Houston, We Have Drifting Formula D Round 3Hotter than Satan's bull rompin' on a five-alarm scorcher, Formula Drift Houston provided drifting action as hot and intense as the burning Texan sun. In front of a packed crowd at Houston's Reliant Park, FD Round 3 was newsworthy for one reason: a new winner emerged. Since the inception of the series, there have been only two men on top, Samuel Hubinette, with four victories for Mopar's Viper, and Rhys Millen, with two victories in his Pontiac GTO. This time around, the Big Three manufacturers finally closed their net with the inaugural victory for the Ford Mustang in the hands of Team Toyo's Ken Gushi. A diverse variety of champions will always be a plus for the growing drifting series, and it's only a matter of time before a Japanese car emerges on top. With so many 240SXs, 180SXs, Silvias, S13s, S14s and S15s (whatever you want to call them) around, we bet there's bound to be a Nissan on top pretty soon.
In a strange twist that our female cubicle-mates were happy to discover, male model and drifting fan Tyson Beckford, most known for his role in Zoolander and the Ralph Lauren Polo ads, entered a 2005 Saleen-equipped Ford Mustang. Beckford's car was eliminated early during competition, but Beckford wasn't driving. In the early rounds of eliminations, veteran hachiroku lover and office favorite Taka Aono hit one of the retaining walls and flipped his Toyota onto its side; he escaped through a side window. Inspired by Aono's previous adventures, Formula Drift initiated a new rule, stating only one additional "one more time" round can be called per tandem run.
Defeating James Bondurant and then Siego Yamamoto, Rhys Millen ended up facing off against Gushi's supercharged V8 beast, which had just sent Chris Forsberg and Tyler McQuarrie packing. The battle between Millen and Gushi was tight, with repeated viewings of recorded replays necessary before the judges deemed Gushi the winner. Millen then defeated Tanner Foust for second place, and Gushi was just able to outdo a very slick Conrad Grunewald for the Houston win. Your top four: Ken Gushi (first), Conrad Grunewald (second), Rhys Millen (third) and Tanner Foust (fourth). Get schooled at www.formulad.com
2NR's Unscientific Body Kit Poll10 Hottest Bodies To Ever Grace These PagesThe votes are tallied, counted, recounted and checked for hanging chads. And it turns out our readers, like us, can't choose the hottest body. You'll remember in our August issue, we listed our 10 favorite body kits of all time, but couldn't agree on which deserved the top rung on the podium. So we left it up to you. While thousands of you voted, no clear winner emerged. Instead, the APR widebody EVO and Mugen RSX tied for top honors, each receiving 19 percent of the total vote.
Bigger and Badder The original is 300 was quick. Now it's fast.Take it from us: When you're doing 115 mph on the downhill straightaway at Willow Springs, don't look down to check the speedo. Or the tach. You might not get set up for Turn Nine, which is where most racers run off the track. Running flat-out on one of the fastest road courses in the country, you need to pay attention. Or you can just do what we did, which was lift the throttle, clobber a cone or two and forget about it.
We confirmed the new IS 250, with the six-speed manual transmission, really is slower than the IS 350 with the six-speed automatic. If it had been the 350, we would have been doing more like 125 mph at the same spot.