This past week Neil, Warren, Kim and I spent the week in Vegas for the SEMA Show where we debuted the 2010 Tjin Edition Camaro SS in the Air Lift. Overall it was a good week seeing a lot of old friends and making some new but I think I could have been done with the show by mid week… anyways, here are some pictures of the Camaro and the rest will be up tomorrow.

Oh yeah, the won the GM Design Award for “Best GM Vehicle” at SEMA!

Here are two videos, one finished up and one build up, of the 2010 Tjin Edition Camaro SS.

Here’s the video that the boys at PM Lifestyle, Sir Joey Redmond and Mister Jason Small put together:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/7384393[/vimeo]

… and here’s the build up video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt6Zv0oU1vw[/youtube]

not too many cars really move me with so little work done to them. but when i had to drive a friends car to meet up the guys from www.speedhunters.com because he had work that same day, i saw they had assembled a handful of cars to represent their “stance” theme for the month.

the very first person that came up to me when i stepped out of the car was Edafe, he had nothing but praise for the car i drove out there. we made small talk before we all saddled up and drove out to a small town on the outskirts of houston. i got to see this car rolling and i was literally speechless. to see how this car drives and rolls is nothing short of spectacular.

after talking with him through out the day, i came to see him as a pretty cool dude. we talked about his plans for the car and i gave him a few ideas, Edafe really has a few real tricks up his sleeve. when this thing is done and ready for the track its gonna be a monster and i cant wait to see it done up.

pics courtesy of speedhunters.

Team Falken explains why they choose to run ALMS and how they prepare for Petit le Mans. It’s a good inside view into the making of a GT2 racing team.

Team Falken Chooses the Petit Le Mans as the Ultimate Proving Ground from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

Falken Tire just built ride pages for all of their drift cars. How cool is that? My favorites are Vaughn Gittin Jr’s Mustang and Daijiro Yoshihara’s burly Lexus. Check out all five ride pages!

Super video by iPhilms from vimeo, sick track, too. Music is Auditorium by Mos Def & The Ruler

one of the dopest drift-pics

ever…

My name is Mary J. Castillo, Spokesmodel for Falken Tire. When Speedhunters.com first approached me to do this documentary about a day in the life of a model, I was taken back a bit because I felt like I had to keep a certain image about myself as a model. But then I thought, why not let the Speedhunters audience have an inside look about what really goes on in my day! Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Mary J. Castillo

Falken in it for the win, except they didn’t. They made a great clip though!

2009 Formula D Round 6 – Falken Gets Locked and Loaded from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

So einfach können Pläne durchkreuzt werden.

Die Stadt Heidenheim/Brenz plante, auf einem 4 ha großen Gebiet an die 30 Bauplätze anzulegen. Schon im Jahr 2005 war die Entscheidung gefallen, die Fuchssteige weiter auszubauen.

Doch genau dieses Gebiet hatte sich ein Baumfalkenpärchen (!) ausgeguckt, um dort zu brüten und ihre Jungen großzuziehen.
Nun werden die Pläne wohl vorerst auf Eis gelegt, um diese seltenen Vögel zu schützen.

Insgesamt vier Baumfalken-Paare sollen sich im Landkreis Heidenheim aufhalten.

I’m sure most of you have already seen the video. It’s all over the place including Fatlace. Formula D driver Calvin Wan is doing what he does best, in the Falken FD3S. Most of the footage and edit is done by Phil 360 and the driving footage was provided by Mark Fatlace. Hanging at the track, sliding cars, making movies, definitely not a rough day at the office.

Before I begin you should know that as the executive editor of StreetFire.net I love me some drift montage videos. And it should be noted that I did not ask the question presented in the title of this entry – believe it not, it was one of the filmmakers who produced these videos. I will protect his identity to spare him from the potential of a beat down with a sock full of P2 cards, some pursuit bars from a fixie, or whatever it is these artistic types use to submit beat downs.

With all of this in mind allow me to present the first (and potentially only) StreetFire Fab Friday Formula D Film Festival. I have three short form videos all from the some of the biggest names in drift video filmmaking (these guys are bigger than ever, its the monitors that got smaller!). All were shot at the latest FD Seattle stop. Our first submission is from Will “Cheesecake” Roegge, arguably the Quentin T of this genre. He also gets to go first because we worked together and he knows where the bodies are buried. Hit the jump to see a couple more deep and moody clips from FD Seattle and vote for your favorite in the comments. Or you can just tell us you hate these kinds of videos.

[streetfire id=4a445a0c-6235-445a-93f2-9c65000a0ecf w=428 h=352]

Skylar “No Known Nickname” Smith has been rockin’ the cam and Final Cut for Falken this season and he’s quickly come into his own. You can see more of Skylar’s sexy videos on Falken’s StreetFire user profile.

[streetfire id=008abb5b-b881-4977-b143-9c6401343101 w=428 h=352]

Last but certainly not least is Ross Fairfield, the Dead Pirate. I used pull Dead Sailors on my MXB with aplomb and I can only assume a Dead Pirate is a cooler version. Or it could be a Turd Word that I don’t know about. BTW, one of the Fab Four FD filmmakers is MIA. With apologies to Josh “Hobo” Herron, but he lagged and didn’t get his edit up in time for this post. Maybe he’s not in “the mood” to edit a clip. You know how temperamental these artsy types can be.

[streetfire id=6c074776-c17f-4bc6-8746-9c64012b3ecb w=428 h=352]

This morning I took a drive down to Lake Elsinore, CA to take some rig shots of our Falken Tire American Le Mans Porsche RSR for an upcoming ad. Currently, the Porsche runs in the GT2 class which debuted earlier this year at the Long Beach Grand Prix. Next race up is at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA.

Falken Tire

My latest subject, a 2008 Maserati Granturismo. I had a photo shoot earlier today with this fine specimen of an automobile. I’ll be posting some photos after I do some surgery on them.

Hola world!  Troy here.  People who may know me are probably asking why my name is “Troy.”  When I started working at Falken, a lot of people thought my last name (sometimes even my first) was Troy…my last name does sound like troy.  So for about 2 years, people called me Troy until I corrected them.

Any who, welcome to our new blog site.  The FNG is not a genius…in fact, he’s far from being a genius.  And I can’t compare to his 24 pictures at a time?  He needs 24 chances to get it right when it takes me one time.  (IN YOUR FACE!)

These are the type of antics you’ll all see, read, hear, and so on.  Hopefully we can keep everyone entertained while we show the world what we do when we’re on the road and then some in between.  Enjoy, come back often, and we’ll see you soon!

CONGRATS to my boy Tyler McQuarrie for placing 3rd at last weekend’s Formula D event in Seattle!!

Hellooooo. FNG here. For those wondering, it stands for Falken’s Newest Genius. I will be the better half of this blog/travelogue/travelblogue? Do not trust Troy’s lies. I am the meanest, and the greenest. He does pictures, one at a time. I do 24 of them a second! He can’t compare.

What I’m saying is, hello. Welcome to the stories of Falken Tire’s media team on the road, following their dedicated motorsports team around the continent. We’re right in the middle of the Formula Drift season, and are gearing up for the second race of the ALMS season we’re sort of competing in.

Let us sort out some stuff and we’ll get some shiny content up here for you guys. For now, check out our video coverage so far this year!

Jeśli uważacie, że trzecia część “Szybkich i Wściekłych” a zwłaszcza sceny driftingu w podziemnych garażach to zwykła bajka i dzieło speców od efektów specjalnych, to zobaczcie jak jeździ jeden z najlepszych drifterów na świecie – Remmo Niezen. Myślę, że wielu z Was zmieni zdanie!

Here are some rig shots I just completed for upcoming print ads.  I think my post work is coming along well, still need to work on some edits though.

Wow…it’s been forever since my last post!!  I’ve been super busy and haven’t had a chance to post anything until now…but even now, I can only post a few things.  Some of you may know, although I do freelance work on the side, I do have a full time job with Falken Tire as their full time photographer.  A good portion of my job is to shoot various cars (street or track, hence all the car photos from my previous blogs) for ads, web, collateral, etc.  Below are some samples of our 2009 magazine print ads.  All the ads are submitted into various car magazines like Super Street, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, and Racer Magazine.  So here’s a snap shot of how some of my photos are used.

www.falkentire.com

www.formulad.com

www.americanlemans.com

To see the Vimeo HD video click HERE

Falken has joined the ranks of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) with a stunning Porsche in the GT2 class. After reading EVO’s supercar special about Porsches (again…) I haven’t been able to keep them out of my mind (been thinking about 964’s and 993’s all day, everyday for the last couple of weeks…). Then this clip comes along and it cemented Porsche in my brain for good, thanks Falken!

Falken Tire Unveils Factory ALMS Team at Long Beach from Falken Tire on Vimeo.

LONG BEACH, CA – Fontana, CA-based Falken Tire, well regarded for its high performance tires, officially entered the 2009 American Le Mans Series’ highly competitive GT2 class by competing at Long Beach with its in-house-prepared Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The car was driven by veterans Dominic Cicero and Bryan Sellers and ran on specially prepared Falken AZENIS RT slicks.

Qualified in eighth position by Sellers, the Team Falken Tire RSR ran within a second of the race podium-winning #92 BMW car, a considerable accomplishment for a brand new team and tire that has never previously experienced the unforgiving Long Beach street course. The Porsche moved to seventh on the grid after the pole-winning car was sent to the rear for a ride height infraction. Sellers started the race, but reported shifting problems early on. He continued to nurse the car for 30 laps, maintaining his position of seventh, but eventually had to retire the Porsche. The team finished 20th overall and 12th in class.

“The car was extremely consistent for a long time,” Sellers said. “I was able to run a steady pace for the whole stint never dropping off more than four-tenths of a lap until we had transmission problems.” Co-driver Cicero agreed: “The tires were consistent and held up very well in our practices. We feel we have a great product for the 2010 season.”

“Despite our race difficulties, our drivers were very happy with the Falken Azenis RT slicks,” added Stephen Mitchell, Falken’s Motorsports Manager.

“The team worked very well together for being our first race. We’ve done a lot of testing, but this was a good experience under extreme pressure,” stated Rod Everett, Falken team manager. “We noticed vibration on very high speed during practice on Friday, and we pulled the transmission and examined it. It’s a shame that we finished where we did, but that’s racing. We’ll learn from this, move forward and do better next time.”

Long Beach also saw the debut of Falken’s new tire team booth with a constant flow of traffic to the Falken paddock Friday and Saturday. Falken awarded a specially designed Falken collectible guitar to Tom Crowe as part of its at-track promotional efforts.

The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR is painted in traditional Falken teal and blue livery, now highlighted by its new sponsor, Cleveland Golf of Huntington Beach, CA. Cleveland Golf, a force on the PGA tour, embraces many of the same product development ideologies which Falken Tire Corporation applies to their Azenis RT Slick tires used for ALMS competition.

“The American Le Mans is an excellent series and the perfect platform for Falken to demonstrate the strength and capabilities of our technology and capabilities,” noted Andrew Hoit, Director of Marketing, Falken Tire. “The competition this year is extremely tough, and we knew that going in, because we wanted to be able to challenge the factory teams as well as the privateers and our competitors, the other tire manufacturers. We’re running a shorter season this year, in preparation for a full assault in 2010.”

The Falken Tire/Cleveland Golf team will next compete at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in September.

Track title: Ownage
License Type: Mass Market License
Composer: Dimitris Plagiannis (AEPI)
Publisher:Dimitris Plagiannis (AEPI)