In part one, I kinda went over how my past experiences with FormulaD were, all on a high note. Being at FormulaD Atlanta was something else. It was like what I remember from the Houston event, but on some serious roids. They say everything in Texas is bigger, which for the most part is true, but I gotta hand it to Atlanta, they knew what was up.

And it all starts in the paddock.
In the paddock, we saw all sort of awesomeness, mainly in the drift cars themselves. Engine swaps are a very common sight, however, these weren’t your typical direct swaps. For starters, there was a pleasantly large showing of rotary powered vehicles namely in the RX-8 chassis cars. For all others, it was all about the LS1, and for some, even a supercharged version of it.

I really liked walking the paddock, as this gives you a really good glimpse of how race teams work when under pressure, and also to glance at some of the things you DON’T see when a car is on track. Things like ginormous brake calipers, intricate roll cages, and fuel cells are what I like seeing the most when these cars are put on display in front of the public eye. It gives you ideas about the innovative things you can do on your own ride.

But there were other things to do besides walking the paddock and watching the drifting. We already showed you our coverage of the Fatlace One Of One show, but there was also other types of cars racing on the huge track that is Road Atlanta. Open wheel cars took to the track and made full use of the entire course, which could be heard damn near anywhere you were, including the paddock. Dodge even had a mini course set off to the side of the pits where they had their own drivers drift 100% stock Dodge Challengers and Chargers and gave spectators free rides! The line was always backed up, and seemed like loads of fun. I wish we had something like this back at home!

Walking the paddock also gave us a chance to catch up with our friends Will & Josh from KeepDriftingFun, Linhbergh from SpeedHunters, and Antonio Alvendia and his whole entourage from MotorMavens. There was definitely a sense of camaraderie with everyone. It was absolutely a blast seeing these guys, as we don’t see them as much seeing that we live in the Lone Star State. We especially enjoyed hanging out with the MotorMavens guys and watching Antonio “Do Work”.

We also got the chance to check out the staging lanes at the top of the hill during the event, and got to see everything up close before the mayhem took place. Here we could see the race teams scramble to fix loose ends, air up tires, change wheels and warm up tires by doing burnouts. It was very surreal as a guy from Texas to be in the midst of all these badass cars and to look down the path to find a crowd of 10k+ sets of lungs all yelling out how much they wanted to see the cars run. Very cool.

Of course, seeing the cars in action was the preferred choice for me, so back to the bottom of the hill I went. I tried my best to get some good angles and shots on the cars, and rotated where I stood, but it was hard to be able to get a good shot and NOT be sprayed with dirt on my face, ha ha. The action got heated as the cars competed one by one to qualify for top 32, then top 16.

By this time, the crowds were getting very heated and very much immersed in the world of Formula Drift. There were thousands of fans cheering and ooh’ing and ahh’ing at every close encounter. The fact that it was also a BYOB event made this event that much more entertaining to watch! I was very impressed by this, as we don’t really have a gallery of fans this large in Texas.

As we were waiting for the final runs and battles to start, me and JohnP decide to go check out the various parking spaces to see what kind of cars we would come across. Let me tell you first, that we saw pretty much everything that had 4 wheels. 240’s, miatas, civics, evos, mustangs, camaros, muscle cars, lowriders, bikes, jacked up trucks and even a hearse was in attendance.

Me and JohnP also got a chance to really look into what type of people were coming to these events, and if I had to take away one thing I got from my trip to Atlanta it would be the extremely diverse crowd that we saw. Everything from families to elderly people were all accounted for at this event, and I was shocked at how much variety there was at FormulaD.

As we got our asses back to the track before the final runs began, we actually got to take pics next to Joshua Herron of KeepDriftingFun, and he was an extremely cool guy.
From here we got a good view of the track and managed to get off a few shots while Josh filmed his documentary. We are so stoked to see the final outcome! As the sun began to set, the fans got cooler, which in turn, made them much louder! “One More Time!!” was a common chant heard amongst the groups of people begging to see more bumper to bumper action. In the end, Dai and the Falken Tires/Discount Tires S13 won Round 2 here in Hotlanta and proved that S-Chassis cars still have what it takes to take on the newcomers.

The night quickly rushed in after hiding the entire day, and everyone I came across was all smiles, albeit weary. It was a fun filled day of drifting, drinking, relaxing, smiling, yelling, and whatever other adverb you could throw into the mix. With the moon now in plain view, and the tire smoke finally in it’s resting place, it was time to head back home. And as much fun as we had in Atlanta, there truly is no place like home.

We hope that the good folks at FormulaD reconsider at least bringing in an event to Houston, or hell, even Texas for that matter as I really feel that everything really IS bigger in Texas, and we would have no problem holding down our own. The sad part is that this event in Atlanta was actually the closest event to us, which makes it tough to watch our favorite drift celebrities in person and not in front of a computer monitor. And who knows, maybe they’ll let me compete again in another NeedForSpeed video game, only this time I’ll be whooping up on some youngin’s.

For all 282 pictures in HIGH RES, just click HERE!

All photos were taken exclusively for MaydayGarage.

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Related Links:
Formula Drift
Keep Drifting Fun
MotorMavens
SpeedHunters

–David–
David@maydaygarage.com