Mazda

Hat's off too anyone who's rocking a white on white setup well, the constant up keep that is required combined with the fact that there are so many different shades of white to contend with makes it much harder to 'white out' a car then black one out. Those are the excuses I use for not doing it anyway. Never the less when properly executed the look is hard look to beat.

My mindset is still somewhat performance driving oriented this morning after spending the day out on the track yesterday for the first time (more on that later this week) so I figured I would roll with it and post some photos from March 6th - 1st Solo Championship in El Paso Texas submitted by reader Aaron R. Jackson. What he sent through is just a small sampling of the cars that came out but nonetheless it shows that the auto cross community in Texas is not only thriving but also encompasses a variety of different cars.

Not sure how or where I came across this car, and I have not seen it anywhere since. Even typing a few search terms into Google didn't really return anything relevant (to this car at least). To make things more bleak I renamed the photos as I saved them so who knows what they were originally called. If I only had one photo saved I would have sworn it was a photo shop, but since there are three...

A few weeks ago, before Japan was devastated by intense tsunami's and earthquakes, my friend Aidan put forth the suggestion that I do a post on vintage JDM rides and even sent in a few pics to get me started. Japan's had a lot of influence the way we tune our cars here in North America and are thus held in pretty high regard. What's happened there currently is terrible but I have no doubt in my mind that years down the road, once it's all cleaned up Japan will emerge stronger than ever.

After reading other sites with weather envy all winter it felt pretty good to head out to a local event and get some photos this weekend. A lot of people have said that PW wasn't as good this year in regards to turn out but I think for a show at the end of winter the turnout was pretty good. It takes a lot of dedication to get your car all cleaned up for three days and then drive it back out in the muck right after. This year I've decided to switch things up a bit by posting the more modern Imports, Euros, and American cars first leaving the rat rods, traditional rods, and muscle cars to later.

sumTHAIguy on the Mazda3forums has been pushing Mazda fitment, more specifically Mazda speed 3 fitment, for awhile now going a little lower and a little wider each time. After looking great on 350Z rims for a quick second he bolted up his new set of kicks, SSR Longchamps XR4Z kai's, and knocked the doors of possibility down for the speed3 in regards to ride height, stretch, and poke. This current setup isn't for the faint of heart, at 18x9.5 +13 this car is a stark contrast from the speed3 I posted last week.

I mentioned yesterday on facebook that the test fit of my new wheels went pretty poorly, but before I get into that I should back track and let you guys know what my goal for these new wheels is. What I hope to have purchased is a set of Work Equip 5 spokes in 17x8 (et38) and 17x9 (et44) fitment. The plan, through lots of research, was to run these with 215/45/17s all around and be happy with not a lot of poke and no excessive amounts of camber.

I've spent a lot of too much time lately browsing a fitment thread on Mazda 3 forums trying to figure out just how I want my new wheels to look this year in regards to stretch vs fatness and that's where I stumbled across this sick looking Speed3. It's sitting on an aggressive, functional, setup that I really can't find any reason not to like. I love Speed 3's, I love RPF-1s, and I love blacked out cars, and I love nice stance so this car hits all the right buttons for me.

The Facebook fan page just surpassed another milestone, 2000 fans, and to celebrate I've decided to do one more readers rides for 2010. As the fan page grows so does the variety of cars posted in the fan photos gallery. Seeing variety is great because it means that I can continue to post all sorts of cars here without worry of losing the collective interests to to speak. Here's the latest from the fan page.

Almost any car that I choose to post after an intense two weeks of SEMA coverage is bound to look pretty tame so instead of putting someone's ride directly up against all those high dollar, very sick, builds I figured I might as well put mine up first. These pics were taken by my girlfriend about two weeks ago, the night before I converted my ride to winter mode, and now looking back at them I have realized just how long of a winter it is going to be 🙁

This is going to be the second last set of coverage and it's pretty substantial, 50 plus photos from the outside of the show so if you are on a phone or a stressed connection give it some time. Imagine the net worth of all the cars on the convention center grounds during the week? That's a lot of money.

The last girls with Hot Rides Theme Tuesday here was nearly all cars found on various blogs and message boards on the net. This time around in addition to perusing the forums I decided to poll some of my female readers for submissions on facebook and twitter. As it turns out I have quite a few female readers with clean cars ranging from lowered to slammed, and naturally aspirated to boosted.