By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

I always love it when you got to a baseball game and you either get something free for being one of the first 1,000 people in the door or because your team hit a home run in the 7th inning. Well, the guys at NOS Energy Drink just one upped the good old Mariners by sounding out some cool NOS Gear to celebrate Chris Forsberg as the 2009 Formula Drift Champion. Being that I”m constantly switching from computer to computer my NOS flash drive is my favorite item!

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

The 2009 Formula Drift season is in the books and what a wild ride it’s been. At times it even felt out of control, like a Crown Vic careening backwards down a hill with no steering wheel while your hands are tied behind your back (see Wrong for reference). And yet somehow amidst all the chaos and cacophony they created there were the drivers and teams at the center of the storm hanging it all out with reckless abandon. And yet as a hapless spectator I am continually amazed at constant improvement in skill and precision from the entire FD field. Take a jump with me and I’ll show you some of the goings on from Irwindale’s House of Drift.

Continue reading "2009 Formula Drift Finals: A Champion, a Tribute, a Standout, a Stalker and Hampsha" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

The cloud of controversy continues to float over drifting like so much Schleprockitude (judges, can I get a ruling on this word?). This weekend at the latest Formula Drift event at Sonoma, the drama continued.

This season we’ve seen D1 take its lumps over the behavior of a certain team (rhymes with orange) and FD has been dealing with the legality of certain cars in a sport already stacked with such an eclectic mix of hardware. And yet, through it all, one man and his online outlet have raked through the muck to tackle these tough issues. And that man is Wrecked Magazine’s Joey Redmond. Joey does not provide any dramatic montage vid clips, nor artsy imagery and flowery prose, not even harsh critiques of stance and wheel offset. No, this guy delivers the goods and is quickly becoming the Walter Freakin’ Cronkite of the drift world, only with more breathing and less grammar (hey, Joey, spel chek, yo!).

Wrecked is the only outlet to break the news on the ruling on yesterday’s top 32 battle between current points leader Chris Forsberg and Calvin Wan. Click here, here or here for more on this matter.

As a fan of drifting and Formula Drift I hope this can get worked out. As a wannabe I’m a huge proponent of the skill and stones these pro drifters have to fling a car sideways at near triple-digit speeds inches away from another car doing the same thing. I’m also a huge fan of the great show put on by Formula Drift. Which begs the eternal question, is drifting a motorsport or a show? The top 16 are running today, check out StreetFire.net for video from the weekend and the Wrecked Magazine blog for more hard-hitting reports.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

A couple of weeks back,  Ryan and I got a chance to go over and tour the Turn 10 studios, where the developers and testers are putting the finishing touches on Forza 3. Ordinarily, getting out of the office in the middle of the day to go play video games is a sweet enough deal by itself. But the really cool part?  We got to take the tour with drifters Rhys Millen, Dai Yoshihara, and Chris Forsberg, who were all in town for Formula D Seattle! Obviously we were both curious to see how their real driving skills would translate to the virtual world, and we got plenty of opportunities to see them behind the wheel.

Continue reading "Sneak Peak at Forza 3!" »

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Here’s a real dope R32 Skyline 4door that came from British Columbia (that’s Canada, to those of us who are ignorant Americans). More photos of this car coming soon! It’s so cool that you can register a car like an R32 Skyline, A31 Cefiro or C33 Laurel and just drive it on the street, legally in Canada. What the hell are we still doing living in Southern Cali, anyway? (Who am I kidding, I love Southern Cali…) Continue reading and view more photos on Motormavens

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Round Five of the 2009 Formula Drift series at Seattle’s Evergreen Raceway is a done deal. There were some upsets, carnage, a great crowd, the sweet smelling Falken girls (don’t ask how I know this) and most important of all, no rain. In practice before the event even began Dai Yoshihara hit the wall. Hard. Hard enough to totally total his discount Tire IS350. Hit the jump to see who won as well more news from Seattle.

Continue reading "Formula Drifting in Seattle" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Formula Drift Las Vegas is in the books. And here are a few random observations:

Las Vegas drift fans never seem to wait for the final results. Maybe because the event doesn’t end until midnight.

The fans may not care who won but there were more of them this year than last.

I’ve been a reporting on drifting in one form or another steadily since 2001 beginning in Japan and I still don’t understand the judging parameters.

It seems a V8 is the key ingredient to increasing entry speeds and tire smoke (duh!).

Chris Forsberg beat out Tyler McQuarrie for Third place and Tanner Foust beat Ryuji Miki in the finals.

We’ll have a complete video on StreetFire.net next week.

The weather was perfect and the action was hot during the kickoff for the 2008 Formula D Series, but Tanner Foust couldn’t have been terribly happy with the results of the race. Last year’s champion will start the season third in the points standings, behind Chris Forsberg and Samuel "the crazy Swede" Hubinette. While points really aren’t that big a deal this early in the season—there are still another six stops to go—mentally, it’s always great to start with a victory. Pro skater Rob Drydek served as the Grand Marshall for the festivities, and rode shotgun while a professional driver turned some wicked donuts in his hopped up Camaro. Make sure to check out that video, and head over to the events section and check out all our pics!

Chris Forsberg’s first experiences with drifting were on his dad’s lawn tractor. And while his pop can’t have been too stoked about having his turf all torn up, something tells me that’s all water under the bridge now. After all, his kid is Formula D’s driver of the year. Hopefully Chris is using some of his cash on a lawn service for his folks. Check out this cool profile.