Check out this shot, which was taken with Antonio’s iPhone 7 in “portrait mode”. I’m impressed!
PS: Follow Antonio: @antoniosureshot
PPS: My story is getting out there LOL! I ran into a guy I had never met today at SEMA, we got chatting, then he said he’d heard about me getting drugged and waking up with a T-Shirt around my waist HAHA!
Toyo have published a feature with some of my shots from SEMA, so rad! Check it out: http://toyotires.com.au/toyo-blog/673-toyo-tires-owns-sema
This was shot INDOORS!
We headed next door to the Palazzo for breakfast this morning, they’ve re-created Venice, complete with wet look tiles, a gorgeous painted sky on the ceiling and real Gondolas!
Then we headed in to SEMA again.
I spent this day socialising mostly. This is Ravi from V2LAB who I’ve been in contact with over the net for years now. So great to finally meet him, and his girl Nalanie, who are such an amazing power couple! Was awesome to watch them work, capturing both video and stills throughout the day.
Had to revisit this FD.
And I had to get better shots of the Old & New Japan at Toyo stand.
Pretty awesome (yes I’m partial to slant nosed Porsches!).
Greaser RPRSNT! John Lor and Simon, also from Sydney!
Art. The gold chrome engraved Nissan GT-R created by Kuhl Racing.
Widebody everything. S2K at the Konig stand.
Enjuku 350Z at the Konig stand, driven by Savanna Little.
LB everywhere.
FK2R, which we’re not going to get in Aus.
I then finally caught up with Antonio Logan, who’s been our USA Zen Garage contributor since early 2015. The guy is just SO Zen. I love his vibe. He’s motivated and super positive (despite missing his flight, and having his luggage go missing too!!!). Really looking forward to working with Antonio going forwards.
My man! I then caught up with another Antonio (!). Antonio Alvendia from MotorMavens, who I first met in Sweden for Need for Speed last year. We’ve not seen each other since but it feels like yesterday. LOVE THIS GUY!
As we were leaving SEMA a bunch of promoters on the street were handing out strip club flyers. Antonio was quick to grab some, turns out a little trick he likes to do when he hands out business cards to prospective clients is to “accidentally” spill out titty flyers as he’s grabbing a card out of his wallet!
Luke’s Lobster Las Vegas!
Lobster Roll FTMFW!
Crew!
We woke up a little earlier this morning and ate brekkie at the Palazzo next door, which has a fantastic, and quite trippy painted ceiling. SEMA was different for me today too. MUCH more social as I spent the day catching up with friends I’ve met over the net.
Being done with the big nights, we’ve booked a car to head to the Hoover Dam tomorrow, then on to The Grand Canyon. Should be a refreshing break from all the booze!
I got to briefly (it’s always super brief these days sadly!) catch up with Charles Kha (formerly Autosalon Magazine Editor, Editor of SpeedHunters and now VP at EA Games). Although brief, it’s always great. We parted ways after a few drinks and ciggies, but then Charles buzzed me a little bit after to ask for my hotel room number as he’d forgot to give me something! BF1!!! #omfgtheregoesmylifeforthenextfewmonths
Toyo Treadpass is killer. I ran into Dino from Speedhunters just as I got here, and he suggested it was the best part of the whole show (I agree!). No need for words, enjoy the diversity and quality of cars in my Toyo Tires Treadpass coverage below.
A 1970 Ford Mustang Fastback mounted on a Nissan R35 GT-R chassis!
Hoonicorn unveiled. The guys had a pretty tight fence around it so excuse the tight shots!
Toyo has SO much representation at SEMA. I’m shocked, in awe, just absolutely loving it.
Enkei stand. The following shots are of cars on Toyo tyres, but not at official Toyo stands.
Fatlace RPRSNT!
Speedhunters x RWB.
Boss.
CATUNED 2002.
So rad!
JDMyard crew x Jeremy Lookofsky of Drag Cartel.
Really loved this 2017 Honda Civic shell at the Honda stand; it was covered in Honda Racing mods, all nicely labelled. Massive focus on track stuff in general at SEMA.
2017 86 at the Toyota stand.
Beautiful.
Greddy stand.
Haltech! At the end of the day I finally got around to the main hall, spotted fellow Aussies hard at work (good one guys your stand was busy as!). Will return tomorrow for much much more!
Yup. SEMA is awesome! It’s HUGE, and there’s so much to see, even more to miss if you don’t take your time. Good thing then that I have a few days left to go!
I’ve been in absolute awe at how many cars on show are on Toyo tyres. It’s mind boggling, especially since Toyo are a Japanese tyre, and SO many American muscle cars are on them, complete with Toyo tyre stickers too! Everyone’s busy at the show but I got a little chat in with Stan Chen, the senior manager of Toyo Tires USA, as well as Dionne Mascunana, who creates a lot of awesome imagery for Toyo USA (check his Instagram here).
I’ve also noted a real track focus at the show. PLENTY of stripped out race cars (which I love!). I’ll be returning tomorrow for more so sit tight for more photos then!
No need for words, this video by DopeKoto captures the vibe of WTAC so well, familia; love… SO much love! Subscribe to DopeKoto.
PS: Spot me at 3:14 in!
Walker in the house.
SO many awesome cars on Toyo here in the US, what the fuck is up with Toyo representation in Aus? It’s got to change.
Boss.
993 FTMFW.
Idlers x Toyo R888 RPRSNT!
Everything’s bigger in the States!
Yeah I’m done! Fave car I saw today.
Block in the house.
Spotted on the street en-route to the cop shop.
The cop shop!
I was there to file a report about the other night (so I can claim my phone on insurance!). Cops were so tops!!!!!
Walking back to our hotel.
Man we’re doing SO much walking around Vegas, our legs are dead already! Today started super slow as some of the crew went out raging again last night, we had brekkie at lunch, and then headed over to SEMA to get our passes. The Media room is awesome, Kiet happens to have 2 phones on him so I got a sim card for one of them and now I have a phone! Some of the crew managed to talk their way into a sold out Diplo show at our hotel, I decided to skip that to hang with the Speedhunters crew for a few drinks.
Big day tomorrow! Expect a lot of photos! SEMA has got to be the largest car show in the world. It looks absolutely HUGE!
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… but fuck me dead. I woke up on the floor in my hotel room, with the neck of a T-Shirt stretched around my waist, leaving the rest of the T-Shirt looking like a skirt. I have ZERO memory of shit that went down last night. Pretty sure I was drugged. I’ve lost ALL of my money, phone has been stolen too, but thank God they left me with my passport!!!
Dave had checked us in online, and this somehow screwed up Qantas’ baggage check-in system! Not a good start! THEN Zi had his US currency stolen from him at the check-in at Qantas! Feds were all over it but we had a plane to catch so hopefully he’ll be able to deal with it all later on, back home.
Carbon seats in the A380 were actually quite comfy! Flight was still pretty hard for all of us though.
FINALLY! We made it, only to have to queue like sheep for 2.5hrs before getting out onto the street!
First thing, ciggies. $5!!!
Ken was waiting for us when we got out in his awesome TRD Tundra.
He drove us to the Avis car hire to pick up our Party Bus which ended up being this huge Ford bus with plenty of room and super cold AC too.
Dave ripped his shorts lol.
We then ate at Chick fil A, so good!!!
Spotted this super clean bagged karmann ghia in a carpark (where we were trying to get US sim cards sorted for our phones which ended up being a bit of a pain and took way longer than expected), he had a leak and couldn’t get the car up, he found the leak whilst we were there though.
And a few minutes later his crew arrived. So rad!
Mmmmm Mega Moist. We then checked out the local Wallmart (lol).
Random, right?!
Cray.
We then dropped past The Chronicles Year 8 Anniversary Event. So rad as I’d seen so much of this event footage on the net over the years.
The event had some pretty clean cars parked up inside, outside though was a much more realistic affair with a fair few cars that were modified, but far from perfect, much like our local scene in Australia.
Loved this clean S2K. Lots more Hondas than any other make as expected, chill tunes, chill people and great vibes despite the super harsh sun that was pretty much burning us alive!
Noice.
Pretty cool to finally see USDM clean shaven bays in real life.
WILD!
Drank.
Loved this Trueno.
The only GT-R there, an R32 and it was pretty cool overhearing the locals say that the engine looks a lot bigger in real life (IE: they’d not seen an RB26 before!).
Spoon kit. Polarises people. I personally love it!
Toyo spotting.
Evasive EVO!
This guy had the right idea bringing an umbrella.
And my fave car of the event.
Exit left!
Central driving position!!! Apparently it’s the fastest Civic in the US on the circuits here.
Pretty much a cup car.
More Toyo spotting! R888 RPRSNT!
The trophies.
Yonas and Joey, AKA: @stickydiljoe
Great to finally meet the guy!
Then we ate some more. YAS!!!!
The sky went whack and then we were off on our road trip to Vegas. Man we were absolutely wrecked at this point. Adam’s a champ for driving the distance!
The scenery just got more and more baron as we went along.
Group shot in the Nevada Desert.
Go the bus!
Tesla chargers. It was dark by the time we got into Vegas.
And our hotel, The Wynn, is huge, busy as fuck and bang in the middle of the strip. It’s halloween here too so everyone’s super dressed up!
The hotel’s nuts, and feels like The SIMS! Getting to the hotel elevators is an experience in itself as you have to go through the casino to get there.
8AM and we were all at Sydney International Airport, quietly excited about our huge trip. We ran into John Lor and his mate Simon at the airport SO RAD! I had NO idea John was coming!
It’s been a HUGE day of travelling. I’m buggered, sitting here in the hotel room after having a much needed shower (OMFG so greasy all day). It’s 10.30PM local time now, we’re starving again so we’re going to head downstairs and explore! More tomorrow!
My copy of the remastered Skyrim for PS4 is here! The game only came out today, and I leave for LA tomorrow morning so I thought I’d come home to it in a week’s time… but NO! Thanks Bethesda for express posting me a copy to play today.
Being truly done with Fallout 4 (until mods come out for it on PS4!), and struggling to get back to The Division after downloading the 1.4 update (which after a few hours play really feels like how the game should have been from launch). I’m going to give Skyrim a good go despite not being a huge fan of magic/fantasy like realms.
I’ve only spent 2-3 hours on the game but I’m enjoying it so far! Really helps that the Fallout 4 familiarity is there with the controls, and general gameplay too. Sure, the graphics aren’t as great as Fallout 4, but one thing I’ve noticed is that the game loads SO fast! Loading screens flicker past in an instant, unlike the 30+ second wait at times when opening a door into a building in Fallout 4 (worst way to kill immersion IMHO).
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.