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Corporate Whoring of Drifting-- hachi vs. viper [video too]

Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2004 6:58 pm
by jo
Thanks to sam for this!

an e-mail from one of the competitors (Tony Schultz, local kid with black
s14). More reason that alex is the man.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:18:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tony Schulz <hoirujin@yahoo.com>
To: solo2atlanta@lists.carlc.com
Subject: Re: [Solo2atlanta] Drift ATL video

 Here's a longer video with some highlights from the
elimination rounds. You see me for two short clips up
against the blue and silver Falken car

http://www.team140.com/~jimmy/pics/vids ... tlanta.wmv
[tarzan is wearing our shirt in the video!!! hahaha]

 That alexsam video was made because there was some
controversy over what was the most exciting match of
the event. Many thought (including just about every
one of us drivers) that Alex (Corolla driver) out-did
Sam on the FOERST two runs. Basically he closed in and
got inside of the all-powerfull viper while drifting.
Sam makes an impressive charge as well, but does it by
griping though most the horseshoe, not drifting.
Everyone was going crazy at the spectacle of the
diminuative Hachi (it is boosted though) taking out
the megapower viper. We were shocked that a re-run was
announced and the crowd let out "Boooooo!". On the
following two passes Sam clearly outdrove Alex and
then proceeded to mop up the rest of the field.

 Sam's extremely good and possibly the best we've seen
so far outside the land of the rising sun, but the
re-run should have never happened. It was very
unfortunate for Alex because he even tapped the wall
in a last ditch effort to catch up on the last pass...
and is probably the least funded driver next to myself
that passed qualfying.

 BTW, that's not a regular Viper, but their
carbon-kevlar chassis Competition Coupe, and not a
registerable vehicle. The series was originally
inteded for regular production vehicles (just like the
japanese D1GP). The rules state production car with a
minimum run of 250, and you must maintain the original
chassis/frame. They made some wiggle room to allow
some other things like the NOBLE M12 I almost ran...
which is not a regular production car in the US, but
is still registered and inteded for street use. So
now:

D)Vehicles that do not meet the above criteria must be
approved by the series.

 I think Slipstream went to far in allowing the race
Viper and bowing to the huge corporate backing by
Mopar/Dodge. Oh well, they will probably have to run
something else for D1 and US Drift series... I'd guess
a regular Viper.

Stepping off soapbox,
Tony

----

I couldn't agree more about the corporate whoring. I felt like it cheated the event.