly email to ijunkbox@importjunkiez.com. I do enjoy reading emails as long as it's not my real job's email 
I think that's it. Time for more posts! Thanks again for all your support and here's to 2010. Wait...where's my flying car?
-Tanker