Harrisburg, PA – The annual Motorama event that has been going on for over 30 years is back again in 2012.  Held on Feb 18-19th at Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex with nearly 30 acres of space.  As usual this show had rc car racing, kart racing, hot rods, imports, bikini contest and many more.  Check out our coverage that consisted of the Tuner War section and the bikini contest.

Photos by: Kevin Choi

Irvine, CA – I was pretty excited to attend the AutoCon (short for Auto Connection), on December 10- for one, it’s the last car show of the year, and it was being held in an outdoor venue, which is something we haven’t seen much of these days.  Being located at the old El Toro Marine Air Base location (which is being converted to a fairgrounds), I was hoping that the show would be located on parts of the old airstrip with some of the hangars in the background- I figured it would look cool, Top Gear style- but unfortunately it was relegated to a lot location just outside of it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as parking was convenient and it was still just a few steps away from getting to the hot air balloon ride.

The show itself was surprisingly diverse, with some fresh cars that I hadn’t noticed before, probably due to entrants coming in from the whole west coast of the U.S. Overall there was a good mix of modern imports, European, and domestic cars, as well as some rare and classic cars. Some that stuck out for me were the old school Celicas (both 1st and 2nd gen), a 4th gen donked out Impala, a super cleanly restored ’69 Mercedes 280SE (I think), the Scion Xb converted to a 60′s wagon look (complete with holiday luggage on the top), a race Shelby Cobra and a Nissan President, among others. There were also a lot of cars with rather… interesting… detailings, whether it be the paint designs or the miscellaneous engine bay decorations. However, I also noticed a disturbing (in my opinion, no hate intended) trend developing among the “hellaflush” movement, where people seem to be trying to outdo each other on how badly they can damage their front fenders to stay as low as possible. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t see how badly rolled, paint cracking, hammer banged fenders can in any way look aesthetically tasteful. To each their own though .

Other than the cars, the event also had the usual distractions; vendors selling their wares, as well as the brave models willing to walk around with nothing more than a bikini in this cold winter weather- for this, I applaud you ladies! More importantly, the show organized a small festival of some of the most popular food trucks in the area with which to delight our taste buds with. To be honest I really hope other shows start doing this as well- one can only eat a cardboard flavored 8 dollar convention center hot dog for so long. I wasn’t willing to try a “lobsta” roll for 12 dollars (I understand it’s made of lobster meat, but for 12 bucks I could get myself a nice steak), but the Dogzilla dog was great. Mixing salty meats with sweet King’s Hawaiian bread- I wish I had thought of it

Overall, I would say the AutoCon was one of the highlights of the car show year – the turnout was massive (the parking lot itself could’ve been a car show), the cars were great, the food was good, and I enjoyed the outdoor venue. The roll up stage was a great idea that really allowed the owner to talk details about their car, something that I think other shows should implement as well.

Thanks Justin at AutoCon for letting us cover the event, and once again congrats to ACE for winning a crapload of awards

Photos by: Kevin Choi

Los Angeles, CA - If you were born in the mid-70′s to early 80′s, there’s probably one thing that you remember fondly from your childhood (ok, maybe there’s three if you include Saturday morning cartoons and the scrambled porn channel)- video games. If you, like me, came out of the womb clutching a keyboard and joystick, and constantly look back on all those great games you played back in the day, then the annual iam8bit Art Show is your ticket to refined nostalgia in the eyes of nerds just like you and I, who happen to also be extremely talented artists.

As implied by its namesake, the show focuses on art mainly from the Atari to NES area of 8-bit games, so most gamers will be familiar with the subjects displayed in the works- Mega Man, Mario, Q-bert, Galaga, the Skate or Die kid, Metroid, and of course Pac Man.  I’m not much of an art guy so I won’t pretend I noticed the sophistication of an artists’ brush strokes or how a piece spoke to me and its hidden commentary on the effects of capitalism on newborn babies in Zimbabwe.  All I can say is that I enjoyed going through the exhibit and was thoroughly impressed with some of the details that these artists put into their work. My favorite pieces would probably be the huge Mario mural (main pic) and the Dr. Mario/Princess upskirt figurine (yes, I’m a perv).

Overall, I am pleased to see video games being taken seriously as an important social medium, despite its negative stereotypes portrayed by the older generation.  It is through shows like this that maybe some day, people will understand how much of a positive impact games have had on our generation, and its cultural impact to society as it is today.  I for one, will not deny how glad I am to have been brought up on video games, and to have dedicated people create such games.  If it wasn’t for video games, I probably would have never known what a “dirge” was, nor heard such beautiful compositions by amazing artists like Nobuo Uematsu.

I’m hoping that the iam8bit art show will continue developing and hopefully branch out to newer generations of video games, but for now, this is it- you owe it to yourself as a gamer to browse through the gallery and enjoy the art.

For more information, you can visit http://iam8bit.com/

Also, each piece is available for sale!

Enjoy part 2 of the pictures from the Baltimore Grand Prix.  These consist of the IZOD IndyCars and everything else.  To check out part 1 of the pictures click here

Baltimore, MD – For the first time Baltimore gets to experience a street race. This three day event on Sept 2-4 brought in over 75,000 fans from all over making it the most successful inaugural American street racing event in the past 30 years. The Baltimore Grand Prix consisted of IndyCar racing and American Le Mans series. Will Powers took the trophy in the IndyCar series while Tomy Drissi and Kyle Marcelli took first place in the American Le Mans. The well known Danica Patrick ended up in sixth place. Most of the drivers mentioned this course was very challenging. We can’t wait till next year!

The pictures will be divided into two galleries. The first one will be pictures from the American Le Mans Series.  To check out the other gallery click here

Long Beach, CA – On August 21, we attended the hotly anticipated Motion Auto Show, hoping that something would finally fill the void that’s been missing in recent years – a car show that was actually good and worth staying the whole day for.  Thankfully, Motion did not disappoint- the fact that we actually drove out to ghetto ass Long Beach alone should prove how excited we were for this (are ghetto LBC jokes still in fashion?). You know a car show is gonna be huge when vendors and competitors bring out their mother freakin’ ice sculptures.

Set up by the Pro-Motion Distributing company, no corners were cut in the planning of this event- all the big vendors were here; including Mobil 1, Falken, and my personal show favorite, Scion. More importantly, big vendors = free schwag, free schwag = happy attendees. You know you love those free hats that you’ll never wear.  Of course, the other component that makes a car show worth attending is surprisingly, the cars that show! In this regard again Motion sets the bar, with most of the biggest teams making their appearance- ACE/High End, TWC, MFest, Hybrid, you name it- they were there.  There were quite a few unique appearances as well as you will see in our gallery.  The S2000 without spark plugs and those crazy pipes in the engine bay that I have no idea what they do.. I don’t know how it runs, but I like it.  We must also mention the M3 with the pedobear sticker, it should have won something.. like Best Decal In Show. Or something.

On the lifestyle side of things, the show managed to cater to a wide variety of audiences, with some dance competitions, sports exhibitions, AND- a STREET FIGHTER IV competition hosted by the MLG and NOS Energy drinks!!! As they would say in the fighting game community, I was literally getting hype to see something like this breaking into the mainstream. Joystick warriors rejoice, you are no longer displaced to the dark corners of the local arcade!!

In all seriousness though, the Motion Auto Show was all we had hoped it would be- a turn-around in what was a stagnant and slowing trend in exciting car shows. We’re glad that Motion is bringing it back and setting the bar for future car shows from now on!

Thank you Mike Morita and Ryan Nguyen, for setting up this awesome show as well as for your kindness and generosity. Special shout outs to the MFest crew, and ACE/High End as usual .  Also special thanks to up and coming contributor, Victor Gonzalez!