NOPI (FEEDBACK) LOS ANGELES DRIFT Event

[Slapshotnerd]

Keep it coming guys. I think there is a lot of useful information in this thread - not just for NOPI, but for organizers in general...

[Bebop]

Stlye: I dont really feel that the stickers make cars look bad. I feel that the way they are coordinated and contrasts with the colors of the car make them look like ish.

Me personally I feel the battleground cars look ok. It isn't the stickers that bother me, its more of the aero and the wheels. Seem like the cars were built on a a budget with no sense of originality. Dime a dozen knock off dated body kit, and some knock off looking positive offset wheels...do you guys buy from nopi also?? lol lol jk

But yea, changing that is easy... give it a little bit of originality. Vertex Kit with some Work wheels negative offset.... looking good there. Just take notes of Forest's ride.

I dont really like how some teams just slap a big ol maxxis sticker or some other sponsors logo on the side of there car knowing good and well that *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* doesent match at all.

Kinda like Sammy's car or NM drifts cars






They just dont look good, I'm sorry. A blue and white car and a black and white car with a big orange logo on it... I'm not feeling it as a consumer. I like Forbergs car though, why dont you guys take a page out of falken and hankooks book and make all the cars the same color or paint scheme so we as the fans know its a maxxiss car with out even seeing the logo. Shoot, you dont even need paint jobs any more, dudes are vyniling there whole cars now and they look pretty nifty....and vinyl is cheap, way cheaper then a good professional paint job.

Would I be happy if all the cars looked like Justin's and Stews would I be happy... even though there clean no because no sponsors would be getting notice. But look at Tommy Suell's and Forests, they got stickers vinyl logos but they all match and look kinda good. And Take them all off minus the zipties there cars would be clean and original. Tommy is on some volks with j blood kit (I think) Forrest's car.....is just sweet.

So too pretty much sum it all up, have your vinyl match and coordinate with the body color and shape, be original, JDM will always be cool!!!!!!

[Brian]

^^^^^
yeah.... I can see your point.

It's just a shame I guess.... Style comes last with most of the teams/cars.

Oh well, thats why I make my own events that are much better.

[Slapshotnerd]

I dont really like how some teams just slap a big ol maxxis sticker or some other sponsors logo on the side of there car knowing good and well that *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* doesent match at all.

They just dont look good, I'm sorry. A blue and white car and a black and white car with a big orange logo on it... I'm not feeling it as a consumer. I like Forbergs car though, why dont you guys take a page out of falken and hankooks book and make all the cars the same color or paint scheme so we as the fans know its a maxxiss car with out even seeing the logo. Shoot, you dont even need paint jobs any more, dudes are vyniling there whole cars now and they look pretty nifty....and vinyl is cheap, way cheaper then a good professional paint job.

Those stickers get the drivers paid. If they run the sticker and they place top 8 in NOPI, then MAXXIS will double their payout. I think blake fuller has cashed in 3k or so this year for having that Maxxis sticker on his car. If putting an 'ugly' sticker on my car got me 3k, on top of boatloads of free tires, I'd do it. Wouldn't you?

And it took JIC 2 years of sponsorship with Hankook before they changed the paint job. Last year, from my understanding, it was just a vinyl wrap, and they are the only "works" team under Hankook. Not every car with a tire sponsor has the time / money to adapt their paint job to fit their new sponsor. several of these drivers picked up sponsors either just weeks before the new season started, or after the season already started when they can't afford downtime to paint their cars. I understand your point about stickers not "matching", but not everyone has time / money to repaint their car to appease every sponsor they get. Plus, then we'd have way too many black / orange cars...

But yea, changing that is easy... give it a little bit of originality. Vertex Kit with some Work wheels negative offset.... looking good there. Just take notes of Forest's ride.

So having a Vertex kit with Work wheels is "original" ? Sounds like your version of "original" is just a cookie cutter of a different variety.

Would I be happy if all the cars looked like Justin's and Stews would I be happy... even though there clean no because no sponsors would be getting notice. But look at Tommy Suell's and Forests, they got stickers vinyl logos but they all match and look kinda good. And Take them all off minus the zipties there cars would be clean and original. Tommy is on some volks with j blood kit (I think) Forrest's car.....is just sweet.

So too pretty much sum it all up, have your vinyl match and coordinate with the body color and shape, be original, JDM will always be cool!!!!!!

I disagree on the JDM comment... the problem is that the sponsors that Forrest and Tommy run don't have specifics about the colors of the decals. Maxxis / some other sponsors do. If your sponsor pays you money to put a specific color of sticker on your car, but your car has a different color scheme than that, are you going to turn the sponsor down? or blow all of your money on matching the paint job to the color of the sponsor?

Some people just don't understand how the business of Drifting / Sponsors / Motorsports work...

[Brian]

yeah you jackasses


this is a BUSINESS


grow up you jerks.



USA DRIFT STYLE

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Flybert]

lets not get to nut swinging already.. who the hell cares. drifting is about car control.. pretty cars are a bonus. BFD get over the whole it doesnt look clean with stickers bs okay. JDM isnt the shiet. niether is drifting. simply put it was a Pro-am event that was getting coverage.

Drifting is about car control? Are you serious? Drifting is about looking like a badass. Pretty cars are a requirement at the pro level. I think drift cars look fine with stickers. Take a look at the ones I just posted below. They look hot hot hot.




JDM drift style is the shiet. Drifting is the shiet unless style and soul take a back seat to pleasing sponsors. The fans get neglected as well when they pay top dollar to see rad looking cars doing rad drifting maneuvers and all they get are USDM 4x4's with mongoloid looking stickers and a plethora of drivers who can't drive for crap. The last part about the driving skills is kind of changing with American driving due to the licensing requirements nowadays but how many years does it take for organizers and sponsors to figure out who drives well and what works to successfully run an event?

Tracy, as for hurting your feelings, that was not my intentions. I don't even know who you are and I don't even know what car you drive so I'm sorry if you took my comments to heart. In socal, going to a JustDrift events at Willowsprings is a big car show and the people here have a mentality that your car should look good when you show up to an event. Just like tires, aero is disposable because we want to look good for pictures and it makes the event that much more fun when all the cars look rad. We also like to talk crap about each other but most people don't take it to heart. We clown on each other all the time so I guess I wasn't expecting anyone to be hurt by my comment.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that NOPI needs cool cars to develop a fan base.

[conspire]

I understand your point about stickers not "matching", but not everyone has time / money to repaint their car to appease every sponsor they get.

grassroots series is expected to see this from drivers (i.e. broke, non-matching, etc...), not a professional series. therefore some of the drivers may need to buck up some more and change their paint/vinyl schemes in order to look professional, otherwise the criticism will probably continue to follow or any series will lack that professional image they want.

[Slapshotnerd]

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that NOPI needs cool cars to develop a fan base.

How do they do that? make a 'cool car' requirement in the rule book in addition to the licensing? i don't think that what you're asking is a bad thing, it's just hard to implement from a sanctioning body. That movement has to come from the drifters.

grassroots series is expected to see this from drivers (i.e. broke, non-matching, etc...), not a professional series. therefore some of the drivers may need to buck up some more and change their paint/vinyl schemes in order to look professional, otherwise the criticism will probably continue to follow or any series will lack that professional image they want.

As mentioned, many of these sponsors came on board after the season started. Most of these cars aren't "unfinished" or "non-matching", per say, they have pretty good paint schemes and kits and all that. They just have a few "off" colored sponsor stickers. Blake's 350 has a white and black scheme, and only the maxxis sticker is orange. Same with the NM Drift cars (blue / white scheme, orange stickers from Maxxis). Sammy from Tiger Racing had his car all painted white with a few accents, but his sponsor supplied him with carbon fiber panels to replace his fiberglass stuff just 2 days before the event, thus the 'zebra' look instead of the normal clean white paint job he usually sports. I'm sure things will get much more cohesive as the year progresses, and I think a lot of cars are already planning cosmetic makeovers for next year.

[Brian]

Flybert - you and I know that this is a pointless argument/opinion/fact/obvious thing for us to mention.
We know what style is.... let's just leave it at that.

[NOPIMAN]

Thanks for all the input...

Please keep in mind that this is our 4th Drift event and the quality of drivers and appearance of the cars has vastly improved from our first event just a few weeks ago. We plan on keeping on the pace and continually make things better for the drivers and sponsors and well as the spectaters.

As far as the parking issue at the Home Depot Center...It sucked. We had no idea until we drove up that there was a charge for parking. Never in our 20 years of doing automotive event has there been a charge for parking like that. Yes we should have negotiated this in advance but in all honesty, we just didn't know. There has never been a charge like that for parking at a NOPI event anywhere in the country. We failed to address it before the event and we are sorry. Yes we have reserved parking for $5 or $10 at some venues but the general parking has almost always been free.

Of corse we would have liked to have had a better turn out in Cali. Believe me we will work on that. Cali seems to be vastly different that any other market and we would welcome any insite on promotional ideas for that market. As you probably know we are really big on the east coast but we would like to include Cali in our event series so we will keep trying.

As far as the down time with the Viper wreck...Yes we could have let the fans know what was going on. Sorry but we were waiting to address all the drivers after the track repair. We were getting a lot of different stories from different camps and we had to make the right call. I guess we should address the drivers before we spend time on repairing the track. It's just that we had no word on the driver and once we heard he was OK...things kinda began to get back to normal. For an hour or so we had no idea if it was a lot worse than what it turned out to be. This was our first serious drift incident and we learn as we go in this business. By serious I mean that the driver left in an ambulance. Yes, we've had numerous wrecks in Drag Racing in the past and we know how to deal with these situations so we are not rookies by any means. We just try to take it all in before we jump to a decision we might regret later.

But... I do think the top 16 drifting was solid and entertaining. With 4 events under our belt, you can see that we mean business in the Drifting scene. We have a car show in Knoxville this weekend and a NDRA Drag Race in Michigan in two weeks, but then we will be back to Drifting in Pittsburg July 28-29. Hope to see you all there.




Oh yeah here is the new 2007 NOPI TV schedule on the SPEED CHANNEL:
Miami and Gateway include Drift coverage.

6 to 10 airings a week including 10 to 11pm "Prime Time shows" on Thursday
3 hour long blocks with a new show and a previous show back to back

NEW FORMAT and NEW production team

SCHEDULE through AUG 5

WEEK 1
Miami Thu, Jul 12 10:00PM new
Norwalk Thu, Jul 12 10:30PM (2006)
Miami Thu, Jul 12 2:00AM
Norwalk Thu, Jul 12 2:30AM (2006)
Miami Fri, Jul 13 9:30AM
Miami Sun, Jul 15 12:00AM
Norwalk Sun, Jul 15 12:30AM (2006)

WEEK 2
Atco Thu, Jul 19 10:00PM new
Miami Thu, Jul 19 10:30PM
Atco Thu, Jul 19 2:00AM
Miami Thu, Jul 19 2:30AM
Atco Fri, Jul 20 9:30AM
Atco Sun, Jul 22 1:00AM
Miami Sun, Jul 22 1:30AM

WEEK 3
Budds Creek Thu, Jul 26 10:00PM new
Atco Thu, Jul 26 10:30PM
Budds Creek Thu, Jul 26 2:00AM
Atco Thu, Jul 26 2:30AM
Budds Creek Fri, Jul 27 9:30AM
Miami Sat, Jul 28 12:00PM
Atco Sat, Jul 28 12:30PM
Budds Creek Sat, Jul 28 1:00PM
Budds Creek Sun, Jul 29 12:00AM
Atco Sun, Jul 29 12:30AM

WEEK 4
Gateway Thu, Aug 2 10:00PM new
Budds Creek Thu, Aug 2 10:30PM
Gateway Thu, Aug 2 2:00AM
Budds Creek Thu, Aug 2 2:30AM
Gateway Sun, Aug 5 12:00AM
Budds Creek Sun, Aug 5 12:30AM

[BenR]

Flybert - you and I know that this is a pointless argument/opinion/fact/obvious thing for us to mention.
We know what style is.... let's just leave it at that.

While some do love the way our cars look. Some don't love the way our cars look. Just as I know some don't love us as a team, some do love us.

Jumping on someone else's style, to me is worse than having a style that a few certain individuals hate. If we came out with a vertex/work setup at this point would be a complete poser move.

[Hach1r0k1d03]

Jumping on someone else's style, to me is worse than having a style that a few certain individuals hate. If we came out with a vertex/work setup at this point would be a complete poser move.

vertex/work? no no no! you need to go full origin with some dna wheels with the origin-lab bunny center caps!!! now who has that? yes yes YES!!!

[Tracy]

Drifting is about car control? Are you serious? Drifting is about looking like a badass. Pretty cars are a requirement at the pro level. I think drift cars look fine with stickers. Take a look at the ones I just posted below. They look hot hot hot.


[img]

Tracy, as for hurting your feelings, that was not my intentions. I don't even know who you are and I don't even know what car you drive so I'm sorry if you took my comments to heart. In socal, going to a JustDrift events at Willowsprings is a big car show and the people here have a mentality that your car should look good when you show up to an event. Just like tires, aero is disposable because we want to look good for pictures and it makes the event that much more fun when all the cars look rad. We also like to talk crap about each other but most people don't take it to heart. We clown on each other all the time so I guess I wasn't expecting anyone to be hurt by my comment.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that NOPI needs cool cars to develop a fan base.

It's cool. Thanks for the apology. I drive one of the Maxxis cars...but whether or not you knew that, it was still mean what you said...no matter who owns/drives the cars. You could have said it a little differently. You know what I mean? The cars you posted are cool. I like them, too. I would like a little something different for next year. It will probably still have to be black and orange...per our contract with Maxxis, but we'll TRY to change it up, time permitting. Time is always an issue for us. We are hoping that things will get into a groove and and mellow out for us. They are already starting to.

[tyndago]

Some peoples comments on here - make me want to punch babies. Its funny to read what people nitpick.

The people competing in the "professional" series are people that try harder than the rest of the wanna bes that complain about not having money to do it. Nobody in the NOPI series is making any real money to be out running their cars. Just to run a car at an event is a good chunk of money.

I have been around the import industry since 1999 , I see a lot of the same faces out and about doing it being involved. The people involved are involved because that is what they enjoy and what they want to do. The people that lose interest - they become mortgage brokers.

The parking cost was pretty hardcore. Its a Home Depot center thing , outside NOPI's direct control. Like they said, a little too late they realized the price. It is LA though still , and someone try and tell me that they have never paid $20 or $50 to park somewhere before. It sucks , and hopefully the next time its fixed.

I have been to three NOPI drift events this year ,and several other NOPI events though the years , Nationals , Drag racing. NOPI pulls huge crowds in their primary markets back east , but out on the west coast , they seem to get no love. Go to NOPI Nationals and there is a ton of people from 10 local states , here in LA you can't hardly get any local people to go out. I guess LA is spoiled by the number of events.

The downtime after Chris's crash was a little excessive. Accidents happen , they are a part of drifting. Downtime loses crowd, you dont want to lose crowd. I heard a few comments about safety, and insurance , and the rest , but I have seen PLENTY of cars hardcore into the walls at Irwindale. The last D1 qualifier/event , there were about 5 cars destroyed by the walls.

As far as car style goes , you guys make your cars all J-d out(cool term I heard from the middle of the country somewhere, when someone called for parts). Copying is nothing special. I think the copies of the Japanese cars you put up look as bad a cluster as any of the US cars. Maxxis is paying out big this year. Check the contingency for NOPI - $5k for first place. If you win and you are sporting the sticker and tires , its a $10,000 payday. Depending on where the event is , probably enough to cover your expenses. That sticker doesn't look as bad anymore. If you want pretty cars , try Hot Import Nights - lots of pretty drift cars there, just ask the guys pushing them around because they dont run.

I see NOPI trying hard this year. They do actually listen to feedback. If you go and talk to the guys they try to be accommodating. Its a good thing. The NOPI series is "small" this year. Its a good series though. Its a good place for the more grassroots US guys to get out there and get exposure. The events are covered about the same as a D1 or Formula D event. TV, magazine, etc. Gives a chance for the smaller guys to get out there , and maybe even pickup a sponsor or two.

This isn't coming from a person that comes and watches events, or reads about it on the internet. I am in the middle of it , I talk to the people competing. I know people involved in all the US series. They all have a place , and treat them as such.

[carcass]

Some peoples comments on here - make me want to punch babies. Its funny to read what people nitpick.

The people competing in the "professional" series are people that try harder than the rest of the wanna bes that complain about not having money to do it. Nobody in the NOPI series is making any real money to be out running their cars. Just to run a car at an event is a good chunk of money.

I have been around the import industry since 1999 , I see a lot of the same faces out and about doing it being involved. The people involved are involved because that is what they enjoy and what they want to do. The people that lose interest - they become mortgage brokers.

The parking cost was pretty hardcore. Its a Home Depot center thing , outside NOPI's direct control. Like they said, a little too late they realized the price. It is LA though still , and someone try and tell me that they have never paid $20 or $50 to park somewhere before. It sucks , and hopefully the next time its fixed.

I have been to three NOPI drift events this year ,and several other NOPI events though the years , Nationals , Drag racing. NOPI pulls huge crowds in their primary markets back east , but out on the west coast , they seem to get no love. Go to NOPI Nationals and there is a ton of people from 10 local states , here in LA you can't hardly get any local people to go out. I guess LA is spoiled by the number of events.

The downtime after Chris's crash was a little excessive. Accidents happen , they are a part of drifting. Downtime loses crowd, you dont want to lose crowd. I heard a few comments about safety, and insurance , and the rest , but I have seen PLENTY of cars hardcore into the walls at Irwindale. The last D1 qualifier/event , there were about 5 cars destroyed by the walls.

As far as car style goes , you guys make your cars all J-d out(cool term I heard from the middle of the country somewhere, when someone called for parts). Copying is nothing special. I think the copies of the Japanese cars you put up look as bad a cluster as any of the US cars. Maxxis is paying out big this year. Check the contingency for NOPI - $5k for first place. If you win and you are sporting the sticker and tires , its a $10,000 payday. Depending on where the event is , probably enough to cover your expenses. That sticker doesn't look as bad anymore. If you want pretty cars , try Hot Import Nights - lots of pretty drift cars there, just ask the guys pushing them around because they dont run.

I see NOPI trying hard this year. They do actually listen to feedback. If you go and talk to the guys they try to be accommodating. Its a good thing. The NOPI series is "small" this year. Its a good series though. Its a good place for the more grassroots US guys to get out there and get exposure. The events are covered about the same as a D1 or Formula D event. TV, magazine, etc. Gives a chance for the smaller guys to get out there , and maybe even pickup a sponsor or two.

This isn't coming from a person that comes and watches events, or reads about it on the internet. I am in the middle of it , I talk to the people competing. I know people involved in all the US series. They all have a place , and treat them as such.

Great points Sean. The NOPI people have voiced their parts on these situations as well and everyone seems to be on the right track.

As for the people crying about the looks of the cars and the design of the sponsor logos, grow the hell up and do some research!!! As stated before, the sponsors provide funding in exchange for running their logos. The driver isn't allowed to change them!! Also as Sean said, if you want to see pretty cars, go to HIN and watch the trailer queens with shiny brake rotors with no wear. You don't deserve to be at a drift event with that mindset. You go to a drift event to watch skillful drivers battle it out on the track sideways while enjoying the smell of burnt rubber, the clouds of smoke, the sounds of screeching tires and the roar highly tunes engines.

Q.
www.laautoguide.us
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