Ah, motorsports–it’s so much more than racing these days. The motorsports contingent is always huge at SEMA, and it’s one of those categories that can literally go from A to Z: there are so many variations on automotive competition that there’s no way you can expect to capture a representative cross-section. That’s okay–it just allows us to focus on what we find cool, with shameless subjectivity. In the interests of inclusiveness, we’ve tried to hit as many of the hottest motorsports series as our five entries will allow. NASCAR is represented by the new Nationwide Series Mustang, running Ford’s all-new Roush Yates FR9. Then there’s the 2010 Camaro’s debut entry in Formula Drift, which will definitely be on our radar in the coming season. Chris Rado’s insane Time Attack Scion carries the torch for that genre. SCCA is represented, albeit in vintage form, by Bob Boileau’s multiple-championship-winning Civic. And the Traxxas short-course race truck rounds out the motorsports fleet for off-road racing. Um, yeah, we totally skipped NHRA. And a bunch of other stuff. Oh well, time to hit the polls!

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!

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" »

Our friends at Need for Speed are celebrating 16 sweet years of gaming by giving away 8 trips to the Formula Drift finals in Irwindale, California, October 16-17.

If you live in the US or Canada, and you want to enter the random draw, all you need to do is submit a photo or video – 60 seconds or less, please – telling them about your Need for Speed experiences, gaming, cars, or anything that drives you.

For more information and contest rules, visit happysweet16nfs.com We’ll see a few of you at Irwindale next month perhaps!

By Rod Chong

Although there’s nothing funner than traveling around shooting pictures of cool cars, I have to admit I’m looking forward to the break I’ll have this weekend after five consecutive weeks of events. Perhaps my Miata will get a much-needed wash? Maybe a drive in the hills? Anyways, before the end of the week, I wanted to wrap up my Formula Drift Sonoma coverage with one more batch of random photos from the event. Continue reading at Speedhunters.

—Mike Garrett

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!

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.

We posted pics of this car back in June, but when it popped up at Seattle Formula D, I thought it was worth a quick video. The car got some pretty strongly worded comments when we posted the video on StreetFire last week, including this from 2carlos8

Ok, I am a Sgt in the US Air Force, and I cant watch this without getting pissed! We have to hagle with leadership for supplies and equipment but yet can afford to build MONSTROSITIES like this. as you can see from my profile pic I own a SRT8 Chally and cant figure out why they’d jack-up something that was already stunning in its own right. That money could have been spent on my boys in the sandpit!

So, do you think the Air Force should have commissioned this car?

We rushed to get up footage of the qualifying rounds last Friday, but here’s a slightly more polished look at the action by our videographer Andy Hanson. Stay tuned for video of last Saturday’s action from Will Roegge.

I’m sure many of you have been waiting for my photos and stories from Formula D Seattle, so I apologize to our readers for uploading these kind of late. It’s been a pretty hectic weekend. There was plenty of drama at Formula D on Saturday, and I apparently added to it by pissing off the Formula D safety steward while grabbing a quick shot of Dai Yoshihara’s smashed Lexus IS350 as it was getting loaded up onto a tow truck and pulled off the track.
It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, the Formula D/SCCA guy Randy Hembrey got pissed off at me and pulled my hard card on Saturday (competition day), which allows me to get track access for shooting photos. This was definitely a problem, as I was expected to produce good images that weekend (I was shooting the event for clients, who helped pay my way to get up to Seattle). I had a hell of a time trying to get photos for the rest of the day, especially without access to the hot areas, but I still managed to get some photos somehow. So here it is… Formula D Seattle through my eyes. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

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

I ran into Victor at the Seattle Formula D on Friday. Some of you may remember this video we did with him last year at Pacific Raceways. Well, check out his new ride!

Continue reading "Victor’s New Ride" »

Here’s some unedited video I shot with my little Casio point and shoot while walking around the pits at Formula D (one more video after the jump). We’ll have more video and photos from Seattle Formula D over the next few days, so stay tuned.

Continue reading "In the Pits at Seattle Formula D" »

And check out what’s under the hood after the jump.

Continue reading "Pretty Paint, Nice Wheels" »

I thought this Infiniti looked sharp. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Cleanest Ride at Seattle Formula D" »