Cinematography: Kevin Lee | Lance Hashida

April 10th, 2010 marked the return of the Formula DRIFT Series to the Streets of Long Beach. What is normally a bustling epicenter of business and nightlife, downtown Long Beach, is tuned into a motorsport haven for the senses every year. The debut of the FD season in Long Beach has shown once again, that the competition for drifting’s top title has done nothing but intensify, bad economy or not. Our video highlight coverage is nothing short of a major street fight between some of the top names in the new 2010 Formula DRIFT Series. Enjoy.

Found this dope video Ross Fairchild filmed and edited from round one of XDC at Irwindale. It’s good to see the Pro Am guys stepping up. From the looks of this video, It looks like the “amateurs ” could give some of the pro’s a run for their money. Its going to be a good drift season.

Last week, John over at the ID Agency sent us this dope commercial of Chris and the NOS Energy team testing before the 2010 Formula Drift Season.  Chris and the  team go through an all-day practice session in the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z Roadster.  The actual stunt in the video showcases Chris’ skill level and overall car control as he hit the NOS Energy Drink bottle positioned within inches of the K-rail.  Oh, and he did it on the first take.  Chris will be defending his Formula DRIFT championship title this season beginning at Round 1: Streets of Long Beach on April 9-10.

For more information and behind the scenes images and video visit www.drinknos.com.

On February 12, Bergenholtz Racing debuted their new Mazda RX8 in Long Beach, California. We had a chance to catch up with new team driver Joon Maeng and discuss the new car and their immediate plans. The new RX8 has been re-engineered from the ground up and not much of the 2009 car remains. The big surprise was the extensive sponsorship deal BR Racing acquired from online poker haven, Full Tilt Poker. Drifting is one of the few outlets of our culture that has appeal to non-endemic marketers which is exciting to us as the opportunity for more funding into our sport will create more opportunities for the marketplace as well as the enthusiasts. If this partnership deal is a sign of what’s to come, it definitely be an exciting year for Formula DRIFT and the aftermarket automotive culture as a whole.

Honda Motor Company has launched an amazing viral campaign discussing subjects almost no company would ever consider for an ad. Failure. Its a widely accepted principle that failure breeds innovation. As seen in this video, the best and brightest engineers and drivers from Honda discuss the failures they have encountered in their professional lives. One of insights in the feature discuss the entry of Honda into IRL in 1994. It was safe to say, that could have been one of the worst seasons of racing Honda had ever encountered. After taking the lessons learned, Honda won their first race in 1995 and followed it with a series championship in 1996. Takeo Fukui, CEO of Honda Global, said it best, speaking in regards to the late Soichiro Honda, “We can only make fantastic advances in technology through many failures.”

_____________________________________________________________________

“We can only make fantastic advances in technology through many failures.”

_____________________________________________________________________

The secret to success will always be through failure. We’ve all encountered more than our fair share of it. The key lesson to take from this feature, in our humble opinion, is use the lessons you’ve learned from the experience, adapt, and innovate. If at the very least, you have learned something, you couldn’t be considered a failure.

For More Videos From Honda’s Dreams Campaign Check Out Their YouTube Channel:
Honda’s Dream The Impossible Documentary

In recent news as you may have heard, Ken Block and Monster Energy and switched automotive base camps by teaming up with Ford Motor Company to campaign a Ford Fiesta in the 2010 Rally America Series. The word Fiesta has always brought to my mind the beater Ford produced in the 80’s. Being a huge fan of the Ford Cosworth vehicles that were offered in Europe, its good to see Ford stepping up to the american market with a similar vehicle we could only see in magazines or on Motorsport Mundial late at night.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

“Ford has a long, winning tradition in European rally and with Ken Block and Fiesta, we’re bringing that to North America for fans to experience first hand,”  said Jamie Alison, director, Ford North American Motorsports.  “There will be a little bit of rally in every Fiesta.  It’s the right form of motorsports to showcase the driving dynamics of Fiesta.” Allison continued, “What people need to remember, as Ken races down the course this weekend, his car started off as a production vehicle.  It is a true testament to the capability built into every Ford Fiesta.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Considering Subaru sold more cars in North America than any other manufacturer last year and Fords sudden interest in small awd turbo platforms, they may have smelled the coffee and are laying the groundwork to launch a street version of this Fiesta in the not so distant future. Hopefully they change the name before now and then…I still don’t know if  I could ever shake the troubling thoughts those 80’s beaters give me.

Bergenholtz Racing Announces Joon Maeng as it’s New Driver from JTuned.com on Vimeo.

January 28, 2010 Bergenholtz Racing held a press conference at the Fomula DRIFT headquarters in Long Beach CA to announce the new team driver for the BR Mazda RX8. Ron Bergenholtz took this opportunity to announce Joon Maeng of Drift Alliance as the new 2010 BR team driver. After the announcement, Joon made what appeared to be a very emotional acceptance speech. We wish Joon and the Bergenholtz brothers the best of luck in 2010. With BR’s decades long experience in motorsports and Joon’s up and coming driving talents, we expect this partnership to be a fierce combination on the grid this season.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“With BR’s decades long experience in motorsports and Joon’s up and coming driving talents, we expect this partnership to be a fierce combination on the grid this season.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Stay tuned as we’ll be bringing you video coverage of the next BR team presentation and details of the Mazda Joon will be piloting.

Lexus Making Its Mark At SEMA

In its second year of solid pushing into the tuning scene, Lexus Motor company sanctioned various tuners, including JTuned to create vehicles for the enthusiast liked minds out there. Our parent company, iUNITE Media Group, Inc. produced this video for the Lexus SEMA booth display. From what we understand they fimed, edited, and completed the video under 3 days tops to make the last minute deadlines. Props to the video team for making it happen.

Lexus SEMA Image Car Statics

For full length Statics of the IS-Cs and F Sport editions that debuted at SEMA check out the STATICS section of JTuned.com

Links
href="http://www.travispastrana.com">Travis Pastrana’s official website