Attending the Formula Drift Long Beach season opener always feels like the first day of school for people who’ve been part of the sport for years. Everyone shows up with new cars, new liveries, new race suits, and some of the same faces you’ve been seeing at these events for twenty years.
Walking into the Streets of Long Beach paddock in 2026, the first thing I noticed was how completely the ZN8 chassis (2022+) Toyota GR86 has taken over the professional drifting grid. The ZN6 and ZN8 chassis are the new S13 and S14 of drifting. Nobody can debate this anymore.
When professional drifting began in the United States in 2004 with the debut of the Formula Drift Championship, the S13 Nissan 240SX was the most popular car used for drifting. Times have changed. Professional drifting competitors have moved away from the outdated (but legendary) S13 chassis and almost everyone has moved away from the Z33 350Z and Z34 370Z chassis. Now we have a plethora of Ford Mustangs and BMWs and Corvettes in professional drifting. Everyone who knows me understands that I’m a purist of JDM car culture at my core, but I think the addition of new car brands makes drifting more relatable to other car owners, so it’s good for the sport.
One driver who’s no stranger to the Nissan S13 chassis and Toyota GR86 is Kenshiro Gushi. Ken learned to drift in his dad’s blue 1986 AE86 Corolla GT-S hatchback on the dry lake beds in El Mirage CA even before he got his California driver’s license. He was the very first drifting prodigy, personally engine swapping his champagne S13 240SX coupe with a JDM Nissan SR20DET engine at his dad’s shop, Gushi Auto, in San Gabriel CA. It’s pretty amazing to see how Ken has evolved as a professional driver and race team owner over the past 20 years.
His Toyota GR86 bears logos showing that some of the coolest Japanese aftermarket brands back his drift program – DG5, GReddy, Rays Wheels, Ogura Racing Clutch (available in the USA via Apex’i), Artisan Spirits, as well as motorsport brands like Supertech, Sparco, Motul, Link ECU, HPS, Wilwood. Gushi’s car also had support from other brands you don’t typically see at the racetrack, like streetwear brand Huf and sportswear brand Asics. Kenda Tires has been growing their brand through support of drifting, and Ken is part of their team this year.
Speaking of tires, check out how far his GR86’s front tires stick out. That’s a much wider front track than most GR86s run – all because of the Wisefab drift knuckles pushing the wheels out much further than is possible with the normal knuckles.
It was cool catching up with Ken briefly during the Top 16 driver introductions, as well as meeting his girlfriend, Brittaney.
I may be biased because it has authentic Japanese wheels and a lot of cool Japanese brands on the car, but this is one of the best looking cars in the 2026 Formula Drift series, along certain standouts like Jhonnatan Castro‘s GR86 and the BMW 2 series that Federico Sceriffo was driving (loaner car from the generous Rome Charpentier).
This widebody roll caged GR Corolla looked awesome in the FDLB paddock, sitting front and center at the Toyota Gazoo Racing merch booth.
This car looks to me like a modern day KP61 Toyota Starlet! This GRC was running rally inspired wheels which look like they were inspired by a Enkei NT03+M or some sort of OZ Racing wheels. In my opinion, they would look even cooler in rally WHITE because it’s super difficult to see the details on black wheels, especially on a white car.
The FD drivers weren’t the only ones driving around the paddock area. The Rockstar Energy girls were cruising around in this drift kart from Battle Aero. I want to try driving one of these! They have tons of negative camber, hard plastic around the rear tires so you can skid, and a big hydraulic e-brake for initiating drift or adjusting angle!
Even better than seeing the cars was seeing longtime friends. Former Formula D car builder Henry Chung from Motorsport Dynamics in Sacramento had a laugh when I introduced him to Ken Raif of Garage Star, also from Sacramento originally. After some bad luck with a former business partner, Ken has a new shop and a new venture – he is now the official distributor of RS Watanabe wheels in the USA.
This was my favorite booth in the entire Formula Drift event – the Canon USA booth with Larry Chen‘s A90 Supra parked out front.
Here’s Madeline from the Canon team showing off what she considered to be the best photo sticker she printed from the Canon Selphy wifi printers all day – a photo I took of my kouki AE86, shot with a Canon EOS R6 Mark II, using a Canon EF 300mm 2.8L IS lens.
This is one of the compact Canon Selphy printers that they were using at the Canon booth. They had some that plugged into the wall, and they had others that were battery powered, with a USB-C charging port. Now I want one of these printers! Apparently they cost between $180-200. I’m going to have to buy one of these!
Back to the track, it was awesome to see two friends battling it out! Leading in the supercharged E46 BMW 3 series is Andy Hateley, who is supported by companies like Magnuson Superchargers, CP Carrillo, Link ECU, Clutch Masters, and Feal Suspension.
In chase is Matt Field in the Borla Corvette, supported by companies like K&N, Parts Shop Max, Liquimoly, and Logitech! Cool! Matt must have a really cool keyboard.
Here’s another shot of Matt Field and his Vette, in the lead this time.
Big smoke from the RTR Mustang, with Odi Bakchis chasing, door to door! This is a non traditional racing livery on the Stang, and I think it looks cool and futuristic. Check out the aerodisc wheels too. We are normally used to seeing those types of aero discs on the front of 1980s IMSA Porsche race cars, but it looks cool on a Mustang too.
I didn’t get a chance to take a close look at the Joker-liveried ZN6 Toyota 86 in the front, but I had to post this pic of RomeCP’s BMW 2 series that Milan-based driver Federico Sceriffo was driving. This classic Pennzoil livery looks so clean, it was definitely one of the best looking pro cars on the grid. In my opinion, this wrap makes the car look even better than its original Garagistic livery.
Team Falken, Class of 2004. This photo represents over two decades of friendship and tons of travel to drifting events all over the USA and beyond. All of us pictured here began traveling with Falken Tire back when Formula Drift first started, building tons of core memories filled with tire smoke and teal and blue colors.
It’s crazy to see the evolution of Ford Racing and Team RTR in the Formula Drift series. When the S197 Ford Mustang drift car was introduced by Falken Tire in 2005 with Vaughn Gittin Jr as the driver, it was huge news in the motorsport world. It’s amazing to see how far JR has taken this relationship with Ford – now he has his own transporter and all a professional team for drifting and another for off road.
If you’ve been to a Formula Drift event in the past 20 years, chances are you’ve seen Andy Luk yelling at someone for blocking traffic or acting stupid at an event. (I know he has definitely yelled at me in the past!) During an FD event day, this guy is the boss! He can be an intimidating character if you are doing something stupid or unsafe at an FD event, but if you treat him with respect and are a good person, he is a great guy to have in your corner. He also has an amazing RHD SW20 Toyota MR2 Turbo.
I’ll end this particular photoset with a photo of two brothers Daryl David and Jesse David (their other two brothers Fred and Eric are missing) from Belle 1 Racing. These guys ran the Formula D jumbotron and livestream for YEARS, while their brother Fred kept the drifting audience bopping their heads in the grandstands, with underground hip hop beats from artists like J-Dilla, Camp Lo, and others.
Drifting changed my life. The older I get, I realize it was never just about the cars. I love drifting because of the people I’ve met and friendships I’ve made while attending these events.
Do you have any memories you’d like to share about early drifting events you attended? Drop them in the comments below.
:: Antonio Alvendia
Instagram: @AntonioSureshot • @MOTORMAVENS
www.antoniosureshot.com
Follow MotorMavens on Instagram at @MotorMavens for daily content, build updates, and real enthusiast culture. Subscribe to the MotorMavens YouTube channel for video features, shop tours, and everything happening with the builds you’ve been following. The community lives there. Come be part of it.
