Vegas Drift had its VD016 Pre-tech inspection on Thursday night at Garage Vegas.  Garage Vegas is something special to the Las Vegas drifting community because its a place that they can go and have seasoned veterans point them in the right direction. Garage Vegas started as partnership between drivers Vegasdrift staff member Joel Mello, who’s had his share of VIP rides to 240′s, Pro-am driver Shawn “Volchok” Coward, and Formula D/D1 USA champ Forrest Wang.  It just snapped one morning, that working under a car port or out of a storage unit is just not cutting it anymore. They have all the tools and the knowledge to get the job done, and very very clean work at that.  When you walk into Garage Vegas,  you see cars with full cages, tubbed fenders, stitch-welded chassis and gussets galore. Another thing I noticed was how somebody there really loves to weld. From the work benches, racks, and even a grind rail for bmx/skating after hours.  Not a bad gig they got going over there!

The hottest thing there were Forrest Wang’s new “Wangles” which are cut-shortened spindles for that extra-gangsta angle! Check out a set on his s14. Project Mu disc brakes are absolutely ridiculous. Oh, for the photography guys, Sigma 15mm Fish + sb900 on cam sb800 off cam.  I liked this shot a lot!

I thought the brake calipers were HUGE on those, then across the garage is “wang-mobile #2″ with these ENDLESS calipers. These cars are so money!! These are what every s-chassis owner would dream of having!! I remember seeing Forrest’s BN s14 for the first time and being blown away especially from a driver with no major backings.  +1 for the privateers!!

Here’s motor shot of Volchok’s almost finished 2010 rebuild. Lots of chrome, anodized blue, and pearl white overwhelming the engine bay. Kind of makes this fisheye shot legit because it can throw you off if you stare at it too long!!

And lastly, one more of Forrest’s s14.5′s engine bay, (it seems like this is a Forrest Wang feature by now but I assure you it’s not, that’s maybe later in the future!)  This pictures funny to me because the sticker “SNAFU” (which is a bmx accy company) just kept making me think of ZT’s “BASTFU”!  (sorry if you don’t get it, you probably failed!)

Lots of grilling, drinking, good times at Garage Vegas. Everyone passed tech got a “VD POSITIVE” sticker, which in its own is just awesome. Thanks guys!

FOLLOW MY BLOG!!! -BRENTON HO

I just drove back home to Las Vegas after a surprisingly hot weekend in Southern California! For the first time ever it got hotter on the drive to California, which led me to believe this weekend was going to be nuts! Lots of privateers in top 16 such as Michael Essa, Matt Powers and Las Vegas’ own Tommy Suell! I have to admit that this year of Formula D has by far been my favorite, literally anything can happen, and its a lot more exciting from a spectator’s POV.  I have to thank FD for constantly raising the bar and keeping things interesting for sure! Congrats to Ryan Tuerk, Tyler McQuarrie, and Tanner Foust for Top 3 in that order! Also Chris Forsberg for the overall points champion of 2009 FD season!!…….. continued HERE

::Brenton Ho

photo credit: Brenton Ho
By: Antonio Alvendia
It has been ten days since the Formula D tour rolled the dice through Sin City, and what an event it was. We’ve already shown you numerous photos and videos from the Vegas event, so we thought we’d wrap up our photographic coverage of the event today.

In the pit area right before qualifying, the Apex’i crew was busy at work – either their differential or ring and pinion seized up, because the rear wheels on Ryuji Miki’s FD3s wouldn’t spin at all – they were completely locked up! The Apex’i crew always seems to be working tirelessly, as we always see them working on their cars on the side of the track.

In this photo, we see Jeren Walker from DSPORT Magazine offering to lend a helping hand, so that the Apex’i crew could get the car back on track and Miki could qualify. Jeren works for a magazine – he wasn’t hired to help Apex’i; he had nothing to gain from getting down and dirty, helping to get Miki’s car back on track. Yet he willingly volunteered to help, because that’s what people do from the grassroots drifting scene. Wait… Apex’i..? Grassroots? Continued @ MotorMavens.com