Category: FD News

GSR AUTOSPORT Announces Partnership With Bilstein For 2013 Formula DRIFT Season

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LAKE FOREST, CA., November 27, 2012 – GSR Autosport Racing is partnering with BILSTEIN (a division of ThyssenKrupp) for sponsorship and technical assistance during the upcoming 2013 Formula Drift season.

GSR Autosport will be launching a new car for the 2013 season based on the BMW E46 chassis. Michael Essa, Co-owner, Director of Motorsports at GSR Autosport and driver of the #101 drift car explains. “As the sport continues to progress we felt we needed to make a few changes to keep pace with some of the top competitors. With increasingly higher speeds we needed a bit longer wheel base to provide for more stability and more fluid transitions — the E46 chassis gives us nine more inches of wheelbase over the Z4.”

BILSTEIN and GSR have been working together over the last several months to custom build BILSTEIN motorsport MDS (Modular Damping System) dampers specific for the E46 drift application. “Much of the mechanicals carry over from the Z4 so we have a good base of knowledge to start from,” said Dirk Walk, Sales & Product Manager – Tuning at BILSTEIN. “We will be providing engineering support for the GSR drift program from our staff of top motorsport engineers. This combined with the data we will be collecting during testing and throughout the season will give us the ability to progress the suspension tuning quickly.” In early development GSR was able to model the E46 suspension in SolidWorks (3D CAD System) to simulate camber and toe changes as the suspension articulates using different suspension pick-up points.

“We’re absolutely excited to be working with BILSTEIN on our drift program,” said Nick Richards, President of GSR Autosport. “We have a lot of experience with BILSTEIN products from our road racing and street tuning business. The products are really second to none when it comes to outright performance and they have a storied past of success that backs that up. Plus, BILSTEIN’s U.S. motorsports division is headquartered locally so it is easy for us to collaborate with their team.”

GSR Autosport will debut its new BMW E46 M3 at the first round of the 2013 Formula Drift season in Long Beach, California, over the weekend of April 11-12, 2013.

About GSR Autosport
GSR Autosport is a full-service German automotive specialist located in Lake Forest, CA. We have a dedicated staff and a passion for the marques we support – BMW, Porsche, Audi and Mercedes. From general factory service to full race car builds and everything in between – we are your trusted, all German, Orange County automotive center. Our years of running professional racing programs have given our team a technical understanding of the vehicles we support, far greater than most other shops or dealers. This translates into swift and accurate diagnosis and a practical approach to keep your vehicle running at its best. For more information, visit www.gsrautosport.com.

Media contract:
Mike Harley
[email protected]

About BILSTEIN
Founded in 1954, BILSTEIN is the world’s leading manufacturer of monotube gas pressure shock absorbers. With their main headquarters located in Germany, BILSTEIN is an original equipment supplier to BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche. Today, BILSTEIN of America has grown to nearly 75 employees located in two locations around the United States and distributes over 3,000 part numbers into the US aftermarket. Since 2005, BILSTEIN has been a wholly owned subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Technologies AG. For more information, please visit www.bilsteinUS.com.

Media contact:
Camee Edelbrock, Schiefer Media
949.336.1700, ext. 205, [email protected]

CraveOnline Host Nash Herrington Goes Drifting With Fredric Aasbo

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Nash Herrington, host of CraveOnline’s show ‘Clocked Out,’ headed out to Round 7: Title Fight to get a first-hand experience in the passenger seat of Fredric Aasbo‘s Team Need for Speed Scion tC.

Coverage can be seen from 25:40-28:08.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xchPT6ZgEv4&feature=plcp[/youtube]

Formula DRIFT Asia – Round 3: Indonesia

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The fifth Formula Drift Asia season is set for a showdown finale this weekend at Formula Drift Indonesia, the third leg of the series to be held on November 17 and 18 at the West Parking Area of Jakarta International Expo (JI Expo) in Kemayoran, Jakarta. At the end of the competition on Sunday, we will witness the crowning of the Formula Drift Asia 2012 champion. Current championship leader Daigo Saito of the Achilles Drift Team, who has won the previous two rounds in Singapore and Malaysia, is confident of defending his title.

Daigo, the recently-crowned Formula Drift USA 2012 champion and reigning Formula Drift Asia champion said, “I am pretty confident about winning the Formula Drift Asia series. It would be a perfect ending for me and my sponsor Achilles to wrap up the season with a win at Jakarta and the overall title.”

Standing in second and third place of the championship are Tengku Djan Ley, Malaysia’s Prince of Drift, and Rio Saputro of Indonesia who will be eager to perform well on homeground. Toughening up the competition will be Formula Drift USA regulars Kenshiro Gushi and Robbie Nishida, as well as Indonesians drifting stars Emmanuel Amandio and Rulli Armando who finished second at last year’s Indonesian leg.

Making his Formula Drift Asia debut with the RS-R team is Fredric Aasbo, the Norwegian drifter who made a mark in the North American drift scene when he clinched the Rookie of the Year award at the 2010 Formula Drift USA series.

Commenting on his first time in the Southeast Asian premier drifting series, he said, “I am absolutely honoured to get to drive the RS-R Toyota Supra, which has previously been driven by my Scion Racing team mate Ken Gushi and the original drifting guru Max Orido. I have a lot of faith in the RS-R crew as they know the Formula Drift Asia scene and competition format very well. I am very excited to get to work with them for this round. This is a learning experience for me, but – as always – we will be taking on the competition to the best of our ability.”

In addition to the main event, the new competition segment introduced this year will not be missed in Jakarta. Called the 36BOL Asia Drift, selected drivers will be paired up to represent their sponsors and perform two tandem runs where points are awarded for teamwork and coordination. The team with the most stylish and best executed runs wins.

Giving more recognition to the drivers and the crew, new subsidiary awards have also been added for this year. Besides the typical overall driver and team championship awards, there will be:

Pioneer of Drift award – Recognizes the driver involved who has significantly contributed to the scene in Asia since the inaugural Formula Drift Asia event.

Spirit of Drifting award – Recognizes the efforts of the driver who believes in the sport and keeps on trying at every single round regardless

Best Drift Style award

Team Manager of the Year award

Crew of the Year award

With the fans at heart, exciting limited edition memorabilia will be launched at Formula Drift Indonesia. A second limited edition Formula Drift Casio G-Shock watch will be released with Kenshiro Gushi as the ambassador again; this time the watch will be sporting a locally inspired theme. The first Formula Drift G-Shock was launched at the Singapore leg.

A collaboration with Sparco Singapore also sees two exclusive t-shirt designs – a classic “I Love FD” tinged with gold foil and a “Drift or DAI Trying” edition endorsed by Formula Drift USA 2011 champion and Formula Drift Asia judge Daijiro Yoshihara.

Last year, Formula Drift Asia made history with its first ever ‘live’ broadcast at its Indonesian leg. Since then, there has been a ‘live’ broadcast of the Top 16 battles at every round. This weekend, Formula Drift Indonesia 2012 will be broadcasted ‘live’ on STAR Sports on Sunday, November 18, from 3.30pm to 5.30pm (Jakarta time).

Eat Sleep Race Launches The ‘Rebuild’ Campaign

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjeMijFDaIg&feature=plcp&noredirect=1[/youtube]

Eat Sleep Race has announced their ‘REBUILD’ campaign to help aid those affected by Hurricane Sandy. 100% of the profits from this will be donated so check out what they have to offer. Be sure to also share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. and tag #RacersRebuild.

 

Jim Liaw Nominated for Inaugural SEMA Gen-3 Award

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SEMA created a new award this year to recognize the top young individual from the specialty-equipment industry who is making breakthroughs in new products, establishing new approaches to business or setting new trends. President and co-founder of Formula DRIFT was nominated for the award as well as presented a SEMA Hall of Fame award during the annual SEMA Awards banquet.

The Association enlisted the help of SEMA members for the nomination process to help identify those individuals who exhibit the same pioneering spirit as the original first-generation industry founders.

The SEMA Gen-3 Innovator Award winner was chosen based on the following criteria:

A “Gen-3 Innovator” is a young individual from the specialty-equipment industry who is making breakthroughs in the areas of new products, new approaches to business or setting new trends.
The candidate must work in the automotive aftermarket industry.
The candidate must be under 40 years of age as of December 31 of the current calendar year.

Congratulations to Brian Reese of COMP Cams for being announced the winner of the award.