There’s just over a week now until the first round of the 2015 Formula Drift series kicks off, and when Speedhunters’ own Fredric Aasbø goes into battle at the Streets of Long Beach, he’ll be doing so with a brand new look.
With Rockstar Energy Drink on board and Hankook Tire and Scion Racing back for another season, the 2014 Pro Championship runner-up has his eyes firmly set on the big prize in his fifth year with the Papadakis Racing team.
Team head Stephan Papadakis is confident that their 800hp Rockstar Energy Drink/Hankook Tire 2015 Scion tC will be competitive at the business end of the Pro ranks, and given his performance in 2014 we all know that Fredric has the driving skills and hunger required to win. It’s going to be a great season, that’s for sure!
To welcome the Norwegian Hammer to its family, Rockstar has put together a pretty cool clip, which you can check out by hitting the play button above.
Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
hmm looks like chris foresburg will have a hell of a rival this year lets hope vaughn will be on his game to.
Ahh I miss Aasbo's supra...
Please tell me this isn't another LS swap.
I miss the supra too.
THAT IS A TERRIBLE LIVERY. I understand sponsorship and racing, but fuuuck! It's like looking at Mad Mike's cars. Cool driver, cool build, worst livery ever (not that that reeeally even matters..). Props for doing anything race oriented in a scion though.
Chris 'Haffy' Hafner of course it is. And here comes all the people going to talk about reliable power and cheap this and that blah blah blah.
I feel your pain though, you're not alone. Here's to hoping.
Thought he was running the same 2az lump as Taka?
johnbezt Chris 'Haffy' Hafner Where have you seen anything regarding an LS swap? I'm almost positive it's the same 4 banger turbo scion motor as the last few years.
johnbezt Personally I think this is the best livery the TC has ever had, although I miss the Supra as well lol. At least he didn't pick up a Monster energy sponsorship, every Monster livery ever looks like complete ass.
lol a scion
Still a dumb TC
Still a dumb livery
Oh well, at least Aasbo is a super rad guy in person. Just wish they would like him drive a car which isn't basically a huge marketing budget on wheels.
good god the current gen tc is ugly
Chris 'Haffy' Hafner I thought it had a NASCAR toyota v8? Didn't I read that on here a while ago????
dz33 Dumb you say. It almost won the championship last year. Now tell me if your car can do that.
musgravecycles Correction: 2AR.
3nigm4 Chris 'Haffy' Hafner The TRD V8 was in Tanner Foust's old car, not this.
jay8393 3nigm4 Chris 'Haffy' Hafner Nah theres also his rsr GT86 that runs a toyota V8 in Formula D japan
crispykrem3 johnbezt personnally, i'm lovin mad mikes cars and this new rockstar livery and the new scion TC, I think it all comes down to taste in the end. And for monster livery they were cool when they came out theyre just used and abused
Love it!! Cant go wrong with Racer-X colors
Anyone else feel like Scion is dropping the ball with the 'race on Sunday sell on Monday philosophy'?
I feel like they should offer the AWD from the JDM Scion and let the tuners figure out making it stronger, RWD and boosting it (like they already are).
And the general public gets a 2dr AWD COUPE for FRS $$ +/-. It shouldnt encroach on the Corolla if you need more doors or the Camry is you need more boring.
jay8393 dz33 DZ you seem to be under the heavy delusion that top tier drift teams can be sustained solely by hopes and dreams.
FD livery is very boring, and quite ugly compared to the drift teams over in Japan, D1GP>FD all day.
Fredric is such a cool guy and he really needs a cooler car. This just doesn't cut the mustard at all, it's super ugly, possibly the worst looking car in formula D.. Hate to sound like a ass saying that but that's just my opinion.
CharlesSangollo But that's an 86. I think 3nigm4 is referring to the tC.
Awesome, Fredric. Can't send you enough positive energy for this season. Looking forward to catching up with you at some stage this year.
crispykrem3 johnbezt Chris 'Haffy' Hafner Screamer pipes coming from the hood, the placement says inline so it looks like you could be right
, maybe hell throw a curveball and have a 2jz under the hood?
@SoMuchCurious crispykrem3 johnbezt Chris 'Haffy' Hafner The EWG dumps are in the same place as last years car. Definitely still running the 2AR.
I love Frd as a driver but i agree livery blows...matter of fact im falling back from formula D altogether its alway the same 2-3 in contention way too many v-8's (yes i know the pros and con's) hope Daigo comes back and whoops ass then maybe ill watch.. idk ima quit bitching now have a good day peoples!
So many ignorant people on this website( comments section)... do some reading before making dumb comments.. v8..really? and yes he almost won the championship with this "dumb TC" you obviously don't know much about this team nor the car. Congrats Aasabo on the new sponsorship and I'm glad to see that speedhunters is still involved( seems alot smaller than before). And despite what others have said I like the new look and I hope that this year you can show these v8's what a turbo 4 can do...again!
So people using V8s turns you off, but you'll cheer for someone who uses an HKS prepped twin turbo V6 running on 20" wheels....cause that keeps the sport nice and cost effective for everyone lol. I like Diago too, I'll just never get the logic behind the V8 hate. You would prefer if more people used aless reliable, less cost effective motor package....cause that's good for the sport lol.
Looking at the driver's list for 2015, 9 of the top 20 drivers use non V8 motors....plus Yokoi, Blauss and Mad Mike, who are new this year. Add in that there are a number of different V8 setups being used (NA, Super, Turbo, NO2) I'd have to guess that's as much, if not more variety than D1GP.
Also, which 3 drivers are you talking about? Yes, Forsberg had an amazing season...but there were more than 2 others at the top with him. Jr, Aasbo, and Diago also won events (not like Cheis ran away with it either...it was decided in top 4 of the final round...)with many others including Wang, Bakchis, Kearney, Nashida, Ng, Moen, Essa, Pawlack, MacNemerra and a couple others appearing on the podium.
How many motors did Diago go through last year? Maybe if he had more reliability, he might have been more of a factor.
Sorry for the novel....but to me it seems as if you're disliking FD without actually paying attention to it.
jacobherman14 I think it's going to be a lot more wide open this year. Forrest Wang really started to get settled toward the end of the season and if he can find that same form with his new build I think he can really make a push toward the top. Odi Bakchis had a career season as well getting his first podium finishes. I wouldn't be surprised if this year became sort of a crap-shoot for the top spot.
It sure is amazing what a front wheel drive, 4 seat grocery getter can do these days....
GT spec & production based, or don't waste the time. Tube framed, never manufactured cars are the realm of NASCAR and Top Fuel. At least F1 and prototype racing even try to fake it. If we can't buy it, then its just boring eye candy.
vroomtothetomb There really is no "JDM" Scion. The only thing this car shares with it's AWD counterpart the Toyota Avensis is the front underpinnings. That's how they were able to skirt around the factory rear wheel drive/all wheel drive conversion rules. The Avensis is offered with AWD and is built on the same platform as the tC.
I agree in part though. I think the tC should have been RWD/AWD from the start. And I wouldn't worry so much about the Camry or Corolla taking a hit from RWD/AWD tC sales I would be more concerned with the FR-S because that is Scion's sports compact now.
Lol are you guys actually judging his car without even knowing anything about it...SMH. Seems completely unobjective to me haha.
"Oh man, I hate that car, it probably has a jet turbine in it"
I'm still scratching my head as to why FD allows Aasbo to convert this to rwd but doesn't allow Taka to swap to a 3-link rear-end, or even move the pickup points a little on the 4-link?? What kinda sense does that make??
Finally, some common sense!!
Any chance you could link some examples of these amazing looking D1 cars? Cause last time I checked, they all looked pretty much the same....with some Japanese guys going the route of taking styling ques from NASCAR (see Chunky Bai's 180SX).
I'm taking a shot in the dark, but I'm willing to bet you aren't a fan of NASCAR liveries, but you probably go ape for a D1GP car which uses a NASCAR inspired livery lol.
Seems that just like a guy can get beer-goggles at the bar (any woman with 2 legs and a face looks good), some of you fanboys get JDM goggles....ie, anything from Japan is better simply because Japan lol.
musgravecycles FD rules has it that, if the car's chassis is shared with an AWD and RWD car, then the conversion is allowed.
But changing suspension configuration is not allowed, as it might allow some team to gain an advantage.
JoshHall3 Then why are you on a post about a car in FD?
@Saint These cars aren't bespoke race cars built by race teams. They are production based cars heavily modified by race teams. If you've never read the Formula Drift rulebook I would.
3.1. CHASSIS
The original OEM floorpan, frame and or unibody must remain unmodified between the
vertical planes created by the original forward most and rear ward most suspension or
subframe mounting point. Unibody or chassis may be seam welded.
DONT HATE... GET A V8!!
DONT HATE... GET A V8
jay8393 musgravecycles Why even have rules in drifting? Its like a clown show.
Twitch_6 What do you care if people prefer things from Japan?
As opposed to what? What form of Motorsport do you follow that isn't a "clown show"?
I have nothing against liking things from Japan, or anywhere for that matter.
What I will never understand though, is unobjective "Stans" (ie D-riders).
Reread JoshHall3's comment. How/why is one "better" than the other? Where are these stunningly beautiful D1 liveries he speaks of. There's no objectivity in his statement, and no examples to back up what he is saying.
To me, attitudes like that are no different than the treatment the Import drag racing scene went through in the 90s & 00s.
jay8393 musgravecycles I understand the rule, I'm just saying that it doesn't "seem" right for a team to take a car that wouldn't be competitive at a regional/local race to being 2nd in points in FD by turning the engine 90 degrees and driving the other end...while Taka's 86 is almost always toward the back of the pack because it's down on power/short wheelbase, suspension setup etc, etc. Put another way if the TC and 86 were both bone-stock the 86 would drift circles around the TC...but here it's the other way around and that doesn't "gut-check" imho...
Still an Aasbo fan though
Twitch_6 Thats like asking someone to explain why they like the color blue over the color green.
@Smiggins
....if you want to simplify things to that extreme, then in a way you're correct.
However, I see it more as me asking someone to show me examples of blue things verses green things, and maybe give a couple of reasons as to why they like the blue things more than the green things....as opposed to saying "bluethings>greenthings all day"
Smh pretty sure you're trolling anyways.
You can do whatever you want to the suspension as long as you don't change the original sub frame or mounting points. Fredric's car is actually a toyota variant of the tc sold in Japan with an all wheel drive drivetrain. The same rule that lets Fredric run a tc is also the rule that excludes taka from modifying his ae86 rear axle setup. Make no mistake, it's taka's CHOICE to continue running that car with the limitations it has. It's not the rule books fault. And it's rules like this that make it possible for privateers like taka and Forrest Wang to still be competitive amongst other professional race teams.
ScottBrady vroomtothetomb Aaahh. Thanks for dropping some knowledge on the TC.
To the other point, that's why i suggested it come FWD/AWD so that the FRS can live. The same way tuners have developed forced induction/V8 swaps/2jz swaps etc. for the FRS, I can see them going crazy with the TC to challenge WRX's and EVO's.
And if you really want to to stand out somebody can sell you a kit to convert to RWD (but then you probably should have just got a FRS lol).
Thanks! I'm excited to head into Long Beach!
That was the case with the previous gen Foust/Gushi car, but the past five years any FWD car can be converted to RWD for FD. The reason for this is that FD wants more diversity in cars. Imagine if FD was full of current gen FWD, AWD and RWD cars from all manufacturers!
Thanks Paddy! Miss you!
As much as I like 2JZ's they're pretty heavy and long, and with the tC's short firewall to front axle length we need a short and light motor to achieve decent weight distribution. The 2AR has really impressed me over these years and it packs a serious punch - especially in light of its low weight!
This remnds me of Tanner Foust's scion.
Was reading about your 2AR build on MotoIQ the other day...not only does it seem like the perfect lump for this application, its aparent youve got a hellova team behind you. Plus it's always great to see guys running something other than an LS swapped S-chassis.
Good luck this season Fredric, will be rooting for you.
If Aasbo is with papadakis and rockstar, taking over Tanner's old position? Then with Tanner coming back? Is this going to be........ An all-star team type effort?
Yes! Exactly!
vroomtothetomb I was thinking about this the other day. Back in the mid 90s my dad got sucked in by the Saturn marketing program and bought a Saturn Sc2. The car was reliable, not terrible looking, cheap and drop decently. As I became more enthralled in the aftermarket I had always though Saturn dropped the ball by not making a great cheap tuner car to build up brand support in younger generations. Scion then came along with that though process but never really pushed it far enough.
Twitch_6 lmao true dat. none
Twitch_6 I'm tired of the v8 cause its what everybody uses, i like a little variety.
cedrik asshoe
TimAukamp I don't think Foust and Aasbo are gonna be affiliated in any way, Rockstar and Papadakis are 100% on Aasbo's team. Reason why Foust is even drifting is because he just wanted to, he built the Passat without Volkswagen and was lucky enough to get their support when they found out. Rockstar is still sponsoring Foust because they sponsor him in Rallycross, it just simply transferred over. Foust is on Nittos and Aasbo is on Hankooks.
Twitch_6 why you butcher everyone's names?