drifting experience

As the motorsport of drifting expands and matures in the United States, the range of cars competing at events has grown beyond the stereotypical Nissan Silvia (240SX) / AE86 Toyota Corolla / Nissan Skyline / Toyota Supra contingent.
The first we heard of a Lexus IS300 entering the drifting scene was in 2004, when Chuck Goldsborough's Performance Engineering, Inc. (then doing business as Team Lexus) set up one of his cars for drifting, and entered it in several U.S. Drift series events that year.

Early the following year, Super Street magazine's February 2005 issue featured a cover article on the HKS Drift Altezza that competed in the D1 Grand Prix series. Then, in mid-2006 came word of Team Lexus' return to the drifting scene, with their third-generation car now running under the aegis of the Formula Drift series. And this past April brought us word that Team Falken decided to put together a Lexus IS350 drift car to be driven by Hiro Sumida which would eventually compete in the aforementioned Formula Drift series.During all that time, another Lexus IS300 drift car had been flying under our radar. It now comes to the forefront, however, with an unprecedented double 1st-place win (both in the Drift Showoff, where he beat out 28 competitors, and the Best of IS Showoff) at the Falken Tire Drift Showoff held on Saturday 9 June 2007 at Gulf Greyhound Park in Houston, Texas. This double winner is a highly-modified 2001 Lexus IS300 owned by Bernard Chaung (better known to the my.IS community by his Badman Forever screen name) and driven in the Drift Showoff by Casey Quillen.

Indeed, this IS300 is a unique combination of clean beauty and pugnacious toughness. Bereft of any badging and body-side moldings and with a barely-there grille, but with a body kit and "eyelids" over the headlights and wearing a beautiful warm-gray-with-a-hint-of-green that Bernard describes as "camouflage-like", this stunner's looks are far from ordinary. And the highly prominent intercooler is part of an SRT Stage 2 Turbo Kit. This car is also something of a trailblazer, having been the first Lexus to compete in a Pro-Drift series (Formula Drift 2004).

new-is300-drift-king-img_1409.jpgOf course, you wouldn't expect the owner of such an extraordinary car to choose an ordinary driver, either. Casey Quillen is no drifting newbie, having driven this IS300 during both the 2004 and 2005 seasons of Formula Drift. The Driftmasterz Lexus IS300's (as Bernard's car is officially known) drifting debut in Houston in 2004, driven by Casey, so impressed HKS drifting driver N.O.B. Tanaguchi that, shortly thereafter, HKS switched their drift platform from the S15 Nissan Silvia to the Toyota Altezza for D1 Grand Prix. Coincidence? We think not...

Casey and the DMZ IS300 (a commonly-used abbreviation for Driftmasterz) also competed against another prominent Lexus IS300 during the 2005 Formula Drift season, the former Team Lexus drift car (driven by James Bondurant). And, to complete the Lexus drifting "circle", the Team Falken Lexus IS350, driven by Hiro Sumida, also participated in the 2007 Houston Falken Tire Drift event, albeit as one of several Falken drift exhibition cars and not as a Drift Showoff competitor.

The Driftmasterz Lexus IS300's double-barreled victory almost didn't happen. As its owner Bernard Chaung tells it, "The DMZ IS300 was retired from the show circuit at the end of 2003. It entered the drifting scene in late 2003 until mid-2005 and was retired from that as well. After the hiatus in 2006, I felt my hometown scene could use a boost so it was decided that I enter the car into its first show competition in nearly 4 years. The day before the event, I was approached by Casey and decided to also allow him to use it in the drift competition. Having the car win both in the show category and the drift contest was more than I could imagine."

new-is300-drift-king-img_1562.jpgSadly, Bernard informs us that the DMZ IS300 will not be competing in any further 2007 Formula D events. You can, however, see it at select Southern Regional car events with the Team Nextstage crew.

Officially, Bernard and Casey's prize for winning the Drift Showoff was $500, a 6-foot-tall trophy and a set of Falken Azenis Tires, but, in fact, they've won much more than that, namely, the respect of their competitors and the admiration of the my.IS community.

Bernard, in turn, would like to thank Falken Tire for the FK 452 drift tires, Meguiar's for the special car care products, TeamShiftPoint for the mechanical work and pit crew support, and RCC Autosports for the excellent job on the customized bodywork and paint.

Finally, we'd like to thank Liang-Shi for graciously allowing us to use her pictures for our story. And, if you care to view a 30-second clip of Casey's award-winning drift.