While walking through the Bosch booth to check out the Bosch Performance Art display that was setup we ran into Vaughn Gittin Jr. and got him chatting with us about everything going on in Drifting related to him. He told us how much fun he had doing Bosch Performance Art through downtown Los Angeles on 3rd and Grand. He spoke on his focus of the Redbull Drift Championship and how Betsey will be making her last appearance next weekend and he is ready to give her one more win. Check out the video of Vaughn Gittin Jr. talking to us here at SEMA 2008. 

Watch the video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/sema-2008—vaughn-gittin-jr 

Yes, the end of SEMA 2008 is finally closing it up to an end. This gallery gets progressively random as it goes on but please enjoy it. We grabbed some awesome snaps of Vaughn Gittin’s Ford Mustang, AEM Honda s2000, S-MAX Nissan S14, and much more. We hope you enjoyed taking a tour of SEMA 2008 with us, in the next few days we will be pouring out content from the week, assuming we survive the new few days.

Check out the Gallery: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=75

Following the cool trend of “declining” his invitation Fred Girard has said he won’t be attending the Redbull Drift Championship next week. Instead, Marcos Santos will be ripping apart the island in his General Tires Infiniti G35. As we are sad Fred won’t make it in his Hankook Nissan Skyline but we are very excited to see the dramatic and insane Marcos Santos on the course.

Thanks for the e-mail tip: Patrick Cyr

Check out this interview with Sam Hubinette as he breaks down the 2009 season for him and the NuFormz team. Sam also goes into some information about the Rebull Drifting event that is coming up next week and his excitement to battle the drivers from the other European countries. Make sure you check out this interview right after the Dodge Challenger interview.

Watch this video: http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/watchvideo/sema-2008—sam-hubinette—mopar-booth—ful

Check out the Day 2 gallery of SEMA…..but it feels like Day 20. We are surviving somehow and found some great snaps for the day. We even came across Ken Gushi’s Scion which was in the D-BASF booth. Below that is possibly our favorite car of the show……..the Five Axis Lexus, an amazing piece of art for sure.

Check out the gallery:

Don’t forget to check out the full gallery

“I’m Killing It” Colin Frost has put away the S13 and is bringing a Lexus to come out and play. According to his PR (that has Wrecked Magazine images on it=awesome). The car will be at the 2009 Formula D Long Beach event making it’s debut. The powerplant has been announced to be a 2JZ-GTE which should be very exciting if they can get it tuned and running right. Colin had this to say about the project,

“I’m excited to get behind the wheel of the IS, Lexus makes great cars that have always impressed me in the past.”

April 10th-11th Formula D Long Beach

April 16th-19th Team Drift - Streets of Long Beach

May 8th-9th Formula D Atlanta

June 19th-20th Formula D Englishtown, New Jersey

July10th/11th- Formula D Las Vegas

August 7th/8th- Formula D Seattle

September 12th/13th- Formula D Sonoma

October 10th/11th- Formula D Irwindale

TBD- Redbull Drifting World Championship

TBD- Formula D Asia Cup Malaysia

TBD- Formula D Asia Cup Sinagpore

TBD- Formula D Montterey, Mexico

Prize Purse for Redbull just announced: $50,000 in total prizes

$25,000 for 1st place

$15,000 for 2nd place

$10,000 for 3rd place

They showed us the track and the 2009 schedule but unable to get it down. Will work on getting it right now so we can post it.

5 to 10% fan increase in seats for 2008 season

20% gain at Seattle even though it rained at Evergreen Speedway

2009 Season will remain 7 rounds

Now it will be a two day open to the public series.

Regional Am series will take place over the weekend

International Announcements: Need for Speed Live. EA x Formula D Collaboration

United Kingdom event will take place with Formula D drivers over the summer outside of London. With time attack/drifting and more! We are told the event will be over the summer. The track is called Brands Hatch which is in Kent (20 miles south of London). The date is June 26th to June 28th.

Thursday night Pine Avenue will be closed for a Redbull Drift Championship party in Long Beach. Go visit it.

We got a great look under the hood of the Mopar Dodge Challenger at the SEMA show yesterday. The motor looks way pushed back from the OEM placement inside a Challenger. The back of the motor is almost sitting behind the front suspension. This could make for a very interesting drift season with Sam Hubinette in the 2009 Formula D season for sure. We will have more to come with Sam Hubinette over the week including an exclusive interview with him and Shawn Carlson about the new car, the 2009 season, and the Redbull Drifting Championship which is right around the corner.