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We caught up with professional drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. and had him walk us around his Ford Mustang to show us what makes his trick drift car tick. Not only did we get a close-up look at the machine, he even took us for a quick spin around some cones conveniently placed in the parking lot. This was our second time riding shotgun in a drift car — our first was in a JDM Nissan Skyline — and we've gotta admit, even though some may feel drifting isn't a real sport, it's unquestionably fun. Check out all the action in the video after the jump. More »
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The new Nissan GT-R may be stirring up a lot of hype, but before the R35, Skyline lovers on this continent had to have their cars independently imported. The problem is, since the gray-market heyday of the '80s, the American import laws have been pretty dang strict. So, we decided to make our way up to Toronto, to check out how hoons in great white north do things. This particular operation, ONI JDM, has brought in everything from kei cars to fully-modded RX-7s, Supras, and of course Skylines. They offered to take us for a ride in their drift-spec R32 Nissan Skyline, so we bolted down the video camera and strapped ourselves in. More »
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When we found out Suzuki had an event with a Euro-only 2008 Suzuki Swift just a short distance from Chicago we jumped at the chance to take it for a quick spin. A volume seller in Europe, Asia and other markets, the Swift has a mostly inglorious past here in the states as the almost indistinguishable cousin of the Geo Metro between 1995 and 2001. Anyone who has driven either might wonder what made us so excited about the prospect of driving this particular Swift. There are two reasons. The first is that there's more than an ocean's worth of difference between that Swift of old and this completely reworked global compact car. The second reason is that although this particular version wasn't meant for American consumption, one similar to it will be here as a U.S.-spec model. Also, I'm not crazy enough to pass on an opportunity to drive one of the only two new Swifts in the US.
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