The drift demo was organized to promote the Formula Drift Team Drift, which takes place as part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. There was an IndyCar demo scheduled as well but we didn’t stick around for that portion of the program. Besides we would argue that the drifters stole the show anyway.

It was somewhat surreal to see the Formula Drift cars parked out in front Chinese Theatre. We think Joon Maeng’s footprints would look good in concrete.

The invited drivers were Samuel Hubinette in his SHR Dodge BFGoodrich Challenger, Justin Pawlak in his Falken Tire FC3S RX-7 (no Mustang), Joon Maeng in his Full Tilt Poker RX-8, Mad Mike Whiddett in his Red Bull Badbull RX-8 and Michael Essa in his GSR Motorsports 335 (complete with M5 V10).

If you want to see the Team Drifting Demos at Long Beach this weekend they are scheduled to run a practice on Friday from 9:35-10:00am with the actual demo taking place from 8:55-9:20am on Saturday.

Before we sign off we’ll leave you with a few videos from the event. The area was very tight and you can see how close the Mikes, Essa and Whiddett come to making contact.

Drifters Go Mad on Streets of Hollywood

Mad Mike is indeed worthy of his nickname. We like his style, which is to say, completely bonkers.

Badbull Drift RX-8 Does Donuts on Hollywood Blvd

You’ll want to turn up your speakers for this one. Michael Essa’s V10 at full song is a thing of eardrum bursting beauty.

M5 V10 Swap 335 Tears up Hollywood Blvd.

All you need to do is upload a video to StreetFire and click on the “Contest” link in the categories. If your video has the most views in a given week you can win $100. It’s that simple! Click here for complete contest details.

Last week’s winner of a crisp, clean Benji was StreetFire member, Driftgarage. While we would have preferred more Challenger and less Reggae Floyd on the soundtrack it probably won because it was the first look at this new drift car. It was also much better than my submission, which you can see after the jump.

SAM HUBINETTE 2010 DODGE CHALLENGER 1st DRIFT

Forget heel toe, I just need to master the art of pulling away from a standstill. Now go forth, submit a video. Get people to watch it. Earn $100.

I am Nads. This is my Acura RSX Type-S

Here’s Rob’s lame video

me and my old Mopar

Our host for the evening was none other than Rob Dyrdek who held court at his Fantasy Factory. It was cool to see drifters and skaters rubbing sleeved elbows with each other.

But the car was the star on this night and the center of attention was Vaughn Gittin JR’s 2011 Monster Energy Falken Tire
Ford Mustang GT. Much like Vaughn’s 2010 Mustang, which he campaigned last year and will be driven by Justin Pawlak this season, this car was built by ASD Motorsports. This Charlotte-based motorsports shop is responsible for all of Falken’s drift cars.

According to Vaughn, “ASD is unbelievable. This [2011 Mustang] is probably one of the most engineered, well-built drift cars of 2010. We learned a lot from the old car.”

Some of those lessons must have been in weight reduction as the ‘Stang’s feathery 2,600lb weight can partially be attributed to the full carbon fiber body. The ASD crew also managed to move four percent of the weight to the back of the car.

The powerplant is a 5.0L Ford Racing supercharged V-8 laying down some 680hp.

Here we see JR with his much better half, Abigail Baker and SR as in Vaughn Gittin Sr., JR’s proud papa. Between our frequent trips to the open bar we had a quick moment to pose a few questions to JR. Here’s what we managed to scribble on our cocktail napkin. In terms of build quality, the car JR most respects is that of his Falken Tire teammate, Tyler McQuarrie’s 350Z, which coincidentally was also fabbed up by ASD. The driver JR respects the most is his Drift Alliance brother and 2009 Formula Drift Champion, Chris Forsberg. And finally the person he cannot wait to tandem against is Samuel Hubinette. JR told us that he wants to put his bumper up on the door of Samuel’s Challenger in a repeat of their contact at Long Beach last year.

Speaking of Long Beach, it is the site of the 2010 Formula Drift season opener coming up on April 10-11. And we can’t wait to see JR’s pony run.

Let’s get right to business. The Sierra Sierra Cosworth Evolution driven by open wheel ace, David Empringham, laid down a blistering 1:43.436 a mere nine one hundredths of a second faster than the long-standing 1:43.523 held by the HKS CT230R Evo. Aaaaand we now have a new record. Or do we? The problem is that Redline allows its unlimited cars (or Super Modified in their nomenclature) to run slicks, which are a few ticks faster than the DOT-approved rubber that the Super Lap Battle allows. And Nobuteru “NOB” Taniguchi set the record in the HKS Evo on Yokohama A048R DOT rubbers at the Super Lap Battle. So this means no record, right? Not so fast there, Tex Mex. While Sierra Sierra could have easily run slicks team principle – and notoriously shy guy – Dennis Kottke opted to run DOT tires – more specifically, the Hankook Ventus Z214 DOT R-compounds. So we do have a record? Not according to the Super Lappers. Okay, all of this controversy is making our heads hurt. We don’t care if its champagne or not, we just need a drink.

At the end of the day at Buttonwillow Sierra Sierra ran the 1:43.436 in practice but in the actual time attack Emp clocked a 1:44.344, which was still good enough to win the Super Modified AWD class as well as the overall event title.

Two other big name cars were notorious in their absence at Buttonwillow one being the AMS Evo X. Apparently Martin Musial and crew were “squeezed” out of their sponsorship deal. That really is a shame since that car coulda been a contender. Another MIA was the FXMD NSX driven by Billy Johnson. This car has always been a threat for an overall win except at this year’s season opener. The ugly rumor was that the team just couldn’t get the car completed on time. Before you can beat the clock it pays to read the calendar, fellahs. Let’s hope they can finish the car before the next round. With two other top all and rear wheel drive cars no showing this left the door open for none other than Mr. Muttonchops, Christian “Too Much Power is Just Enough” Rado and his equally flamboyant 1,000hp FWD Scion tC. Yes, we said 1,000hp. Through the front wheels. Yes, the mutha fluckin’ front wheels! Rado crushed the long-standing SLB FF record on DOTs last November with a 1:49.703 and at Redline on slickety slicks he went even faster still with a 1:46.736. The wildest part is that Christian tells us the car has a lot more in it. Wilder still is his AWD tC that is a work in progress. Look out, Radioactive Man!

Back in the day Brian Lock drove the hubba hubba heartbreaker GST Impreza but at the 2009 Redline Finals he unveiled his own R35 GT-R. This year the GT-R got fat, er phat with an AIT widebody and a COBB sponsorship. And Brian didn’t let his new partners down with a 1:48.897, which was good enough for a Modified AWD victory.

Years ago we rode along with Jeremy Renshaw in his built Integra GSR at PIR. He scared us. Now he’s going even faster in his AFI Turbo Honda S2000. 1:54.851 and the Redline Modified RWD first place trophy can ride along with him now.

Conrad Grunewald took the win in the Drift Class with a 1:57.896 in his Hankook Tire 2010 Camaro. We thought Conrad was a brave man taking his new Formula Drift car out to the Redline event until we realized that Buttonwillow’s tumbleweeds are far less imposing than the walls of Long Beach.

The next round of the Redline Time Attack is at The New Jersey Motor Sport Park on April 10-11. And if you want to see more images from Buttonwillow click here

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.

Samuel’s Challenger is currently is being assembled at ES Motorsports in Riverside, CA and the build is led by SHR’s crew chief, Brad Manka, who maintained the Nuformz Viper during the 2008 and 2009 FD campaigns. We shot these images and video on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 23. Clearly the car is a long way from being ready for prime time but Brad assured us that the car would be good to go for the FD tech inspection this coming Saturday, March 27. Samuel’s scheduled time to tech is at 2:30 pm and it looks like the team is going to need every available minute before then to make it on time. These guys need an energy drink sponsorship, STAT!

There’s a joke about a Hemi in here somewhere. Brad tells us the SHR Challenger will rock a 410ci Mopar USAC Sprint Car engine with an aluminum block and mechanical injection. On methanol the motor will produce 810hp with 690 ft-lbs of torque. Brad says he hasn’t decided if he’ll hang mufflers on the car yet. We’ll just go on record right now as NOT wanting to be paired up against Samuel with this car shooting unspent methanol from a pair of open headers. We like our eyesight and hearing just the way they are now, thank you.

The Eibach coilover hanging off the front suspension is all we can show you. Brad didn’t want to reveal the rear suspension just yet. While the car’s configuration should be fully legal according to the 2010 FD rules there is a lot of trick work done on the back end that Brad would just as soon keep secret for now. We should also point out that this is not the Challenger that Shaun Carlson and his Nuformz crew debuted at the 2008 SEMA Show. Unfortunately that car does not comply with this year’s rules.

This will be Samuel’s office for the 2010 season. But the man himself was not able to give us a tour of the car since he is currently in Japan getting ready to compete at a D1GP in Odaiba, Japan. Samuel will be driving Takahiro Ueno’s old D1 Soarer and his appearance will also mark the first time a top Formula Drift driver – and a two-time champion no less – will be driving in a D1GP round in Japan. Once he gets back we can’t wait to see this car rounding Turn 9 on April 10 at the FD opener. Drift Ya Later!

The latest legislative alert, which is currently moving through Utah’s senate floor, proposes to ban any exhaust not “installed by the original manufacturer of the vehicle” regardless of whether it meets DOT, NHTSA and emissions requirements. SAN is calling on us to help fight this bill by contacting the Utah state senators to get them to vote against this bill. C’mon, people, even if you don’t live in Utah don’t allow this to become a precedent for which all other states can cite. Act now. Click here to get more information on the bill.

We’re big fans of this show as it’s a mix of Hot Import Nights hype, old school Import Showoff substance and SEMA tradeshow info. We haven’t seen a more pleasing blend since the Reese’s people got peanut butter in their chocolate or perhaps since Donny and Marie mashed up a little bit of country with some rock and roll (silly Mormons!).

Hit the jump to see our StreetFire original video from last year’s show as well as the press release from SpoCom showing the times and dates. You can also visit SpoCom USA for more info.

Press Release:
Industry, California February 18, 2010

SpoCom will be hosting 3 confirmed events in 2010

City of Industry, California – February 18, 2010 – SpoCom is pleased to announce the 2010 Tour Schedule.

SpoCom San Mateo
San Mateo County Event Center
2495 South Delaware Street
San Mateo, CA 94403

Saturday, May 1st, 2010
3:00pm-10:00pm

SPOCOM SUPER SHOW
Long Beach Convention Center
300 Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90802

Sunday, July 18th, 2010
11:00am-6:00pm

SpoCom Hawaii
Blaisdell Center in Honolulu
777 Ward Ave.
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814

Saturday, August 28th, 2010
3:00pm-11:00pm

SpoCom is extremely excited to announce at least two new locations for 2010. SpoCom will bring their unique hardcore car show competition and automotive lifestyle entertainment to both San Mateo, and Honolulu. The established 4th annual SpoCom Super Show will continue to be held in Long Beach, CA.

All events will be hosted at indoor facilities providing the best possible competition atmosphere for the serious car show participant. A controlled indoor environment provides vendors, Manufacturers, Consumers, and Models, a comfortable and enjoyable experience.

SpoCom will continue to deliver the most competitive car competition in the Nation. Car Show participants will now have three opportunities to compete for the most sought after trophy in the entire Industry. Special care in the off season was dedicated to continually improve upon an already excellent car show format.

SpoCom is always focused on keeping its fans highly entertained. The cars are guaranteed to be insane but everyone needs a little eye candy. The Stage will be filled with various types of entertainment. Featuring an Urban Dance Competition, Lingerie Show, scorching hot Bikini Contest, and much more.

SpoCom’s goal has been, and always will be to elevate the expectations of both car show competitors and enthusiasts alike. See what all the excitement is about as SpoCom comes to a city near you.

For more information on the show contact:
Michael Morita
SpoCom USA
(626) 333-1400
morita@spocomusa.com