Check out the new issue of C16 Magazine! ...and last minute preparations!

Last night's Drifting book release party was also the release party for the new issue of C16 Autostyle. Coincidentally, I shot the cover of this new issue, which profiled my friend Kenshiro Gushi's Ford Racing Mustang on the cover.

This shoot was kind of challenging because I shot it after the Formula D practice day at Evergreen Speedway in Seattle. The track's surroundings didn't look very good, and as hard as I tried to find a cool background for the cover shot, I couldn't do it. The track was cold (meaning: no drifting allowed) but I just asked Ken to flip on his headlights and do a fat burnout. Even that was tough cause the back of the Mustang has fans which disperse the smoke, so he was going for quite a while to build up enough smoke for the shot!

Big ups to my boy Ray David, who did the artwork and layout for the cover.






Inside the magazine, it was really nice of the guys from the magazine, Steve and Ray, to write up a little profile on me, it was pretty funny! Thanks guys!






C16 even featured my book in the Consumption Section, which deals with cool new products, whether they are car or lifestyle based. Awesome! Thank you again!






This is my boy Felix. He is cool as hell. He is an 86er, and he is down. He came over to my spot and went to Sam's Club with me so I could buy a EZ-Up tent using his card, and then we went to Walmart and bought some chairs for the booth this weekend. Thank you Felix!!!

Afterward, we went to Pacific Rim to drop off the chairs, and we found out that the new umbrellas for our umbrella girls this weekend were finished! Cipher Garage is doing a collaboration with Pacific Rim, and we're going to have Thai Marie Cali and Ashley Sarto rocking our booths, so watch out now! The girls will look alot better rocking the umbrellas than Felix does.







My friend Julian was still busy screenprinting the new Cipher Garage shirts for the event, we will have alot out there!






My boy Robbie called me up and told us to meet up with him at his hotel, he had just flown in from Japan and was jetlagged. We left PacRim and went to the hotel, and we ran into Hiro Sumida, walking into Claimjumper with his very pretty wife Rie. (I think I spelled it right?) Here's Hiro and Rie at claimjumper. I thought it was hella cool that Hiro was rocking a Cipher Garage shirt when we ran into him too.






Calvin showed up at Claimjumper with his gf Lea, and we decided to all head out to eat Thai food. Cal asked me to drive since I knew the area better, so we jumped in his Dodge Magnum rental, that thing is pretty fast!

Robbie is sitting shotgun with me, and in this photo, he looks like he's wearing a sailor's hat! Homeboy looks like the Japanese Popeye n shit. Haha it was so funny, all we need to do is give him a pipe and some spinach.







Once we got to Krua Thai on Vincent Ave in West Covina, everyone except Lea ordered the same thing as me, #81 Black Pepper and Garlic Chicken over rice, with 2 fried eggs on top of the rice. Everyone also got thai iced tea except Felix here.






This is my boy Robbie Nishida. He drives in Formula D competition, with the green Peak Performance zenki S14. He is sponsored by Falken Tire, so we always roll together at every event. I met Robbie in Japan (Tokyo Auto Salon) and since we're both AE86 guys, we became good friends instantly. Robbie is one of those completely trustworthy guys, that you just begin liking right away. He didn't know this because I played it off, but I knew exactly who he was when I met him.

Robbie was in several Japanese AE86 videos and magazines before, and in one of the videos, Keiichi drove Robbie's AE86 Levin. Robbie's team was always in issues of Battle Magazine (Japan's most popular underground drifting magazine). They are called Hey Man! More on this later.






Here's me and Lea, Robbie took this photo. Man he sucks. Everything is blurry as hell. Stick to driving dude. You would be one broke ass dude if you were a photographer, haha!

Anyways Lea is Calvin's girlfriend, and she is awesome as hell. I love this girl to death. She is a super super close friend of mine, we get along very well! She is a very sweet and genuine person! Again, I love people with great personalities! She's hella down too. She supports C Wan and his drifting career alot. People who work as hard as we do to focus on our careers, and are on the road as much as we are, really need supportive chicks by our sides. Calvin is very lucky to have someone as dope as Lea! But watch urself, don't make her mad! You'll get schooled kid!







Number 81. That's the shit. But the shitty flash from the point n shoot camera makes it look wack. The flash is too harsh! I wish it was more diffused, and the light came in from the side. Whatever.







Robbie is acting gay and snuggling up to our friend Dan. Dan is a waiter at Krua Thai, and we ended up getting to know him cause we're at this restaurant alot. Alot alot. He shoots photos too, and wants to come out to Irwindale with us! He shot pics at the book release party last night, thanks a ton Dan!







Okay.






Damn Robbie looks pretty crazy! This is his "try not to look so much like a fobby Japanese guy" look.






Dope photo of these two! Lea looks cute in this pic! Calvin and Lea are two of my closest friends. I guess I have some pretty close friends, but both of these two have got to be some of my closest ones. I trust them both completely. We have alot of fun whether we're traveling all over the world and chillin together in different cities, or just kickin it in our hometowns of San Francisco or Los Angeles. Whatever, we're down. We were takin madd photos up in the restaurant!







WTF Robbie!








After dinner at the thai joint, Robbie wanted to get a milkshake, so we rolled out to In n Out on Barranca, so he could get a real ice cream milkshake. Robbie's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard... in this case, it was JR Gittin. JR was outside the hotel smoking when we got there. Just look at these guys looking into each other's eyes, all longingly and shit.

I just dropped everyone off, and went home cause we have a big day tomorrow! Aight see yall at the track!