Samuel Hubinette (Formula D WINNER!)

[GvEman]

Hello

I love drifitng! and i love american kars and i love people form sweden... because i ame from sweden to and Samuel is born about 15 miles from my home he is one of my idols:P
just wanted you to know:P

[carmike]

Originally posted by Oki Drifter
The Viper winning should shut up alot of the haters who don't want domestics and high power cars to compete in drifting.

Yeah, I agree. I always like to see domestics win.

It's also funny how a lot people can't get over the fact that a domestic won. Everybody starts making excuses.

[_PG_]

Originally posted by carmike
Yeah, I agree. I always like to see domestics win.

It's also funny how a lot people can't get over the fact that a domestic won. Everybody starts making excuses.

Well a 700 hp RACE CAR built in Japan or built in America or built in Switzerland.... its still a 700 hp RACE CAR.. it will beat 400 hp street car anyday of the week.

Most people do not dislike the Viper or Sam because its an American car. They/we dislike Sam's style and His/Mopar's idea of what drifting is. To them, it could be roping 3 legged pink cows as long as it makes them money.

For more, just read my post on the "Why did Chris beat Sam...?" topic further down the page.

[servinmcgervin]

the vipers is just sick! anyone ever look at the specs on the viper comp coupe? they rock! so does the price tag. 125g's or something like that. ouch. nice base to start of with huh

[Brian]

Originally posted by _PG_
Well a 700 hp RACE CAR built in Japan or built in America or built in Switzerland.... its still a 700 hp RACE CAR.. it will beat 400 hp street car anyday of the week.

Most people do not dislike the Viper or Sam because its an American car. They/we dislike Sam's style and His/Mopar's idea of what drifting is. To them, it could be roping 3 legged pink cows as long as it makes them money.

For more, just read my post on the "Why did Chris beat Sam...?" topic further down the page.

i wish people uinderstood us...

[Octagon]

I will not dismiss that DaimlerChrysler sees Formula Drift as a good marketing oppurtunity, but as I've worked hand in hand with the Mopar people on motorsports projects I know just how passionate they get about becoming a part of the sport's culture.

The best example I can give is about seven odd years ago when Jimmy Sills approached Mopar to come to sprint and midget racing. Since the dawn of time ( which was quickly followed by the production of the first Gambler chassis ) sprint car racing has been dominated by the Chevy small block (albeit in custom aluminum Gaerte produced 410ci form). Sills, a diehard Chryco fan, started working with the crate 360 to see if it would work in his USAC car and went to Mopar for sponsorship.

What he got was a development team who created a whole new engine, an engine that took Sills to numerous USAC wins, plus gave Mark Kinser a World of Outlaws championship, and even ran in team Oreca's Dallara chassis LMP car at Le Mans.

I was parcel to the later days of the Mopar WoO project and the Mopar midget four-cylinder project (another from scratch design). I saw first hand how the Mopar people came to whatever small rural shop and whatever weekly race track they could to support and assist their guys. The Mopar people lived and breathed motorsport, and not a one of them hesitated to turn wrenches or shoot the breeze for fans, teammates, and competitors alike.

Big Daimler is there to do two things, win and sell cars. But the left field nutjobs at Mopar who are actually in the trenches building, testing, tuning, and racing are pure racing guys willing to try anything no matter how hare-brained (Bobby Archer's SCCA Trans-Am Viper with its destroked 303ci carb V8 built from the 410 sprint engine) expensive (the Chrysler LMP project done with Oreca and Dallara that used the Mopar 410 sprint engine) or controversial (the Formula Drift team).

Please don't dismiss some of the finest people who've ever helped motorsport simply because they're a wing of a big company.

[Tsunami]

Originally posted by _PG_
Well a 700 hp RACE CAR built in Japan or built in America or built in Switzerland.... its still a 700 hp RACE CAR.. it will beat 400 hp street car anyday of the week.

First of all Sam's competition coupe is far from the monster everyone thinks it is. The car makes around 525-550hp. It's just a stock Viper motor w/o all the emmissions equipment (cats, intake silencers, mufflers, etc). All you would have to do to make a comp-coupe street legal would be to put in all of the factory safety and smog equipment back on, adjust the supsension and change the tires. That's it.

The comp coupe was designed for competition in SCCA's World Challenge division, or similar race series. The purpose of the car is for anyone with the $$$ to be able to go get a crew and a car and go racing without having to do any expensive R&D work on the car. It's a spec racer plain and simple. It's funny how everybody talks about how expensive that Viper is, but if you went to Apex'i or HKS and asked them to build you a state-of-the-art D1 car just like theirs, I dare say you'd pay 6 figures.

Compared to Formula D cars, I'd say the Comp Coupe would be over the line RIGHT NOW, simply because all those cars are pretty much modifed street cars, but when compared to Youichi's FD or N.O.B.'s S15 and the talent behind the wheel of those cars, I see the comp coupe as an equalizer in the D1. Let's not forget that Tarzan entered the D1 with the SAME CAR and didn't get too far. Sam entered the D1 with a STREET CAR and got in the top 8. We have to factor Sam's talent into the equation. Also why is it ok for Tarzan to drift his Viper in the D1 but it's not ok for Sam to do it? Why is it ok for Sam to drift a Supra but not a Viper?

It's funny how everybody gripes about the Viper being like entering a full-blown race car, but in reality it's in between a street car and race car. IMHO if Sam was driving a street Viper the results wouldn't be much different. Either way you'd be dealing with a talented driver in a great car.

[_PG_]

When did Tarzan enter D1? Maybe an exhibition run or something. And if he DID enter D1 Keiichi let him slide just to make a fool out of himself. See him and Keiichi don't get along too well. He is a racer and he always says how easy drifting is. If, for some reason he was allowed to compete in D1 in that car, it was just because Keiichi wanted to prove how good "real drifters are".

I dunno this is just heresay, i have never known Tarzan to ever compete in D1 for series points, everything he has done has been demos.

Which brings me to my next point. Imamura and Taniguchi... what cars do they drive? FD3S and S15, right? Yes. Street cars right? Yes. Do they have the JGTC version of the FD3S? No. There is one, and it would be equal to what the Competition coupe is. A RACECAR.

FYI folks, many D1 cars are also street driven. Yes. Onoly the top like.... 10 or so teams build those cars for the drivers. You know who Takahashi is? In the red Chaser? Street driven. How about Bai in his 180 or S15? Street. Even Kuroi in his 972 ps RB26 S13 is street driven.

D1 RULES SAY that cars have to be equipped with catalytic converters and full exhaust systems. Sure the street-legal laws in J-Land are different than here, but Formula D has no such rules...

Anyways, by D1 rules, the Competition Coupe is illegal.

As for how much it costs versus other D1 cars.... firstly if you wnated to replicate to the "t" the SiGNAL S1580 "twins" including labor you would spend about 50k. That is a LOT of money. But its not 120k.