The North Coast 500 (NC500) is on the bucket list of many petrol heads, myself included, and when Michelle and Dave from Banzai Rally mentioned that they would be hosting a driving holiday running the route, I jumped at the chance to sign up.

I have attended a previous driving tour in the UK Lake District with Banzai Rally, so I knew to expect great driving roads, amazing scenery, military levels of organization and lovely people.

The NC500 is a tourist driving route that winds itself around the highest parts of mainland Scotland.

The route is a mix of seaside cliff views, mountainous terrain, forests and is adorned with idyllic small villages and towns, perfect for a spot of lunch and splash of fuel.

We were setting off from Inverness and were aiming to complete a counter-clockwise loop of the route.

Interesting comparison between the steering setups of the Lamborghini Gallardo and Audi R8.

The selection of cars on this trip was diverse and interesting, from VTEC equipped Honda Civics, a 370Z, a Supra, exotics through to classic V8 muscle cars from yesteryear.

JDM? Check. Italian? Check. German? Check. American? Check.

The group of cars really did have something for everyone.

Drifted was a sponsor of this event so our brand logo was on all of the cars. I have never seen a Drifted sticker on a Lamborghini before, so that was pretty cool.

After meeting the participants, we applied the Banzai Rally sticker packs to our cars, booted up our walkie-talkies and fired up our engines.

Over the four days that we did the NC500 there were many adventures, individual “battles” and all sorts of fun and games on the tour.

I can only comment from my own perspective but the standouts were the bright green 1 series BMW, pink (sorry fuchsia!) 370Z and yellow Celica battling across the highlands towards beautiful Ullapool.

Following the trio was like a scene from The Fast And The Furious.

Another stand out memory was as a passenger in an Audi R8 Spyder that was chasing the Lamborghini Gallardo.

It was an assault of sound, speed and traction. Again, amazing.

There were activities planned at many of the stops along the way, these included visiting distilleries, local caves and even zip-lining.

The group of people that attended the rally were great; respectful of each other and other road users which gave you confidence to push on without fearing somebody trying to show off or doing something too stupid.

You couldn’t ask for more.

The evenings were spent chatting, reliving the tales of the day and making new friends. Michelle and Dave cultivate an inclusive atmosphere among the group that makes it easy to spark up a conversation with a stranger.

Remember that everybody on these rallies loves cars so you will always have something in common to talk about.

As the sun set on the final day of the tour, we stayed at a magnificent hotel called the Crowne Plaza in central Glasgow.

The Banzai Rally team put on a delicious three-course meal after presenting all of the attendees with a medal and certificate for completing the rally.

Drifted presented the Car Of The Tour award to Mike, who owns this absolutely bananas Mk4 Supra.

The car has been V8 swapped with a 1UZ-FE and has had so much time and attention lavished upon it, it was a stand out winner. Just to highlight one custom example, the automatic gearbox is controlled by custom flappy paddles.

It was a fitting end to a perfect driving holiday.

Unfortunately, that meant it was time to make the long trek home to our Hertfordshire base the next morning. By the time we got home, we had clocked up a solid 1,700 miles.

If you are interested in attending some of the safest, well planned and friendly rallies then give Banzai Rally a look. They are an ambitious young company and are looking to expand.

I can’t wait to see what they come up with next year.

Check out Banzai Rally’s website, Facebook and Instagram.

Special thanks to Lightdraw Photography for these images. You can find them on Instagram and Facebook.

The post Banzai Rally: North Coast 500 first appeared on Drifted.com.

LetstanceUK, Coffee Club #2 – May 31 2021

Back to normality with a hint of sunshine, cars and fresh coffee. So, who are LetstanceUK?

LetstanceUK are an Automotive brand/website bringing you features from the car scene in the UK, North, and South of Ireland.

They also run a pretty popular car show called SoLow, and also they host cars & coffee events in Northern Ireland.

As a photographer it felt great to get the camera back out of its bag, charge up the batteries, wake up nice and early and head down the road to snap up some photos of Northern Ireland and Ireland’s most refined car builds, daily drivers, and the odd supercar.

From JDM legends such as the R34 and R32 GTR, AE86’s, JZX’s & S Chassis to a Pandem kitted E92 and a unique coloured Abarth.

There was such a wide variety of cars for any car enthusiast, that you would have struggled to not find something that caught your eye! With lockdown restrictions easing, car shows and coffee meets, can finally get back to operating.

I got such a buzz being back behind the camera and have a good feeling that 2021 is about to get a whole lot better, with a whole load if shows planned for the upcoming months.

A massive shout out to the guys at Letstance for a great event, perfectly organised and a very well planned out event.

Roll on the next one!

Are you keen to see more coverage from Chris Shaw? Why not give him a follow on Facebook and Instagram?

To check out the latest antics from LetstanceUK, head over and give them a follow on Facebook and Instagram.

Additional Content

The post LetstanceUK – Coffee Club #2 first appeared on Drifted.com.

Bondurant Racing School – Chandler, AZ – Dec 7-8

Are you more of a video watcher then a reader? Check out Reelbros Media’s short video compilation of the event. Otherwise scroll down for drift car porn!

Following the success of the first two events, The Track Society brings back the third edition of Desert Meihan to Wild Horse Motorsport Park in Chandler, AZ.

This time, what seems to already be the biggest annual drifting event in Arizona, lured to the desert a number of pro and pro-am drivers, including Forrest Wang with his Nissan S15, Chelsea DeNofa in S54 swapped BMW 318ti, Ryan Litteral (Nissan S14), Dan Burkett (MK4 Supra) and many more – total of 50 drivers.

Now, if you don’t know, Desert Meihan is not a typical drifting competition – it’s not about the awards or trophies. The entire event is basically hot lapping for 2 days.

Driver’s meeting started on sleepy Saturday morning at 8am sharp, followed by media meeting. Before that even ended, we could already hear the cars lining up at the entrance gate.

The layout is a 1:1 copy of the legendary Meihan Sportlands (Yamazoe-mura) in Japan and of course it features the wall.

Luckily, on Saturday, we didn’t get any rain from the clouds hanging above our heads all day long.

The crowds were even bigger than last year, we’ve seen few crashes, some cars just couldn’t take all the abuse and broke down.

Unfortunately, on Sunday we saw some rain but that didn’t stop anybody. The crowds still showed up to watch drivers hot lapping for many hours.

The event turned out to be pretty much what we all expected – total mayhem in the clouds of burnt rubber.

It’s great to see local track heroes being chased by pro drivers and then trying to catch up with them on the next lap.

Events like that remind us all why we fell in love with drifting and they bring more people to the community, a community that is growing every year.

Sometimes we forget it’s not all about the horse power and torque numbers. It’s about fun, friendships and and getting better at what we do.

If you enjoyed this event coverage then check out our Desert Meihan 2 article.

The post Desert Meihan 3 – Chandler, AZ first appeared on Drifted.com.

Entering the Round 8 of 2019 Formula Drift season 4 drivers still had mathematical chances to steal that number 1 spot from James Deane – Fredric Aasbo (Norway), Piotr Wiecek (Poland), Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis (Lithuania) and Chris Forsberg (USA) but they all knew the Irish man would not let go without a fight.

Sunny California was about to witness a great final championship battle again.

Qualifying

Unfortunately with a big number of technical problems some drivers were not able to pull up to the start line for the qualifying runs and some did not complete their runs. That meant the top qualifiers would have bye runs in the Top 32.

After scoring the highest in 2 previous rounds everyone expected Deane to get the no.1 spot but he ended up 6th.

Even bigger surprise – Fredrick Aasbo finished 10th with only one good run and a misfire in his Toyota Corolla.

Ryan Tuerck in Toyota 86 qualified third (94 and 94), Ken Gushi in another Toyota 86 and scores of 90 and 95 finished second.

With 2 very solid runs (95 and 93) Chelsea Denofa in his Ford Mustang RTR ended up on top.

Main competition

This year’s Final Battle will be remembered as one of the most dramatic rounds in the Formula D history.

James Deane (Nissan S15) started his Irwindale campaign with a win against Kevin Lawrence and his Nissan S14.3 and advanced to Sweet 16 where he got paired up with Forrest Wang (Nissan S15).

They both had solid runs but made some mistakes.

It was easy to tell that 2-time champion had some trouble adjusting to Wang’s pace. After 2 OMT battles, judges unanimously gave the win to Deane and the crowd was not happy with that call…

And that was the minimum James “The Machine” Deane needed to do to secure his third in a row FD Pro Championship title. In the Great 8, he beat Ryan Tuerck and advanced to Final 4 where he met Ken Gushi.

Gushi in his Toyota 86 started the day with a bye run in Top 32 and then in Sweet 16 beat Travis Reeder (Nissan 240SX S13) who received well deserved 2019 Rookie of the Year award.

In the Great 8, he met 2nd Worthouse Drift Team driver – Piotr Wiecek (Nissan S15). Wiecek just came out from the battle against Fredrick Aasbo and he was on fire! After the first battle the judges decided OMT is required.

In his chase run, Wiecek made a big mistake and Gushi made it to the finish line by himself. After defeating James Deane in Final 4 Gushi faced the 2013 FD Champion Michael Essa in the Final.

Essa didn’t have a perfect day but with a majority of very solid runs, his BMW M3 pushed through the day hard and landed him in the final battle. With some mechanical issues, he pulled up to the start line, ready to fight.

In the chase position, he was able to match Gushi’s Toyota 86 pace. Unfortunately in the lead, his BMW was much slower and Gushi was tripping over slower M3 and in the Outside Zone 2 Essa span out and his run was judged incomplete.

For Kenshiro Gushi (Japan) that was the first win since 2005 (Texas).

It’s also worth noting that this year he took over the entire GReddy Racing team and with all the distraction coming from managing the team he was still able to perform at such high level.

The 2020 Formula Drift schedule will be announced at SEMA on November 6.

The post Formula DRIFT Irwindale Finale – 2019 Event Report first appeared on Drifted.com.

Each year Goodwood’s iconic Festival Of Speed hype seems to grow and as a FOS newbie I decided that it was time for me to take the drive down to the event and see what all the fuss is about.

The FOS event has become a very special annual highlight for the automotive industry. Now held over four days of the British summertime, punters can enjoy the action packed hillclimb, drift arena, supercar paddocks and manufacturer stands. Some forward thinking manufactures are even using the event to launch their hottest cars.

Attending an event like this shows you how powerful slick marketing can be for your brand. For many privateer drift teams, this isn’t something that is often seen. If you are looking to obtain sponsorship for your team, online printing companies like https://www.helloprint.co.uk/ can help you out. You don’t need a Goodwood budget to sort the basics and it might just make the difference that lands your key sponsor.

This year we were lucky enough to be treated to some excellent drifting content that I am thrilled to share with you.

This was the first time we Brits got to cast our eyes over Toyota’s A90 Supra. The car looks great in the metal, and after having a cheeky sit in the cockpit, I give it top marks for looks, quality and tuning potential.

Sure, out of the box the styling may be a little underwhelming from stock, but bolt on some lip kits or aftermarket aero and tuner wheels and this car is going to look fantastic.

And with Car Throttle’s recent dyno test results showing that the motor puts out over 370+ bhp stock (over 40 bhp more then claimed) the car is no slouch.

Our friends at ARIOS Japan (remember their drift spec Ferrari F360 Modena that we featured?) have already released renders of the aero kit they are building.

Their aero kit doesn’t sport crazy metal-cutting-overfenders or anything too tasteless, they have simply taken the stock lines of the A90 and enhanced what is already there.

I love it..

The manufacturers had spent some serious cash on creating plenty of impressive pop-up structures. Each structure offered different features, some a better view of the hillclimb, some had special cars tucked away and others just a cool place to retreat from the sun with air conditioned air.

Honda offered a closer look at their high end cars and this was my first opportunity to check out the latest NSX. It is much better looking in the metal. The aggressive and angular design language of the modern Civics makes a lot more sense on their supercar.

The BMW stand offered a great view of the hillclimb.

The Ford stand took the crown in my eyes as they had constructured a fully working mono-rail circling their stand’s upper deck (sorry no pic..).

The brand new Lexus RCF Track Edition looked absolutely fantastic. The carbon accents and lowered stance gave the car a much more aggressive look then the base model. The red bucket seats are a nice touch.

The 2020 GT500 Ford Mustang also looked very impressive. The power bulge is a neat feature. Unfortunately I missed this monster going up the hill.

Drifting action

So enough of the cars and stands and lets move onto the drifting action. This year’s Festival Of Speed attracted some top talent, including Mad Mike Whiddett, Nobuteru Taniguchi, Ryan Tuerck, James Deane and Steve Baggsy Biagioni.

NOB takes out the HKS A90 Supra around the drift arena.

The drift stars invade Goodwood teaser!

Here is the full playback from Saturday’s drift shootout competition.

Just for fun, here is the best donuts and burnouts of 2019’s Festival Of Speed.

We published all of the livestreams from the Festival Of Speed on our Facebook page, so remember to follow us so you don’t miss any of the action as it happens.

Thanks for the memories Goodwood, we will see you next year!

Photo credits
Thanks for Toyota GB for use of their lead image.

The post Goodwood Festival Of Speed 2019: Drifting Highlights first appeared on Drifted.com.

Long Beach, CA / April 5-6, 2019

Bakchis takes the win at The Street of Long Beach

Streets of Long Beach once again welcomed Formula Drift drivers and thousands of spectators to kick off a new season of Pro drifting! And let me tell you if all 2019 rounds will be as dramatic as the 1st one, we’re in for a major treat!

The weather forecast for the weekend was very promising, sunny with some clouds from time to time. That usually means one thing – a lot of smoke! Something that we’ve been waiting for since last October.

Drivers, sponsors and vendors started rolling in as early as 5:30 am on Friday.

For us lazy morning begun with first official media meeting, shortly after followed by a track walk. At the same time, we could hear all the LSs, RBs and JZs warming up in the background.

But somehow all the attention was focused on one car… the one that actually makes no noise. Travis Reeder, last year’s PRO2 Champion, and his team Napoleon Motorsports brought to Long Beach first-ever EV drift car – Chevrolet Camaro EL1.

Unfortunately, due to some absurd city laws, they were not allowed to compete against gas (petrol, if you’re not in the US) powered vehicles.

The first victim of the street track turned out to be Kevin Lawrence. He crashed his Nissan S14 Onevia – run 1 of the practice, 1st corner. Definitely not the start he was hoping for…

Qualifying started shortly after 1 PM. 37 drivers and only 32 available spots. Every driver pushed it to the limit and that resulted in very high scores. With almost perfect run (99 points), Matt Field in his Chevy Corvette took #1 spot.

Last year’s champion, James “The Machine” Dean with 98 points placed 2nd and his teammate Piotr Wiecek got 3rd (97 points).

On sunny Saturday morning, you could feel the excitement mixed with gasoline and burned rubber in the air. Official tandem practice kicked off after 9 AM and it was certain no one is lifting today.

Spectators were rolling in in hundreds, anxiously waiting for TOP 32 battles. The action we’ve all been waiting for. The crashes, burnouts, battle between Dean and Aasbo, mechanical failures.

All the emotions and drama we love about drifting and motorsport in general – we got it all!

At the end of the day it all came down to 2 drivers – Forrest Wang (almost didn’t make it to the opening ceremony due to some rear subframe issues) in his new Nissan s15 and Odi Bakchis in Nissan s14. Good old S-Chassis battle! And once again Odi proves that he’s one of the best drivers and takes #1 spot!

After great 2018 season, Team Falken proves (with 6 drivers in Top 10 at Long Beach) that they are going to be the major force in this year’s series.

2019 Black Magic Formula Drift Championship Series remains at Long Beach until April 13 for an invitational Super Drift Challenge event and then the show will move on to Orlando, FL!

Full Formula DRIFT Long Beach 2019 gallery

The post Formula DRIFT Long Beach – Round 1 first appeared on Drifted.com.

Irwindale, CA 3/2/2019

‘Rain or shine!’ – this phrase had been repeated like a mantra for over a week before the new season of The Drift League kickoff.

The weather forecast wasn’t giving a lot of hope though. 100% chance of rain on Saturday…

Irwindale Speedway, better know in drifting community as The House of Drift, welcomed us with a lot of rain early in the morning.

No surprise here… Drivers and vendors started rolling in after 7 am.

First driver’s meeting followed media briefing after 9:30 am and shortly after 10 am we heard first engines revving.

A loud mix of JZ’s, RB’s, LS’s and rotary engines woke up sleepy Irwindale.

Official training went as expected. Not a lot of smoke, a lot of spinning and splashing. The first victim of the rain/wall combo turned out to be RJ Contreras and his BMW e36.

Ripped off the control arm with the driver’s side front wheel meant his day was over.

The tandem training started around 1 pm and again – no smoke and a lot of spinning.

Few drivers still went full send, including Micah Diaz, Josh Mason, Rome Charpentier and Tony Cisneros.

Qualifying started after 3:30 pm and literally brought us some light. First rays of the sun felt like a blessing. Even the best rain protection will not help you if you’re standing in the pouring rain for 6h.

We took down some of our DIY camera protection and got ready for some real drifting!

I’m sure every driver tried to push as hard as possible and not lift but in those conditions, you had to be at the top of your game.

Micah “Man-Line King” Diaz qualified with a no.1 score of 77 points. The result of rough conditions was TOP 16 with 5 bye runs! That’s how many cars crashed and was not able to compete for any more.

After the sunset light rain appeared again but the competition went smooth with fewer crashes and uncontrolled skids until the end.

Josh Mason (Ford Mustang) ended 3rd after the event though he hit the wall pretty hard. 2nd place went to Rome Charpentier (BMW e36) and Tony Cisneros and his Nissan 240SX s14 took the 1st place.

Full gallery

The post The Drift League – Irwindale 2019 first appeared on Drifted.com.

Second edition of Desert Meihan at Wild Horse Pass Motorsport Park is already in the books.

The biggest and the last drifting event in Arizona gathered a group of great drivers, The Track Society is really pushing hard to promote drifting in the desert. The 2 day drift fest brought few pros to the desert.

We saw Forest Wang with his Nissan Silvia s15 and mkIV Supra, Soronsen Motorsport team and theirs two LS swapped BMW e46, Team Overstyle from Las Vegas, few drivers from California and bunch of local drivers, lead by Corey Hosford with his well know Nissan 240SX Boss.

The track is of course an exact copy of the famous Meihan Sportsland from Nara, Japan.

The first day started at 8:30am with the drivers and media meetings. Sleepy morning quickly ended when all beasts woke up with loud revs and drifting started around 10am.

Drivers were divided in 4 groups and they had hot laps until 5pm.

At the end of the day we saw the biggest crash of the event. Chris Soehren in his Scion FRS spun at the wall causing a collision with Branden Sorensen’s e46, DJ Lloyd’s Subaru Impreza and a famous BMW e36 pickup (Dustin Latimer).

Second day was more mellow but we still had couple of crashes.

Andrew Schulte’s s13 hit the tire wall after his brake booster died and couple of old school Toyotas from California crashed.

After all it was a solid event, bunch of spectators showed up, bunch of tires were destroyed, everyone had fun. If I had to describe it in one word it would be ‘carnage’!

Desert Meihan 3 was already confirmed for next year and it’s expected to be even bigger.

Photos and editorial by Kris Szczepaniec.

The post Desert Meihan 2 Event Coverage first appeared on Drifted.com.

THE BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPION
IRWINDALE, California (October 10, 2018)

The defending champion James Deane and his Nissan Silvia S15 (Worthouse Drift Team) is in the lead of Pro Championship but Fredric Aasbo in 1000HP Toyota Corolla (Rockstar Energy Drink) is lurking right behind him with mathematical chances to snag the trophy last minute.

FRIDAY

Friday started early with refreshing and sunny morning. Drivers meeting and media briefing went by quick. All drivers were looking good on the track and got their runs with no major issues. Few minutes after noon the qualifying started.

The Dynamic Duo, Deane x Wiecek, ended up at the top with monstrous scores of 99 and 98 points! Aasbo wasn’t going to give up just like that as he aimed at the victory. Solid run placed him at 4th position, behind Daijiro Yoshihara (Team DAI).

SATURDAY

On Saturday we woke up to a rainy morning but the weather forecast was optimistic for the afternoon. Gray skies did not discouraged spectators as they started showing up shortly after 10AM.

The official Pro Practice #2 started just a little after 12PM and it was clear that no one will be lifting their right foot today. You could feel the excitement in the air. Dark clouds were still hanging over our heads, occasionally showering the track and FormulaD fans.

James Deane opened the TOP 32 with his BYE run as he won the qualifiers the day before. He got the crowd warmed up and we all knew this is going to be a big night! The smell of burnt rubber and smoke was hanging over The House of Drift giving us more hope for no rain.

TOP 16 went nuts! Worthouse’s “Dynamic Duo” got eliminated right away. James Deane lost to Forrest Wang and Piotrek Wiecek got beaten by Odi Bakchis. That made the whole event even more exciting because Deane losing in 1/16 gave Fredric Aasbo a chance to win the Pro Championship. All he had to do was win every battle tonight. And he started well by beating his teammate Jhonnattan Castro who was having a great day so far.

Not a single driver was going to back up.

The Great 8 got us even more fired up. Aasbo got another win against Dean Kearney and his Dodge Viper, Wang rolled over Ken Gushi and both drivers of RTR Motorsports team advanced to TOP 4. Vaughn Gittin Jr beat Bakchis and Chelsea DeNofa won a great battle with Micheal Essa (BMW M3 e46).

In the battle of RTR Motorsport’s Mustangs Gittin Jr clinched the victory against DeNofa and Aasbo again prove how good of a driver he is and after very close runs with Wang, advanced to the Final Battle. Meanwhile James Deane and the entire Worthouse team were anxiously watching all action from the paddock. Aasbo was only one win away from the championship.

The crowd was seriously fired up! Aasbo vs Gittin Jr, two amazing drifters in the last battle of the 2018 season! First battle – OMT!! Second one – OMT again! I’m pretty sure Deane was close to a nervous breakdown.

Here we go again… Another very close battle but Aasbo made one small mistake and Gittin Jr takes the win and James Deane (595 points) is our back to back FormulaDIRT Pro Champion with only 4 points ahead of Fredric Aasbo (591 points)!

Source: Formula DRIFT

Toyota won the Auto Cup with almost 200 points over Ford and Falken got Tire Cup trophy.

What a great way to end another amazing season of FD. Irwindale Speedway delivered big time as always!

Fancy yourself as the next James Deane? You had better get practising!

Photos: Krzysiek Szczepaniec

The post Formula DRIFT: 2018 Title Fight first appeared on Drifted.com.

“AS A KID..”
17 years ago when I was only 9 years old The Fast And The Furious was released, this was the first of their movies.

The movie was a game changer for me as soon as I seen that first movie that was me HOOKED!

I have always been a fan of the movies but when watching them I always thought to myself what would it really be like to watch the action in front of your own eyes.

The opportunity appeared and I JUMPED at the chance to see the fast live show not knowing what to expect.

I was going in blind but very excited to see the action and the iconic cars such as Paul Walkers Mitsubishi eclipse, Supra R34 GTR & Vin Diesels Dodge Charger plus plenty of other super machines that you don’t see every day in Northern Ireland.

With Northern Ireland being such a small part of the U.K for Fast Live to come here as part of their tour, I was very much looking forward to this event.

The Show started with clips from the movies including scenes from Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, “The ROCK”, Michelle Rodriguez & more showing throughout the 1 hour & 30 min show.

From the very start, the audience members are taken on an epic journey by street racer Sophia Diaz (played by Elysia Wren) and Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Agent Dawson (played by Mark Ebulué), in which they as a combined team went on the hunt to track down a mysterious supervillain.

“THE CROWD”
Being the 21st Century a 3D projection was a big part of the show being used throughout on and off the floor & background giving the impression you’re really in the show. This gave the feeling of being a part of the movie background.

Even the audience is brought into play to help build a street racer. This participation is brought about via a set of coloured cards, (RED, BLUE) that have been placed on your seat before the show These cards being used to vote & determine various options to modify a Mitsubishi – Lancer Evolution. (RICER SPEC as seen below).

“THE STREET DRIFT”
Being one of the most fun drift shows I have seen to date, a technology-filled recreation from the first scene of 2 Fast 2 Furious. This section of the show has you wondering why there are 4 plain white cars lined up not doing anything, then BOOM over 50 thousand LED’s per car light up the dark arena and the whole place comes to life.

The 4 cars that put on the light drift show were a Honda s2000, Nissan r34 GTR, Toyota Supra and a Mazda RX7.

“A NEW ERA”
Familiar sequences include the chase scene from the fifth film, in which two Chargers blast through the streets of Rio de Janeiro pulling a large bank vault, this is from the latest film, an orange Lamborghini Murciélago evades a military submarine in the Russian Arctic.

The use of props is a somewhat curious addition to the show at this point, with a torpedo trundling around on the stage floor in pursuit of the target car a Lykan Hypersport is a mere 3.5 million car I was very surprised to see this very rare yet one of a kind car in real life.

“My Thoughts”
Would I go again?? Hell Yea. I do however think the show is more for the younger audience I’m not saying an adult would not enjoy it but if you’re always around drifting or even really fast action events such as the Irish Drift Championship or the Northern Ireland Drift ama Series it may not appeal to you.

My score? 8/10 for action scenes, 7/10 for the storyline, 8/10 for stunts & live drifting, 10/10 for the 3D Projection System.
What would I like to see the next time? A Show set outdoors, faster action, fewer lights & MORE SMOKE!

“A Few Words”
I decided to ask Mr Jonny Irwin from the show a few things about Fast Live, with Jonny being from Northern Ireland as well I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to interview local talent.

How long did it take to learn the show’s plan & layouts?

Training was quite intense, it consisted of the 11 drivers being taken to a secure location in the East Midlands in a military base for 16 weeks. As we were from all different driving backgrounds we had to be stripped back to basics and be built up to work with each other and be at the same level as each other.

Because the arena is so small and at times so much is happening you need to have total trust in your fellow drivers. The 2nd stage was a full month in the NEC Birmingham every day for 12hours with no days off which was very intense, in that month we were first introduced to the environment mapping and the rest of the crew.

Whats it like on tour with the other stunt drivers & team?

The tour is so much fun, we all have got so close since we started this program and you could say we are all like brothers and sisters. From 2200 people auditioned I don’t think 11 more perfect people could have been put together, we all have our own personalities and the management couldn’t have put a more dedicated team together.

Every day is an adventure you always see something different and try something different outside of work but aside from that, we all work extremely hard to perfect what we do so that every seating is better than the previous.

Whats your plans after the Tour?

At the moment its hard to tell what the future would hold. I’m very dedicated to fast live but there’s definitely no doubt I will be very interested in keeping up a driving career as its just me and what I’m interested in.

Bio:
My driving career from dream to reality!

My name is Jonathan Irwin (jonnymcl), 35 years old from a little village called Fintona in Co. Tyrone. Being raised on a farm and having a father as a mechanic was possibly a deciding factor for my huge interest in anything mechanical.

At a very young age, I had developed a huge interest in fixing things and how things worked. Fortunately, with being on a farm we had some land where I was able to learn to drive a tractor at the age 6 and my first car before the age of 10.

I spent most of my years from 10-17 racing cars around fields gaining the car handling and control I would have needed to be a racing driver and deep down I always wanted to perform on the world stage but as with a lot of families money was the contributing factor which did not allow.

I was eager to pass my driving test as soon as possible once I had turned 17 years old which I did the first time. Very soon after I purchased my first car a brand new (2000) Ford Fiesta 1.25 Zetec and by the age of 23, I bought my first RWD car which I still have today the iconic Toyota Corolla AE86.

I drove this car every day learning the art of drifting but unfortunately as there were no venues to cater for this we ended up doing it on the streets.

This caused all sorts of trouble in my career, driving bans, penalty points etc, but deep down it was all I wanted to do was to learn to drift.
In 2011 I went to my first drift day in Mondello park and as the first car went past I instantly got the feeling this is what I really want to do, I rushed homemade plans and built my first drift car also an ae86 corolla.

For the next few years, I perfected the art of drifting on tracks all across Ireland and the U.K whilst gaining quite a few trophies along the way. Fast forward to 2016 when I decided competition drifting was no longer what I wanted to do as I prefer the much more relaxed atmosphere of practice days, then out of the blue I decided to audition for a driving career advertised, which at the time I didn’t know was for the biggest car film franchise in the world FAST AND FURIOUS.

The interviews started with 2200 applicants and going into the first driving audition stage there were some 200+ drivers with 11 final driver places up for grabs. I kept the calm approach and am now proud to say I am living the dream I had dreamt of at the age 10. Performing on the world stage to audiences of 10,000+ travelling the world with our theatrical live arena show

“THE TEAM”
Anthony Scott
Working as a professional stunt driver for over 25 years, and drifting competitively all over the globe for the past decade.
instagram: @scotty_6666_drift

Chris Burns
After running the infamous ‘Steer from the Rear’ stunt driving team for many years, Chris Burns became a central member of the Top Gear Live stunt driving team.

Touring for 7 years and performing in over 500 shows, Chris is one of the most experienced stunt drivers in the world. He now takes his rightful place as the team leader for Fast and Furious Live.
instagram @chrisburns

Chris Knox
Two times Mini Challenge Champion (2011 & 2014) with over 19 race wins, Chris Knox is a well known and respected racing driver.
instagram: @chrisknoxracing

Chris Morena
With over 25 Hollywood film credits including blockbusters such as Transformers. Chris holds the dubious accolade of crashing 800 cars over 20 successful years of live shows,
Instagram @mostunts_entertainment

Derek Butler
As one of the originators of the Prodrift series, and with a sea of social media followers – Derek ‘Buttsy’ Butler is well known as the original wild child of drifting. He is also currently an official Monster Energy athlete.
instagram @buttsybutler

Jessica Hawkins
Former British Karting Champion, and currently leading both the Mini Challenge Cooper Pro Championship and the Sunoco 240 Challenge, Jessica was named one of the three most likely females to make it to Formula 1 by the Sunday Telegraph.
instagram @1jessicahawkins

Jodie Rasburn
19-year-old Jodie was the youngest girl to compete professionally in a drift championship and won her first ever trophy at just 15. A rising star with unblinking determination.
instagram @jodierasburn

Michelle Westby
Professional model turned championship drifter. As the first female competitor of the inaugural Drift Cup, Michelle has been one of the trailblazers for women in the sport. With her 400hp Nissan S14, she has proved her skill time and again.
instagram @miss_westby

Sébastien Fouassier
Stuntman and driver Sebastien has over 63 movie credits to his name, including Star Wars: Rogue One, Columbiana and Three Days to Kill.
instagram @sebfouassier

Nathan Gerhold
A defensive driving expert, Nathan has provided security transport for VIPs and celebrities covering threat levels from armed ambush to carjacking. He has also been a stunt driving instructor for the past 18 years.
instagram @npglife

Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed the trip to my view of the FAST LIVE TOUR.

Follow me on:
instagram @chrisshawuk
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/christophershawphotography

Got an S2000 and want to tune it like Suki’s? Then check out our S2000 supercharger, turbo kit, exhaust and coilover guides.

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