Wow, I didn't see this one coming! Apparently, the folks at Scion are very happy with the way things have been going thus far in their inaugural season of Formula Drift. Kenshiro Gushi and his RS*R Scion TC finished in 14th place in the 2008 Formula D rankings, appearing in the Top 16 tandem drift competition at four different Formula D Championship round events. Kenshiro sure has come a long way from the beige metallic colored SR20 powered PS13 240SX he started with when I first met him at his dad's shop, Gushi Auto!
Now, Scion has decided to support yet another team in the Formula Drift series – Team Papadakis Racing. While not everyone may be familiar with the formal business name of the new Rockstar Energy Drink/Scion drift team, I'm sure you know the team principal, import drag racing veteran Steph Papadakis, and everyone definitely knows the team driver – Tanner Foust (he's the guy who won 1st Place in the Formula D Championship Series for the past two years in a row).
Apparently, Papadakis and his team will use a factory FF Scion TC and convert it to a driftable FR competition car just like the RS*R team did; they will use parts from the all wheel drive Toyota Caldina and Toyota Avensis cars to make the conversion.
I wonder when American Honda is going to step in, and support some of the guys who might want to drift Hondas – not just S2Ks and drifting Elements, I'm talking about Integra and RSX FR conversions… after all, it has been done before. Anyone remember Blake Fuller's white DC2 Integra, converted to FR?
-Antonio Alvendia