AWFILMS | Fatlace TV | Formula D – Las Vegas from Abbitt Wilkerson on Vimeo.

These guys put a lot of time and money into their vehicles and it really shows. The silver S2000 was on display at the AEM tent while the Evos and Subarus took positions at the NOS station

Reggy Cunanan brought his Evo X and it looks like he has made a few exterior upgrades since we last saw his car.

The lovely Team Hybrid model approves of this tastefully modified STi.

A nice flashy engine bay was perfect for this venue and well complemented with some Mishimoto products!

Check back for more updates on Team Hybrid and their unique rides!

Blokus 3D Game was 3 dimensional take on the original game of Blokus. The difference was that in this game you had to touch the sides of one of your blocks (where as in the original you can’t) while building the required 3D shape.

The game comes with a few templates of 3D things to build and diagrams of how they look depending on the amount of participants. The object of the game: to get rid of all your blocks. The challenge came when building the 3D object, not all pieces were the right fit.

Next we found this Q-Bert Board Game. It dates back to 1983, and totally looks that way.

The goal of the game was to take turns being Q-Bert and getting more pegs than your opponent. Your opponent played all the nasty characters such as Coily, Slick, Ugg, green and red balls. The game was complete with flying discs that would take Q-Bert to safety.

I grabbed a random racing game called Formula D.

The game worked like a regular roll-the-dice and move type of game except with cars on a road. It also involved shifting gears and protecting your car parts from dying. There were enough pieces for up to 8 players. The first one to get to the finish line, or the last to be destroyed was the winner.

That’s all for now, I’m sure I will explore some more board games soon!

I started out being a privateer drifter where I basically used my very own hard earned money to modify my daily driver, which was a fully stripped out, half roll caged Nissan Silvia S13. My love for going sideways actually derived from when I was studying for my degree in Melbourne, Australia. I had used my savings to purchase a Nissan S15 while I was there and without any spare change to build a track monster, I concentrated on fully utilizing what I could do with a rear wheel drive car and that was drifting. What mattered more to me was the bare essentials like understanding my car’s limits and potentials, the maximum angles and perfect rev range for me to execute my sideways action. Soon I was invited to perform for car events while completing my studies which only left me hungrier for more opportunities in the future to live out my dream.

I graduated and came back to my country where having a proper job with a stable income was the norm and sadly I conformed to that sad statistic soon. At the back of my head, I still couldn’t forget how alive I felt when I was behind the wheel and I purchased an S13 and did whatever I could to it to make up for lost time. It turned ou to be one of the best decisions of my life as I felt alive! I realised that in order for me to properly invest into the sport, I needed a job that would be flexible and that the money had to be decent. That was when I set up my current company Flamezgraphics and worked myself silly to have a better future not only for myself but also to fulfill my goal of building the ultimate drift machine to take part in a big competition and do both my country and my family proud. My skills and name soon caught the eye of Stamford Tyres, a company that retails an assortment of performance tyres, rims & accessories. They offered to take me in and to become my main sponsor together with Falken Tyres and team mates that I totally enjoy performing with.

And it all brings me to this. The dream has finally come true and I am in the midst of building my ultimate drift car that will be participating in the Formula D Asia leg in 2013. I will be constantly documenting my build here in The Street Culture and a ‘behind the scenes’ point of view that I will share with you readers on my thoughts and preparation for next year’s big competition.

The choice of weapon is the Nissan Silvia S15 and with the meticulous mechanical support from well respected Garage R – a company that has been renowned for their top notch handwork and immense knowledge on modifications and motorsports and also the only recognized HKS Technical Factory out of Japan itself – I can only say that I am working with the best people that I can and I am truly blessed.

As you can see, it was originally a gunmetal colored car that was immediately stripped barren and acid dipped to remove all the sound deadening and comfort items that came with it. A custom welded full interior roll cage was then installed to further strengthen the chassis and to keep me safe in the event of a mishap.

Everything that could be removed was cleared away leaving a empty chassis to start with. The plan was to have the car as light as possible with gobs amount of sick power.

Further chassis reinforcements was done by performing a ‘stitch’ welding formation throughout the entire vehicle. No effort was spared from making it as rigid as possible for the best possible result.

The front fenders would be replaced with new 60mm vented replacements while a set of 50mm rear over GT fenders were carefully rolled outwards to accommodate the massive rear meaty tyres that Falken would be supplying me with.

Completely empty dashboard as the custom light weight dash is in the process of being fabricated. Will it be a full dry carbon fibre one piece shell?

Mechanic at Garage R carefully setting up my new front end toe links, camber kit and Project Mu big brake kit set up.

No, my toe links isn’t spoiled. Here’s an idea of how much angle my new drift car with be running. The special angle kit is from a company called WiseFab, a manufacturer from Eastern Europe. Most of the top drifters are all using this aggressive kit with the largest turn in angle at 65 degrees!

Another view from the other side. I can imagine the car to be very easy to parallel park. Lol.

My car just came back from the body and paint shop. It is now sporting a full GP Sports GT wide body kit with custom extended arches to be added when it is fully completed. A Cwest FRP bonnet with Top Secret aerocatch bonnet fasteners keep the lid firmly shut when performing high speed maneuvers. The headlamps will also be replaced with hollowed out shells with custom air ducts to direct fresh cool air to the intake.

My gracious sponsor Stamford Tyres, gave me the green light to choose any set of rims that I fancied under their wide selection of Japanese rims available, but I chose this set of white Grams Light rims due to their forged technology, lightness in weight and also because they come with the desired wild offset that I required for my project build.

Here’s the new rear view without my GT Wing installed yet. I usually prefer to run without wings for my previous rides but this time, I will need all the down force and aerodynamics that I can get to hold down my rear from the loads of torque from the new engine build.

Like what you see so far? I do. I’m so excited to get the new engine in and for the initial engine start up.

Can you guess what engine block that I have chosen for this project?

Any idea yet? Internals for the 1JZ have been replaced but at the moment, we have no intention to yet to replace them with high end forged items as the existing engine components is deemed durable and strong enough for the time being. We will react accordingly if we were to max out the power during the final stage of the tuning session, to see if we need to make any further changes to the current set up.

At least now you know it’s a straight six cylinder engine. The chambers have been bored out and ported and polished for a smoother unrestricted flow and cleaner combustion. The entire engine has also been fully balanced and blue printed for a more accurate engineering build purpose. No expense has been spared.

Yamaha power! The engine of choice is the 1JZ-GTE. The custom candy red engine cam cover are signature Garage R engine builds.

A good performing timing belt is crucial for everything that has been put together to be performing well. Now let’s get the engine into the car shall we?

Finally inching closer to be ready for the initial engine start up.

A tight fit for the huge engine to fit into the tiny engine bay of the S15 but definitely well worth the effort for the performance that I hope to achieve.

This is only the beginning of what is to come. Follow my journey through my eyes as I prepare my car for it’s final destination which is next year’s Formula D Asia leg series. Read all of it here at The Street Culture. Stay Tuned.

Words & Photography: Adam Toh

Every Saturday morning just before 6:00 AM, hundreds of Imports, Exotics and American Muscle cars come pouring into Mazda Campus parking lot in Irvine, CA. In a matter of 30 minutes the entire parking lot is flooded with jaw dropping show cars. To top it off, coffee, donuts and breakfast burritos get delivered first thing in the morning for those like us that ”need our fix.”

Camera in hand, we peruse the parking lot for rare finds new and old. No matter how often we attend, we always spot tons of new and unique vehicles. So we make our rounds and snap some pics, then post up for one of our favorite part; “The Exit”

The show lasts from 6am – 9am but many stay for a short period of time and then BOUNCE. After we finish shooting pictures, we stand right at the parking lot exit and watch Million dollar cars speed off into the distance.

Note: There is a police officer that waits right near the exit and will cite you for exhibition of speed.

We think the pictures speak for themselves, but in the event you needed more convincing, here is a short list of Pros.

1. Cars
2. Coffee
3. There is something for everyone
4. The show occurs every single week
5. Since the show starts at 6:00 am, you still have the rest of your Saturday to enjoy.
6.  You can talk to the owners
7. You get to view static show cars and see them start up and take off

Need we say more?

AWFILMS | Fatlace TV | Formula D – Seattle from Abbitt Wilkerson on Vimeo.

Steven of Drift Union is the driver of this purple jz powered zz30. He’s managed to shave 1k lbs off the car’s curb weight.  He was killing it on the track and was also one of the most chill drivers I met at the event.

Galen is another awesome driver that’s doing well. He rides the bank so close and with so much angle that I’m pretty sure half the pro drivers couldn’t do it as well.

I didn’t manage to get pictures of the pro drivers. It was getting pretty dark during their practice as you can see.

This weekend I volunteered for FD staff with my Buddies Aaron and Alex pictured above.

It was nice to see what it’s like to run an event from behind the scenes and what goes on in the mornings before the public gets to come out.

Nonetheless, check out some of the highlights from the photos, and all photos at our Flickr.

Champion Daigo Saito & his 1,200 bhp Lexus IS-C

A snapshot from the Pit Area just to check out Japanese legend, Max Orido

One of my favourite cars at the event was this Nissan R32 piloted by Ee Yoong Cherng

A very short duration on track after Max Orido lost to Hanizam Bin Hamzah at the Top 16 battle

Top 8 battle between Daigo Saito & Emmanuel Adwitya Amandio

Ser Ming Hui & Rio S.B. were at it in the Top 16 battle after going two One-More-Time

Singapore’s Jansen Tan vs. Ken Gushi

Ken Gushi vs. Rio S.B. in the Top 8 battle, with Rio taking the win.

Rio S.B. got ‘smoked’ by Saito in the Final run. Saito ran an almost perfect run when he was leading, making it difficult for Rio to chase

The pits was a fantastic area for fans to catch a glimpse of their favourite drivers, and what’s under the hood of the drift cars

‘The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ – a perfect analogy for this V8 wrapped by a S15 chassis

An essential around the pit crews – Nitrous Oxide(NOS) tanks to supplement the high-powered engines

Check out that steering angle!

One thing that amazed me was the level of profession of the Japanese RS*R Team of Orido. They were the only team with decent tool chest, and enough tires to run for all 4 rounds at Formula Drift Asia

Orido before the Top 16 round

Orido after the Top 16 round. His team were showing him replays on their own chase cams

A drift car or a GT car? Orido’s Supra came with rear diffuser, GT wing & even a front splitter

Check out the rest of our photos at the 2012 Achilles Formula Drift Singapore at our Flickr gallery.