Its the off season and rumors are starting to pop up left and right. Walker Wilkerson just posted through his Facebook, and Twitter page that he’ll be driving a teal and blue Falken Tire silvia during drift demos at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Since Tyler McQuarrie left Team Falken Tire there’s a seat to fill. Could Walker be hinting at whats to from this 2012 Formula Drift season?
Just hours before the 2011 SEMA Show kicks off and the rumor/shake up gossip has been kicked off with a huge announcement. According to Kevin Wells (left) Facebook page the crew has resigned from the team as of today. No mention of where they will be going for 2012 season. However I can assure you they will be one of the most recruited options this off season if they have interest in staying within Formula Drift in the future. A huge announcement that just left us shocked this morning as we finished up our SEMA cars with the help of some other drivers/industry people today. It is really all we have been talking about.
We have three builds rolling out to the 2011 SEMA Show this year and here a preview of them. We are bringing three vehicles out to the show all in part of the launch for our new website. The first one is the 2012 Hyundai Veloster above we built with our parent company as a Universal Technical Institute Race Support vehicle with Snap-On Tools and Mechanix Wear gloves. We imported a ton of parts from Korea, slammed it with KW Suspension, and built out an awesome interior while keeping a great street build.
1. 2012 Hyundai Veloster – Hyundai Booth (#24387)
The second car we are bringing to SEMA you might recognize as our Wrecked Magazine Project V8 240sx. The car this week has jumped way ahead of our blog posts as you can see (they will be updated here after we recover from SEMA) and we cannot wait to wheel it into the Kenda Tire booth at SEMA. Our LS3 crate engine from GMPP is all setup in the 240sx with fuel coming from Aeromotive and cooling from Mishimoto. A huge suspension overall from ISIS and APEX’i has the car setup in competition form. Some fresh paint from Dupont, a new widebody kit, and some Enkei RPF1 wheels complete this awesome S13.
2. 1991 Wrecked Magazine Project V8 240sx - Kenda Tire (#40017)
This is the old Jeff Jones Formula Drift Mazda Rx-7 that we have been working on tirelessly this week. The car looks insane with a new body kit and a 2JZ engine swap. We will have much more of an update on how things went down with this car on our new website Fuelculture coming up. The car has tons of great sponsors and some insane looking gaudiness that takes this car straight out of the Middle East.
3. 1993 Mazda Rx-7 R1 – Konig Wheels Booth (#45033)
The Chevrolet Corvette C6 of Luke Lonberger looks like it got a refresh in all red for the new year. We cannot wait to see if he has any new sponsors or other big plans for the car in addition to the new paint scheme. Personally I like the red much more for 2012 than the old black color the car. This photo along with a few others are currently floating around Facebook right now showing off how the car will look.
One of the coolest projects we talked about around this 2011 SEMA Show is the Sideways to SEMA which is put on by Chelsea DeNofa. The 2011 XDC champion is driving his new BC Racing BMW. The car looks to be a gold/purple mix and carries most of his same sponsors like ACT Clutch. This car will also be in the BC Racing Booth for the show. You can check it out in the BC Racing booth at SEMA in booth #24955.
Follow the Tour: http://www.apexusblog.com/2011/10/sideways-to-sema-stint-three-ft-worth-to-albuquerque/
Rhys Millen Puts Out SEMA 2011 Teaser
Sit back and enjoy a teaser of what Rhys Millen Racing has to offer for the 2011 SEMA Show. He is building a Hyundai Genesis for the SEMA Show that will be unveiling at the press conference. Our parent company also has put together a Hyundai Veloster for the 2011 SEMA Show which is sitting in the Hyundai booth all week which you should check out. You can view the progress of our Hyundai Veloster build over on the Fuelculture Facebook Fanpage. If you get creative you can even submit to become a BETA member already on our new website we are launching at the 2011 SEMA Show here. Anyway, we know RMR has cooked up something great for this year.
Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/rhys-millen-puts-out-sema-2011-teaser-
Here is our first 2011 SEMA car preview built by Enjuku Racing in Orlando, Florida. Enjuku is a long time sponsor/partner of Wrecked Magazine and a former Formula Drift team. This street monster Hyundai Genesis they built is sponsored by BC Racing Suspension, ISIS Performance Products, SPEC Clutch, Wilwood Brakes, Chase Bays, Quaife, and VIS Racing. You can check it out in the BC Racing booth at SEMA in booth #24955.
If your driving down the 110 South by the PCH exit soon you will this awesome billboard put up by America’stire.com (Discount Tire) celebrating the victory they took home in the DT S13. Dai Yoshihara had quite the journey to victory this year in the car but pulled it off at one wild Final Fight this year. Falken Tire took home its second championship with Dai Yoshihara and his crew compiled of SPD Metal Works and others I am sure cannot be more happy about how the year finished.
In case you don’t follow the former Falken Tire driver Tyler McQuarrie on Facebook he threw up some mentions about being in New Jersey. Following his firing and telling Bill Wood he had some offers form other teams (and Ryan Tuerck being looked at by RMR) our eyes perked up at these posts. Well it turns out that after a few phone calls I made that Tyler McQuarrie did pay a visit to Gardella Racing on the trip. Not sure that was the only purpose of his trip but it sure seems to be that way. He did quite a bit of hanging out with Gary Gardella and around Gardella Racing HQ in New Jersey in general. What would everyone think about Tyler McQuarrie driving the Gardella Racing Chevrolet Camaro in Formula Drift for 2012?
Members of Drift Alliance huddled around Chris Forsberg’s rig at Round 7 of Formula Drift and talked about Rhys’ interest over the years to join Drift Alliance. Because it’s rumored that only cars that wear the DA Wreath take home carbon fiber trophies, Rhys had to be inducted after his win in Las Vegas. If you watch the video through the end, you’ll catch Rhys Millen giving his favorite drifting website a shoutout.
Watch the video on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qogGMsCedsU
