Waterfest 18

Waterfest 18

Posted on by Konig Wheels

Privat Wheels is always proud to be an official sponsor of Waterfest.

Now in it’s 18th year, Waterfest is the largest VW and Audi Car Show and Motorsport event in North America, and the second largest of its kind in the world.
This is a 2-day event, which is held at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.

Waterfest 18 is expected to have a total attendance of over 21,000 including over 2,500 participants in the event. The event is July 21st and July 22nd 2012.

Privat Wheels is now having a Call for Entries for vehicles for our booth. If you have a nicely done VW or Audi, and would like to be considered for our booth, please email us at sponsorship@konigwheels.com. Please include your full name and contact information along with images of the vehicle and a current list of modifications.

We are looking forward to a great turnout this year as we do every year.

Privat Wheels | Waterfest 18 | Raceway Park

Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance to the Top 8

Posted on by Konig Wheels

For the second time this season Kenny Moen / Lutz Performance has made it to the top 8.  

This passed weekend at Formula Drift Round 3: West Palm Beach, Florida, Moen and the entire Lutz performance team came out firing. 

Showing up to an FD event is hard enough but Moen continuously proves he is able to attack and conquer.   On Friday, during Round 3 at West Palm Beach,  an abundance of bad weather including heavy rain came down on the event.  The on and off rain really fluctuated and adjusted the temperature. But cooling down the track did not prevent Moen from doing well in the first qualifying round.  Moen and the Lutz Peformance / KÖNIG Wheels sponsored 350Z had a very aggressive practice and smooth transition going into the Top 32.

The weather did not seem to let up in the second run either.  This caused the car to have major traction issues. With such a high rate of speed, Kenny ended up receiving a 0 due the fact that the track was wet.  Over coming his scored 0, Moen ended up defeating his first competitor in the top 32 , Matt Powers, which progressed him into the Top 16.

The top 16 put Moen against Ken Gushi.  Gushi provided an entertaining match up but Moen was able to defeat him and move into the Top 8.  Drawing a former FD Champion, Chris Forsberg, in the top 8 is always going to present an extremely tough battle.  Moen was mentally focused and had an amazing first run against Chris Forsberg giving him the lead.  While the matchup between Moen and Forsberg was heating up, the Lutz performance car seemed to have its own major opponent which it would not be able to overcome.  Clutch difficulties and the attributed loss of power in the 350z, allowed Forsberg to catch up.  Ultimately this would be the day ender for the Moen / Lutz / Konig team.  All  in all it was a fantastic event.  While the Lutz 350z sustained body and mechanical damage during RD 3, but this won’t hold the team back as they are now in the repair process to prepare for RD 4 in Wall, New Jersey on June, 22nd and 23rd.

KÖNIG would like to congratulate Kenny Moen and Lutz Performance on their fantastic effort and top 8 finish. We look forward to the next event. Stay tuned for more pictures and videos from Round 3 as well as upcoming coverage from RD 4!

Mertzanis Puts Down Best Qualifying Score in his Career

Posted on by Konig Wheels

Before the Fuel Culture S13.4 was shipped to the East Coast to Road Atlanta, the car headed to the Sea Otter Classic at Laguna Seca for the huge 2012 bicycle show. Over 60,000 people came through the doors in Monterey, California, to see the show and catch a glimpse of the drift car. The 240sx was parked in the center of the Kenda Tire booth who built out a virtual garage around the car to attract visitors. This was one of the only vehicles at the whole show this year, gathering tons of attention.

After leaving the Sea Otter Classic, the car headed east across the United States to Atlanta, Georgia in preparation of Formula Drift Round 2. Some tweaks to air pressure and our KW Suspension between rounds really set the team up for success after Road Atlanta.

During qualifying, Dennis managed to put down his best career qualifying run of 89.5 at his hometown course Road Atlanta. The car didn’t require as much setup adjustments to accomplish this huge career accomplishment. He was one of the few drivers to meet the speed trap minimum for the weekend.

After qualifying, we found out that we would be lined up against Top 10 driver, Kyle Mohan, who didn’t qualify at his usual top level performance which gave us one tough draw in the first round. Dennis and the team made some last minute adjustments and put down some of the best lead runs he has driven in his career by far. After one round, the judges were stuck at 1 vote for Dennis, 1 vote for Kyle, and 1 vote for OMT.

On the OMT tandem battle, Dennis performed top notch on his lead run but made a wide turn on his follow run which let Kyle Mohan pass into the Top 16 with 2 votes for Kyle and 1 vote for Dennis. A tough break for the team who performed near perfect all weekend but we are looking forward to Palm Beach International.

The next day after Road Atlanta, the Mertzanis Racing team attended what might be the last event at Turner Field with several other Formula Drift professional drivers. The city council in Atlanta, Georgia, signed an ordinance that bans drifting specifically in the city of Atlanta within 1,000 feet of residential zoning. This made it very personnel for Dennis Mertzanis as he first learned how to drift and hone his skills in this very parking lot.

Sadly, the weather didn’t cooperate with this final Turner Field event but Dennis brought out his Fuel Culture S13.4 in the rain to tandem with local drivers and promote the sport within the local area. He talked with various media outlets on the importance of the sport and the need to continue in grassroots events and why it’s best to create events and have safe, controlled environments so as to keep drivers off the streets.

It has been a busy month in back to back travel. And with Round 3 at Palm Beach International Raceway just right around the corner, Dennis Mertzanis will continue onwards and upwards by shooting for another career best finish at Round 3.

//Images courtesy of Fuel Culture & Wrecked Magazine 2012//

Attention New York City: Have you seen this vehicle?

Posted on by Konig Wheels

We are always getting some really cool stuff shared by our fans and friends. Ali Arsham is no exception. Mr. Arsham runs GoGoGear.com. GoGoGear specializes in Custom Graphics, Apparel and Promotional Products. Ali Arsham has been racing for 22 years. He is also a fabricator and one of his more recent builds was the 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. If you follow our blog, then you know the exposure this car has received since it was debuted. The car has traveled to various Auto Shows and Events across the country. However, this Genesis Coupe is by no means just a sweet race-built show car. On May 22nd, 2012 at Thunderhills Raceway in Willows California it shared 3rd place in the 2nd round of the Nitto Tires United States Touring Car Championship (USTCC).

Ali and the GoGoGear team just shared this image of the Genesis Coupe in action on the big screen in Times Square, New York, NY. This is certainly exciting for KONIG Wheels, GoGoGear and the USTCC. Check out the image below. Let us know in the comment section if you were walking down 7th Avenue in Times Square and saw this on the screen!

Image Courtesy of Del City and GoGoGear

Moen at Formula Drift Round One: Long Beach

Posted on by Konig Wheels

KÖNIG is proud to be partnered with Lutz Performance and Kenny Moen for the 2012 Formula Drift Season. Check out the FD Round 1 recap from Lutz Performance below.

Last year, Lutz Performance had the opportunity of partnering with Kenny Moen and helping him with the 2011 Formula D season as a sponsor. Fast forward to today and we are pleased to announce that we are this year’s title sponsor for car #22. This is the FIRST time in Formula D’s history that a local performance shop is the main sponsor on a car.
We obviously couldn’t do all of this without the help of our other sponsors:

KÖNIG Wheels, Carbonetics, Stance Coilovers, GT Spec, Powered by MAX, VIS Racing, SPL Parts, Prosport Gauges, Falken Tires

Round One

Went a lot better than we had expected for our first round as a Main / Major sponsor. Our first run was against Darren McNamara in Falken Tire’s Saturn Sky who unfortunately crashed on his first run and knocking himself out of the event.

Next we took on Conrad Grunewald in the Hankook Camaro and defeated him and advanced to the top 8. Up next we had to beat Matt Powers in the Need 4 Speed 240sx to make it into the top 4.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and our Round 1 experience came to an end. Although we did not have a podium finish we feel that the team did a great job for our first event,
we hope this is the beginning of a great season with much more to come. We are also pleased to announce that Kenny Moen has signed with team Lutz Performance for the 2013 FD season, look out for his 2013 season car design being release after Round 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine and Lutz Performance

Wrecked Magazing Issue 22

Posted on by Konig Wheels

We would like to thank our great friends over at Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine for the feature in Wrecked Magazine Issue 22, which shows off the Hyundai Veloster featuring some great aftermarket options including KÖNIG Deception wheels. “The wheels are lightweight, attractive and affordable! They were the obvious choice.” If you would like to check out Wrecked Magazine’s current issue, head over to Wrecked Magazine and scroll down to Issues.


Image courtesy of Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine