Come join us for some fun in the sun. You do not want to miss one of the most exciting events of the West Coast.

Another great video by TJ Fry @ The MOB Theory. This was a very fun and exciting event.

Luke must have his music to get his Drift on, when he is not driving he is dancing.

Another new car in Formula D this year is Mike Essa’s E92 3-series BMW. This is yet another big baller vehicle that I was surprised to see in Formula D. Just like Robbie’s GTR, this E93 Bimmer had some problems at Long Beach, but the car’s builder/fabricator/tuner/trackside support engineer/driver Mike Essa overcame all this mechanical gremlins and drove the living daylights out of the car, resulting in a 4th place finish in Atlanta! That’s right… I said FOURTH PLACE.

That’s pretty damn impressive when you consider that he doesn’t really have much backup and support on the track. Other teams in Formula D employ a cadre of trackside support engineers, chassis guys, engine builders, suspension tuners, spotters, tire changers, and stuff like that. However, when it comes to Mike Essa’s BMW team, he is them and they are him. He’s much pretty a one man show (with help from his one employee, whose name I don’t remember – sorry!), which is probably what impresses me most about this car and its results.

Here’s a photo of Mike Essa strapped into the cockpit of his E92, which has been fully stripped and turned into a race car. Like Robbie Nishida’s R35 GTR, here’s another luxurious streetcar that was turned into a gutted out full-race car. Mike says that the was built without factory support from BMW – it was actually bought and paid for by his sponsor, GSR Autosport. He says they’re trying to talk to BMW right now; hopefully BMW North America (or BMW in Germany) will jump on board and provide support to Mike and his car, as it makes perfect sense in terms of brand marketing in my opinion.

It would have been super easy and inexpensive for Mike to drop in a General Motors LS engine, like the one that powered the FC3S Mazda RX7 that he was driving last year. However, Mike realized that BMW purists would probably hate him for it, so he decided to go the more difficult (and more expensive route) and yank out the turbocharged inline-6 N54 engine that came with the car from the factory. In its place, Mike installed a BMW V10 S85 engine from an E60 BMW M5, which puts out 500 horsepower and 380 foot pounds of torque.

Sourcing this engine and installing it didn’t come with its own set of issues, however. Mike says he contacted a BMW dismantler in Northern California, who said they had an engine, and he could have it for $14,000. Thanks to the deep pockets of GSR Autosport, Mike was able to get the money sent to the shady dismantler, who ended up claiming “they just sold the engine, but they can get another one by next week.” After an entire month of waiting, Mike understandably became impatient, because he needed to get the car finished in time for his April deadline, so it could debut at Formula D Long Beach! He demanded that the shady auto dismantler refund his money, and he ended up just purchasing an entire E60 BMW M5 from an auto auction for $20,000! The M5 was wrecked, but the engine was just fine, so it would be perfect for his build. (Incidentally, Mike mentioned that he’s parting out the M5, so hit him up if you own an E60 and need something other than the engine and the wheels, which are already spoken for!)

Simply dropping a BMW V10 S85 engine into an E92 chassis Bimmer is not an easy task. First of all, there isn’t much information or documentation out there regarding this swap. According to Mike, “there are probably only four cars in the entire world that have done this swap. There really isn’t too much information or parts out there for the swap.” Mike decided against using the factory H-pattern transmission in this newly built drift car. He says he chose a Quaife sequential transmission, because he wanted a higher end transmission “that was cool and would match the high end specs of the rest of the car’s build. The Bimmer forum guys would probably like it more, since it would be a bit more aspirational with the sequential tranny… it wouldn’t just be your normal run of the mill swap.”

At hearing this, I said, “WTF?! Are you serious?! You decided to drop all that cash on a sequential transmission just to get props from the forum guys?! And to have cool points on your spec sheet?! You can’t be serious!”

Mike laughed and said, “Yeah! But also obviously a sequential transmission has performance advantages, and a lot of the other cars being campaigned in Formula D have them as well. I didn’t want to mess around with a normal H-pattern transmission, so this sequential was the way to go.” When I inquired as to the cost of the transmission, Mike admitted, “well, we aren’t sponsored by the transmission maker, so we had to shell out $14 grand for it. And on top of that, nobody even makes a bellhousing to match the M5’s V8 engine to the sequential trans.

There were so many times that Mike’s E92 project could have failed or missed its April deadline. First of all, getting the engine and its month-long setback was an issue. On top of that, Mike admits that he had problems with the shop that promised to custom make his bellhousing adapter. Apparently, a shop promised that they would fabricate a bellhousing adapter to match up the Quaife sequential to his M5 engine, but they didn’t come through on time. Desperate for time, with the clock ticking, Mike admits that he “just took a Sawzall out and started hacking up the OEM bellhousing. Then [he] took it to a friend’s shop to get it welded up.” He ended up having to do everything by himself!

Another potential deadline breaker he had was with the body kit maker. Apparently, the only company that really makes aero kits for the E92 BMW 3-series is Yokohama, Japan-based aero company, Vertex. (By the way, in case you didn’t know, Vertex owner, Takahiro Ueno also built an E92 BMW to compete in Japan’s D1GP series. However, Ueno’s car is powered by a Toyota Supra 2JZGTE powerplant, not a BMW engine.) Mike says he would have liked to run a Vertex aero kit, but the company wasn’t really interested in sponsoring him, and he didn’t want to shell out an additional $14 grand just for aero! (That could buy him an extra engine or transmission!)

That being said, Mike signed a deal with a body kit maker who was supposed to make wide body overfenders and bumpers for the car, but they completely missed their deadline, and still haven’t produced a complete kit for the car. Out of sheer frustration, Mike just bought some generic overfenders and began riveting them to the car by himself, and then took the car to the body shop to have them blend them in and paint them. (Honestly, I wish the car had a bit less overfender, which would make the offset and stance even more aggressive, making the car look even meaner… but hey, I didn’t contribute a dime or lift a helping hand in building the car, so who am I to talk?)

Above, we have a photo of Essa doing a burnout up on Road Atlanta’s grid. After snapping that photo, I walked to the other side of the car, to try and get a close up photo of Mike inside the cockpit…

I was surprised to find out that he was strapped into the car, with his cellphone out, presumably texting people or Facebooking! He was most likely texting something like “OMG, you should follow @MOTORMAVENS on Twitter or add the MotorMavens Crew on Facebook, since they always have dope stories and photos from events.”

I’m absolutely SURE that’s what he was texting or Tweeting.

On the other side of the track, here’s Mike Essa and his E92 Bimmer attacking the horseshoe, with tons of fans watching with wide eyed excitement as they get covered in his tire dust.

MORE INFO HERE>>>http://www.motormavens.com/2010/05/coverage-insiders-look-at-formula-drift-atlanta-pt-1/

You may read the interview here >>>>> http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/issues/issue15/issue15.html

Lots of buzz about the M5 V10 powered 335i Bmw, which is very rewarding for GSR and the rest of Michael’s Sponsors. Who he owes a podium finish too. =)

More Coverage by Wrecked Magazine, Larry Chen and Speed Hunters of  “Essa 101″

Wow, if you were watching it LIVE or Via Internet, then you know the excitement that just took place.

It was soooo intense watching Michael go from Not Qualifying at round 1 to a 4th place finish at Round 2. His dedication will never be questioned and it’s obvious his driving is Formula D worthy.

Congrats to Michael and the Team on a great race. Thanks to all our friends and family for being there to cheer on, our Slide Assassin.

Slide Happy!! 

Micheal had a great Practice and awesome results as he qualifies in 6th place for tomorrow’s Top 32 battle.

He is out there along with other Slide Assassins, making us proud. He is joined by his beautiful girlfriend Ashley, team mate Chris Licup and TJ Fry filming. His sponsor GSR is in attendance as well, making sure he is good to go.

You may catch it live tomorrow via internet here>>>>  http://formulad.com/live/

They are also looping today’s event in case you missed it.

Here are today’s Formula D results:

Driver: Car #: Score:
1 T. Foust #34 34 92.8
2 R. Tuerck #44 44 91.7
3 C. Grunewald #79 79 89.5
4 D. Yoshihara #9 9 89.4
5 R. Millen #6 6 87.6
6 M. Essa #101 101 87.1
7 V. Gittin #25 25 86.9
8 C. Forsberg #64 64 84.4
9 S. Hubinette #77 77 83.7
10 J. Maeng #51 51 83.5
11 R. Nishida #31 31 82.6
12 D. McNamara #8 8 82.4
13 P. Mordaunt #90 90 80.1
14 R. Miki #26 26 79
15 K. Mohan #99 99 78.6
16 C. Ng #84 84 76.3
17 K. Gushi #33 33 74.8
18 R. Petty #808 808 72.6
19 J. Pawlak #13 13 70.5
20 T. McQuarrie #17 17 69.6
21 T. Aono #86 86 69.6
22 M. Powers #665 665 69.3
23 D. Kearney #43 43 68.8
24 D. VanDenBrink #19 19 68.4
25 C. Martinez #951 951 68.4
26 M. Takatori #5 5 66.9
27 S. Verdier #12 12 65.8
28 C. Parkhouse #562 562 65.7
29 M. Whiddett #111 111 64.9
30 F. Wang #30 30 63.3
31 D. Mertzanis #323 323 62
32 M. Waldin #23 23 59.5

Congrats to all the Drivers that made the list, as well.

GO-SLIDE ASSASSINS-GO-GO-GO!!!!!!