Archive for April, 2009

Taka Aono Grassroots Fundraising for Formula Drift East Leg

Taka Aono

Taka Aono had a great finish in Long Beach but for the 2009 season he has been become a privateer. He seems to be a tad short on cash to hit the east coast events but he has taken to the Team Drift Pro blog to help raise some funds for the Atlanta and New Jersey event. He is seeking donations from anyone to help his costs, he says any little bit counts. They have already rasied $405 and he is looking for a total of $8,000. We think Taka should run the donators names on his hood or something if he makes it to Jersey but that is just us. If you want to donate to his cause you can do so at the Team Drift Pro blog.

Donate to Taka Aono: http://blog.driftpro.com/2009/04/please-support-taka-aono-to-compete.html


D1GP Triple Team Tandem [VIDEO]


D1GP Drivers Run Team Triple Tandem

Several D1GP Japan Drivers teamed up in three’s which helped produce this great video of D1 drivers sliding three wide. Some wound up in the gravel and some teams almost slammed into each trying to take home the top three car team. Don’t miss the whole three minutes of video to capture some great drifting.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/d1gp-drivers-run-team-triple-tandem


Mad Mike’s Mazda Rx-8 – The Bad Bull

Down under Mad Mike has been out sliding in his new Mazda Rx-8. They hosted a Redbull VIP event and this was the first time anyone has seen his Mazda Rx-8 sliding around a course. The car looks gorgeous and I love the front bumper side exhaust exit. This is how an Rx-8 in Drifting should look without a doubt. He has dubbed this machine the Badbull.

See more on the “Badbull”: http://www.madmike.co.nz/news/11-Redbull_VIP_Trackday.php


Formula D Round 1 Chat with Tyler McQuarrie


Formula Drift Minutes with Tyler McQuarrie

Tyler McQuarrie is excited to be in his new Falken Tires Nissan 350z and he told us all about it before his top 32 tandem battle with Sam Hubinette. He reviews how they fixed his smoke problem, his plan for taking on Sam Hubinette, and his excitement to be in a front engine V8 for the new season. Tyler had a great attitude and quite a bit to share with us in this quick interview.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/formula-drift-minutes-with-tyler-mcquarrie


Drift Alliance Wins Team Drift @ Streets of Long Beach

The Drift Alliance team of John Russakoff, Chris Forsberg, and Justin Pawlak took home victory at the first Team Drift event of the season. John Russakoff was a late sub for Tony Angelo who was unable to drive this weekend at the event.


Ryan Tuerck On his 2009 Formula D Round 1 Victory


Ryan Tuerck’s 2009 Formula D Long Beach Victory Interview

Ryan Tuerck took home a victory at Formula D Round 1 in Long Beach. Right after he hopped off the podium we grabbed him in victory lane to tell us about his battles of the day. He watched Calvin Wan slam the wall in turn 10 and then he lead Conrad Grunewald into danger all before the top 8. Then he took on Tanner Foust and Sam Hubinette in some tough battles to take home a victory.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/ryan-tuercks-2009-formula-d-long-beach-victo


Formula D Long Beach Team Drift [GALLERY]

Check out all of our on track footage from the 2009 Formula D Long Beach Team Drift event. These photos were taken on day two (Saturday) showing all the teams sliding around the Streets of Long Beach course. In Team Drift the drifters utilize the whole 11 turn racetrack unlike Formula D which just uses turn 9,10,11. All the teams are still in the running for a victory except the Patrick Mordaunt/Matt Powers combo who crashed into each other at turn 5 yesterday.

Check out the gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=95


Sam Hubinette Vs. Vaughn Gittin Jr. Crash – You be the Judge [POLL]

Sam Hubinette

During competition Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Sam Hubinette did battle which resulted in Sam Hubinette’s Dodge Viper having a broken wheel and Vaughn damaging his front end. Here they are sliding past turn 10A heading into the hairpain where the accident took place. At the end we want all of our users to vote on who they feel was at fault for the accident.

While it’s hard to see in the smaller version of this photo on the blog at this point in the run Sam Hubinette is already on his brakes heading into the hairpin. He is scrubbing tons of speed already well before the hairpin. Vaughn Gittin Jr. remains in close pursuit.

In this photo you can clearly see now that Sam Hubinette is continuing to brake as he needs to flip his car for the hairpin. Vaughn is still at his door but Sam Hubinette needs to flip his car to make the hairpin very soon since they moved the cones off the wall.

Sam starts bringing the car around and Vaughn is clearly going to be in his way. While it is the job of the follow car to leave room for a tandem opponent to make his moves around the course there is the question that Sam intentionally slowed down the vehicle well beyond what he needed to for the turn.

As you can see here the cars make contact and the speed difference between the two cars was so great that Vaughn managed to bend Sam Hubinette’s rear wheel. He bent a huge chunk of the wheel and messed up the the rear suspension which you can see in the photo below this one. Should Sam Hubinette be docked or marked for brake checking or intentionally slowing down or was he just trying to make the turn? Was Vaughn traveling too fast and just rammed him or was he not anticipating the slow turn through of Sam?

We want to know what you fans think, especially people who attended Round 1 at Long Beach. Who is at fault? Who do you think should of moved on or won the tandem battle?

Who Was At Fault for the Accident?

View Results

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Justin Pawlak’s Formula D Long Beach Turn 10 Smah During Qualifying


Justin Pawlak’s Formula D Long Beach Qualifying Run

Justin Pawlak came out in his old Mazda Rx-7 for Round1 of the 2009 Formula D series but he sure didn’t seem to mind at all. During his qualifying run Justin swung his car way wide into turn 10 and slammed into the wall causing some damage to the car. He smashed the tail lights and demolished his rear bumper all the while never lifting off the gas during his qualifying run. While his qualifying run is a tad less impressive than Chris Forsberg’s Wall Slide he still gets a ton of credit in our book for the weekend.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/justin-pawlaks-qualifying-run


Need for Speed: Shift – Sneak Preview

Audi RS4

It’s now time to forget everything you have ever known about the Need for Speed series. The new gaming engine that is utilized in Need for Speed Shift is three years in the making and it is going to re-invent simulation racing games as we know it. We were invited to a special sample test of the game where the EA staff let us play with the Audi RS4, Porsche GT2, and a Zonda. This game is going to win surely on the details.

Audi RS4

Porsche GT2

The interior details have to be the most amazing thing I have ever seen. While your racing in car you can use the secondary joystick on the Xbox 360 to rotate your drivers head around the cabin. You can look down and watch your driver operating the pedals. While looking at your gauge cluster you will notice the revs on your tachometer operate just like a real car as the NFS team eliminated the smooth arcade like motions of simulation games past and now have bouncing revs like a real vehicle.

Porsche GT2

Porsche GT2

The real amazing game play is when you focus outside the interior. The game makes you feel like your practically driving these expensive machines around a racetrack. On the faster cars like the GT2 and Zonda the car presents a great representation of acceleration G’s and braking G’s. The cars also represent an accurate version of understreer/oversteer that with some practice you can steer out of very easily. It just adds to the simulation level and realistic feel of this Need for Speed game.

Zonda

My favorite feature is when you exit the in-car mode it keeps the car’s factory gauges on screen instead of putting some generic boring gauges on screen when your out of car. So if your playing with a Porsche GT2 and you leave in car mode you still see the GT2 factory gauges for speed and RPM’s.

Oh and I held out on the best part of the story for you guys, this over the top Need for Speed game simulation game will have a Drifting section! I cannot wait until it comes out in September so I can spend the whole off season driving in SHIFT.