There’s a ton of buzz surrounding the return of HKS to drifting with Nobuteru Taniguchi behind the wheel of a Toyota GT 86. Now they were the first ones to throw the new sports car on the dyno, pulling down around 170-rwhp which has about a 15-percent drivetrain loss (200-hp crank), which is pretty impressive.

HKS also spent sometime showing off their excitement about the GT 86 and the return of Nobuteru Taniguchi, with footage of NOB driving a GT 86 and speaking about it. The video ends with the upcoming D1 Grand Prix competition drift car and Taniguchi putting it through its paces.

Check out the lengthy video after the break featuring HKS’s driver, Nobuteru Taniguchi and the Toyota GT 86 getting dyno’ed.

[Source: FT86 Club]

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It’s been a while since Nobuteru Taniguchi (NOB) has been behind the wheel of an HKS vehicle at a D1 Grand Prix event. But his past accolades piloting the HKS Mitsubishi EVO in Time Attack and HKS Nissan Silvia S15 in D1 Grand Prix still makes him one of the most respected drivers in the world. Maybe that’s why he gives himself the nickname of NOB – No One Better.

Now, with the introduction of the Toyota GT 86 to the world, we’ll once again see Nobuteru Taniguchi behind the wheel of a car going sideways that’s built by HKS. Spotted out at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon during the D1 Grand Prix drift exhibition, the HKS GT 86 is just one of a few GT 86s we anticipate to be going sideways in competition drift events this year. We’ve already seen Ken Gushi’s GReddy Scion FR-S that will compete in North America’s Formula Drift, and it appears that Falken Tire will come back to D1 Grand Prix with a GT 86 in Japan as well.

We just love how HKS used their classic, iconic livery on their new drift car that was seen over 10 years ago on several HKS demo cars. The car is looking competition ready already, sporting Advan wheels, Endless brakes and plenty of carbon fiber. We can probably expect HKS to outfit it with their suspension, exhaust and a turbo upgrade. But for now, all the GT 86/FR-S drift cars we’ve seen already show how promising the sports car platform will be.

Check out some videos after the break of the HKS GT 86 and Falken Tire GT 86 out in Japan.

GALLERY: HKS D1 Grand Prix Toyota GT 86

[Source: Jon Sibal]

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With so many videos on the Internet, we try to reserve the word epic for for the ones that are truly unforgettable. Well, that’s this video: Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2.

Nick “Apex” Brocha and his Empire teammate, Ernie Vigil, jump on top of their Triumph Speed Triples built by Roaring Toyz and start to go sideways. Ever since Icon made their original video, the team has been searching for the ultimate playground for the sequel and the result of the search landed them in the rolling hills of High Plains County.

Minimal traffic, perfect asphalt and endless twisties allowed the video to be produced in relative peace while riders continued to repave the roads with smoking tires. But of course, sooner or later they attracted the attention of the local authorities and here comes Officer Dan Brockett in his 550-hp Ford Mustang Cobra.

A clever use of cameras and toys in order to grab some crazy angles makes this video one of the best ones on YouTube. Don’t believe us? Check it out below.

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As popular as drifting has become in America, the sport’s home will forever be in Japan and a quick demo out at the 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon gave us a reminder why.

While we have plenty of fun listening to V8-powered Ford Mustangs and Chevy Camaros go at it sideways, this year’s TAS played host to a Toyota GT 86 doing tandem with an old school AE86, only to be outdone by a Lexus LFA Roadster.

And as cool as it was to see the new Toyota GT 86 going sideways alongside its classic predecessor, what’s even more interesting is the fact that the LFA Roadster isn’t even supposed to go on sale until 2014, so how did someone get their hands on one? Either it’s a pre-production model or someone decided to chop the roof on theirs themselves. But leave it to D1 to put on yet another demo to whet everyone’s appetite for drifting, despite how controversial the series is out in Japan.

Check out the video after the break with various cars putting on a drifting demo.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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Scion Racing has made its 2013 FR-S Drift Car official at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. Less than a week ago, we spotted photos of the same car testing, and our assumptions proved correct: This is the Formula Drift race car for Ken Gushi and the 2012 drift season.

Built in collaboration with GReddy, the FR-S drift car will feature 600-hp and over 500 lb-ft of torque and is presumed to be turbocharged. That’s all the details Scion fed us with on the new drift car, but we’re sure we’ll be hearing more as the Formula Drift season opener on April 6-7th, approaches. But judging by its decals, it appears that the FR-S will operate with KW suspension and Gushi will be drifting on Hankook tires for the 2012 season. GReddy’s brake calipers peek behind the Rays wheels and there’s no doubt Cosworth had their hands in building the powerplant.

We can’t wait to see this thing go sideways.

GALLERY: Scion Racing FR-S Drift Car Official Photos

GALLERY: Scion Racing FR-S Drift Car Detroit Auto Show Debut

See AutoGuide’s complete 2012 Detroit Auto Show Coverage Here

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We’ve been thoroughly excited about the upcoming release of the Scion FR-S – read our review here – but with any other sports car we hope that it’ll get a version with more power. A turbocharged Scion FR-S was recently spied testing out at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, but we shouldn’t get too excited yet.

We have reason to believe that the turbocharged Scion FR-S seen drifting is actually the drift car being built by GReddy for Scion drifter Ken Gushi. Gushi has been campaigning a rear-wheel-drive converted tC for the past few years in Formula Drift and it’s publicly known that he’ll be climbing into the cockpit of an FR-S for the upcoming season.

Previously, Gushi had teamed up with RS*R for the development of his race cars, but with RS*R taking a back seat this year, GReddy was called upon to execute a custom turbocharged powerplant and to get Scion’s new sports car ready to roll sideways.

We still have no doubts that Toyota will come out with a more powerful version of their new sports coupe, but we still believe it’ll come in the ways of a supercharger from TRD, rather than a turbocharged setup. For now, we can enjoy the sound of a turbocharged FR-S going sideways.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: Motor Trend]

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So what is it that makes the Internet just so awesome? Well probably because without it, we’d never be able to witness the interesting sight of Honda‘s hybrid CR-Z attempting to go drifting. The footage was shot out at Heide-Park Soltau in Germany, with a “Ken Block Fan” behind the wheel, doing his best impression of the infamous driver behind the wheel of a FWD hybrid.

There is also a little bit of an attempt at comedy in the video, but all-in-all, it’s worth a watch. Even if all you’re trying to do is reassure yourself (and your friends) that there are crazier and weirder people on this planet. And it goes without saying, don’t try to go and do this if you own a CR-Z. It’ll just end badly, seriously.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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Out at Round 6 in Las Vegas of this year’s Formula Drift season, Mike Ryan put on the first ever drift demonstration in a semi-truck with his famous Freightliner Cascadia Pikes Peak Edition. Prior to that event however, Ryan got some testing time out at Irwindale Speedway in Southern California with Samuel Hubinette. The team also gave a very special kid a ride he’ll never forget.

Both Ryan and Hubinette were conducting some last minute testing on their vehicles before Las Vegas, but they also invited out William Klopper, who is battling cancer, for a truly memorable day. Hubinette was granting a wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation to William’s friend Patrick by inviting them out to the track for ride-alongs.

The nicely executed video does a great job capturing the day’s events, showing off how remarkable it is to watch Ryan drift his Freightliner alongside Hubinette’s Dodge Charger, while throwing in a true feel-good moment with Klopper and his friend.

Watch the video after the jump:

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While putting on a drifting demonstration out at the Milan Dragway in Michigan, the driver and passenger in this Chevrolet Camaro got an unsuspecting surprise when the side air bags deployed, slightly burning the arms on the passenger. Amazingly, the entire sequence of events got caught on video, which was then instantly uploaded to Youtube.

Obviously having technology work to your advantage when it comes to safety is something each of us wants when we get inside our vehicle, but this might be a little discomforting for some Camaro owners that may have aspirations to do some fun, spirited driving in a responsible fashion. GM spokesperson Alan Adler has already responded to what happened in this particular incident:

It is unusual to have this occur. However, it is possible for a driver to create conditions where the air bag sensors believe a rollover is imminent. This can lead to an unwanted air bag deployment. On rollover side curtain bags, the vehicle’s rollover sensing system is looking for a certain set of factors that ‘predict’ a vehicle is going to roll over. The airbag system cannot wait until it is too late to deploy the airbags. Drifting or creating a situation that has a certain combination of speed and vehicle angle can lead to an unwanted air bag deployment.”

While it didn’t seem to us that the Camaro was on the verge of rolling over, clearly its electronics thought it’s best to be safe than sorry. Hopefully all those Camaro owners out there watch this video before doing any drift demonstrations.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: Jalopnik]

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Ever since drifting hit the mainstream we’ve been treated to some of the craziest drift vehicles, utilizing platforms we’d never imagine going sideways. At the top of the list now though is this BMW M5-powered Ford Transit Van that surprisingly goes sideways with ease. Dubbed the “drift bus”, the project hails from Poland, and to show off what it can do Polish RallyCross Champion Marcin Wicik got behind the wheel while cameras were filming.

The Transit features an E39 M5 (1998-2003) powerplant which in stock trim makes 400-hp and 369 lb-ft of torque. Judging by the sound of the beast in the video, some modifications were done to the V8 to bump up the power to a claimed 440-hp. But statistics are irrelevant when you see this thing in action.

Check out a video of the Transit going sideways after the jump:

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