GALLERY: Part II with mixed pictures from Tokyo Auto Salon 2012!

Our coverage together with REVOLT-IS (CLICK!) on the Tokyo Auto Salon continues, and we have a mixed batch of pictures coming with something for everyone.

Later during the day we got two smaller galleries of the different Nissan GT-R and Toyota AE86 / Subaru BRZ cars being exhibited.

Looking through the photographs taken by REVOLT-IS site owner Seiji, I see this years crop of exhibited cars is much better then last years expo.

But you still gotto wonder if it might be time to ”re-invent” some of the styles that have dominated the tuning-industry for a while, like this RX-8 IMO does well:

Not saying this style brings us something new, its just a fresh mix of many current trends such as ”satin finish” paintjob, modern ”diffuser-type” rear and interesting details with the Lexus IS-F exhausts.

Dont forget the fog/brakelights as well which really set this RX-8 off, just something about the final result which feels ”quality” for me?

Furtherly looking at builds which fall into my taste, we got the Honda CR-Z Mugen concept that can also get a vote for being one that really stands out:

Should you force the issue, a good example of how time flies and cars that just a few years ago (even in Sweden) would be considered hot; feel sort of old and out of place.

This Mazda RX-7 by Scoot is such a car, even if we can’t hold much against it since its powered by a quad-rotor engine:

Speaking of rotaries, Mr. Ishikawa was kind enough to zoom by the RE-Amemiya stand and catch a quick video on what they had to offer.

Its mostly the Porsche influenced kits they have sold for over a decade, but in the final seconds- you get a close up of their (spacy?!) NA-powered concept car:

All the videoclips and plenty of pics between blogposts can be found on OUR FACEBOOK (CLICK!) and naturally the REVOLT-IS group, although Seiji and his crew are keeping busy during the days.

So enjoy the below gallery, feel free to comment if you have any favourites!

Keep an eye out here as later tonight we prepare a Nissan GT-R gallery, and a while after that a small special on all the new ”AE86” being shown. Enjoy!

GALLERY: Fresh pictures and video from Tokyo Auto Salon 2012 (Part 1)

We are off to a really good start when it comes to pictures and video from the Tokyo Auto Salon 2012 which opened for business/press just a very few hours ago.

On location we have Seiji @ REVOLT-IS who has been taking pics right from the get-go, and even managed to sneak in a few short videoclips (hosted on OUR FACEBOOK!).

Clearly, this is just like SEMA a while back focused a lot on the Nissan GT-R which has been the primary tuning base for most big brands. In this gallery you can see them all, from Top Secret, Trust / GReddy and there is now something new to fear in the Time Attack circus with a brand new ”Cyber GT-R”:

Since we all know the original ”Cyber EVO” was longtime trading first places with the HKS Evo VI for many years, we can only imagine what this beast will have to offer.

Concluding the whole GT-R talk we would like to share one of Seijis videoclips, where he gets up close to the Greddy x BenSopra widebody GT-R which will definately be one of the most talked about cars of the expo:

As you can clearly see, this cars motto must be ”no mercy” with its extreme forms to primarily do battle on the circuit. This season looks hot right from day 1 when it comes to Time Attack battles…

We will continue the coverage on OUR FACEBOOK PAGE where all the short clips will be hosted as well.

Dont miss Seijis own REVOLT-IS group where he also puts out some on the fly photos covering the center of the JDM-world in one weekend!

Tokyo Auto Salon 2012! This is how Superiors coverage will look like:

We’re back with a vengeance in the blog having secured some great coverage of the TOKYO AUTO SALON (TAS) 2012! The event starts tomorrow in Japan, only a few hours away- and already we have some inside scoops that will interest anyone interested in the tuning-scene over in Japan.

This is the event that definitely shows trends that are sometimes over a year ahead in the western world; so its always an exciting time whether you like drifting, Time Attack or just show cars!

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Photos and blogging on location:

For most of our pictorial media and the hottest news/rumors coming directly on location we partnered up with Seiji Ishikawa who is a Japanese auto enthusiast running his own FACEBOOK PAGE: ”REVOLT-IS” (CLICK!).

He has deep knowledge of the scene and many friends in the industry, and we hope he will bring all our readers plenty of (mixed) good stuff from Makuhari Messe. In fact we already have a few inside news related to the D1 Drifting Circus that we will break as soon as they allow us to…

So come along and follow both the REVOLT-IS page and naturally the SUPERIOR FACEBOOK (CLICK!) so you know where to get the best from the expo in terms of quick, easy to bite snacks!

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Video coverage:

We have a big surprise for you, we have one of the industries most talented filters on location shooting the whole weekend for a multitude of websites; and we are among one of them. With his material we hope to make a SUPERIOR MEDIA (CLICK!) production which is simple but right to the point. It will follow the same suit we did at the ELMIA EXPO here in Sweden last spring, so I hope you will enjoy it JDM-style!

Superior Media – Audi A4 Touched by GEIROS – People’s choice @ Bilsport Performance & Custom Motor Show 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

This is still on a ”to be announced” level, but we are proud that our baby steps into the big world are getting more and more vibrant & full of life.

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We’ll keep you posted, but ”Like” OUR FACEBOOK and bookmark THIS LINK to keep a steady eye on whats going on!

SUMMARY 2011: ”Young gun” Rani Giliana shows us his best work so far!

Moving on with our SUMMARY 2011 which features our top SUPERIOR SELECTED photographers.

He is another personally gratifying success within the team; Rani ”RANISFOTO.SE” Giliana. His story of the year is another by appearance ”sugar-coated” one where loyalty and dedication pays off big time.

Since he is not a big talker, instead being a performer where his work does all the representation of his brand- he has left it to giving us some mixed galleries with brief comments to each. I will personally add my facts but still keeping it more about the pics more then anything!

As always, this is about giving the individuals that bring us quality media to us in first place. From here we really hope you will visit their personal sites, and Rani has his new FB-PAGE called RANI GILIANA AUTOMOTIVE (CLICK!) setup just recently; so go give your quick judgement and hopefully you will ”Like” it!

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Rani jumped aboard the ship as one of the first handpicked guys ahead of the ELMIA 2011 EXPO, and was given a monumentally important task of being part of the core. Actually following us around 24/7 (which turned into something literal).

He really made a great first impression not just with the pics, but actually going through the whole mega-intense and sleepless weekend without any whining tendencies:

(Lots of sweet JDM-rides were being shown outside of the traditional US and show car stuff we are used to)

You can find a lot of the galleries Rani did at this expo HERE, he was flying around the place and truly provided that flexibility that we needed in our rookie debut covering an event in a qualitative way like this.

I can honestly laugh about a lot of the stuff we did here with limited resources, and pretty sure it will be a memory for life…

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Next up there were some other shoots and events (you can find everything in the SUPERIOR SELECTED category in the blog), but Rani likes to focus on the blockbuster event of the year for arguably most of us: GATEBIL MANTORP 2011:

(The swedish star of the stance-scene in Sweden, Christoffer Geiros got snapped by Rani proudly displaying his brand new set of Work wheels.)

Not surprisingly, he also fell hopelessly in love with the Lamborghini stand which we returned to again, and again & again over the two days we attended the press days here.

We learnt many valuable lessons here and looking through the almost tiring amount of quality media (CHECK HERE!) produced, getting this far in the automotive media industry told us in the most brutal way; that we must be much more strategic for the upcoming season if we are to surpass the next level.

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Final piece Rani chose for this post is the amount of sessions and SELECTED FEATURES he also did over the summer and finally on our very own SUPERIOR MEET 2011.

Already haven been given a lot of praise, its also none the less important to mention that these shoots; and getting photos for several of our CARS FOR SALE were top notch.

(Our former demo car now in the hands of Emil Svensson from Finspång; available FOR SALE now!)

(Our IMPORTING SERVICE gone full circle after 5 years of doing it as a pro, this old Nissan Skyline DR30 is easy to love…)

We still have a heavily delayed feature of a nice Nissan Silvia S15 coming out soon. There are some teasers in RANIS FB-PAGE so check it out if you like his shooting style.

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Nothing more to add, Rani will have his work posted all day long at the SUPERIOR FACEBOOK-PAGE so I guess I will see you there!

Don’t be shy to post some comments below to show your appreciation as well!

Första kontorsdagen i 2012 och spontana tankar…

Det är dags att lägga en pinne i brasan. Gasa lite mer på gaspedalen. Ge hästen mer havre; och där tog mina (kassa) metaforer slut på en gång.

Kort och gott mina vänner och läsare, så är det dags för att börja titta framåt och knyta ihop säcken på det vi ägnat oss åt senaste åren.

Vi har inriktat oss på så mycket sedan starten 2007, att det nu kommer bli ett fem-års jubileum som är mer spännande än någonsin. Det finns otroligt mycket upparbetad potential, men även en hel del att välbehövligt prioritera bort för den stora bildens skull.

Vi hade en höst av förväntat svängrum som istället användes till att bygga mer potential inför året, så att nu konkret jobba vidare på alla de man pratat med *ingen nämnd ingen glömd* till att strömlinjeforma (= 2012 års favorit till ”word of the year”) allting är en utmaning i sig.

En sak som definitivt måste bli bättre är att vinna tillbaka den mer personliga delen av Superior. Det märker jag när jag själv slås av tanken att ett inlägg som detta var det ett bra tag sedan man skrev, eller iaf. att det inte skett speciellt ofta. Oftast bara i krystade kryptiska former.

Kommer nog göra en del av er besvikna när jag säger att många av projekten kommer hållas diskreta hela vägen fram tills lansering, men jag lovar att öppna upp lite mer här på kontoret och vilka miljöer/profiler man kommer stöta på under denna resterande vinter.

Måste varit en fascinerande och samtidigt tröttsam upplevelse för våra stammisar att se hur språk och ämnen vi bloggar om ibland kan vara galaxer ifrån varandra i jämnhet. Hur många saker kan vara rena guldkornen medan andra är otroliga sömnpiller.

Det är där jag hoppas de lojala läsarna förstått att vi provat oss fram en hel del, samtidigt som många projekt enbart genomförts för att bryta lite ny mark. Allt är tillslut sin egna lilla pusselbit, eller hjälp för att hjälpa oss strukturera en ”större” framtid; och det är där erat tålamod är det som räddar oss gång på gång. Men OK, för att ni ska få ut något konkret redan nu så listar jag härmed några av våra huvudsakliga areas of focus inför säsongen 2012:

1. Ny site som verkligen tar vara på våra mediaresurser bättre.
2. Stor närvaro i Drifting genom att samarbeta med de vi tror har mest att erbjuda sporten + mycket mer…
3. …en minst lika stor satsning i Time Attack, som också verkar redo för att ”växa upp” tack vare några eldsjälar.
4. Göra Superior till något för alla samtidigt som kärnan i familjen prioriteras än mer.
5. Bredda utbudet av tjänster, delar och bilar till salu, göra den delen av verksamheten tydligare (= bl.a ny webshop).
6. Spika vårat nätverk av Superior Workshops där alla har råd att tryggt lämna in sin bil —> tryggt ägande av JDM-sportbil.
7. Få bort mig personligen som en stor flaskhals i det dagliga flödet, engagera mer folk i företags-strukturen.
8. Se till att vi själva och alla omkring oss har j*kligt kul i allt som förknippas med normalt arbete! 🙂

Första dagen på kontoret 2012, se det som en inbjudan att hänga med på tåget som tagit fart sedan länge- men som nu  kvickt stannat till på en station där alla är välkomna ombord.

Har du stilla funderingar över någonting… provat att kommentera nedan eller skriva en rad på VÅR FACEBOOK? Kan ge oväntat resultat i respons! 😉

SUMMARY 2011: Video-time! David Johansson @ Superior Media (1 of 2)

The thing that kickstarted this whole ”we can give the scene and our family/fans the media they deserve” was when I met David Johansson and he explained that apart from photographs, he could also make simple videoclips.

Fully in tune with our premium JDM-sportscars FOR SALE, I thought it was a good idea that each one got its own video- and David delivered those with huge success. Then, truth to be told- I ”sold” his services combined with a newly purchased GoPro camera from our friends RAIDOPOWER to cover the GATEBIL 2010 event; not even knowing if he could do such type of films…

And thats how the adventure started, David delivered and the movie made a lot of people wonder ”where the hell did that come from”? After that its been a long journey and hard work, as everything is done with funding from no special expense account other then far-fetched marketing- and at Davids (and my own as a supporting act) own free time.

So jumping into ELMIA 2011 and spending a hefty sum of money more to make it an even more serious commitment… thats a gamble. A gamble that paid of in spades as I have to believe none of the talented individuals who have joined theSUPERIOR SELECTED team would have done it without our (brief) background in videos.

Thank god for simply believing in someones talent, and then seeing the real domino effect from it!

I bring you the quiet man from the forrest-laden southeast parts of Swedens own words, letting us know how he dedicated hundreds of hours to entertain each one of us for a few minutes at a time; feels about the passing 2011 season:

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Resumé 2011:

Jag fick i uppdrag av Micke att skriva om hur jag minns säsongen 2011. Skriva sånt här är inte min starkaste sidan men ska göra det bästa jag kan för att ge er min syn från mitt perspektiv på säsongen som varit.

Inför 2011 så hade vi gjort viktiga inköp gällande kamera utrustning för att underlätta arbetets gång och få bättre kvalité på både bild och ljud. Ny kamera, mikrofoner och ljudinspelare är några av sakerna som stod med på listan. Inför säsongen så byggde jag även en egen glidetrack och shoulder rig vilket visade sig vara ett riktigt bra val. Har haft mycket hjälp av båda sakerna.

22-25 April – Bilsport Custom & Performance Show:

Bilsport Custom & Performance Show i Jönköping, starten av vad som skulle bli den mest fullspäckade och fartfyllda säsongen hittills för Superior Media. Det blev fyra riktigt roliga och slitsamma dagar med ett gött superior gäng på plats.

(Editors comment: I doubt anyone slept more then 3 hours per night this weekend, it was crazy!)

Vi hade byggt upp våran egen lilla tv-studio där vi spelade in lite olika intervjuer osv sen hade jag min egen lilla hörna där jag hade datorn så ja kunde sitta å redigera på plats för att få ut så många filmer så snabbt som möjligt.

Det blev en hel del material från Bilsport Custom & Performance Show så redigering av det materialet upptog större delen av tiden de följande veckorna efter mässan. Och i dagens läge så finns det fortfarande material som inte blivit redigerat.

Den film som fått flest visningar är den feature som jag gjorde på Christoffer Geiros Audi A4 – 27936 visningar i skrivande stund.

Superior Media – Audi A4 Touched by GEIROS – People’s choice @ Bilsport Performance & Custom Motor Show 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

28 Maj Wangan Meet III:

Efter Bilsport Custom & Performance Show så va det dags för Wangan Meet III i Helsingborg, eller mer exakt Hyllinge som ligger strax utanför Helsingborg. Just denna dagen så va vädret inte helt på vår sida, de va kallt och det blåste. Och på detta så va inspirationen för att filma inte på topp. Men jag gjorde mitt bästa för att få med så mycket som möjligt.

Det blev inte heller bättre av att det började regna och träffen avslutades och ”Karavanen” genom Helsingborg inleddes. Karavan vet ja inte om man kan kalla det, de va mer kaos. Men iaf, jag lyckades knåpa ihop en liten kort film från träffen som faktiskt har fått hela 20600 visningar vilket gör den till den tredje mest spelade av våra filmer på vimeo.

Superior Media – Wangan Meet III 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

4 Juni Realcars träff i Vinångåker:

Denna helg började inte bra. Punktering 20 mil hemmifrån och fortfarande 25mil kvar till Södertälje där vi skulle sova hos Micke. Vi försökte leta reda på ett nytt däck men det gick inget vidare. Inte lättaste att få tag på ett 195/45 R15 hos en däckhandlare. Så vi fick fortsätta linka fram på reservhjulet. I Vingåker så stod solen i topp och det va riktigt varmt. Helena fick gå runt med ett paraply över mig för jag inte skulle få solsting =).

Fick ihop lite material iaf och fick en trailer släppt, sen fanns det inte tid till mer för då va det dags för nästa evenemang.

Trailerr: Superior Media – Vingåkraträffen 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

17-19 Juni – Gatebil @ Mantorp Park:

Minnena från förra året sitter friskt i minnet och förväntningarna va höga inför detta evenemang som måste vara det bästa i Sverige. Stämningen är på topp, banan är fylld med brutala bilar som vars förare bara har ett läge, och det är fullt ös. Banan är nästintill fylld med däckrök hela dagen lång. Ni som varit på ett Gatebil evenemang vet vad jag pratar om.

Vädret va inte det stabilaste kommer ja ihåg, vi fick uppleva ösregn, hagel men även sol som tur var. Jag själv sprang runt som en galning hela fredagen och lördagen för att få med så mycket som möjligt på film. Och ja ska säga att det är fan inte lätt att täcka hela Mantorp Park helt själv :-).

Eller ja helt själv va man väl inte helt å hållet. Vi hade 2-3 st totalt under fredag och lördag som hjälpte till att filma med blandat resultat. Min älskade sambo Helena vad även med mig runt på området så mycket hon orkade med.

Mellan filmrundorna så landande man antingen i vårat Superior Camp eller i vårat pressrum för att fylla på batterierna.

Söndagen finns det inte mycket att skriva om. Det blev inte mkt med den dagen då vädret va helt kass, regn regn och åter regn.

Resultatet av allt slit blev en 13minuter lång film full med action.

Superior Media – Gatebil Festival @ Mantorp Park 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

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This is around halfway there in the year, and part II will include the rest of it. We appreciate any feedback on our FACEBOOK PAGE or if you comment below!

Have to give David a single person standing ovation for his work so far. A lot of the potential we’ve built up depends on his contributions. And I know for a fact we have material saved for many more movies before this season kicks in… 😎

SUMMARY 2011: Ronny aka JAMedia ger oss ”driftiga” personliga reflektioner!

***IN SWEDISH***

Ronny Thomasson aka Mr. JAMEDIA.NU is another success story of the barely one year old SUPERIOR SELECTED photographer team. He slipped into our realms during ELMIA 2011 EXPO where he impromptu tagged along to give the former (crappy) Fast & Furious replica cars a run for their money, and the pics he took just in that short while really impressed us.

Seeing his editing technique is different from the other members of the team, and that he has a passion above other for the sport of drifting, he has become a key piece of our puzzle this season- and has many galleries that prove his worth. This post is more of a personal reflection over the passed year, with some ”thanks to” and more pics with a story rather then just the ”best” ones.

I will make sure his best work will be featured in my own summary of all the guys work, but Iam sure we can appreciate something a bit more laid back as this post as well. Make sure to visit JAMEDIAS FACEBOOK and tell him if you like his work!

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Året 2011 och JAMedia’s personliga moments – kort-kort sammanfattning:

Min säsong började nog den 5:e Mars då jag hjälpte Kalle Uhr (känd familjemedlem från Nordic Uhr) att provköra sin vässade Opel med SAAB-motor. Detta skedde på den flygraka som här nere i söder är mer än välkänd inom drifting; Bivaröd.

Bivaröd… Denna plats är ständigt återkommande för mig och det är även en plats som varit en stark grogrund för driftingen nere i söder. Bivaröd är ett nav helt klart värt att lägga på minnet vilket bevisats gång på gång bara genom att se vem det är som kommer på ”besök”. Förutom de sydsvenska förarna så har träningar och tävlingar haft besökare från bl.a. Sala (55+ mil bort!) och Danmark (17+ mil bort!). Imponerande. Inte minst för att det visar att det finns ett enormt behov av bra platser att ”köra av sig” på.

Jag har vidare fått ta del av en nysatsning av driftträningar på Sturup Raceway, som hålls i Svedala MK’s regi. En lagom anorlunda yta att öva på. Detta har lockat, förutom de galna danskarna återigen, en hel del nybörjare. Vi får hoppas att ett frö planterats i deras intresse för sporten så vi får se dem återkomma.

Det har blivit fotografering på allehanda platser under året. Ljungbyheds flygfält, Knutstorp, Mantorp, Danmark & Norge. Mantorps ActionMeet och Gatebil evenemang var oerhört intressanta och givande rent socialt.

En hel del affärer klarades upp mellan mig och… ja, jag ska inte gå in på namn, men en par ökända förare och team. Uppskattning är alltid trevligt!

Den i särklass största favoriten för året är dock Norges Gatebil Rudskogen! Fantastisk bana, fantastiska fordon, underbara människor och trevligt sällskap gjorde detta till tre dagar jag sent glömmer.

Summa summarum: Driftingen tar sig. Jag ser som intresserad och engagerad en utveckling som är väldigt trevlig. Jag har träffat genuint intresserat folk som jag tror kan tillföra sporten en hel del. Jag har haft ett underbart år, proffessionellt som personligt, och ser redan nu att 2012 kommer att bli ännu bättre!

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Jag vill tacka en uppsjö med personer för ett trevligt 2011. Av utrymmesskäl nämner jag bara de som betytt mest vilket äro;

”Bakom kullisserna folk”:

Mikael ”Superior Imports” Jarosinski. Mannen som ständigt(privat) håller sig i bakgrunden men som en joker presenterar det ena efter det andra. Intressant person, inte enbart affärsmässigt utan även intellektuellt. Superior Imports blogg och dess Selected-grupp är… låt oss säga… något att hålla koll på i framtiden…

Till denna grupp finns även otalet svenska fotografer/filmare som David, Talvis, Rani och Jalle (med flera!) vars arbete ständigt väcker mitt intresse.

”Bakom kullisserna folk” II:

Alla spindlar i nätet som får ta mycket skit. Joachim Englesson, Martin Baeck, Nicklas ”Nicke” Andersson (HLMK), Mikael Hammarström (Mantorp Park), Andreas ”Raidopower” Hedström och ett otal danska och norska motsvarigheter.

Förare:

Michel ”Team Pony Drift” Rayes, för att ha visat stort hjärta på mer än ett sätt under året. Här ingår proffs, affärsmän, visionärer och en goda vänner. Inkluderar ett gäng förare och engagerade som Robert ”LabanDRFT” Andersson, Danny Wiik, Rasmus & Marcus ”Team Pony Drift” Möller, Pacman, Morgan, Wressmark, m.fl.

Ni är fler och ni som känner mig VET att jag är tacksam. Vi ses 2012!

// Ronny ”JAMedia” Thomasson

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It will be all my pleasure to share some of his pics taken during the season at OUR FACEBOOK before I make my own personal selections. Gotto give Ronny an extra warm ”thank you” for his laid back yet extreme passion for grassroots-drifting. If everyone had the same agenda as himself and many in his close friendship circle, the sport would flourish very fast.

Still remains to see what we all can do together for drifting in Sweden, there is a lot of interest and hopefully quickly rewarding work to be done for those that really want it. With that being said, Ronny is one of the personal reasons for our (upcoming) ships setting sail within this part of the car culture scene. Going to be an exciting 2012 season for sure…

I really hope people have the courtesy to visit JAMEDIAS FACEBOOK, and if you like his work- give a simple ”Like”. I know for sure every member of the SELECTED TEAM really appreciated it…

SUMMARY 2011: The chronicles of Martin P – ”Bilbilder.se” (Part 1 of 2)

New evening and time for another SUPERIOR SELECTED photographer to share his story of the 2011 season for the rest of us. Today we have someone who really exploded as a contributor to the team late in the season, and surprised even ourselves with his dedication.

Martin BILBILDER.SE Persson has to be considered one of the most established freelance photographers to jump aboard our quest for quality Scandinavian auto enthusiast media; and we are flattered to have him more then just for his stellar photos- often of the premium sportscars from around the world as motive!

His story is told in a ”chronicle” kind of way, and will be split into two huge parts with his multi-faceted (often magazine featured) portfolio. Enjoy the ride as we proudly give you his tour of the year here in the Superior-Blog,.

You can find a lot more of his stunning work at his FACEBOOK PAGE where Iam sure he will welcome you whole-heartedly as a new fan!

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BILBILDER.SE annual chronicle 2011 – ”Lots of Supercars, Events and some JDM”!

So here’s my annual chronicle which will show what I’ve achieved as a photographer this year and some subjective thoughts about the motives and sessions.

29/1 Mercedes-Benz SLS

The year started in the best possible way as a Merc-fan. The shoot was rather limited with location and time. But with abstinence from a long winter it was no problem and I had a lot of fun in the cold.

March – Banzai – Nissan 350Z

Here’s a big glitch in time, the winter didn’t want to let go and I’d rather stay home building up inspiration knowing it’d be a busy spring/summer. As a teaser for myself I got my first ever cover in Banzai Magazine UK. The shoot was made summer 2010, but I wasn’t able to show until now.

April – Banzai – Nissan Micra

Still low with new shoots, April issue of Banzai came out with a small feature of this lovely green Micra.

9/4 Citroën DS3

First real session this year. Private client that I’ve shot for a couple of times before switched car to this anti-retro DS3.

17/4 Ferrari 458 Italia

Same deal as the SLS here. Stay inside the nearby area and do what you got to do. Its all about trying to make the best out of the situation in these cases.

22/4 Custom cars – Elmia Expo 2011

About right here Superior Media comes into my life when I recieve a phonecall from Micke. He tries explaining his new project as a media outlet, but it needed a personal meeting to try to pan it out.

And this was at the annual custom car show at Elmia. I don’t enjoy shooting shows like this at all since its so limited to do your own thing when its crowded and you can’t move the objects.

23/4 Ferrari California

Back home to show Italy some more love. Same location as the 458, but the weather was quite different..

12/5 Peugeot 207 RC

Time to say goodbye to my own car after a year together. Haven’t found a new replacement yet, but I don’t miss owning a car actually.. Strange? Yes.

My only logical explanation is that I’ve got too picky after driving cars to far from my own budget.;-)

28/5 Wangan meet + mini sessions

Swedens biggest JDM meet happens to take place at a mall nearby, so I pay it a visit courtesy to Superior Media. Took some shots of the meet itself and did 4 exclusive minisessions for a gang of Happy fellows from Superior Drivers Club.

Early June Lamborghini LP 560-4

Somewhere here I start to run out of inspiration. Something that usually helps is trying to go back to basics. Me, camera and tripod, no strobes, rigs or other stuff.

Another thing that really helps is a good sample of italian madness. Combine these two and you’re back in the roll.

Early June – SCOTY, Ring Knutstorp

This was definitely one of the highlights this year. Scandinavian SCOTY at Ring Knutstorp (kind of home ground for me) is arranged by Magazines from Sweden, Denmark and Finland. It was two days of intense shooting.

I think what’ll remember best is the evening time ride with the SLS and the R8 or NFS Team driver Edward Sandström getting sideways in every car he drove.

Also met a photog I really look up to, Greg Pajo usually shooting for CAR Magazine UK. Thanks to Patrik Lindgren (Teknikens Värld) for making it happen!

11/6 Viper

Private session for a owner of a rarity in Sweden, Dodge Viper SRT-10. Was great coming to a new town with never used before locations. And the V10 madness will haunt my dreams for quite some time..

1/7 JDM Faceoff Kinnekulle Ring + Sessions

Another gig for Superior Media. Trackday with time-attack. Managed to squeeze in a couple of minisessions here aswell.

9/7 Stance Alliance+240Z

Swedens first but not last Stance meeting?? I wasn’t there for the meeting itself, had booked a session that would later become my second cover this year.

16/7 GRC Trackday, Ring Knutstorp

Small gig of a trackday with Gentlemen Racing Club at Ring Knutstorp. Usually lots of exotics, but this is the shot I like best. Gotta please the JDM crowd a little m0ar. 😉

26/7 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG

Borrowed this AMG over the weekend and really enjoyed it, its a great car! The engine and gearbox is superb!

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Thats one impressive list of shoots that could have easily been doubled in amount of pics from each event that were truly top notch. We look forward to part II which will be released in about a week, and encourage you to FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK so the next days will pay the tribute Martin deserves for his work this season…

And the obligatory request to visit Martins of FACEBOOK FANPAGE is needless to say here, I hope you all take a moment to click your ”Like” there if you found any of these pics sexy!

Dont forget to BOOKMARK OUR BLOG so you never miss a beat in these times when we are doing our best work yet. Thanks for all the support!

SUMMARY 2011: Jallegraphics gives his view of the year gone by (Part 1 of 2)

Time to get our summary of the SUPERIOR SELECTED year started, where our photographers showcase some of their  talent and give a few of their own words added to it.

First guy out is Hjalmar van Hoek aka JALLEGRAPHICS and part 1 of his adventures as an enthusiast, yet premium automotive photographer!

Before we get started, let me encourage you all to visit our FACEBOOK PAGE where we will dedicate one full day to each of the photographers featured in the blog. You are also more then welcome to show your gratitude for these awesome guys contributions by liking their pages, go HERE to find JalleGraphics!

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Wanganmeet:

Unknowing that after this event, I would be one of the members of Superior Selected team, I travelled to Helsingborg the 28th of May. A friend of mine, owning a Skyline, was going to visit a car meeting for only JDM-cars, called Wanganmeet. Even though I don’t drive a JDM car I do like the cars a lot.

Just a couple of days before the meet I decided that I would make the 560km drive, which was easier said than done. I got up at 05.00 and jumped in the car to start my 6 hour trip (one-way).

When I got there the parking lot was already filled with nice JDM cars:

(Honda scene was well represented by CLUB-JDM OF SWEDEN, these compacts have always been the ”bread & butter” of the JDM-scene)

(Mr. Hasselholmen has one of Swedens cleanest and best stanced BNR34’s, like a printscreen from GranTurismo!)

(Boys will be boys, and boys will always love a decent S-body; another icon in the JDM auto scene…)

After this event I got in contact with Micke and as from than we started a coalition. I still knew very little about Superior and their ”out of nowhere” ambitions to produce quality automotive media, but I tagged along the ride for the time being anyway…

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Vingåkerträffen by REALCAR.SE & GARAGET.ORG:

Just some weeks later it was time for Vingåkerträffen held in Vingåker outside of Katrineholm. This wasn’t that far to travel at all, compared with the trip I just had done.

The meeting attracted all kinds of cars, from JDM cars, Europe cars and even some American muscle cars. One of the things that I remember the most is the heat! You may not complain here in Sweden when it is sunny and warm in the summer but…… it was damn hot!

(The best car of the previous meet attended this one as well, read the FULL FEATURE about it!)

(Superior Imports had some of their customer and democars on location, not a bad collection of asses!)

(No shame in admitting that some Volvo stationwagons can actually be a nice piece of work too…)

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After these two events it was GATEBIL MANTORP 2011 next, and thats where things started to go really serious.

We can share a preview from that event, but you will see more and also get some handpicked ”single car” photoshoots I did over the rest of summer in Part 2 which I believe Micke will publish after more colleagues fromSUPERIOR SELECTED have gotten their annual resumes posted.

(Two Superior Drivers Club members in Pierre ”SIR_PIERRE” Ingelsgård and Daniel ”UXR DETAILING” Karlsson got two big horns in the forehead with their 350Z and BNR32 respecively…)

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We look forward to Part II in around a weeks time, and hope you will support us over at FACEBOOK (CLICK!) where we will now publish these handpicked photos for the next 24 hours. We appreciate all support and feedback!

Tomorrow we will offer another photographer whose portfolio from the season was big enough to get two parts in the resume as well.

Who can it be…? BOOKMARK THIS LINK and you wont miss a beat!

INTRO: This is the best of ”Superior Selected” photographers 2011!

Time to let the cat out of the bag and end the year in style, as worthy of a season where we thrusted ourselves into an unknown world of serious media coverage- with only our own vision as a beacon of light to guide us… When I originally started contacting some of the best automotive photographers on the enthusiast scene here in Sweden; things were very unclear, even for myself. What exactly would SUPERIOR SELECTED be about, and why should anyone want to brand their pics ”more” for a company known only for importing cars canada online pharmacy from Japan- and only recently for their video productions (barely)?! Well, I cant tell you why these individuals I will now present did buy into it at that stage, but I hope canada pharmacy online their work over the passed season and words they are now going to share- will give us some answers. Each one of them will get a blogpost per day, and then OUR FACEBOOK will feature their pics exclusively that same day. All in all, Iam extremely grateful for all contributions made to the Superior-Blog over the season. There are many others in the wings who have helped out as well; but I will let the following persons annual summaries be the ”faces of SUPERIOR SELECTED” for the 2011 season. Then its on to see who will join them for 2012! —– David ”Mr. Superior Media Productions” Johansson: A very quiet guy who lets his editing do all the talking. Thanks to his dynamic work in making our cars for sale ads more attractive, and then branching out into making solid video productions of events attended- you could say he was one of the reasons we decided to dig even deeper at offering quality media. You’ve all seen his larger productions, and he will speak briefly about the ones from 2011 and also a few on those who are still in the ”coming soon” department. But I chose a clip we did at the ELMIA 2011 EXPO on a very special BMW, which had some different music and vibe to it as Davids official preview material:   Superior Media – BMW E30 ”DRIFT ME” Team Insane Racing @ Bilsport Performance & Custom Motor Show 2011 from Superior Media on Vimeo. —– Rani Giliana: Another timid guy who definately keeps an open mind and knows that a good idea is worth pursuing instead of finding every small problem possible at step 1. Was given a key role at the ELMIA EXPO and worked his ass off to do more then just a good first impression. Tagged along at several events, and again showed he is not scared to go ”all in” when the occasion comes; with a ”impromptu” trip with us to FRANKFURT IAA 2011 as a stellar example of that. His teaserpic is from GATEBIL MANTORP 2011: —– Ronny @ JAMedia: Someone mentioned someone, who knew someone; who was supposed to be a quite promising photographer with a huge heart for drifting. That someone turned out to be Ronny who really had a good ”vibe” around his pics from the ELMIA EXPO where he made his ”debut” for the SELECTED TEAM. I know this guys brain is seriously drift-damaged and most of his pics will have that theme, which is not strange for someone who has followed the progress of southern Swedish drifting intensely. But cialis how does it work his preview pic is of one of our SUPERIOR-TV anchormen Pierre Ingelsgård with another photographer in the team: Christoffer Talvis. Just feel his lifestyle photos are just as top notch as his action ones! —– Christoffer Talvis: And speaking about the guy in the above pic, I dont have much to say other then that you really know what you get in his photos. He relies less on Photoshop and lighting, and more on technique and sort of ”documentary style” photos- which makes for a perfect contrast to some of the other guys in the team. He cialis india is pharmacy canada also just like most of the team members very open to finding events outside of the regular calendar, and was for example as lone Swedish media at the opening of the Gumball Rally in London. My own pick for preview is just… watch it and you’ll understand. So much action going on here, action our cameras caught and will be in the upcoming Gatebil Mantorp is ”ALL IN” movie… —– Hjalmar @ JalleGraphics: A real workhorse who does not care if he has viagra in the water to drive 500km to shoot some pics, or go a full day without eating to feel satisfied harvesting good pics at an event. Dont find this to be all good, but still a lot more to tell on his loyalty and dedication to automotive photography. This season I think he quickly outgrew his current camera, but has a looong list of events attended with plenty of cool pics. For the preview choice, we went with something more ”close-up” just to keep this post as varied as possible. But ”Jalle” can do it all, make no mistake about that! —– Martin ”Bilbilder.se” Persson: You may very well feel his name has been borderline inflated here in the blog, but thats because like a surgeon he seems to plan how to be efficent and get the most out of his skills & time. I believe his resume of the year will be the most in depth one, and I really look forward to it. Hard to believe he was one of the most sceptical photographers when we approached him in typical enthusiastic fashion in early over the counter viagra walgreens winter. Not too hard to blame him since he already has a firm fanbase taking pictures of supercars and getting magazine covers, so the entire team is glad to have him around- and we look forward to even more in 2012. —– Hope you will feel at least half as excited as myself over this closing of the year here in the blog. We admit its been a little more quiet here lately, but thats because we are already investing a lot of effort into the 2012 projects. Bit this will mean we end the year in typical Superior style with plenty of good reading in both Swedish and English (but the pictures speak the universal language, so hope you will share the material as much as you genuinely enjoy seeing it!). Rules are that we will release one member each evening, then share material exclusively shot by that person all day long at OUR FACEBOOK. Then when we have gone through all of them, its time for me to personally select 32 of my favourite pics from the season- and rank them for a final post to close the 2011 season!

Superior wishes you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We have to take the occasion to give our blog-readers our most heart-warming and sincere wishes; that you will have an awesome and cozy christmas holiday!

We were blessed with a really nice official christmas card for this year, as Martin BILBILDER.SE Perssons snapshot of the Skyline DR30 we imported just before the season was over- got some ”photoshop-pimping” done by Norwegian wizz-kid Daniel Hovdahl (many thanks for the last minute help!)

(Click to get in full resolution!)

We might as well throw in last years card as well, which had an entirely different theme. A bit more aggression to it, pic taken by ”Chucky” and edit by ”Golicphoto”:

We can take the occasion to reveal that to end this year and start the next one, we will keep the blog busy by letting all regular SUPERIOR SELECTED photographers pic their favorite shots from the season.

Some have also taken the chance to express a little bit personal opinions on the year that passed, and Iam sure the Superior-blog will be in full form thanks to their contributions. I will make a closer statement on how this will go down tomorrow evening.

Hope everyone are really full of delicious christmas food at the moment, and that you are chilling with your favorite sort of tasty alcohol (might open myself something sweet too now that I think of it…)

Thanks for all the support so far, we are blessed to have so many loyal readers each day even though work on next years big upgrades is priority #1 at the moment!

VIDEO: ”The Gatebil Experience” – by Neffi Photography / egarage.com

Today is the release of the sure viral blockbuster for christmas, our danish friend Stefaan ”Neffi” Kristensen or aka NEFFI PHOTOGRAPHY as he is known for the most- gives us his epic project titled ”The Gatebil Experience”!

It was a few months ago, that our SUPERIOR SELECTED photographer Ronny aka JAMedia brought us together the first time- and now many months later his masterpiece is complete; and he was even kind enough to mention us in it- although we can take no credit at all from it to be honest.

But hopefully this will also be one of the many bridges we are building right now to passionate and skilfull media-contributors around Scandinavia. All we can say is, ”thank you Neffi” for this sublime christmas-entertainment. It sure puts the pressure up on ourselves to try and at least create something different and in the same class of quality video…

VIMEO:

My favourite shot is the one where Norwegian Superstar Frederic Aasbo blows the tire of his Supra. Can you spot it? Hope you like it, and be sure to visit his partner site EGARAGE.COM to see what they have to offer as well!

We are very proud to only be releasing content we have a link to, or that we feel genuinely strong about. So do what you can to share this video with all your friends as well!

I guess the ball now is on our court to bring out the ”Gatebil is ALL IN” movie Superior Media is working on. Hmm…!

Meeting with Polands #1 drifting-team: PUZ Valvoline!

I do hate to repeat myself over how much we have going on, and that is oddly enough mirroring in how sleepy the blog might be. Lets just say the invested energy right now will generate a lot for 2012.

You can always visit OUR FACEBOOK if you want the odd rumor here and there, but ultimately its here you will read about it all once we start making things official…

Anyway, as we mentioned recently in Swedish- the site has quitly been updated and posting blogs is much easier for me now.

This comes just a week or so before the holidays, so tried to mash in all important meets I felt were necessary to go through with before the year changes- and also managed to sneak away on a mini-vacation to Warsaw, Poland at the moment.

But one thing I can tell you is that we are meeting some hardcore drifters today in the PUZ VALVOLINE DRIFT TEAM.

They are the #1 team in Poland in a sport where reckless courage and genuine workmanship has made their product quite the talk around europe. The below film from a ”mountain drift” event clearly shows what I mean:

We will tell you more about these guys after the meet, we intend to get the best inside info on the Polish drifting-scene and possibly lay the first foundations of building a bridge across Sweden & Poland for not just the sport of drifting…

We’ll try and do shorter updates more frequently now, but also feel its not worth telling about stuff that are semi-finished. But the clear things… No problem, you got our word you will read about it here first and foremost! 🙂

On a train to southern Sweden to meet a Pony…

Lets try mobile coupon for cialis blogging some more,Soitting on a train to southern Sweden to visit good friends- got a meeting with a polish drifting team so leave tomorrow for Warsaw.     Meeting this guy today though besides http://cialisfromindia-onlinerx.com/ all of the bro’s, next season his Mustang gets joined by a Nissan Silvia with 500HP 2JZ-GTE.   Short but sweet pharmacy canada blogging, still getting used to new interface and using the iPhone 20mg cialis reviews as tool…

Time to go mobile?

After hitting near rock-bottom in motivation to use the blog because the ”back-end” technical side has aged ungraciously- a big ray of light came upon me yesterday!

Let me explain. The blog uses wordpress as its ”engine”, and was at the time we built the site a very simple tool where we had to use lots of custom features.

Eventually, this led to problems with using newer versions of browsers- with a *insert worst combo of cursing you can think of* headache to write text with simple flow as linebreaks for example.

Doing stuff mobile has also been impossible, so with a new (huge) site coming in 2012; its been a pain and frustration to blog. And fixing this presented a classic ”catch 22” moment:

Who would you entrust your entire database since back-ups  are necessary if the site self-ignites as its common to do after having many custom solutions…?

Anyway, after months of finding the right guy; we are now seeing the first huge steps of his work. An update of WP has been done and this post is a test to see if changes are even bigger then expected (confirmed yesterday that my desktop mac now works to blog from).

So without much more noise, and kind of pathetic indeed- we bring you the first mobile blog-post in our history! 😀

(Dont clap, this is nothing to be proud of- but still awesome to encourage bot just me to write here more often…)

VIDEO: Raw preview of upcoming ”Gatebil Mantorp is ALL IN” movie!

Our little engineer behind the camera and editing, David Johansson wanted to thank everyone for sharing our recently re-released trailer of the ”Gatebil Mantorp is ALL IN” movie coming soon.

Here you will see most of the cars & teams that participated in this 20min carnage that occured when we got Mantorp Park circuit for ourselves during 20 sweet minutes.

Names you will surely recognize are ALM BROTHERS, DRIFTMONKEY, RAIDOPOWER MOTORSPORT and a bunch of other madmen who raced furiously trying to out-do eachother…

VIMEO:

Keep sharing this material and encourage people to take a look at OUR FACEBOOK as well, you get plenty of news and other fun stuff daily there- although here at the blog is where all the action happens! And yes, that goes for the real trailer for this movie as well; all you need to do is copy this link and paste it to your Facebook or post it anywhere you like!

http://vimeo.com/33357982

We can’t promise a firm deadline on when the movie is done, but we hope it won’t be too long after the holidays…

Your support means the world for us, so hope you will give us continious feedback all the time!

TRAILER: Gatebil Mantorp is ”ALL IN” – Full movie coming soon!

After a long and much needed break after an intense summer, the movie production team is back; and the next project we will work with full dedication with is the Gatebil Mantorp is ”all in” movie!

This will be a truly insane journey as we had among the best Gatebil Circus drivers (Driftmonkey, Team Raidopower, Alm brothers, Limmet DrifTeam & more!) on the track alone- with plenty of our cameras to catch the action!

You can read a lot more about our extensive coverage of GATEBIL MANTORP 2011 HERE. You get all the videos and SUPERIOR SELECTED GALLERIES gathered there, for the ultimate media outlet when it comes to Gatebil in Sweden…

Remember we are still novices in this, and are extremely thankful for all the support & opinions we’ve gotten so far. Hope you will continue to motivate us, you can do that by joining all of us at OUR FACEBOOK (CLICK!).

Please share the Vimeo-link (http://vimeo.com/33357982) of this movie in all your social circles, we promise its the ultimate racingfuel so we can do a GREAT finished production!

GALLERY: Tokyo Motor Show 2011 – Preview of the future?

The very present and a highly likely a view of the future in Japanese automotive; is on display right now at the big Tokyo Motor Show- we got all good news from it!

Thanks to our efforts on the similar but more international FRANKFURT IAA EXPO, we are now officially and most flattering enough; part of a press network where we can take part of some official photos from all Motor shows from around the world. So we would like to share for our readers whats brewing on the JDM market!

Right away I can tell you that as a single year its been a really good one if you are an ”enthusiast”, who loungues for performance cars and such.

But as a whole, we have to face the truth that harsh economics and most importantly enviromental changes in the world means = less of that and more compact or fuel efficent cars (most often both!).

But we still picked up our favourite 20 and most relevant pics from this awesome network, and hope you will enjoy this mix although none of our staff was there, and fair enough we havent really studied up on all of them. Lets take a look anyway!

(As stated, compact cars is the firm reality of what all carmakers put as a priority. And face it, we need those type of cars too! Whats comforting about that is that the Japanese brands are in my opinion the leaders of this segment. This Honda was something I could very well imagine to use as a ”city car” in the future. Clean!)

(But lets raise the temperature a little now shall we? The Lexus LFA was here in its more raw ”Nürburgring edition” which gives the pretty lady (read our feature of when it was in Sweden HERE) some extra long claws. Changes are still subtle, but very important- in not just aero but in performance and well. Will it be a record breaker in 2012?)

(Name one (two actually) model that have gotten more press coverage then the Toyota FT86 and Subaru BRZ? I doubt anyone will come up with one… so lets just skip the chit-chat and say ”Yay” or ”Nay” for the finished product…?)

(… and if you did not like the above one, Subaru were kind enough to develop their Super GT version for you which is impossible to dislike. Like all the JDM racers just an institution in pure rawness. ”Proud of Boxer” indeed, and I think this car will replace the Legacy which it turns out was a short-lived competitor for Subaru.)

(One of my personal favourites, albeit a pretty useless ”car”. For the truly artistic person willing to barely use his car so it wont get dirty, we found this Toyota concept which has a unique glass structure with a screen (?) in it. Just check the picture in the gallery and compare. Impressive stuff!)

(Something you might have read about that was going to be premiered here, was the Nissan Juke Nismo concept. It might look like any ”performance upgraded” base model, but the key here is the engine and drivetrain. Oh yes, it is the full monty from the Nissan GT-R! Good news is that right now they are considering it for a official release depending on what people on the expo said. Lets keep our fingers crossed!)

(And to finish things of, we have the latest Impreza (although that name is scrapped on this generation) that earns a S-series package. Shortly explained, ever since the GC8 generation; Subaru always saved the ”best for last” and in the JDM-market released a fully loaded with STi-options model of the Impreza to buy from the factory. This one is a worthy follower of that bloodline, and I hope one day to have the pleasure of providing someone in Sweden with one since they will probably be available in the Japanese Domestic Market only (there, I just explained what JDM is shortering for). 😉

Hope you enjoyed it, seems like among the myriad of small compacts and odd ”hybrid/electrical” sort of cars & concepts- there is a thin red line of hope in sportscars as well. We all know Honda is looking to release a new NSX, and Mazda have been toying with us creating monster concepts like the Furai. So lets hope this trend continues…

Feels great that our hard work which puzzled some and might have seemed out of place in the blog has given us some really positive results.

Its impossible to please you all, but we have very high longterm ambitions; so hope you will continue to support us as things progress! 🙂

INTERVJU: Vi träffar Erik Jonasson,”årets JDM-bygge” – Datsun 240Z S30!

Idag publicerar vi en intervju med Erik Jonasson vars groteskt feta Datsun 240Z S30 vi nyligen gjorde en ENORM SUPERIOR SELECTED FEATURE på i bloggen. Hoppas ingen missat det reportaget!

Vi träffade Erik tidigt på säsongen under WANGAN MEET III, och kunde redan där se att detta var ett bombnedlag på ”JDM-kartan” detta år.

Han tog hem första plats på TEN OF THE BEST på det eventet, och det känns roligt att mycket som nämns i VÅR FEATURE även diskuterades under denna intervju. Vi får ge SIR_PIERRE mannen som har huvudrollen i denna intervju och ger den ännu en dimension. Enjoy!

Interview: Erik Jonasson, owner of ”JDM car-buil of the year 2011” and his Datsun 240Z S30 from Superior Media on Vimeo.

Erik är en riktigt trevlig och jordnära kille, med stort hjärta för JDM; och har byggt upp ett grymt kunnande inom OLD SCHOOL JDM  sedan han köpte bilen i augusti 2010. Vill därför inte bara hylla hans bil, utan även ge han en välriktad klapp på axeln för att vara den sortens entusiast hobbyn behöver fler av. Skippa besserwisser-mentaliteten ni unga grabbar!

Ni hittar Eriks egna Facebook-grupp om gammaldags Japanare HÄR, och glöm inte gilla VÅR FACEBOOK också om du inte redan gjort det- av bara farten kan ni även studsa in på BILBILDER.SE som står för samtliga foton!

SUPERIOR SELECTED: Erik Jonassons ”Clash of styles” Datsun 240Z!

Stance. Old School JDM. Hellaflush. Shakotan. Retro-trackday. And it goes on and on…

The hyping of car-trends has never been bigger, and it seems every year a derivate from stuff done in Japan for years; suddenly falls on the lips of the hungry mainstream-blogs who in turn feed young readers whats ”cool” now or not.

Who said this needs to be ”evil empire” bad?

Here is a story of a paradox gone full circle, how a heavily influenced ”beginner” got his hands on a real gem- and then accomplished what the Japanese for ages spent zero thought on doing- perfecting the understated cool!

Meet Erik Jonasson and his Datsun 240Z S30 which we will call ”JDM-build of the year” in Sweden ; just to set the bar right away on what your about to read.

Coupled with some really sexy pics which were previously exclusive to Banzai Magazine– we thank the photographer Martin ”BILBILDER.SE” (CLICK!) Persson for getting first scoop on their online arrival!

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Its a cold and uncertain morning in southern swedish city of Helsingborg. We are at WANGAN MEET III (READ MORE HERE) as main-sponsors and to contribute with everything we got to make this the years best Japcar-meet in our small but JDM-rich country.

After a long long winter we’ve gotten past the opening even of the year (ELMIA EXPO 2011) and people are for the first time treated to showing their cars in a good ol’ outside meet.

OUR OWN SUPERIOR MEDIA VIDEO:

We struggle at the beginning, trying to find an ounce of order in all the arriving cars and an inexperienced crew doing their best. After some initial calamity, its time to get to work.

The Superior-Blog is here to select its TEN OF THE BEST (SEE THE LIST HERE), and already we’ve had our first ”jaw-dropping moments” seeing some 100% Mazda/Eunos Miatas with full hellaflush stance.

Laughable for some, this was still something that had not quite reached us in Sweden despite a few brave souls who ”know their stance”, such as Marcus Eisenhut and his part famous part infamous (”haters gonna hate”) Honda Integra.

At the same time, all the general public currently knows about; and crave for old school JDM cars is still at kindergarten level. But things are about to change, as we stumble upon someone parked like any other car- but with the glaring charisma that singles it out instantly:

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Go back to August 2010, around 10 months before Wangan Meet.

Erik Jonasson got this car in a scarce battle among many when the original owner since many years decided to sell his (1985-1992 build time!) epic project. Describing the process as a quite lucky circumstance of events, he got to see the car in person one day ahead of around 10 other speculating customers (among them someone from the US of A).

”I had scouted it for a while as it was available a few weeks, the owner had owned the car since 1985 and put a lot of effort into it- he was in no rush to sell. You could say he was looking for the perfect buyer. Plus he was working a lot in the aeromotive industry. Then one day he just called and told me I could come check it out; as 10 others were in line if I passed…” – Erik.

He had originally set out to find himself a newer BMW that never seemed to be available and in proper enough condition for him to buy. His daily driver for a while had also been a Z33 Nissan 350Z, and naturally he was well aware of what that modern Japanese muscle had in its heritage- the almighty Fairlady Z!

So when the opportunity came, and the car was not only in pristine condition- but loaded with plenty of aftermarket parts in both an extremely well built stroked 3.1l engine and chassis… there was no stopping him.

”The previous owner had kept an insane amount of receipts, workshop manuals and even some old Nismo-catalogues. I knew right away this was perfect for me as I had no need for a lifetime project restoring some junk, it was an easy decision to pass up on the expensive end *insurance!* of owning the 350Z for this- but to put a summary on it… everything felt like I slipped into all this on a banana-peel!” -Erik

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Back to Wangan Meet and what had been going on with the car between the purchase —> and where we are right now standing, interviewing a calm, humble and slightly shy Erik (video of this interview by Superior-TV is coming!).

Long story short: First thing he did was to clean things up, toss the rear bumper and drop the car so it had the proper ”stance” which in Sweden was about to explode.

He then added the older style front fender mirrors and imposed his ambitions to possibly making it a track day racer, with a much more modern kind of carbon diffuser/splitter in the front.

We had certainly noticed the car, but are still shocked. This kind of build caught even some very diehard and experienced JDM-enthusiasts as ourselves totally of guard? I mean, genuine workmanship, creative/fearless touches and even a proper engine on that?!

”I had no problem to put the sledgehammer in use to widen the rear body even more, and getting modified coil-overs from a VW Golf  was no problem either. I had already broken all sacred grounds by definition when I kept the Centerline USDM-wheels on, right?” -Erik.

Going by the theme of blogs he had put a lot of hours into reading after his buy, and becoming a huge fan of the ”Hellaflush/Stance-scene”; a whole lot of stickers found their way on the car as well.

Thats where it becomes interesting. How easy isn’t it to destroy something by adding too much? All the diverse opinions in taste apart, by just reading the text you might have gotten a messy image in your head.

But it was going to get a lot messier indeed, just as the meet itself (but thats a whole other story)…

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Whats important is that we found ourselves helplessly in love with the car, and with stiff competition still made it our Superior choice and highest ranked on the TEN OF THE BEST list easily. In hindsight, there was no need to convince others that our opinions usually count (*throw me those black Hipster-glasses*).

Because Erik got the credit he well deserved without us fueling the fire. And in combination with another awesome build (Christoffer Geiros Audi A4) we had early picked as the winner of the all important Elmia Expo (*still having those glasses on*)… it instantly made Stance and Hellaflush the words on everyones lips!

”I was not expecting anything like the response afterwords. You could say I had done a severe crash-course in the whole ”JDM-automotive lifestyle” industry and gotten this car without being a maniac that actively pursued it. My only experience of Jap before was a Nissan 200SX which first blew its turbine; and then the engine. After that I promised to never buy anything other then naturally aspirated again!” -Erik.

A touch of the ”Old school JDM is cool y0” virus had sneaked into the picture as well, which we more then happily welcomed. Been warming the people up to the trends for a few years now, but nobody is quite ready to shell out the same money for a 30-40 year old Japanese car when you could get a really nice Mazda RX-7, Toyota Supra or even a pretty new Skyline GT-R for roughly the same money.

But we are deeming Eriks 240Z as the possible ice breaker for this too (Insert free marketing plug: W E can get you any proper JDM-car directly out of Japan, just CONTACT US and we’ll give you the straight answers you need.)

For the sake of this article, we could have stopped there- but give us a few more minutes of your quality reading time yet still. Because Erik was not done yet, and here is where it gets really interesting…

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Like we’ve already stated, following trends is not hard; but its way easier to go too far and just be ignored & almost spat at for ruining in this case a classic. I was worried when Eriks next move to place an oil-cooler on the exterior of the car. *BAM* Right on the front-bumper, and like a big black spot on that dashing red ladies beautiful silhouette.

”What the hell are you thinking” was my first blunt judgement of the idea, and you could smell some tension; albeit as smelly as it gets from a couple of polite online comments exchanged…

I was worried this car might go the path of some of the laughable projects often seen in the US, or maybe even as far as that we could have put another ”trendy” JDM-enthusiast word into play in Bosozoku = mad almost ”clowned” cars with extreme spoilers and screeching paint themes?!

”I like doing things which Iam kind of alone with. It bugs me when young car enthusiasts today find a car they like, and start ordering parts based on it. I can’t deny it also gives a sort of satisfaction to get split opinions, even if I have the utmost respect for everyone and cherish their input. In the end I follow my own path, and thats how it went with the exterior oil-cooler as well; as a tribute to the old school racecars of that era…” -Erik

But I should have stayed calm. Like ”Dalarna-region of Sweden” calm where Erik usually resides. The part of the country the rest of us usually think of taking a long skiing sessions through the forest.

Where a friday evening might be best spent at the local pizza place grabbing a few beers, possibly going nuts and gathering in an apartment to share some hard distilled liquor with your closest buddies. Simply put a very down to earth place, with plenty of people with personalities to mirror that…

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Because indeed, today with the season passed and with this sweet car getting published in not only those trendy blogs; but in highly esteemed JDM-auto magazine Banzai thanks to photographer Supremo and SUPERIOR SELECTED lynchpin Martin ”Bilbilder.se” Persson (SEE HIS FB-PAGE HERE)- the car not only had the balls, muscle and brains to be our JDM build of the year…

It also now had the merits more then worthy of it.

***MARTINS PHOTO-COMMENTS: Shooting this car was a bit of a practical nightmare. We met during a large meet for Stanced cars that was organized in a beautiful natural reservation. The problem was that it was high season, and after a few failed attempts to do shots like the above due to passers by- we moved over to Koeningseggs airstrip. After meeting and greeting a few Agera R’s, we got a few good snaps before the rain came down. Not the best of days, and there is a lot more potential, as this car is breaking some serious necks; just cruising past people low n’ slow…” ***

So thats it, for 2012 we know Erik has made a pledge to the JDM-gods to venture even further on the path of being truly old school in the strict far eastern sense of it. We know he has a nothing less described then s i c k set of old 15″ Speed Star wheels which he intends to spend a fortune on making like new; and ready to ”just stance” with another twist to it!

”2012… Well, all I can say is that I will clean things up even more. The stickers will go away and the treasures I got directly from Japan that will carry the car will define the whole build itself. And of course, I expect it to be even lower- perfect fit to finally make use of those trackdays ambitions I originally had buying it…” -Erik.

You can read the cars FULL SPECIFICATION HERE on his GARAGET.ORG page. We appreciate when someone follows his own mind, even if there are clear inspirations to draw from. We truly salute Erik for both refining this car and breaking new ground by using the biggest force of them all: U N D E R S T A T E D and effortlessly…

If you appreciate this article, be sure to check out the following links to support the people involved in quality feutures like this one: 1. THE SUPERIOR FB PAGE —– 2. BILBILDER PHOTOGRAPHY FB-PAGE —– 2. OLD SCHOOL JDM SWEDEN (Eriks own FB-group).

Please ”Like” and ”Share” them all and we promise to continue to publish quality media and writing for all you true enthusiasts out there- who want more then a short quote and single compressed picture on Facebook day in and day out…

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