Well, NASCAR’s Nationwide Series might not be getting a Camaro, but Formula Drift sure is! Check out Grunewald Racing’s new drift Camaro, which will be competing in the 2010 season. It’s running a GM LS-A crate motor with internal mods by Hennessey Performance. Carbon fiber front clip, decklid, and spoilers are by Seibon, and the carbon fiber driveshaft is by PST. Aeromotive handles the fuel delivery, AEM the engine management system. It’s also running Eibach MultiPro R-2 coilovers and front and rear sways. Rubber (you guessed it) by Hankook, and the beast will be piloted next year by Conrad Grunewald. Do you think it’ll have anything for the now-veteran drift Mustangs?

Continue reading "The 2010 FormulaD Camaro" »

The perfect drift by driver M. Kawabata took place during a JDM session using a Nissan RPS13 on Toyo Tires. On the brink of completely spinning out, Kawabata keeps the car under control and implies a reverse entry drift. This is truly the perfect drift! The rear tires almost touch the outside boundary upon entry, and through the remaining duration of the drift he hugs the inside of the corner. Maintaining perfect speed, many have already dubbed this as “the best drift ever”. Read more about the perfect drift at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Ride along with the Mercedes-Benz  CL55 AMG as it drifts through the Nurburgring. The Nurburgring is one of the most challenging tracks in the world for both driver and vehicle. Various turn cambers, slopes, hills, and thrills create an amazing challenge that wears down parts, requires specially built engines, and drivers with intense stamina. Watching the CL55 AMG drift through Nurburgring, you can see how the advanced technology built into the Benz helps it achieve maximum drift angles at mind-boggling speeds.

Mercedes-Benz builds their vehicles with Nurburgring in mind, testing each model for performance and reliability on this course. The close ratio steering, large amounts of low end torque, and high horsepower of the CL55 AMG make it an ideal drifter. Read more about the Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

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" »

As I get ready to head down to Fuji Speedway for the D1 Grand Prix double-rounder final this week-end, I thought this little clip might begin to get us all back in drifting mode. I was actually on the apex of that corner in Okayama this June and what Kawabata was doing looked pretty amazing. But seeing it form this angle makes you really appreciate the pure skill involved in a maneuver like this. If I recall correctly most drivers were throwing thert cars sideway with a flick of the handbrake at around 110 mph. Insane!

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Why do the truly great ones among us always get taken prematurely? It is with a heavy heart that I report the death of Shaun Carlson. He passed away on October 4, 2009. Earlier this year Shaun was diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome and as a result he received a pacemaker. At this time it is unknown if this was a contributing factor to his death. You can read more about this and his career as an NHRA Pro Stock driver here.

But Shaun was much more than a Pro Stock driver, he was a journalist and photographer cutting his teeth at Truckin’ magazine and later helping Turbo make it’s legendary mark on the dawn of the Sport Compact era. I always wanted to shoot like him, he could make a car look absolutely beautiful in a studio decades before Photoshop replaced raw talent. Then he revealed another side busting out a single cam CRX with Jason Whitfield. This car had an unparalleled amount of fabrication and paint job that screamed mid-nineties 909 mini-truckin’ style (and I say that with the utmost admiration).

Shaun soon outgrew the journo game (he actually had more to offer the world) and he took his Nuformz fabrication shop public. His B-series block guards were revolutionary. And then came Steph’s yellow EK Civic hatch that stood the FWD drag world on its steelies. Shaun essentially built the world’s first tube-chassis FF drag car with Steph Papadakis forever changing the game. Thinking back, I must admit to being honored to see that car make its first pass at Battle in Palmdale in ’98 I believe.

In 2000 Shaun dropped a Ford Focus on the SEMA Show that was quite possibly the pinnacle of his tuning and fabrication talents. The car was eventually reskinned as an SRT-4 and was the start of a long relationship Shaun had with Mopar Racing.

Shaun was never given a real shot in Pro Stock, which may have been a good thing since – while he was no slouch behind the wheel, always able to cut a great light – his true talents are on the fabrication side of things. This led to a team ownership of the Mopar drift team where he and driver Samuel Hubinette captured two FD Championships. After trying to polish a turd in the way too-long wheelbased Charger Shaun’s latest, greatest work, a Mopar drift Challenger has yet to smoke a tire in competition. I don’t know if that car will ever run or for that matter if Samuel will run the Viper at this season’s FD finals but hope both come to pass.

I’ll miss Shaun’s infectious grin, his style, which as of late included a Mohawk and his wild ways, which we had in common. But most of all, I’ll miss his work and the impact he had on this sport, which may never be duplicated. Here’s to you, Shaun Carlson.

We were dissapointed Hyundai didn’t leave room for its V8 in the Genesis Coupe, so it’s cool that Rhys Millen is dropping one in. Of course, this is going to be a lot more than a simple engine swap—the new powerplant is going to be mounted in the middle of the car. The 500 beast will make it’s official debut at SEMA, but Bill Wood got a sneak peak.

This just in! You heard it FIRST from MotorMavens.com!!! Some of our readers may remember Luke Loneberger’s Chevy LS1 turbo-engined S14 from our All Star Bash and Megan Racing Competition stories. Well, apparently we were just given the green light to release the big news that we’ve been keeping under our hats for the past couple months! Los Gatos, California based Luke Loneberger will be building Conrad Grunewald’s new competition car for the 2010 Formula Drift season – a brand new Chevrolet Camaro SS, with Hankook as the tire sponsor.

Apparently all of Conrad’s work as a driving instructor at Skip Barber Racing School and his unmistakable presence when driving the Tanaka Racing Corvette in Formula D last year has finally paid off. Let’s also not forget – Conrad isn’t a stranger to the Formula D podium! We have photos to prove it!

Thanks to Andrew and Conrad from CG Racing, we’re able to present you with these sneak peek photos on MotorMavens.com!

Thinking back on this summer’s epic All Star Bash weekend, I’ve begun to come to the conclusion that it just might have been the best American grassroots drifting event that I’ve ever been to in my whole life. Now THAT is a pretty strong statement – especially when you’ve been to as many grassroots drifting events in different states as I have. Of course, one of the things that naturally attracts me to the All Star Bash is the presence of some pretty awesome cars, most of which are S13s and S14s.

However, there was a certain non S-chassis that caught my attention – it was a white R32 Nissan Skyline with license plates from Washington state. It wasn’t until the end of the last day of All Star Bash that I met the owner of this car – Jon Jaffe from Washington’s own Team Instant Party. When we spoke at Willow Springs, it was hot, so I just gave him props on his car and a couple stickers, and went on my way.

Fast forward about a month – on my way back from the Formula D Seattle trip, BN Sports Raymond and I found ourselves chillin out in Bothell, Washington with Instant Party driver Roland Gallagher and his dad. On the day I was supposed to return to Los Angeles, I asked Raymond if we could stop by Roland’s house on the way to the airport so I could check out his car really quick and say what’s up. Shortly after we arrived at Roland’s house, Jon took a break from his workday to come over and say hello. Perfect timing. I wanted to get a closer look at his Skyline anyway! Continue reading and view more photos at MotorMavens!

Over the last 45 years, there have been myriad versions of the Mustang. But without Lee Iacocca, none would have ever come to be. So it’s only fitting that there be a special edition that bears his name. Only 45 of these Michael Leone designed, Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters built babies are going to be produced, so watching the driver drift in the tunnel made us want to remind him to be careful. I was going to describe the styling, but I think I’ll just let this clip do the talking…

For this clip, Speedhunters said to hell with cinematic montages and went for a pure visceral experience, and we love it. Hop into Vaughn Gittin JR’s Mustang for practice laps and runs against McNamara in Atlanta!

We heard about the crazy contact that happened while Ryan Tuerck and Katsuhiro Ueo were battling during Formula D  Vegas, but this is the best footage we’ve seen of it. Apparently, Tureck was just inches from Ueo when he jammed on the brakes, and the resulting collision caused all four wheels of his Pontiac Solstice to leave the ground. In the post-run interview, Tuerck tells commentator Miki Taka the car jumped four feet in the air, and while it looks closer to two feet, it must have felt pretty wild.

I’m not really sure what to say here, but this ‘48 Pontiac has got to be one of the most unique cars I’ve ever seen take part in this twisted motorsport. Just watch the clip.

By Mike Garrett

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.

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?" »