Have you been getting your Formula Drift fix lately?
If not, be sure to check out the Wrecked Magazine Sponsored by KÖNIG Wheels. It includes great photography from all Formula Drift events and international drift too!
Click Here to check out the Wrecked Gallery and if you haven’t yet, be sure to flip through Wrecked Issue #23 “The Exterior Issue”, which you can get to Right From Here!
To check out all the back issues of Wrecked Magazine, Click Here
**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of the Mertzanis Racing team from Formula Drift Round 5: “Throwdown” at Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, Washington July 20-21**
With some rain hovering around Evergreen Speedway, qualifying in Seattle was going to be a tough challenge. Dennis managed to line up for run 1 before the rain came down, and he rode the bank wall, scoring a huge 80 for his run. He came in through the speed traps at 79.5mph (Speed 1 trap point – 65mph minimum for score) and 38mph (Speed 2 trap point – 35mph minimum for score) and landed one of his best performances in his career.
His second qualifying run with the surface being wet was not an improvement due to the harsh driving conditions laid out by the unpredictable Washington weather. His second run fell short at 65, but still put him in a great position for the main event.
The main event Saturday served up a whole new round of conditions and temperature meaning the team had to make some serious and quick changes. The KW Clubsport suspension had to be moved into different settings along with some alignment changes on our SPL Suspension parts. At last, a quick tire pressure change on the Kenda Tires and the car was ready for a Top 32 round against Daijiro Yoshihara.
The morning practice after these adjustments saw Dennis riding the bank wall so deep he was ripping sponsor banners off the bank walls and leaving them scattered around Evergreen Speedway. He even had some great tandem runs with drivers such as former champion Rhys Millen in his 2013 Hyundai Genesis.
The Top 32 tandem battle put Dennis up against the reigning champion in his Discount Tire S13 for one insane battle. In the following run, Dennis managed to go deeper than the champion coming around the bank, but held onto his car at full lock, no problem. He put together a great run leaving a huge opportunity for victory with his lead run.
Dennis once again went in deep into the bank and came flying into the power alley at full lock and throttle, getting ready for the tight turns to finish the course. All was looking fantastic as his earlier adjustments made the car look like it was going to be a victorious battle.
Tons of smoke was pouring out of the Fuelculture S13.4 as the Kenda Tires screamed through the power alley. Right at this point, Dennis Mertzanis was unable to rotate back with the car and wound up putting it into the k-rail, ending his tandem run early and resulting in damage to his front suspension. This ended the weekend a little early, but the Mertzanis Racing team is ready for Las Vegas now that everything has been replaced from the Seattle battle damage.
Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine
**This is the official recap written by and courtesy of Lutz Performance from Formula Drift Round 5: “Throwdown” at Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, Washington July 20-21**
Round 5 was pure madness the entire time. From two weeks before the event, to the final judging call against Ken Gushi in Top 32. With a new motor in the car and with the help of a Brian Crower stroker kit and cams, we were looking to make some big power. This big power came at a cost because we broke a camshaft. Luckily the old cams were roughly the same size. We were able to get the car running in time for Hal from Dynosty to get it on a local dyno. We ran into some ridiculous wiring issues that prevented us from tuning the car and ended up spending the next 4 days sorting it out. We finally solved the issues which were related to a brand new alternator and power wire that we had put in a few days before. Then on the dyno we had and issue with the AEM base map unlocking the cams, and some fuel delivery issues which maxed us out on fuel way too soon. We then had to tune around that and only ended up making 600 HP. With the car strapped in we left Dynosty happy that we finally had the car working right and headed straight for Monroe.
Thursday morning we got in, set up, and got ready for practice. This was a true test of all of our efforts thus far. Starting out good we felt that the car may be a little underpowered after half the session, so we keep our focus on setting the suspension for the bank. By the end of practice the wiring bugs came back. This was causing the fans to cut off randomly resulting in some very extreme over-heating situations that we were lucky to stay on the good side with.
Friday morning we fixed the fan issue and swapped out the diffs to help move through the power a little easier. We also made some small alignment changes that helped settle the car and made Kenny very happy. So from here everything seemed golden….. But evil would show its face yet again. Kenny started complaining of downshifting issues coming into the infield. As practice went on the issues got worse, and mimicked the same issues that lead to our early defeat in New Jersey. Kenny powered through the issues for the remainder of practice and qualifying, even top32 practice that night. However you could still see his discomfort. So with HUGE THANKS to Bridges Racing, we got to work on getting the clutch out before the end of the night, again huge thanks to them for letting us do this.
Saturday Morning was early, chilly, but much drier than Friday. So we got in early and started immediately on clutch swap as we only had 2.5 hours before the Top 32 practice. We were able to complete this task just in time, dropped the car down and swapped on some fresh tires just as the first few cars started to make a pass. Practice went very smooth, and Kenny was very happy. We were paired up with Ken Gushi for the 2nd time this season, and we knew it was going to be a tough one. The battle ended up going to Gushi after Kenny dropped a tire over the line coming off the bank and ended our long journey early in the fight. Sucks to take a blow to the gut like that after so much work, but hey that’s racing. The only thing we can do is come back better and harder for Vegas. And we will be out for blood!
Images courtesy of Wrecked Magazine
Check out August’s calendar featuring PASMAG calendar girl Esjay Craigie and the Advanti Racing Prodigo wheel
Choose from either the calendar or desktop wallpaper calendar version!
Calendar
Desktop wallpaper
For those of you who remember our 2010 Project Honda CR-Z build for SEMA it was recently featured on the SPEED Channel’s Honda CR-Z Concepts.
The article features a collection of CR-Z’s, which were awarded to a select few companies for a special build. Companies included but not limited to; KÖNIG Wheels, HPD, Bisimoto Engineering, Eibach Springs and DSO Eyewear.
KÖNIG’s concept featured a set of KÖNIG Milligrams in matte black, a Synergy Green paint scheme with matte black accents along the sides of the car, Thule rack, custom Kicker Audio system, Eibach Springs, Weapon-R Performance components and so much more! KÖNIG’s objective of the concept was to combine Tuner style with various lifestyle and sports attributes including Skateboarding, Surfing and BMX.
All CR-Z concepts were shown off in a special area within the Honda booth at the 2010 SEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
After the SEMA show, the KÖNIG Wheels Honda CR-Z spent that entire year attending various auto shows and many large international auto shows as well as some spotlight appearances on the show floor of Honda dealerships.
KÖNIG would like to thank Honda Motors for another great opportunity. Special thanks to Whitfield Racing for their efforts in making this a successful build and all the great companies who helped make this happen.
To check out the article, Click Here
Images below courtesy of the SPEED Channel
Round 4 of Formula Drift could not have come at a better time for the Mertzanis Racing team. The Fuel Culture S13 rolled off the trailer and started ripping in practice. An Aeromotive fuel cell was loaded with VP Racing 110 octane fuel and Dennis proceeded to put down quality runs at high speeds around the Wall Speedway course.
This is the first banked track of the season we venture to in the Formula Drift series and it results in serious adjustments to the suspension overall and some minor tire pressure adjustments. The result allows Dennis to enter into the bank aggressively and stay flat out for the bottom figure 8 part of the course.
Things became super tricky as qualifying kicked off and the weather changed to rain pouring down. Dennis’ first qualifying run was the key to locking him into the show which ranked him 21st overall.
The draw for Top 32 was a battle against the Go Pro x Mobil 1 Chevrolet Camaro driven by Tyler McQuarrie in a tough first round battle. With Tyler qualifying higher, Dennis’ first duty was to put down a follow run which he performed flawlessly. Dennis then held a tight line against the very fast Camaro going through the complete course.
When Dennis was leading, he took such a high and aggressive line into the bank that he was pushed out into the wall coming off the bank and crashed into the barrier at the last second in an attempt to pull out a giant lead on Tyler McQuarrie. The car came out of it with very minimal damage, luckily, but it did allow Tyler to continue into the Top 16.
For more exclusive coverage of Formula Drift Round 4 and future events visit Wrecked Magazine
Check out the KÖNIG Milligram HERE
Images courtesy of Fuel Culture and Wrecked Magazine.
Check out July’s calendar featuring PASMAG calendar girl Dannie Riel and the KÖNIG Deception
Choose from either the calendar or desktop wallpaper calendar version!
Calendar
Desktop wallpaper
Linkin Park and Incubus have joined forces for this summer’s Honda Civic Tour. The tour begins this August in Bristow, VA, and tickets are on sale now!
KÖNIG Wheels is proud to be a product sponsor of the Honda Civic Tour for yet another year. This year, Linkin Park and Incubus have teamed up to create an incredible show, which the Honda Civic Tour has been known for. This will be a very unique blend of talented musical artists, and a great turnout for fans and car enthusiasts alike.
The 2012 Honda Civic Si Features 18″ KÖNIG Deception wheels in a matte black finish, which were then painted two-tone. The spokes were painted bright orange, which pop in contrast to the Civic’s custom airbrushed paint job that gives off the illusion of the car breaking out of a cocoon. Other features of the car include Toyo Proxes 4 Plus tires, and an Exclusive Honda Factory Performance Kit, which boasts a complete aero body kit with front, side and underbody spoilers.
To view the KÖNIG Deception on our website click here: Click Here
For more information regarding the 2012 Honda Civic Tour such as Dates & Tickets, Bands, Sweepstakes and the Custom Civic visit: Honda Civic Tour
Privat Wheels is always proud to be an official sponsor of Waterfest.
Now in it’s 18th year, Waterfest is the largest VW and Audi Car Show and Motorsport event in North America, and the second largest of its kind in the world.
This is a 2-day event, which is held at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.
Waterfest 18 is expected to have a total attendance of over 21,000 including over 2,500 participants in the event. The event is July 21st and July 22nd 2012.
Privat Wheels is now having a Call for Entries for vehicles for our booth. If you have a nicely done VW or Audi, and would like to be considered for our booth, please email us at sponsorship@konigwheels.com. Please include your full name and contact information along with images of the vehicle and a current list of modifications.
We are looking forward to a great turnout this year as we do every year.
Our good friends over at Wrecked Magazine (www.WreckedMagazine.com) is always putting work in on their Gallery. It contains awesome photography from all the Formula Drift events and even International Drift!
Click Here to check out the Wrecked Gallery and don’t forget to look at Wrecked Issue #23 “The Exterior Issue”, which you can get to Right From Here!
