According to some various reports and the Facebook page of Jarod DeAnda it appears that the rumor right now is that Daigo Saito will be running a Lexus SC430 this season in Formula Drift. We do know that APEX’i has been doing some off season prep work to the car in preparations of what we can only assume would be competition.
We do know that Hankook Tire won’t be supporting the Daigo Saito program next season because his team/support is coming from a new tire company that is entering the series next season. I cannot seem to figure out who this new tire company is but we are quite excited to keep hunting for information for you guys. How do you think Daigo Saito would do in the old APEX’i Lexus SC430?
Are Toyo tires maybe looking to enter FD?
Is it RHD or LHD?
maybe Achilles Tires like his sponsors in Formula Drift Asia series???
weve heard hes running on achilles aswell as us.
is the car still V8 N/A ? I remember the apex guys saying it was pretty underpowered…
Called it! Also, the car had nitrous at some point.
Disappointing
Also, didn’t Bridges say it wouldn’t be v8? 2jz maybe?
Maybe he can drive your 4lug ka powered s13 with megan coilovers blaze1
Haha at shawn^
And this car has potential but better get some power under the hood. This car was dog and looked super frustrating. Also his car will most likely be on hankooks due it being under bridges racing
Some one give this guy a chaser quick!!!!
LOL
I drive a bagged LS400 for the record
If ANYONE is gonna run an xUZ engine, at all
…better call up Lextreme for some engine internals or a full build, or something. Pushing less than 450hp with something this heavy is asking for Top 32 AT BEST.
Whatever happened to the Apexi FD?
This car is questionable. Still though, they’ve had some time to potentially improve it, so I hope they do.
this thing was really good at drifting, and not counter steering.
please get it setup better so Daigo blows the roof off of FD 2012. he needs to bring the Altezza. seeing that car flip to lock and drag walls at the last FD Asia round blew my mind.
Maybe they should start by ripping out the convertible roof mechanism? I have a soft spot for this shape, but it has to be done right. So far, this isn’t, and it’s definitely not competitive.
V8 Check….
Black wheels….Check coming.
@cody
As far as I know that car has just pretty much been stripped/raped for parts at the APEX’i office down in OC. When we started up our FD Rx-7 project we hit them up with no real avail because nothing was left on it.
black wheels?
f u
@Joey that sucks. I loved that car.
*cries* Noooo, not the Apexi FD, that car is pure heaven, why would they dismember it? That’s just a pure crime, it must be restored to an even better glory so Miki can drive it once again.
But about Saito’s new car, whatever it is, will it be converted to RHD for him? Japanese drivers actually do better with their RHD setups. I cite Miki’s drifting setups and his results. He did better with RHD than LHD.
Saito drives LHD on a regular basis. I don’t think Miki did other then when he was in the states.
From 04-07 Dai couldn’t drive much LHD either but did pretty darn well when he hopped into the RMR GTO.
im pretty sure the fd was calvin wans car not apexi’s car… dont quote me their but didnt speed hunters do a spotlight on it and shit? and i know their is a vid of it driving at thunder hill in norcal and calvin rolling up with it behind his land rover all bad ass like… just check it out
ah ill just text calvin and ask him right now. brb
oopps my bad he had the falken fd which was his personal car in falken livery. the apexi car was theirs he built a replica. cary on.
oh and daigo in rotary just would suck ya know.
someone call mitch peterson and have him give apex that v12 toyota vip whatever motor that is he was trying to stick into an sc300.
the sc430 would be perfect for Diago seeing as he loves the BIG HP, BIG Toyota’s, it would totally suit his style
@TSUNAMI-donny
you dont seem to know about uz’s then.
1Uzfe+w58 = 580 lbs
2Jzgte + getrag v106 =596 lbs
1jzgte + r154 = 700 lbs
Ls1 weighs about 500 lbs without trans then you add 180 pound transmission
1Uzfe and ls1 make similar power as well