Streets of Long Beach ‘22: P.1
I was fortunate enough to go on a trip to Formula Drift in Long Beach, California, courtesy of Fastco Canada and Falken tires. I can’t say that I followed Formula D, nor know much about the history or rules of the sport. Asides from Initial D, video games and the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift movie, my knowledge is minimal. However, even being a complete noob, it was still a very enjoyable time. Something about being at a live drift event experiencing the cars in person is extremely different than seeing it on the screen. The sounds of high horsepower, smells of burning rubber, and smoke clouds flying towards you is really something else. I think something any motorhead could really get into, and an experience I would recommend to anyone to attend at least once.
Right outside of the hotel was a section of road that was closed off for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach happening the following week. That would have been a rad event to attend as well.
This was on the Friday evening leading up to the weekend of the event. Some of the Formula Drift drivers participate in a parade. I didn’t catch the parade but I did catch them at the end where the drivers parked their cars and were doing meet and greets with fans. This was an unique opportunity to see the cars up close.
Odi Bakchis’ Nissan S15 with team Falken. I think one of the better looking cars on the grid.
You are able to get up right next to these cars. Carbon kevlar front bumper showing underneath the teal paint. You can really see the drift damage being this close up - which in my opinion just adds to the cool factor. Complete opposite of show cars, but still showing extremely well, just in a different way.
Odi drifting Falken RT660s…
Dylan Hughes’ 2JZ powered E46 with the Royal Purple team. It was insanely packed with people here, and also during the night. I tried to get whatever shots I could.
A member from Dylan’s team setting up a GoPro on the roof to capture the madness.
The interior of the E46. Just the necessities - purely functional and purpose built.
Michael Essa’s 1000 HP BMW M3 has blue underglow. I have better pictures of these cars in part two and three - I promise.
Wasn’t fast enough here…
Just packed. I think there was around 8 drift cars in this photo…
Adam LZ and Collette meeting the fans.
This lucky guy got to sit in Federico’s Ferrari 599 GTB!
Kyle Mohan’s RX8 which I think is still rotary powered. Thought this had an interesting setup going on in the back - some cooling system of some sort. Didn’t bother trying to get closer to investigate, nor do I think I would know what I’d be looking at anyway…
Justin Pawlak’s Ford Mustang.
A real photographer for the Formula Drift team.
The crowd was making me feeling claustrophobic so I left the larger crowd to join this smaller crowd. Parked on display was this group of modded trikes - don’t quite remember exactly what they were.
Headed back to the hotel for the night and I finally got to see a Honda. Check out part 2 for more photos of the main event!
