2010 Taurus SHO Vs. Audi A6 with Tanner Foust

An interesting place for the Formula Drift champion/Supercars Exposed star to show up but we like it. He is walking us through the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO which is a twin turbo V6 package and apparently can beat the Audi A6 in a drag race. While I don’t think we will be seeing the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO on Supercars Exposed anytime it’s a pretty interesting Ford commercial featuring Tanner Foust.

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/2010-taurus-sho-vs-audi-a6-with-tanner-foust

When this hit me on Ubertwitter a few hours ago it came as a quite a shock because I didn’t recall saying any of these things accused in the mentioned about tweets. I screen capped the comments above in case they were deleted by the user once the post went up. Normally I get my death threats, hate mail, lawsuits, cease and assist orders and ending of friendships in e-mail’s which are private and I keep those private in return. Since twitter is a public forum I decided to return in kind, publicly on the Internet. Since I was outed for not being professional and starting controversy I wanted to clear the air and break down this post we made.

Here is a link to the thread they are clearly upset about “We Are Left Scratching Our Heads on the Hankook Nissan GT-R.” The first comment which is on the bottom says “R35 will be ready for Formula D, dont start controversy, lets keep it professional.”

After reading my post 20 times and cannot find anywhere that I said they wouldn’t make it to Formula Drift. The quote I made in fact was “This make me nervous for Robbie Nishida and his performance in the 2010 season.” So for Robbie to be driving in 2010 wouldn’t his car need to be done? I have no doubts that Gruppe S will have the car done. You guys have been involved with teams for years dating back to Falken Tires and no one at Wrecked Magazine doubts your abilities. As for starting controversy I just merely re posted what you guys listed about the GT-R with some opinions attached.

As for the other post I am glad you guys have the car going and you run an amazing program. In fact, my Project 350z is running Seibon Carbon, Brian Crower Cams, and KW Suspension so I have no doubts in the GT-R. I’m aware the cage is done because I constantly am checking your guys blog but I didn’t think it was quite big enough news to run on the site. If you would like to keep our readers frequently updated you are welcome to a drivers lounge blog. I have a pretty open door policy on the website and have never told a pro/Am driver no to having one.

Now as for your engines being proven, I don’t say one thing about your engines in the whole post or imply you don’t know what your doing with them. My concern for Robbie Nishida is that seat time makes a championship performance and I don’t see him getting as much of it with the car not complete as this point. Look at last years champion when talking about seat time being proven and look at Tanner Foust (two time champion) failing to qualify at Wall Speedway.

Regardess, I hope that your tweet diatribes are done and I would love an apology. You can always just post it in our comments or tweet me back! Sorry for the long winded post but this one was kind of hard to @reply back them on twitter.

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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,

A very sad day in the world drifting community today as D1GP Japan driver Atsushi Kuroi was killed in a motorcycle accident in Japan. From 2001 he campaigned a Nissan Silvia PS13 and a Nissan 180sx RPS13 in his history with the series. Above is a picture of his car in the pits at the 2008 Fuji Speedway event with his sponsors River Side and Toyo Tires that I took on my last visit to Japan. His greatest moment in D1 Grand Prix history was taking home a victory at Fuji Speedway in 2007 which would be the only D1 victory of his career.

2009 Am Profile – Mike Pollard

Mike Pollard was one of the few guys I wasn’t very familiar with before the Formula D Pro Am Finals at Irwindale Speedway. He showed up in the best tow vehicle and drove a long haul to attend the Pro Am. His qualifying runs were amazing and he finished 2nd overall which was the highest ranked American at the Am finals. This is another great production from Jerseystreets.tv as well!

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/2009-am-profile—mike-pollard-

I am not sure if you have seen a promotion that Ford and Need for Speed SHIFT have been putting on but they strapped four video gamers into Need for Speed SHIFT with a 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 at Horse Thief Mile and compared their video game times to real world times. None of the kids could do it of course but then I wondered if it could be done at all.

So I am calling out Vaughn Gittin Jr. out on behalf of all our fans at Wrecked Magazine to a Need for Speed SHIFT challenge of my own. I want to run the same track in Xbox 360 with the famed Shelby GT500 at Horse Thief and see if Vaughn Gittin Jr. can beat my time!

Now please link this around and cause a buzz so we can make this happen. Leave a post in the comments if you love America as well. I wish to put my video gaming skills to a true real life challenge already! Let’s do this Vaughn Gittin Jr., I await your reply. My right thumb versus your right foot per say.

NFS Shift x Ford Promotion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxHI7qmKyNo

So we took our automatic Nissan 370z for a spin along the back roads from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, California for a lunch. As much as I was chomping at the bit to test out the synchro rev 6 speed gearbox I quickly fell in love with the automatic transmission in our road trip car. It’s the closet transmission I have driven to the BMW M6 double clutch system and has a great downshift rev to really make you feel like your piloting a true sports car.

I just love the car and it’s stance from the rear. Our 370z was a touring edition equipped with these gorgeous 19 inch OEM option wheels. Our car was equipped with brilliant silver as the exterior color and it was ready to roll it’s way through the back mountain roads of California into Palm Springs.

The two seater Nissan is tuned for maximum enjoyment with a quiet refining luxury quality interior. 40 miles into the drive I felt relaxed like I hadn’t just taken a spirited drive through some rugged California tarmac. The exhaust note has a perfect pitch coming from it’s 3.7L VQ producing more horsepower than any Z before with 332hp.

The car comes equipped with one of the best navigation/entertainment/phone systems that money can buy. It’s easy to use and is nearly impossible to get lost by following your lovely navigator. The one thing that does drive me nuts with the system is you cannot have a passenger use it while in motion for you. They don’t have any kind of over ride option so you have to pull over to enter directions or operate it. The Navtraffic is a life saver if you tend to drive in areas overwhelmed by random stop and go traffic.

The suspension and brakes are top notch like the older Z models. 14 inch rotors with a 4 piston caliber quickly bring this car to a stop while traveling on the roads. The chassis has been stiffened compared to the 350z for better road feel and travel.

The car as a two seater hatchback has some limited space for road trips but that is the price your going to pay for a tuned and balanced performance vehicle that lives up to the Z name. In traffic you can take the 7 speed automatic transmission and simply shift it into D mode and have a painless traffic jam experience. When it’s time to have fun though grab the paddle shifters and move the car into Sport mode for a truly unforgettable time inside the new 370z. Now my only question about the 370z is, when will someone be bringing one into Formula Drift?!

Total Summary:
Total Miles: 867
Overall Fun Factor: 9.1
Daily Driver Factor: 8.0
Drift Machine Potential: 9.2
Trunk Space: 7.2
Road Trip Machine: 8.5

I got a sneak peak at the short film being released by Speedhunters at the Spocom x Formula D party on Tuesday November 4th, 2009 at the SEMA party taking place at the Bank inside the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. The first showing will start at 9:45pm so don’t miss that.

I got a sneak peak at the film and I have to say it’s a great piece and any Chris Forsberg fan is going to love it. The video covers some in depth thoughts and actions of Forsberg as he provides a voice over for his road to the championship. My only small complaint is the video feels way too short at around 6 minute if I remember correctly. They could of sunk into depth more after he took the win but you’ll love it and don’t miss the premiere.

Turn 10 Studios and ID Agency invited us to CEC in Century City to bring the new Forza Motrosport 3 video game. Over a hundred people came to receive an early copy of Forza 3 and a huge Audi R8 Forza Motorsport poster.

Here I am drifting a Ford GT500 on one of the units provided by Turn 10. Even though I had played the game several times this was the first full copy I had played to date. So this was my first chance at drifting in the game and I just loved every second of it.

Here is Daijiro Yoshihara enjoing some Forza 3 at the event. He was one of many Formula Drift drivers in attendance at the big launch. Standing next to Daijiro is Ceso from Formula Drift who also was there to try out the game and get a copy. He challenged me to some Xbox Live but we have yet to meet for some battles.

The crowd was a great mix of people and a huge crowd around the three screen racing wheel setup. The three screen setup is great for cockpit view as you really get a true sense that your sitting in a vehicle while racing. If you have the budget at home you should check out doing this without a doubt.

Here you can see several Formula D drivers in attendance at the event. Some people have even been building Formula Drift cars before the game has  been released which we documented in our story “Forza Motorsport 3 Drifting Preview – Released This Week.” If this is a sign of the storefront and support this game will have then it’s going to be worth it beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Photo Credit: http://www.theidagency.com/

Now before you read any of this note I have not heard any gossip/rumors or have any facts to base this post off of. This is PURE SPECULATION on my behalf but I think my logic has some validity to it. If you read our last post Ryuji Miki made his return in a Silvia to the D1GP Japan series. He has been notably absent from this Japanese series since coming to the United States and competing in Formula Drift.

Even though Ryuji Miki has done better this year in the series I think most people feel he is under performing for a former D1GP champion. Especially considering the United States has a plethora of talent which would cost the team owners of that Mazda Rx-8 much less to race for a season. Something tells me Irwindale will be the last Formula Drift will see of Ryuji Miki for quite a long time. I hope I am wrong but unless he lands a podium I just don’t see him coming back. I know he has done some driving in Japan perviously outside of D1 but just call this a hunch. What are your thoughts?