Japanese drift champion Masato Kawabata has just broken the world drifting record with an astonishing 190mph 30-degree slide, obliterating the previous record of 135mph set by Polish drifter Jakub Przygoński back in 2013. The Japanese driver had the support of Nismo specialists who, along with GReddy Trust, developed a purpose-built, rear-wheel drive 1380bhp R35.
The record was set during a special event at the Fujairah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, chosen for its 1.86-mile long runway. According to Nissan, the team wanted to perform a drift in excess of 300km/h from the outset. Therefore the car was developed and tested at Japan’s high-speed Fuji Speedway, allowing the team to set the car up for “stability and confidence-inspiring handling characteristics”.
We’re pretty certain that ‘stability’ and 190mph slides don’t go together, so hats off to Kawabata. Nissan has yet to release the full in-depth video, so for the time-being we’ll have to make do with these stunning images.
At the entrance to the circuit are the famous gates that lead you into this motorsports park, or more specifically for this event, uphill to the ‘C’ circuit.
It’s at this moment, as you descend down to the pit area, that the excitement really starts to build and you find out who has made the trip out to this iconic drift playground.
After parking and the unloading of the required tools for the day, I went in search of the go-to person for this ‘Hitomi-Go’ event, as it’s named on Meihan’s calender. And the person in question is none other than the event’s namesake, Hitomi Okada, a resident of Osaka and someone who has been organising events here for the last 15 years, which is half of Meihan Sportland’s lifetime. Many fans of the Japanese drift scene may be familiar with Okada-chan as she is part of Looking, an Osaka-based shop whose cars are always immaculate and well executed.
As we chatted, it was great to see people arrive early and prepare themselves for the day’s action. With limited numbers, places at this event sell-out fast, and there were some who’d unfortunately missed out this time around. It just goes to show how popular this event is for Kansai-based drifters, something I’m sure has to do with being a hassle-free and fun day.
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While car aficionados are probably familiar with Takeshi Kimura’s high-octane trips, this guy deserves tons of extra recognition and Red Bull Japan has decided to help him achieve it.
We’re dealing with a short film named “A Day In The Life” (truer titles have probably never been written), which takes us straight into one of the man’s camping stunts. As promised earlier this week, we’ve brought you the full shenanigan.
While the action kicks off on the outskirts of the Nagano Prefecture, where Takeshi lives, his driveway is adorned with an F40 that has received custom attention in order to cater to the man’s transportation needs. We’re talking about basic stuff you find on any Ferrari, like rallying world-borrowed yellow foglights and a roof rack.
Once inside the senior Maranello halo car, the man heads out of the hills of Nagano. Sure, it’s been a while since the 1998 Winter Olympics, but this is the kind of place that’s hard to forget.
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Formula DRIFT returned to Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA last weekend. Road Atlanta is known for its drastic elevation change encouraging super-fast entries leading into tight turns and a keyhole loop, which makes this an aggressive and technical course.
Thursday practice was held in intermittent rain. While the main race was forceasted to be dry, Dean and the team used this opportunity to collect wet data. However, the rest of the weekend was dry, not allowing for much dry set up data going into qualifying and eliminations.
The Top 32 in the series has really stepped up their game, both with driving and the quality of their machine. With so much parody, qualifying can be nerve racking for everyone involved. Dean threw down two awesome runs. Scoring a perfect line score on one of them filling the zones completely kissing one of the clipping points with his wing. With his precise driving, Dean qualified for the main event with scores of 82 and 83. This put us in the top half of the bracket qualifying in 13th place. This lined us up against Pat Mourdant in Top 32.
The team and the Viper went into the main competition fully prepared and confident. Dean had an amazing lead run with great speed, on a qualifying line with tons of angle. We were one of the three fastest cars all weekend, considerably faster than Pat in all of his runs we logged. So In his chase run, the team decided to be tactical with this data and give Pat some room in certain parts of the track. Our tactics failed. Pat found some speed and gapped us a little more than we liked. While we still had an advantage from our lead run and because Pat put a wheel off on the first clip, unfortunately the wind had stopped and the distance between the cars put Dean right in the middle of a blinding smoke cloud. This made finishing the course a guessing game. Trying to stay aggressive Dean, coming in blind, over shot the last turn coming back up the hill. This put him with 2 tires off and handed the win over to Pat.
While we are obviously unhappy with the results, there are lessons to be leaned. We couldn’t be more optimistic going into the next round. The team is functioning like a happy family and the car is performing the best it ever has with the support of all of our partners and their proven products. Dean is great on banked tracks and with the car being where it’s at, we are excited and confident for the next round in Orlando, Florida.
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Despite the cold weather and forecasts of cold winds to hit Doha this Friday 29th January, it is expected that Doha Corniche will witness the total opposite!
20 drifters in Qatar are gearing up and preparing to burn their wheels at Dallah Parking-Doha Corniche on Friday night starting 7PM, which will heat up the surrounding atmosphere & excite the audience attending to watch drifting at its finest!
Downtown Doha at night© asergeev.com
Under the patronage of Qatar Motor & Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) and in partnership with Qatar Motor Show (QMS), the event will showcase the drifting skills of the best amateur drivers in the country under the supervision of Lebanese drifting legend, Abdo Feghali. The winner will be crowned Qatar’s “King Of Drift” and will have the honor of competing against other winners from the Middle East and Africa in the Final to be held in Oman.
The event is open to the public with free entrance.
Mohammad Al Khayat, Qatar’s “King Of Drift” for 2015 is coming back this year to defend his title & reserve his spot for a second shot at the #CPDrift 2016 regional title.
I entered the motorsports world in 2006, but my drifting journey started only two years ago, when I founded “MK Racing Team”. This year, I am ready & well prepared to win the regional Red Bull Car Park Drift title!
said Mohammad Al Khayat, while commenting on his participation.
Competition was always fierce in the 1960’s with brands always trying to out do one another. Often different divisions of major companies would go to battle with another. It was truly a dog eat dog world where only the fast survived. In the 60’s horsepower wasn’t everything but how fast you could go was one of the most important things to drivers during the time period. These times were put to the test at many stop signs and drag strips across the United States.
We cracked open the record books and put together a list of the 10 fastest cars of the ground shaking 1960’s based on 0 to 60 times. There was no truer test in those times to determine just how fast a car actually was.
10. 1966 Plymouth Satellite – 5.3 Seconds
The Chrysler corporation was definitely one of the heavy hitters of the 1960s. The Plymouth Satellite first debuted in 1965 and captured a large following but the 1966 Hemi version separated the boys from the men. The Hemi power plant pumped out a bone breaking 425 horses and 490 pounds of torque. The second and third generations produced similar power but could never keep up with 66’s.
More Of The Quickest Cars Of The 1960s On The Next Page
]]>Sometimes these vehicles don’t have the best looks. This could be from malformed modifications or a failed design. No matter what the cause these vehicles do exist in our world on our road, and water, ways. We all know just how ugly the Pontiac Aztec is so we decided to look up 10 Of The Ugliest Cars In Existence. The cars on this list feature some of the worst engineering by auto designers at the factory and people in their garages at home. They saw beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To that I say “These people must be blind then.”
10. ComicCon Conversion
I know that customizing vans was a big thing in the 1970s and 1980s but it seems that it has picked up favoritism in Japan these days. This Toyota people mover isn’t taking kids to soccer practice anymore. Instead now it sports the ugliest body modifications known to man and a mural that is sure to get the driver on a sex offender list somewhere. Pikachu doesn’t choose you van man!
More Vehicular Monstrosities on the Next Page
]]>When the toll road is being used solely for racing and testing droves of automotive designers and manufactures descend onto the western German location to put their best up against one of the most demanding and respectable courses in the world. Everyday names like Dodge, Porsche, Nissan, and Lexus share the asphalt with less common manufactures like Gumpert, Radical, and Donkervoort to try and best one another. The competition is intense and these manufacturers won’t let anyone keep their coveted spots for long. Here are the 10 Fastest Production Cars To Ever Go Around The Nürburgring.
10. Porsche 911 GT2 RS – 7:18.00
In 2010 this 612 horsepower Porsche monster claimed the 10th fastest lap around the famed race track. The 911 GT2 RS was designed as a top secret project by Porsche to demolish the Nissan GT-R’s time of 7 minutes and 24 seconds. The RS was capable of a 0 to 60 time of 2.8 seconds that was made possible by its twin turbocharged flat six engine. The top secret 911 was also put on diet and over 300 pounds were pulled from its innards. When the dust settled in 2010 the 911 GT2 RS had completed the course in 7 minutes and 18 seconds flat, knocking the GT-R off its throne…at least for a bit anyways.
More On The Next Page
]]>Street exhibitions can take place anywhere at any time these days and with people always wanting to mimic the stars they see on their screens you can expect quite a show. A recent video out of Russia shows a modified BMW 1 Series M Coupe slashing its way through the traffic laden streets of Moscow. Half of the video features the driver sliding in and out of heavy traffic without regard for other drivers, which seems to be an everyday occurrence in country of Russian. The other half features some pretty decent drifts and donuts with the towering skyscrapers of Moscow in the background.
This night time excursion on the streets of Moscow is one of the best street action videos we’ve seen in a while. Yes the driver’s actions are on the unsafe side as he weaves in and out of traffic at high speeds but not everyone can have a controlled environment with empty streets like Block and his team of Hoons. This doesn’t make it right or safe but it the smoke filled air and rubber scorched streets sure looks cool if you can look past the dangers.
Its also nice to see a driver push the boundaries of the 1 Series M Coupe for once. This little 2 seater power house never really got its fare share of attention when it was released in 2011. The twin turbocharged N54 engine produces 335 horsepower in stock form. With basic modifications like intake, exhaust, and a tune M Coupes are known of making well over 450 horses. The modifed BMW in the video definitely features some aftermarket equipment that is put to the test.
]]>STAR driver Chris Smith says he has always felt at home behind the wheel of a car without grip – which is just as well as he is the current Drift Kings champion.
Chris will be defending his title this year when the first Japfest event moves to a new home at Silverstone next month.
Professional drifting competitions are held worldwide and are judged on elegance and style as much as speed.
He said: “For me, style is more important than speed, though you’re measured on both.
“You know when you’ve got it right as the car feels at home, it feels settled and you can see the wall of smoke that you’re building up as you go along.
“There’s a kind of connection there, you just know when you’ve got it right.”
He went on: “For some people, the feeling of drifting is a bit disconcerting but, for me, it’s very much the other way round.
“Drifting is all about car control, and a controlled drift is a very skillful and difficult thing to master. But when you get it right, it feels great. It does take a lot of practice, though.”
The 27-year-old, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, only started drifting three years ago when he wasn’t getting enough thrills drag racing his Vauxhall Nova.
He bought a BMW E36 and, on his first time out, put it into a wall. After that, things just got better, leading to his Japfest title win last year.
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