Formula D in Seattle

• Posted by 3 months ago
  
• In Category: Events
   
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Formula D comes to Seattle!

The Formula D professional drifting series www.FormulaD.com came to Seattle last week and were gracious enough to let the Rushforth Wheels crew in to watch the private practice sessions on Friday and the event on Saturday and we had a blast! For a younger professional motorsport series, they have a very impressive caravan of major corporate sponsors that populate the midway at every event including Circuit City as their series' title sponsor. Hats off to them for helping make a great series. We had full access to the pits which are even more fan friendly than an NHRA event and we were able to stick our heads under the hoods and pour over the incredible fabrication and details that make these cars able to drift a corner going 90 mph at full lock. There were cars there set up with every bit of engineering, performance and technology as an ALMS racecar with some extra steering angle built in. There were even two Falken team cars there with billet block World of Outlaws Sprint Car motors making well over 600 hp and sounded like a pack of angry pit bulls! And get this, the cars with those motors illustrated a slice of the diversity at these events. One was a Lexus is350 and the other one was a Saturn Sky converted to right hand drive so that UK born driver; Darren McNamara would feel at home in the cockpit! And you thought it was all 4 cylinder 240s and Corollas! While there was one Corolla and quite a few 240s representing the Japanese roots of drifting, there were also a couple real right hand drive Skylines, rotary powered Mazdas as well as Rhys Millen's factory backed Red Bull Pontiac Solstice powered by a turbocharged GM EcoTec 4 cylinder alongside hardcore V8 American cars like Von Gittin Jr's Mustang, a couple GTOs, a Corvette and Samuel Hubinette's bad to the bone pair of Mopar sponsored Vipers that look and sound exactly like an ALMS car. The course happened to be laid out on a 5/8 mile oval track which provided big speeds into the banked corner which they drifted all the way around at 90 with the throttle hung open and then funneled drivers into increasingly tighter radius turns so in addition to big speed, there was major precision driving all the while being at some angle of drift. Thank you to the Formula D crew for bringing their series to the NW and their hospitality and congratulations to event winner, Rhys Millen. If there is a Formula D event anywhere near you and you've ever caught yourself smiling while inducing oversteer, it is not to be missed.

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