Car Nifty TV just posted this video of some of the competition battles of the rainy Odaiba round of the D1GP Drift Championship that took place last month. Some highlights include Manabu Orido’s IS-F powered FT-86 (Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ) going head to head with Hibino’s Subaru EJ25 powered FT-86. There’s also the owner of Vertex Aero’s 2JZ powered BMW 3-Series going up against Nobuteru Tanaguchi’s Altezza (Lexus IS300). The round was won by Daigo Saito in his JZX100 chaser.
Some of the biggest news this year for the Formula D drift series is that Japanese drifting star, Daigo Saito, will be coming to the US to compete. Saito is the 2008 D1 champion and is well known for his high speed drifts. This video is of the 2010 D1 round at Ebisu circuit. Ebisu is a regular stop for the D1 circuit, but in 2010 the judges allowed the drivers to straight line the chicane before the judged section of the track. This allowed them to bring more speed into the first jump which caused high speed specialist Saito to get a crazy amount of air at the start of his run.
Daigo works as a bus driver for school children when he’s not competing in D1. The kids that he drives make him good luck cards before every competition. For Formula D, Saito purchased a Toyota Soarer (Lexus SC430) that was flood damaged in the tsunami for $3000. He then put a 1200hp stroked 2JZ engine into it and shipped it here to the US. Head over to Speedhunters to look at some detailed pictures of the car as it went through Formula D tech inspection. Saito placed third in Round 1 of Formula D at The Streets of Long Beach.
