The game has been out for a few weeks now but our review copy got here late, SEMA came, and even MW3 is now out but at the end of the day I have been so busy playing this game that writing about it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Now I am under the weather and covenantally have plenty of time to play Forza 4 and right up a review! While many websites will talk about “career” mode and all this other stuff but we are going to take a focus on drifting.

The greatest thing about drifting in the game from a customization/individualism  stand point is you have many options on what you would like to drift. You can slide with stock cars, Pro Am cars, made up wraps, and almost every D1GP and Formula Drift car ever created. You can see one of our writers “CobraTuner” drifting a Ross Petty Rasta S15 in the photo above which can be found in the storefront.

Certain AWD cars like the Nissan Skyline are even able to be converted into RWD from the standard AWD drivetrain. Many cars are allowed to do engine swaps within the OEM of the car you are driving. So sadly no LS Chevrolet engine swaps into a 240sx in this game just yet. The storefront is already loaded with amazing real world replicas. A tip to finding them quickly is enter in manual keywords in design search for “D1GP” or “formula d.”

From a drivability stand point things are a little smoother in this game from Forza 3. The e-brake system has an all around better feeling and the car can produce much more angle before spinning out. Sadly your reverse entry will still count as a spin according to the Drifting HUD but it will look awesome on Xbox Live in front of your friends while in tandem. The extra steering control and ability to bring the car back past the point of no return with a good suspension setup is really a great addition to the game.

One quick note is the Drifting HUD can still be turned on at anytime during gameplay but it has been moved location wise. In Forza 3 a tad of the D-Pad would throw you into drifting mode instantly. Now (and annoyingly) you have to press pause, and select the HUD button. Once you get the HUD menu to pull up please scroll all the way down until you see DRIFT HUD. You can turn this on which will eliminate lap times and pull up drift scores. This can be turned on/off at anytime.

One last huge addition to drifting in Forza 4 is the new section in community called “Rivals.” Go all the way over to the left in this menu option and you will find the Drift Zone section. You can do drift battle on 10 tracks with Xbox Live friends and the community for bounty points. The options range from real tracks like Road Atlanta to the fake mountain pass of Japan Fujimi Kaido.

One of our most popular threads of all time on our website is our Forza 3 drift tune for a Nissan S13 wrapped in Dai Yoshihara’s Discount Tire car. If you would like to send us an awesome drift setup through our contact form we will put them to a test and make some great posts on the website with our tunes. You will receive full credit and some promotion for your storefront allowing you to sell goods to all our fans! Be sure to drop your storefront gamertag in the e-mail contact to get credit. Let us know what you think of the new and improved Forza Motorsport 4!

Dio has been the gossip center of our website I feel like for the past week. First it was his tire company which we landed with Achilles buying into Formula Drift so he could compete at Vegas/Irwindale. Regardless we have seen a ton of hype around Dio for the past week and his performance in a former championship chassis should make a statement. Oh yea, and we just caught wind of his graphics scheme that was on the car for testing and the 350z is now literally a monster.

Am I the only one this has clicked with….the Formula Drift tech day going on right now is nothing more than a snooze fest/weigh in which is a far cry from a real tech day. The only big news coming from today (if any) will be someone caught you didn’t realize they were cheating in the first place. Since Formula Drift announced the Tech Day weeks ago between a huge gap of events (New Jersey and Seattle) which was about five weeks we think most teams cheating/doing illegal activities probably had time to fix them for this “tech day.”

The timeline could only be worse to allow cheaters to make repairs since the event takes place on the west coast (where most teams are based). If you didn’t manage to change all the illegal things with your car in five weeks then you probably need a new pit crew. I thought I was just the only one with this logic here but after talking to various drivers and team members it has become clear this tech day is far from something that is serious.

I do understand that the new weights are key and feel free to weigh all the new cars but let’s call today like a Formula Drift Weigh In. The drifting version of a boxing hype day where we all sweated it out to make weight. The new weight/tire rule might cause a few teams problems but I have a feeling some last minute alterations were made to some top cars this season which involved putting them back into legal FD spec. How do you think we can fix this in the future for Formula Drift? Perhaps some unannounced tech days in 2012 just for fun?

It just seems like this poor Dodge team cannot catch a break this season. Dean Kearney in Thursday practice lost his supercharger belt and sadly the SHR team didn’t have a spare on hand. Luckily they have one coming overnight for the V-LEDS Dodge Viper. Dean told me on twitter earlier tonight that they have another one coming and qualifying should be no issue for the afternoon at Wall Speedway.

The Saab 9-2X is a unique breed of machine produced from the years of 2005-2006 by the European automaker. The car is actually powered by a turbocharged Subaru engine and a four wheel drive system. Full confession is that I had no idea about any of this until I found the car on Wikipedia earlier this morning doing research for this post.

Dan Jenkins caught these images of the Saab 9-2x at the Clubloose Summer Moves event that happened recently. Back in February we did a local grassroots profile on northwest driver Jason Cancio with his Subaru WRX STI and people loved it. So when I caught this Saab sliding around Englishtown I just had to make a little profile of it sliding.

I did my best over the weekend to collect data/notes on the weekends event to help assist people in Fantasy Drift or just fill the minds of curious readers. I would love some feedback on this and if it is something people would like to see in the future.

Recorded Entry Speeds
Daijiro Yoshihara – 96.8mph (Final)
Daijiro Yoshihara – 96mph (Top 4)
Vaughn Gittin Jr. – 95.9mph (Top 16)
Fredric Aasbo – 94mph (Top 16)
Chris Forsberg – 92mph (Top 16)
Eric O’Sullivan – 91mph (Top 16)
Toshiki Yoshioka – 90mph (Top 16)
Walker Wilkerson – 89.4mph (Top 16)
Kenneth Moen – 89mph (Top 32)
Justin Pawlak – 86mph (Top 16)
John Russakoff – 84mph (Top 4)

Battle Breakdowns
Daijiro Yoshiara Vs. Jeff Jones
Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. Fredric Aasbo
Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. John Russakoff
Daijiro Yoshihara Vs. Darren McNamara
Darren McNamara Vs. Mike Feiock
Darren McNamara Vs. Matt Powers
Darren McNamara Vs. Justin Pawlak
Darren McNamara Vs. Toshiki Yoshioka
Toshiki Yoshioka Vs. Ross Petty
Toshiki Yoshioka Vs. Walker Wilkerson
Toshiki Yoshioka Vs. Patrick Mordaunt
Toshiki Yoshioka Vs. John Russakoff (3rd Place/OMT)
John Russakoff Vs. Conrad Grunewald
John Russakoff Vs. Matt Waldin
John Russakoff Vs. Chris Forsberg
Matt Waldin Vs. Kenneth Moen (OMT x2)
Chris Forsberg Vs. Cyrus Martinez
Chris Forsberg Vs. Eric O’Sullivan (OMT)
Eric O’Sullivan Vs. Kyle Mohan
Vaughn Gittin Jr. Vs. Odi Bakchis
Vaughn Gittin Jr. Vs. Tyler McQuarrie
Tyler McQuarrie Vs. Dean Kearney
Fredirc Aasbo Vs. Pat Cyr
Patrick Mordaunt Vs. Ken Gushi
Patrick Mordaunt Vs. Michael Essa
Ken Gushi Vs. Charles Ng

Battle Damage
Justin Pawlak – Rear End Damage from Solo Crash (Practice)
Eric O’Sullivan – Rear End Damage from Solo Crash (Practice) / Side Damage from Mohan Contact (Top 32)
Ryan Kado – Wheel/suspension damage from contact with Charles Ng (Practice)
Dean Kearney – Broken Control Arm (Practice) / Steering Rack Issues (Practice)
Matt Powers – Front Passenger Side Suspension Damage (Qualifying)
Kyle Mohan – Hit in Door by Eric O’Sullivan (Top 32)
Darren McNamara – Passenger Side Door Damage from Matt Powers (Top 16)

Mechanical Issues
Darren McNamara – Engine Sensor Issues (Practice)
Sam Hubinette – Header Crack (Practice) / Engine Cutting Out (Qualifying)
Rhys Millen – Engine Problems – Noted as Electrical (Practice)
Ross Petty – Blown Engine (Qualifying Run 2)
Ken Gushi – Wastegate Manifold Crack (Practice) / Broken Differential (Top 16)
Kyle Mohan – Coolant Line Burst (Top 32)
Taka Aono – Failed to line up for Top 32 battle against Ryan Tuerck
Patrick Mordaunt – Engine Fire (Top 16)

Walker Wilkerson could of sat around and thought about how well he did at Streets of Long Beach this month but instead he went to work before Road Atlanta. The car has a new graphics scheme and an engine refresh from Intec Racing. In fact, we provided a break down of his engine build from the Motormavens announcement post. I actually acquired Walker Wilkerson from free agent status in our Fantasy Drift league and dropped Toshiki Yoshioka for Road Atlanta. That is how much confidence I have in this northwestern rookie rolling into Round 2. The car has a great new look and some insane steering angle.

Engine Breakdown:
2.3L stroker S14 SR20DET built by Ray at Garage Autohero. The engine has a Brian Crower stroker crankshaft, CP pistons,Carillo rods, ACL race bearings, custom port and polished head, APEXi headgasket, BC valves/springs/retainers, BC 272 camshafts, DOC Race turbo manifold, Garrett GT3076R turbo, Tial 44mm MVR wastegate, Tial BOV, Garage Autohero custom intercooler piping, APEXi Power FC D-Jetro and APEXi AVC-R. The car is tuned by Lawrence at Intec Racing making 480WHP and 436TQ.

Source: http://www.motormavens.com/

Kyle Mohan put on a show in his hometown this weekend but it wasn’t even the first time he kicked ass and took names on the Streets circuit. Back in 2008 Kyle put on quite a show at Long Beach finishing 4th and then disappeared into obscurity. Road Atlanta he failed to qualify and Wall Speedway he didn’t put on much of a show either getting a .25 point score. Kyle is one of the most underrated drivers in the paddock every weekend but it’s more from his internal nature.

Kyle Mohan can be closest described as a lightbulb sitting in a dark room. The lightbulb always has the capability to light it up and shine but sometimes the switch is off. The worst part is your sitting in this pitch dark room knowing you can see if you can just find that switch but instead you stub your toe and end up screaming on the floor in pain. You are now just laying in a room cursing profanities  in the fetal position wondering if you will ever walk again until the pain in your toe goes away.

That analogy is how I imagine being a diehard Kyle Mohan fan must feel like. You KNOW he can do it but “The Menace” as Jarod DeAnda calls him only shows up when the sky is just that gorgeous color blue and the humidity is mild. Something inside me really wants to believe Kyle can do it again at Road Atlanta and really push the envelope like we have never seen him before.

I spoke with Kyle Mohan and he seems pleased with the new engine setup and developed quite a bit on his car during the off season. If he can stay pleased with his Mazda chassis and bring Long Beach qualifying Kyle Mohan through the rest of 2011 he might find himself finishing the year in the top 5. I know your probably laughing at that reality right now but that just goes back to his underrated nature in the sport.

My eye is on Kyle Mohan (not my money just yet) and I really think Road Atlanta will tell the true story of how his season will wind up. He is a rotary man living in an increasingly V8 world and you have to respect him for that above all else. Sometimes bucking the trend and shaking things up is just what you need to succeed in life. All four cars ranked above him in the championship are running respective V8 platforms and that probably won’t change anytime soon. Do you think Kyle Mohan can put on a show for the whole 2011 season or will he vanish back into the mid-pack in points quickly?

Everyone make sure you secure your draft and fill your leagues before Long Beach arrives this weekend. The draft will run just after 11:59pm PST and give you just over a day to make trades or pick up free agents before the rosters freeze for Round 1. Good luck everyone on the new season and drop any questions/concerns/comments in the comment box here and we’ll help you out ASAP.

A new year in Fantasy Sports should have all you Formula Drift fans excited to get going! Last year we saw some fierce competition internally within leagues. The public Drift Alliance league had Justin Pawlak take home top honors and the staff league was won by me (Joey Redmond) by inching out Jacob Leveton in second place.

Head over to the system and get signed up before Long Beach. In case you forgot how to play we have two instructional videos to walk you through the process and educate you on how the game works.

Video 1: Fantasy Drift How To: Registration & Draft – Part 1
Video 2: Fantasy Drift How To: How To Play the Game – Part 2

Once you have an account and are ready to set your draft picks you should think long and hard before setting up your team! You are a general manager of a Formula Drift team with four star drivers who will guide you to fame or defeat by Round 7 at Irwindale Speedway. If you need help or some assistance use our contact form or post a comment in the blog comments section of this post! Here are some statistics I complied today while doing research for my team draft picks today:

Looking Back: 2010 Formula Drift Fantasy Drift Point Statistics
Most One More Times in 2010 – Darren McNamara
Most Podiums in 2010 – Vaughn Gittin Jr.
Most Vehicle Malfunctions in 2010 – Robbie Nishida
Most Wreck Drive-Offs in 2010 – Matt Powers/Tony Brakohiapa
Most Wreck Tow-Offs in 2010- Matt Powers
Most Underdog Victories – Tony Brakohiapa
Most Tire Podiums – Falken Tire
No Driver Available in Draft Made Top 8 all 7 Rounds of Formula Drift

Go Sign Up and Play: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/fantasy/