After three long-awaited years by U.S. drift fans, the world's first professional drifting sanction returned JDM-themed drifting competition to our shores with its first of four nation-wide stops for '09, beginning in Anaheim, CA. To say the event went off exactly as planned wouldn't exactly be accurate, but what was brought to the table, as promised, was some badass "U.S. vs. Japan" drifting action! Japan's Saito, Kumakubo, Ueno, and Yoshioka emerged in practice as the giants to beat, but U.S. drifters Quoc Ly, Ross Petty and Forest Wang looked more than up to the task to do it. Petty knocked out Yoshioka in the Super 16, but fell to Kumakubo in the Elite 8 (not without swapping some paint in the process). Forest bye-ran through the Super 16, bested Tanaka in the Elite 8, and eventually fell to Kumakubo in the Final 4 after four runs, despite his in-car DriftBox (Racelogic's telemetry and data-acquisition system that was affixed to each car to determine 60 percent of the judging criteria) signifying that he had indeed out-driven his JDM foe in their first bout. Kumakubo met Saito in the finals for four too-close-to-call runs, before decidedly falling to Saito behind the wheel of the baddest four-door family sedan to ever go sideways.
With these early bugs worked out, D1GP promises to bring the heat to Miami, Philly and Chicago in each of their remaining rounds, and to continue to expose the nation's most talented, unheard-of drifting hitmen. Make sure to log onto www.ImportTuner.com for complete coverage. www.D1GP.com
T.O.R.C.Specs
Returning to Long Beach, CA's Queen Mary Park for its fourteenth consecutive year, the Toyota Owners' and Restorers' Club (T.O.R.C.) dropped jaws once again with hundreds of the cleanest Toyota/Lexus/Scion rides to showcase not only the dedication of its enthusiasts, but just how damn far-reaching the Toyota family of vehicles is. Flared and outboard-oil-cooled Cressidas sat next to turbo/widebody Scion show-winners; bagged and dubbed LS and GS VIP rides next to vintage RHD Crown and Century reclamations; race-prepped, upgraded twin- and single-turbo converted MKIII and IV Supra street cars next to all-motor ITB'd Hachi, Celica and Starlet road racers. A few OG Land Cruisers prompted double-takes from the Jeep community, and even a slammed, ITB'd '95 Corolla (no, not '85) proved performance can be found in the brand's most unsuspecting platforms.
Most impressive to us were Milton Salamanca's murdered-out SC400, every car in the Autofashion booth, Lamont White and Peter Yap's side-by-side ridiculously clean Hachi Rokus, Kenny3TC's drag Starlet, the 5Axis Design Yaris concept car, and Kirk Hubbard's RHD '74 Century . . . so cool, we're willing to overlook its blasphemous Hemi swap. Click www.ImportTuner.com for the outtakes.
www.toyotaclub.org
Eibach Honda Meet
Also in its umpteenth year is the nation's premier Honda gathering--again, proving that it's only growing in size. Eibach welcomed owners/enthusiasts of everyone's favorite H- and A-badged vehicles to their Corona, CA, headquarters, to relish in all the sunny, free-pizza-filled and model-laden glory of just how cutting edge the Honda community continues to be. Pick any of these three mods: K-series swap, wire tuck (a la Rywire.com or ChaseBays.com for best results), and fender-flush, high-dollar alloys. If your car was at the Eibach meet and not flossin' one or more, it was probably parked in the next lot over, while your girl was droolin' over Ryan Basseri's CRX, Sheepy's DC 'Teg, any of the Fast Autowerks rides, or Project Car's ground-up CRX reclamation. 2NR's own Project DC2 was in attendance, but was most memorably seen after the meet, pulled over outside the venue by Corona P.D. sting officers, on one count of "being an import". Entrapment! Visit www.ImportTuner.com for details.
www.eibach.com