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Posted
Oct 29 2009, 04:15 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 29 comment(s)
It was the Winter Nationals at Pomona California in 1974. We were down to the last round of qualifying, with no success of making the field yet because I’d had ignition problems all weekend. But when I warming up the car in the pits, it sounded so sharp. I knew I’d found the problem. But little did I know I was about to take the “E ticket” ride of my life on the next run....
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Posted
Oct 28 2009, 05:00 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 50 comment(s)
Irwindale came, and Irwindale went. The tire smoke has settled and the modern gladiatorial spectacle known as Formula D has ended, but the ink is still drying from the tales written in the FD history books. However, there was one particular gladiator that stuck out from the rest. It was a story of "David and Goliath" proportions, retelling the classic children's book The Little Engine that Could. A student from San Diego California and the only privateer with zero sponsors, Matt Powers...
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Posted
Oct 24 2009, 03:35 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 27 comment(s)
Hi. I’m Joon Maeng. I was born in Seoul, S. Korea in 1982 and immigrated to the US of A when I was nine years old. Ever since I can remember, I have had a fascination with cars. Not just any cars, of course, but import performance cars. After obtaining my driver’s license, somehow I came across drift competition clips from Japan and I got hooked. It felt like my calling, like I had an epiphany. I began physically experimenting with the concept of drifting shortly thereafter with my 85...
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Posted
Oct 23 2009, 02:15 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 7 comment(s)
Hello Everyone – my name is Darren McNamara and I drive the Falken Tire/Sears Auto Centre Saturn Sky in Formula Drift. I am one of those lucky people who gets to live out their dream job every month. I first raced a car when I was 11 years old, it was an 850cc Mini. It was actually a 12-16 year one make old oval racing class, but my dad got me in because of his previous racing reputation. I finished second on my first day out but it did take me a while to become successful. Once I won the appropriately named “Ministox” championship in 1999. I quickly moved up to the “Production saloons” a class for 1000cc Euro size hatchbacks....
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Posted
Oct 23 2009, 10:42 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 11 comment(s)
What’s up everybody? My name is Ryan Tuerck, I'm a 25 year old who competes in the premiere drifting series in the US, Formula D. I have been in some form of racing for the better part of my life. I grew up racing Motocross with my two brothers. I raced for 10 years starting as a novice on someone’s old used equipment and finishing as a pro on a brand new bike. Motocross taught me a lot of useful skills that have carried their way into drifting, making the transition to cars very natural.
I drive the Gardella racing Mobil 1 Pontiac Solstice. I started with Gardella racing in 2008 with a mostly production based car. We finished the season with a career high 6th place in the Formula D championship. This year 2009, Gardella racing pulled out all the stops, leaving no bolt untouched and built a drift car with the hopes of winning the '09 Formula D championship. ...
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Posted
Oct 21 2009, 06:20 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
It's the last race of the 2009 ALMS season at Laguna Seca where the finale has been held for the last number of years. One of the best places to finish a season without a doubt. Monterey is one of the prettiest places in the US and the track is one of my favorites. I've had decent success here in the past. I dominated here in 2005 with my teammates Justin Marks and Bill Auberlen in an M3 and finished well in every year after. Last year I lead for an hour or so in the aging Panoz and finished...
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Posted
Oct 20 2009, 03:24 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 18 comment(s)
This is Andy Priaulx MBE, Husband to a fantastic wife, father to two gorgeous kids but then I would say that ; racing driver from an early age racing almost everything from Motorbikes and power boats to formula one cars, currently racing in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) having won the title three times in a row now trying to win it back. My experience of GT racing is also varied but my greatest success was to win the Nurburgring race in 2005 with Said, Lamy and Husiman, to master the...
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Posted
Oct 02 2009, 11:58 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 9 comment(s)
What's up SpeedHunters – I'm Tommy Milner and I'm a 23 year old 'kid', lucky enough to have to have one of the most exciting jobs in the world. I grew up in a racing family, my dad having been in racing since the late 60's, and grew up a big car guy/race fan. Nothing has changed since I was young, as I still watch anything and everything to do with cars or racing, now I'm just fortunate to make a living at it. I started off racing 125cc shifter karts when I was 15...
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Posted
Oct 01 2009, 12:42 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 22 comment(s)
Since it is BMW month on Speedhunters, I figure I’d show you guys my newly painted E46 M3. White has always been my favorite color on cars so pretty much all my cars are white. The original color of the car was carbon black, but I decided to change it to a metallic white pearl. The pros at Garage Inc. in Burlingame, Ca performed the full color change. ...
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 11:14 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 15 comment(s)
BMW Mobile Tradition is BMW North America's vintage fleet of race cars that are toured around the country to some of the greatest car shows the US has to offer. These aren't your usual museum show cars though. All of them are fully operational and I've been lucky enough to drive most of them. And drive them hard... I'm not going to go into detail about these cars' history because honestly, Rod knows a lot more about these than I do. What I do know about these cars is how they...
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 06:46 PM
by
Martin Ffrench
with 69 comment(s)
I'm back again this month for an update to the current range of builds I have going on at the moment, I hope you'll enjoy the read. Some of you may remember a post back in March about my time attack build. The car sat lonely in the corner with no paint, as unattractive as any car can look yet the reaction we got to it was something we had never seen before. The picture appeared everywhere; on time attack forums around the world people were debating the legality of it and how fast could it...
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Posted
Aug 28 2009, 10:18 AM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 10 comment(s)
I know this is a bit out of the "norm" for the Speedhunters site, but I thought it was too cool not to share! Some friends of mine over at Motorsports Management International - my management firm - have been building an over the top ¼-scale replica of the first NASCAR championship car from 1948. The team name, Parks Novelty Machine, is named after the original car owner, Raymond Parks, and the sponsor of this 1939 Ford V-8 modified stock car. They started with some foam! After multiple...
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Posted
Aug 26 2009, 07:00 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 15 comment(s)
I had the very fortunate honor of being a guest with Chris Forsberg and his team for the 5th Formula D round in Seattle. I had the opportunity to follow and document the day of competitions with Chris. The day started with Chris rubbing the crusty from his eyes, to the day-to-day race operations, then a quiet moment of self reflection with him and his car before the top 16, and finally, to stand on the top step of the podium! It was quite the experience to be a 'ghost' and follow the team...
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Posted
Aug 17 2009, 10:25 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 16 comment(s)
I recently just went to Japan for a trip out to Ebisu and Maze Circuits to drive my Zenki S14 Silvia I have out there. I have actually owned this S14 since 2005, which I have been storing at Ebisu Circuit for special occasions like this. I haven’t been back over to Japan for a couple of years now, so I decided that it was time to go back and hit up some J-style circuits out there. Ebisu Circuit has 9 amazingly driftable and unique courses created beautifully within the lush, tree lined mountainsides...
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Posted
Aug 14 2009, 10:14 AM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 42 comment(s)
Last month I was asked to be part of an exhibition at the Oshkosh EAA Air Venture called "Wings Vs. Wheels". I think the pictures that came out are simply amazing so I had to share them with everyone on here! Carroll Shelby sure enjoyed me beating on his GT500, almost as much as I did! The things that come out of his mouth are hilarious; he is a super cool guy. Upon arriving all I knew was that I would be driving a 2010 Shelby GT500 as fast as it would go down a huge runway with a plane...
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Posted
Aug 10 2009, 07:47 AM
by
Martin Ffrench
with 23 comment(s)
Hello everyone, my name is Martin Ffrench, but I'm better known as 'Frenchie'. Here's a little bit about myself... I've always been into drifting even though I didn't really know what it was at the time. When I was 15 or 16 years old, my first cars to rally around the yard and fields at home were Ford Sierra Saphires and 'old skool' KP61 RWD Starlets (but I suppose they weren't all that 'old skool' back then!). Oh yeah, how can I forget my Opel Kadet Coupe...
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Posted
Jun 12 2009, 11:31 AM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 27 comment(s)
The weekend before Formula Drift Round 3, I went out to East Coast Bash. It was an incredible two-day event. We even had an incredible dance party! I love "grassroots" events like this. The vibe defines drifting and is the reason why I got into the sport! Here are some of my favorite shots from the event. Special thanks to Dan Jenkins for the pictures!...
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Posted
May 29 2009, 06:12 PM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 8 comment(s)
We joined the "Mustang's Across America" tour after picking up this sweet 2010 GT500 at a local dealership in Oklahoma. The caravan of over 600 Mustangs was heading to the 45th Mustang Anniversary at Barber Motorsports Park. It was a great time and I will definately be doing the tour every five years as long as my schedule allows. More of this to follow. Keep in mind this is Barber's personal collection... we all need to be dairy farmers. MOOOOOOOOOOOO! The very first prototype...
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Posted
Apr 14 2009, 05:40 PM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 15 comment(s)
So last December I took a cross-country trip with my pal Brian Scotto - the editor of 0-60 Magazine - in a 2010 Ford Mustang GT. Now that the 0-60 Magazine feature "East Bound and Down" is on news stand's - go get it, it's a great read - I can share some of the cool things we did and saw along the way. After leaving LA ,our first stop was the Sourdough Saloon in Rachel, Nevada. This is the local watering hole for a lot of manufacturer engineers while they are testing in Death Valley...
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Posted
Mar 19 2009, 06:56 AM
by
Vaughn Gittin Jr
with 10 comment(s)
Here are some pictures of me testing the 2010 Falken Tire Ford Mustang Monday in NC. Enjoy! I couldn't be any happier with where we are at this point in time with the car. My crew has done a great job. It seriously can pretty much drive backwards on high speed entries and it accelerates while in deep angle insanely fast! I cannot wait for everyone to see and hear this thing live. I am pumped for Rd. 1 in Long Beach! Rock out! - JR
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