8 Crazy and Unique Formula Drift Cars!

8 Crazy and Unique Formula Drift Cars!

Posted on by Joey Redmond

If you’re an avid Formula Drift fan and followed along for years you may have your share of favorite memories. However, can you remember some of the most unique FD builds to take the grid? Here are our top 8 picks for most unique Formula Drift Cars! Let us know if you think we missed any or what your favorite ones are!

8. James Bondurant’s Factory Five Shelby Replica

James Bondurant (son of Bob Bondurant) brought a few unique cars out to Formula Drift over his career span. The most unique was a Factory Five Roadster, which is a mock chassis of the famous 427 Shelby Cobra. He never qualified in it

7. Mike Peter’s Automatic Chevrolet El Camino

Mike Peters drove a 3 speed automatic Chevrolet El Camino around Formula Drift for quite some time! The automatic transmission is now illegal in Formula Drift so this is another unique feature to this odd drift car that stands out. You could also classify it as the only “truck” to run in Formula Drift if you wanted too. The really cool thing about this build is that is was super budget and Mike Peters was decently competitive with it.

6. Travis Reeder’s Electric EL1 Chevrolet Camaro

Travis Reeder with Napoleon Motorsports unveiled a full electric Chevrolet Camaro for the 2019 Formula Drift season. The car qualified at Road Atlanta putting this Chevy in the history books of Formula Drift. This Camaro runs Konig Ampliform wheels that are 20″ x 9.5″in the rear and 19″ x 8.5″ in the front wrapped in Nitto NT555G2 tires.

5. Team Falken’s 1969 Chevrolet Camaro

Team Falken really had their glory days of Formula Drift in the early years of the sport. The 1969 Chevy Camaro was a perfect example of the boys in teal and blue throwing anything on the track they thought could drift. Ryan Hampton was tasked with trying to wheel this old muscle car around Formula Drift. While the car never performed exceptionally well he did look up to the standard of the times in Formula Drift and man it looked good sideways.

4. James Robinson’s V6 Honda Element

James Robinson took his day job as an engineer at Honda and applied his skills to building a V6 swapped Honda Element for Formula Drift. This marks the only SUV or non-car chassis to compete in the sport to date. The new rulebook does not allow trucks or SUVs to compete in the series so this will stand as the lone qualifying SUV for a long time into the future.

3. Tanner Foust’s RWD Volkswagen Passat 

Tanner Foust and his crew chief/builder Stephan Papadakis have brought some wild builds into Formula Drift over the years. I choose to dig into the Volkswagen Passat that was converted to RWD with a Chevrolet LS7 squeezed into the engine baby. The car was a very unique chassis and the first Volkswagen to compete in Formula Drift. While Tanner Foust is retired from Formula Drift he still brings the Passat out to events such as Gridlife where the car has been dubbed the “Drift Taxi.”

2. Blake Fuller’s RWD Acura Integra

In the early days of Formula Drift we had Blake Fuller of Braille Battery bring the first RWD converted FWD car to Formula Drift. He showed up with a DC2 Acura Integra that he converted to RWD and competed in FD. This car wouldn’t even be competitive in Pro Am these days but it was pretty cool and unique for its time. It was also the first Honda chassis to compete in Formula Drift with several to follow.

1.Federico Sceriffo’s Nitrous Powered Ferrari 599

This is the car you are likely the most familiar with on this list. The Ferrari 599 made a debut in the 2018 season piloted by Italian drifter Fedrico Sceriffo. The first version of the car was a twin-supercharge the 6.0-liter V12 for its debut season. It was later simplified to a simpler motor setup with nitrous to top it off for power. It’s not likely we will see another exotic car compete in Formula Drift in the next decade so this is truly a crazy and unique chassis to treasure.

Top 10 Most Forgotten About Formula Drift Drivers

Posted on by Joey Redmond

To kick off the 2019 Formula Drift season we have compiled a fun Top 10 list of the drivers you don’t remember over the past 15+ years of Formula Drift.


10. Rod Millen
Yes, the Dad of Rhys Millen had a stint in Formula Drift in 2006. He debuted in a Mazda Rx-8 and lost to Tanner Foust in his first ever event at Streets of Long Beach in Top 16. His career was short lived as a drift driver and eventually he sold the Rx-8 to Tony Angelo who went on to use it in several Formula Drift seasons. Rod Millen’s racing career is very impressive including holding the overall Pikes Peak record from 1994-2007 with a blistering 10:04:06 in his AWD Toyota Celica. Rod Millen even went on to win the Transsyberia Rally 2007 along with a very long list of racing awards and achievements.

9. Mark Arcenal
Mark Arcenal had a very short career in Formula Drift that included about one single qualifying run. Sadly he crashed his S14 above at Sonoma Raceway that year and never returned. Mark is the owner of a hugely successful brand in Fatlace/Illest based out of San Francisco. He is also a very respected car builder putting together some amazing and unique project cars including doing builds for OEMs to debut at the SEMA Show.


8. Tsukasa Gushi
Another father makes our list of most forgotten Formula Drift drivers at number 8 isTsukasa Gushi. He is the father of Ken Gushi and Tsukasa also had a unique and interesting career in motorcycle and rally racing before his run in Formula Drift. He also owned and ran a performance garage in San Gabriel, California and quickly put his son Ken Gushi behind the wheel at a very very young age. He drove a Subaru WRX converted to RWD in the 2006 season next to Rod Millen but sadly never qualified under the Top 16 format of the time to compete in tandem.

7. Blake Fuller
Blake Fuller is another interesting name on the forgotten drivers list. He actually debuted the very first FWD car in Formula Drift converting an Acura Integra to RWD and running it in Formula Drift. Sadly, we had no pics in the Wrecked Magazine archive of it so we featured a photo of him later on in his Braille Battery Nissan 350z. What some might not know is that GoPuck is another brand founded and run by Blake Fuller. Under that brand he has taken his Tesla Model S to hold the EV lap record at Sonoma Raceway and holds the EV Production Car record at Pikes Peak at 11:48 in the same Tesla Model S.

6. James Bondurant
James Bondurant’s name might sound familiar as he is the grandson of the famous Bob Bondurant who had an amazing racing career and now owns a race school in Arizona. James and his Drift Avengers had a short career in Formula Drift competing in an old road race Lexus IS300 that he worked to setup for Formula Drift. The car never quite got there and James quickly went into retirement after unsuccessfully competing for a small period of time.


5. Katsuhiro Ueo
While tons of Japanese drivers came and went from Formula Drift over the years we felt like Katsuhiro Ueo wins top honors in this category. Ueo had near legend status in the old school drifting community within the AE86 world. He dominated in his AE86 in D1GP but appeared in America with a S15 Silvia. His limited time in Formula Drift left some serious impressions during his era. His 2009 tandem battle against Ken Gushi won tandem battle of the year at Wrecked Magazine for that season. Then in Las Vegas he was part of the famous bunny hop battle against Ryan Tuerck where Tuerck’s Pontiac Solstice went flying through the air after jumping over Ueo’s S15 under the Vegas lights. As quickly as he came into Formula Drift he was gone and earned himself this mark as a forgotten driver.

4. Kenji Yaminaka
Kenji Yaminaka makes the list because of his big driving style but even bigger character at the time in Formula Drift. Kenji is the only person to ever use an oversized human prop while on the podium of Formula Drift using his famous oversized ear to excite or confuse fans… I’m not really sure which it was. Kenji Yaminaka was also a member of the famous Drift Alliance for a short period of time. Kenji drove and dominated in the JIC Silvia for some time and interestingly enough had a winning all time record against Vaughn Gittin Jr. (2-1) and never lost a battle against Chris Forsberg (2-0) during his time period in the sport. Kenji is also the most successful driver to make our list having three podiums during his 24 rounds he competed in Formula Drift.


3. Alex Pfeiffer
Alex Pfeiffer had a long stint in Formula Drift and most notably use to drift this Honda s2000 for RSR back in the day. He also owned and founded Battle Version suspension that still develops and builds arms for several car chassis today. Alex was also the first ever Hawaiian to run in Formula Drift being born in Honolulu. He had quite the personality and was a memorable drifter back in the day.

2. Robby Unser
The car above was debuted at SEMA 2007 for Robby Unser but it was campaigned that next season by Bill Sherman in Formula Drift. Of all the cross over racers and relatives of famous race car drivers I have to say Robby Unser had the most promise behind a drift car. He ran a quick stint in a 240sx for Enjuku Racing in the 2007 season. Robby never made a dent with records in Formula Drift but he was the rookie of the year in the 1998 Indy season where he finished 5th at the Indy 500. Robby also is a nine time winner in his class at Pikes Peak.


1. Tyson Beckford
YES!!! The Tyson Beckford had a brief stint with Team X and teammate Tony Brakohiapa back in 2005. The man who Vogue Magazine called “the most famous male model of all time” put on a racing suit and competed in Formula Drift. Sadly, one of his first events was at Soldier Field in Chicago back in 2005 that destroyed a good 10+ cars on its weekend. Tyson Beckford was one of those cars drifting his Ford Mustang right into the turn one wall and never really making a successful return after that.

James Houghton Takes Home 2nd Place in Super Lap Battle at COTA

Posted on by Joey Redmond

Super Lap Battle does a great job of putting on an event. Great competitors, great cars, great venues, and a world-class event staff. Just a couple of weeks ago was no exception when they visited COTA.

James Houghton pushed his K-Tuned/Lavigne Motorsports Acura Integra Type R to its limits and finished a lap around the 3.427-mile Circuit of The America outside Austin, Texas at a blistering 2:11.811. This unlimited class is a no holds barred racing battle and third place found themselves almost 5 full seconds behind the Type R. The K-Tuned/Lavigne Motorsports makes a whopping 809hp out of a K24 Honda engine. This amazing machine relies on the Konig Dekagram specs here(18×10.5 et18 / 17×9 et35) that implement Konig’s flow forming process to ensure durability and an ultra-lightweight performance feel.

Konig had other great performers at Super Lap Battle weekend at Circuit of the Americas and the second fastest one was Sally McNulty in the IAG Performance Subaru WRX who finished 9th in the Street class with a time of 2:34.363. Just behind her was Jackie Ding in the PhD Racing Honda s2000 who logged a very respectable 2:36.298 in the Street Class wrapping up all the top Konig Wheel performers at the amazing 3.427-mile and 20 turn track deep in central Texas.

 

SPECS:
James Houghton | Acura Integra Type R | Konig Dekagram | 18×10.5 et18 (front) / 17×9 et35 (rear) – Semi Matte Black
Sally McNulty | Subaru WRX | KONIG HYPERGRAM – 18×9.5 et35 Race Bronze
Jackie Ding | Honda s2000 | KONIG HYPERGRAM – 18×10.5 et25 (Square) Red Opal