(FEEDBACK) FORMULA D Las Vegas 2009

[courantcom]

...what about limiting overall wheel horsepower to say, 600? What about not allowing V8's unless the car they are using came with them in factory trim?

[captainNEO]

...what about limiting overall wheel horsepower to say, 600? What about not allowing V8's unless the car they are using came with them in factory trim?

word. we were discussing the same thing at the track. along the same lines of D1SL.
Full FD being the guys with Nascar powered Scions, factory backed whatevers, v-8 swapped z33's, etc.
"Street Legal" being cars a little more tame. Cars have the same engines that came in them, not so much sponsorship dollars, etc. Some teams have waaay too much money in their cars. How are the "little" guys supposed to compete with high dollar campaigns?

[Jonnie Fraz]

Well here is my little take.

I thought it was awesome! I like the new track layout. Way easier to spectate, and I talked to a couple drivers last year saying that last years track was just plain scary.
Ueo got screwed...kinda tough to explain to some people who are new to drifting why Ryan did not zero on the first run.
Falken screwed themselfes by not letting Calvin run, but hopfully they learned that lesson.
I felt all the drivers brought there A game. Essa was awesome! Powers held his own vrs one of the best. Miki back on the podium. All and all an amazing weekend I would pay full price to watch it again.
One note to FD...Butt cusions I am telling you they will sell.

[J-Rod]

Thanks to ANY and all parties and partiers involved!!!!!

This was yet ANOTHER succesful event for Formula Drift...

Good job to all drivers, teams, crews, mechanics, FD staff, volunteers and especially the fans for enduring yes the insane heat but overall it was actually somewhat pleasant for a Vegas afternoon to evening...

I loved the new track layout fast and technical towards the end, yes the smoke from Tanner officially being called the "smoke factory" and Tyle "macho" McQuarrie was ridiculous but it is what it is...

Congrats to Foust, Miki and Forsberg...

But most importantly I repeat this with all sincerity thank you to ALL the fans physically present, those across the globe following via twitter, blogs, websites or any means necessary you keep Formula Drift going...

See ya'll in Seattle, Sonoma and of course Irwindale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait for the next event, they just keep getting better!

SEATTLE, btw your crown of BEST CROWD ever was taken away with brute excitement by the ATLANTA fans!
Will Seattle/Evergreen take the crown back as BEST CROWD EVER?????

[110octane]

Falken screwed themselfes by not letting Calvin run, but hopfully they learned that lesson.

So what you're saying is that Falken shouldn't have let Darren McNamara, who was the championship points leader at the time of this decision, use Calvin Wan's car because his was experiencing engine issues. May I remind you that Calvin was not in the championship points race at the time. Calvin allowing Darren to attempt to qualify in his machine is about the classiest thing I have seen an FD driver do in my 6 years. Unfortunately, Darren wasn't able to make it despite a valiant effort.

So, please tell me how Falken "hopefully learned that lesson."? I am pretty sure if the situation arose again, they and their drivers would make the same decision.

[Slapshotnerd]

So what you're saying is that Falken shouldn't have let Darren McNamara, who was the championship points leader at the time of this decision, use Calvin Wan's car because his was experiencing engine issues. May I remind you that Calvin was not in the championship points race at the time. Calvin allowing Darren to attempt to qualify in his machine is about the classiest thing I have seen an FD driver do in my 6 years. Unfortunately, Darren wasn't able to make it despite a valiant effort.

So, please tell me how Falken "hopefully learned that lesson."? I am pretty sure if the situation arose again, they and their drivers would make the same decision.

I JR drove a slew of cars in '05, including Ben Schwartz's S14 at a few events, so it's not the first time it's happened for the Falken team, but your point is definitely well taken.

If I was a team manager, and I was in Falken's shoes, I would have made the same call. I saw Calvin walking around in the pits, and he looked pretty dejected that he didn't get to drive, but giving up personal glory for the good of the team is usually noted with the up-and-ups, and rewarded down the line. It's just in Calvin's demeanor though to give up his shot at impressing his bosses to try and help Falken win their first team championship. I don't think many teammates would do what Calvin did, and he deserves much respect for the decision!

[oneqkz]

I had a BLAST! Thank you so much

[Bebop]

The thing I don't understand, is with Tyler, D-mac and Dai running almost the same motor.... why didn't they have a spare or have any spare parts to get his car running?

I passed by the falken pits a few times during friday and not once did i see anyone at all working on Dmacs car. Im not a team member but it just seemed kinda odd that they couldn't get the thing running in the first place... just another team falken weekend I guess.

But the same thing goes out to RMR... he looked so good in practice... I know it couldn't be just tire pressure when the track switched to cold...

Whats up RMR?

Very sad weekend for alot of the top dogs, JR Dmac, and Rhys

[Jonnie Fraz]

So what you're saying is that Falken shouldn't have let Darren McNamara, who was the championship points leader at the time of this decision, use Calvin Wan's car because his was experiencing engine issues. May I remind you that Calvin was not in the championship points race at the time. Calvin allowing Darren to attempt to qualify in his machine is about the classiest thing I have seen an FD driver do in my 6 years. Unfortunately, Darren wasn't able to make it despite a valiant effort.

So, please tell me how Falken "hopefully learned that lesson."? I am pretty sure if the situation arose again, they and their drivers would make the same decision.

I do give it up for Calvin giving up his seat so D Mac could hopefully get some points. Taking one for the team can not hurt Calvin. I do realize that Calvin was not in the points race, but I think he had a better chance at making the top 32 in his car vrs D Mac whos car is so different. Dont get me wrong D Mac could probilly drift a dump truck, but qualify that is different.
Falkin went all in and lost. That is what I am saying.

[courantcom]

word. we were discussing the same thing at the track. along the same lines of D1SL.
Full FD being the guys with Nascar powered Scions, factory backed whatevers, v-8 swapped z33's, etc.
"Street Legal" being cars a little more tame. Cars have the same engines that came in them, not so much sponsorship dollars, etc. Some teams have waaay too much money in their cars. How are the "little" guys supposed to compete with high dollar campaigns?

I don't see anything too wrong with the engine swaps in the field right now. I do think that they add a positive variety to what people will enjoy to see with their paid admissions. I mean, I'm sure some people come to this year's events just to see what a Nascar engine would look like in a Scion TC. I'm just more about having LESS tire smoke due to really high HP levels that can yield to a very unpredictable situation. Limiting horsepower, to me, is the easiest solution. Any other solution will have to make way for methods and rules to determine actual "visibility" on the track.

Now about your other "topic". I'm more along the lines of new and upcoming people being able to build competitive cars to be able to participate in Formula D in the future. I'm not saying that every entry into Formula D has to be "street legal". I'm more into showing how the cars are built so that people can decide if they want to build it or not. (...kinda like Speed World Challenge VTS Sheets)

Say someone wants to build a car like Tommy Suell's entry. RWD Corolla with an SR20 drivetrain (engine/trans) in it. What does it take to do that? What kind of parts...from what car? What kind of mods, etc?

Want something slightly more "exotic"? What about Brian Bridges' car (Takatori's ride). That has a VQ engine/trans in a S13 ...what does it take to do that?

...okay, now for the BIG mod cars. RWD Scions. ;-) I think you get the picture. If there was a way to show how to build these things, maybe people will actually go and buy a Scion TC and just make it RWD. RWD cars have advantages in other realms aside from drifting...

[110octane]

The thing I don't understand, is with Tyler, D-mac and Dai running almost the same motor.... why didn't they have a spare or have any spare parts to get his car running?

The only similarity between the V8 in Dai's car and the ones in Darren's and Tyler's is the cylinder count.

From my understanding the only fix to DMacs engine issue was a spare engine. No amount of spare parts was gonna fix the car unless they included new internals and a machine shop. My guess is they didn't have another engine other than what was in Tylers car and being used.

I feel Falken made the right decisions considering all of the details.

[Bebop]

Well the way i see it that is 2 cars with the same motor... that should be 2 spare motors...

why didn't they have a spare and if it did why didn't it get swapped.

I feel Falken made the right decisions considering all of the details.

With better prep they could have did alot more, even smaller teams have spare motors and trannys.