2015 marked the third year of Hot Import Nights’ return to the Pacific Northwest. For the last two years HIN has had their car show in the Tacoma Dome in late July. This year they elected to change things up and have it on the track at Evergreen Speedway. In addition to the show, they held an autocross on track. The setup worked well and gave the feel of a much larger event with it being so spread out. The Phantasy Kolors/Vancity Exotics team was positioned directly in front of the grandstands along with a freshly built Liberty Walk Ferrari…
Author: Matt Haugness
Matt Haugness
Matt created ImportMeet.com in 2011 after noticing a lack of media websites dedicated exclusively to import cars. Although he's employed as an engineer and has no formal training in journalism, his skills continue to develop as the editor for the site. He enjoys writing feature car articles, technical build/project articles, and organizing events. Matt drives a 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road and a 1990 LS-swapped Mazda RX-7.
Tanner Foust makes his return to Formula Drift in a completely unique chassis built by Papadakis Racing (the same team who built and maintains Fredrick Aasbo’s RWD Scion tC). This year he will be driving an LS7-powered Volkswagen Passat from ground up in the offseason. The car sounds mean as hell and the 8 into 1 exhaust manifold definitely makes it stand out from other LSX cars competing in the series. Tanner will be competing in three rounds this year and multiple fans have commented that he could play a pivotal role in how the championship plays out if he…
Some people think it could be a cruel April Fools joke but it appears that Honda is still listening to enthusiasts or at the very least watching what Ford is doing. Today Honda released their tenth generation Civic concept (which IMO doesn’t look too far off from a production model) and promised a North American Type R model at the New York International Auto Show. Many Honda fans have been waiting for this day. The last Type R Honda to appear on US soil was the Integra Type R in 2001. For 14 years they have been waiting for the…
Fredric Aasbo has a new title sponsor for his RWD Scion tC! Rockstar Energy was already planning on returning to FD this year with Tanner Foust at a very limited number of rounds (due to his racing schedule) but it looks like Aasbo will be their primary professional drifting driver. Aasbo placed second in the FD championship last year and this along with his solid driving record no doubt helped bring Rockstar on board. Between Mad Mike returning with Red Bull and Vaughn Gitten Jr. getting a new Mustang – this year could be the battle of the energy drink companies.…
This is incredibly exciting news for any drift fan. Mad Mike Whiddett will be returning to Formula Drift in 2015 with his brand new 1,000 horsepower 4-rotor RADBUL Mazda MX-5. Mike brings a unique style to the sport which sets him apart from other drivers competing in Formula Drift. Back in 2010 when he competed with his RX-8 the car wasn’t particularly competitive. With the new chassis and powerplant it should shake things up significantly. Red Bull pro drifter Mad Mike Whiddett is making a return to the prestigious Formula DRIFT Professional Drifting Championship Series, with a commitment to multiple events of…
2015 may be the year of the exotic drift cars within the D1GP circuit! Here’s what looks like a cell phone video of Yoichi Imamura spending some time testing his new Lexus LFA drift car. From what I hear it will be powered by a Toyota V8 rather than the V10 found in stock LFA’s. Rumor has it that Daigo Saito will be drifting a Lamborghini in the D1GP series this year so things could get very interesting soon! Source: Wrecked Magazine
This year was the third year in a row that we have organized the annual XXX Import Meet in Issaquah, WA. Every year the turnout grows and the behavior of the participants improves.Photos by TK Akiyama, Kenny B. and Wicked-West.com.Near 60° weather in early March is rare for Washington so we had a feeling that this year would be the largest meet yet. It was estimated that more than 1,500 cars and 3,000+ people took over part of Issaquah for the entirety of the meet. By comparison, this was about 50% larger than last year.
It wasn’t until I received a comment on the last blog post following Project LSX-7 asking if the project was abandoned that I realized that it’s been nearly 2 years since I posted an update on the project. Yikes! A lot has happened in this time – none of which is particularly interesting for the project. For the last two years I’ve been crazy busy holding events and creating videos following an epic build (Chris Jeanneret’s K24 Turbo S2000) all while maintaining a full time job. I also recently got married to my girlfriend of 7 years. Needless to say,…