By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Drifting girls in Japan are doing a lot more than just standing around looking pretty–they’re actually building the cars and drifting themselves! Over in Japan, women are quickly capturing a major segment within this motorsport and taking no prisoners. Will women break into drifting in a big way here in the United States? Read more at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

A Jalopnik reader scored this raw video of Hubinette testing his new Formula Drift Challenger at Adams Motorsports Park this week. There’s a slightly more produced similar video making the rounds, but it’s tarted up with goofy music that obscures the film’s true soundtrack: the guttural roar of that 800 hp, methanol-injected 410. Accordingly, the raw version below is better. Enjoy! Via Jalopnik.

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Was it all a dream or possibly a fantasy perhaps? We just got back from a star-studded Hollywood-style premiere. But the star attraction was not some coked out, starved-for-attention starlet (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but one of our favorite drifters introducing his all-new competition car for the 2010 Formula Drift series. Hit the jump to see more up skirt shots of this sexy beast.

Continue reading "Vaughn Gittin JR and His 2011 Ford Mustang GT Are Ready to Rock" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

You are looking at a shot of a 2010 Formula Drift car that almost didn’t happen. Samuel Hubinette, a two-time Formula Drift Champion who finished fourth in points last year had a trying 2009 season to say the least. First was the rather untimely bankruptcy of Chrysler that left his Nuformz Mopar/BFGoodrich team without sponsorship for the majority of last season followed by the tragic death of his team owner, Shaun Carlson just before last year’s FD finals.

But Samuel picked himself up and dusted off the tire bits and is preparing to come back with this 2010 Dodge Challenger that will include sponsorship from his longtime supporters Dodge and BFGoodrich. Samuel will also campaign the car under his newly formed eponymous Samuel Hubinette Racing team. But Samuel won‘t be the only driver on Team SHR as veteran rally ace Andrew Comrie-Picard will drive the team’s iconic Dodge Viper SRT-10. Hit the jump to see more pictures and a rough video of this car, which is very much still a work in progress.

Continue reading "Sneak Peak: Samuel Hubinette’s 2010 Dodge Challenger Drift Car" »

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

Before I begin you should know that as the executive editor of StreetFire.net I love me some drift montage videos. And it should be noted that I did not ask the question presented in the title of this entry – believe it not, it was one of the filmmakers who produced these videos. I will protect his identity to spare him from the potential of a beat down with a sock full of P2 cards, some pursuit bars from a fixie, or whatever it is these artistic types use to submit beat downs.

With all of this in mind allow me to present the first (and potentially only) StreetFire Fab Friday Formula D Film Festival. I have three short form videos all from the some of the biggest names in drift video filmmaking (these guys are bigger than ever, its the monitors that got smaller!). All were shot at the latest FD Seattle stop. Our first submission is from Will “Cheesecake” Roegge, arguably the Quentin T of this genre. He also gets to go first because we worked together and he knows where the bodies are buried. Hit the jump to see a couple more deep and moody clips from FD Seattle and vote for your favorite in the comments. Or you can just tell us you hate these kinds of videos.

Continue reading "Has the Artsy Drift Montage Jumped the Shark?" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Formula Drift’s Round Five has officially kicked off at Seattle’s Evergreen Raceway. Ryan Tuerck rode the banks of the bullring with greater speed and angle than the rest of the field to put him in the number one qualifying spot. Other big news surrounded the protest of Tanner Foust’s tC that was broken by our boys at Wrecked Magazine. Hit the jump to see the complete list of qualifying results with video! And we’ll be back with more from tomorrow’s main event at Evergreen including more video coverage.

Continue reading "Formula Drift Seattle Qualifying Videos" »

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

There’s been a lot of business to take care of at our office in Vancouver for the past few months, so it’s been a little while since I’ve been in the field with a camera. But that all changed today, as we just shot at two rather different automotive scenarios, each within a few miles of one another. It all started a week or so ago, when John Naderi from Streetfire.net invited us to a shoot he and Will Roegge were conducting just down the road from Evergreen Speedway in the Seattle area. Continue reading at Speedhunters.

—By Rod Chong

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

The fourth round of the 2009 Formula Drift Championship is in the books and what a scorcher it was. I think I’m supposed to write some sort of witty quip about the triple digit temps here, but truth be told my brain is still somewhat melty. And not from the heat, but rather the stunning points shakeup that went down in Vegas. Coming into Sin City Darren McNamara was leading in points but a mechanical with his Falken Tire Sears Auto Center Sky finished his weekend before it even started. Another shocking DNQ was that of 2005 champion, Rhys Millen. Just when we thought the points chase couldn’t be flipped any more Tanner Foust goes in it to win it after a rare DNQ at round three. Hit the video to see it all. And no matter what Tanner and Stephan may say, I am not a pussy, their NASCAR V-8 just happens to scare me a little bit, that’s all.

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Triple digit temps and a new course configuration lit up the drivers at the fourth round of the 2009 Formula Drift series at Las Vegas. So far this season has been a real wild child. The odds of two-time defending champion Tanner Foust three-peating are greater than getting Megan Fox to wash my car. Here in Vegas Rhys Millen could not even score high enough to qualify. Another shocking DNQ was current points leader Darren McNamara whose Saturn Sky expired it’s V8 engine during practice. In an effort to keep him in the points Falken unceremoniously unseated Calvin Wan from his S15 but DMac couldn’t put a solid qualifying run together. The Falken crew did manage to score a big win after they somehow managed to tape JR Gittin’s Mustang back together in quick fashion after he hit the wall hard in practice. JR rode the wrinkled Ford to a 19th qualifying spot. Take a jump with me to see more from Las Vegas.

Continue reading "Formula Drift Vegas: Goin’ Big and Crappin’ Out" »