While recently some rumors flared up about Mad Mike coming to Formula Drift we managed to ignore them until we could find some factual information. Several people have told us that everyone’s favorite drifter Rhys Millen has worked to  have a two car Redbull Energy Drink team for 2010. From sources close to RMR we have been told that a two car campaign is in the works with Mad Mike Whiddett. Word has it he will be driving a Mazda Rx-8 for the 2010 season. This one should be interesting and last time Rhys Millen campaigned a two car team with Daijiro Yoshihara in the Pontiac GTO it went pretty well.

The results from Horse Thief Mile yesterday were staggering for everyone involved in our virtual versus reality project. I sat on the track scared for my life as we battled it out for virtual reality and reality. Vaughn had never driven HTM at the time or driven the Shelby GT500 on a track until yesterday. I had never raced the Shelby GT500 at HTM on Need  for Speed SHIFT until we arrived at the track as well.

When Vaughn wasn’t busy melting the tires we had some really awesome battles in our respective machines. A huge thanks to the guys at Go Pro Camera who brought us 10+ HD Motorsports Hero car cameras to really capture the event with video. We are going to get putting all this footage and data together as soon as we can. Stay tuned for when we release it all in one of the upcoming issues of Wrecked Magazine,

The challenge was issued by Wrecked Magazine to Ford and Vaughn Gittin Jr. sometime ago called Vaughn Gittin Jr. It’s Time for a Callout where we wanted to see if a pro gamer could beat a pro racer with the same variables. Pending the sky doesn’t fall in tomorrow we are going to have an all out Shelby Cobra GT500 battle at the track.  Vaughn Gittin will have a grabber blue with white stripe GT500 roaring at the track you see above. I will be sitting track side in my virtual GT500 racing around the same track in a Shelby GT500. Let’s see who will win, virtual world or reality. Let’s let our machines weigh in.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. – Pro Driver Since: 2004 – Car: 2010 Shelby GT500

Weight: 3,924 lbs.
Horsepower: 540hp
Gearbox: 6 Speed
Engine: 5.4L Supercharged

MSRP: $46,725
Length: 188.2 inches
Width: 73.9 inches
Wheelbase: 107.1 in.

Height: 6′2
Handed: Right
Job: Formula D Driver

VERSUS

Joey Redmond – Gamer Since: 1996 – Car: 2010 Shelby GT500

Weight: 392 lbs.
Horsepower: 540hp
Gearbox: 6 Speed
Engine: Playstation 3

MSRP: $2,571
Length: 92.8 inches
Width: 38 inches
Wheelbase: 107.1 inches

Height: 5′11
Handed: Right
Job: Editor of Wrecked Magazine

Here are the details for tomorrow’s race, stay tuned for more details!

For 2010 i looks like Formula Drift has brought out a new look to the website. Everything seems to be pretty much in the same place as before so you shouldn’t get to lost on the website but the new look and floating tables is much cleaner than the style of yesterday. Still no date for Sonoma  but they have it in the round five slot implying it will go down between July 10th and August 20th.

Check out the new site: http://www.formulad.com/

Ed Loh at Motor Trend gathered some Scion Racing drift cars with a Nissan GT-R and put them to the tests at El Toro Field. They put the car through some traditional Motor Trend tests and let them slide around for a minute or two. Personally when I found out Ed was behind the project I really expected much more with his background in drifting but we’ll take it anyway. Here are how the drift cars stacked up behind the numbers.

You can watch a video along with some other pictures on the Motor Trend website showing you the tests in action along with some other quick shots. The best part of the video is watching Tanner Foust do the Motor Trend Figure Eight test.

Read More Here: http://www.motortrend.com/

Here is the set of the new Fantasy Factory season on MTV where Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Ford Mustang are attempting to grind their way across this long rail with what looks like a jump at the end from some other pictures. Episode will air sometime this summer and I’m interested to see how this one is going to go down.

Follow Wrecked Magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wreckedmagazine

Look what we just found on twitter. This Mustang will be doing a grind for the new season opener of the Fantasy Factory with a Vaughn Gittin Jr. inspired Mustang. While I am positive this isn’t his his new competition car it sure looks like Monster Energy drink is on that car doesn’t it, along with all of his other sponsors Ford, K&N, Bosch, and Falken. Here was our report earlier this week, Vaughn Gittin Jr. is a Monster.

Follow Wrecked Magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wreckedmagazine

The Gruppe-S blog just released some puzzling photos a few days ago of “Robbie Nishida’s Nissan GT-R. For starters those sure aren’t Hankook Tires on those factory rims but the Bridgestone Potenza’s that come from the factory. This car sure looks like a far cry from the item that was rolled out at the 2009 SEMA Show in a full Hankook wrap with body kit, suspension, and wheels. The SEMA show car is pictured below.

Now I gave this car a very detailed inspection and according to my SEMA notes this car was OEM painted black. The car they posted on the blog is sitting in silver. This probably explains the 0% tint they placed over the whole car as well. It looks like they slapped some parts and vinyl on a stock machine for the show and dealt with the race chassis later.

Overlooking the photos and assuming they are current someone better stop “avoiding the project” as the blog said and get in gear. In case the calender is stuck in 2009 they should realize that Formula Drift Long Beach is barely more than 60 days away. While accepting the fact that the SEMA GT-R was a fraud (I think it’s safe to say they didn’t spray it silver from black to put vinyl on top) it makes us wonder if the actual race car will vary from the SEMA show piece.

Ken Nomura earlier today was spotted with the first picture of his car drifting on our blog and  that is a two year in the making disaster from all I can tell. I saw that GT-R in person at the 2008 Tokyo Auto Salon in the Dunlop Tires booth and it’s just now rolling out into testing. This make me nervous for Robbie Nishida and his performance in the 2010 season. How do you guys think this car is going to perform in 2010?

Source: http://gruppe-s.blogspot.com/2010/01/boss-man-is-avoiding-r35.html

It looks like if you head over to Eric O’Sullivan’s blog and sign up for his newsletter you are entered to win a ton of stuff with DVS.
Who can complain about free stuff? The 2009 Rookie of the Year wants you to look as good as he does walking around Dublin or where ever he lives on that small island. I already entered the contest along with everyone at the PM Lifestyle office. That doesn’t even mention the couple hundred fake entries with our SPAM hotmail accounts like iheartrhysmillen@hotmail.com.

To Win: http://ericosullivan.com/wordpress/subscribe-to-email/

Apologies for the small photograph but we found this on the Dunlop Tires Japan Drifting blog. It appears that Ken Nomura has successfully gotten his Nissan GT-R to drift before the boys at Hankook have Robbie’s car in race spec/testing form for 2010. Now here is to hoping that is shows up at Ebisu Circuit in March for Round 1 of D1GP Japan. This isn’t a CG render of the car sliding around either like has been placed in the Option/Japanese drifting magazines. Huge thanks to Cobalt Griffin for the tip on this one!

Source: http://mos.dunlop.co.jp/blog/nomuken/