Check out the online portfolio of Sydney based graphic designer (now for hire) Michael Papandrea. Art Director of the award-winning Auto Salon Magazine for 6 years. 68 Issues. 384 features. 9916 pages of cutting-edge design. Visit: http://iheartdesign.com.au

The World Time Attack Challenge is coming soon at Eastern Creek on the 21st May 2010 and there have been some interesting entries including this one. A BF XR6 Ford. Check out the interview here.

From a single video that was made for fun to Youtube videos and a full on website. Mighty Car Mods have made DIY tuning videos entertaining for all audiences. Their irrelevant sense of humour, that lend to videos that are both quirky and informative, has won over legions of fans. But its built on a story of broken cars, many hours of hard work and an insane passion for tuning. They’ve shown us in Season 1 how to install gauges, a FMIC, a TRD Laser and even how to import a car from Japan in Japan. Now however the boys are back for Season 2, stronger and better than ever.  The Sydney based duo are now trying to get a TV station to sign them up, which we hope to see soon.  So we decided to catch up with them and see what’s what, before they became inundated with requests.

BL: When did you guys meet? When did you guys start tuning and modifying cars?

MOOG: We met while working at a recording studio together about 5 years ago. Marty had a Subaru Legacy Twin Turbo and I had a modified 180SX so even though were there to record music we had a mutual respect. I took Marty for a drive in my 180 and almost crashed- kinda funny really but he seemed to like me after that. Little did I know he tried to get me back years later by taking me for a terrifying drive in his blue Micra. Luckily when he crashed it into a ditch I was 500km away.

Anyway, I decided to get rid of the modified cars and buy a Daihatsu Cuore cause it cost nothing to run and was good for the city. But that’s the funny thing, we think you can just stop being interesting in modified cars and it’s just not possible.

BL: I heard that you guys were working in Fox Studios? How did that path take you to this one of making a Youtube video channel?

MOOG: Marty was toying with the idea of starting an eco friendly car site – yes a green car site. I won’t embarrass him by saying here what he wanted to call it. While he was thinking about his eco idea he offered to ‘fix’ up my little red car a bit. I told him I had $500 and with that the first episode was born. We only did it to show our friends which is why there are some lame Top Gear references in it, which were soon scrapped as soon as we realised we were actually going to make our own show.

Since then we’ve now got 50,000 unique viewers per week with some well known companies helping us out every now and then, such as Pioneer, GFB, Nulon, Turtlewax, Jaycar, Segment Publishing, Tech Edge, Just Jap and a handful of others…

MARTY: Moog didn’t actually believe that I knew how to put a head unit in and to this day still sometimes threatens to ‘take his car to Strathfield Car Radio’ just to wind me up. I then laugh at him for not knowing what stoichiometric fuel ratios are. Thats right, I laugh at him.

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Circuit Club founder and JDMST’s own, Narada Kudinar, has decided to take up The Postie Bike Challenge to raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating disease that many people worldwide sadly have to deal with.

You can follow his progress across New South Wales and Victoria in a 2,500km round trip as well as donating to the cause here.

In Finland in a small town called Rauma of population 40,000. A man with an outrageous love for all things that go “TSCHHHHH” is our man Joni. He’s had his fair share of cars, but don’t we all go through cars like a anteater on a ant hill? So what makes him special? Read on to find out.

Veteran Japanese D1 driver Atsushi Kuroi passed away last Monday after injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. Our condolences to the family, friends and all his fans. More here.

RE Amemiya – rotary gods that hail from the Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Founded by Isami Amemiya, a man who has made a name for himself tuning rotary engines since 1974 and has become a pioneer in tuning rotary-powered Mazdas. Thirty years later, first on the street and later in the Super GT series, Amemiya has made his mark on the tuning and motorsports worlds for rotaries.

JGTC race car driver Takayuki Kinoshita’s comapny Key’s Racing sells some super hot racing steering wheels.

Amazing cars (and models!) from the 2007 JDM Theory / J’s gathering in the USA.

Awesome illustrator Gez Fry has done some very cool Japanese style illustration work for Hot Version (find the images in his gallery).