I was leisurely browsing through the pages of the Feb. 2009 issue of Option Magazine tonight when I came across some big news about 2008 D1GP series champion Daigo Saito. For 2009 he will be leaving his JZX100 Chaser behind and switching to a Ford Mustang GT. Yep, that's right….a Mustang in the Japanese D1 series. Saito's official website confirms the news. The car is being built by the Japanese aero parts maker Behrman and is expected to produce 7-800hp. I wonder how the "JDM Fanboys" out there will react the news? Personally, I think the idea of seeing (and hearing) a bellowing V8 muscle car in D1 Japan is pretty cool. Hopefully the new car will be shown at Auto Salon in a few weeks.
-Mike Garrett
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Dang I have more news about Daigo, I just promised I wouldn't talk about it!!! damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets see how this will "behave" on Ebisu. Fortunately the D1 has no more tights tracks like Suggo Kart circuit...
wat?
i think its great, it may help "break the ice" for more american drift cars
Ha! What a joke! I bet he won't be the champion anymore. Leave the Mustangs to the rednecks and deer hunters.
Whoa awesome!
JR vs Daigo in '09! A dream match! haha
aw
his chaser is soooo sexy. sad to hear he wont be in it next year... hopefully nomuken will get that new gtr they been talkin about forever this year too...
Will Daigo still be in the Team 22?......I liked him because he was the underdog (unlike Kumakubo or Nomura or Imamura).....I'm glad he won the title.....but I doubt he will win again, especially with a Mustang.
Kawabata should drop his RPS13 and get something newer too.
Mustang BN Kit or Vertex maybe? LoL Its prolly going to be the 2010 version mustang which is lighter anyway.
I have hopes.
The Japanese dudes know what they are doing when it comes to designing good looking cars.
He has a markII now not a chaser. And i hate US cars so this doesn't make me happy.
Cool! I think its great. Im not a big American car fan but this shows how drifting is changing... A few years ago you would have never seen this. Lets hope Daigo is leading the way for other drifters to follow. Maybe if more D1 drivers drove American there wouldnt be such a negative look at drifting American.
Cool! I think its great. Im not a big American car fan but this shows how drifting is changing... A few years ago you would have never seen this. Lets hope Daigo is leading the way for other drifters to follow. Maybe if more D1 drivers drove American there wouldnt be such a negative look at drifting American.
I cant wait to see how this car is going to look. D1 cars always look 100 times better than the FD cars.
Saito has Mark II and Chaser twins. The Chaser is his back-up car. You should see the reaction to this on some of the Japanese drifting forums I frequent. Lots of new vulgar verbs to learn! I bet this will last a season and he'll be back into a JDM-mobile.
From a fan's perspective it sucks to see someone jump from one of the cooler cars in D1 to an amazingly boring platform like the Mustang.
"Lets see how this will "behave" on Ebisu. Fortunately the D1 has no more tights tracks like Suggo Kart circuit..."
Just because it's a Mustang doesn't necessarily mean it's going to handle like a big stupid, heavy drag car.
It will probably do about as well as the jzx100/110 do on tight courses.
I'm curious to see what their take on a modded Mustang is, maybe we can learn something here in the US, too many of the american drift cars here look like crap.
ex.- anything Sam Hubinette has ever sat in.
pretty cool. it'll be interesting so see him n jr go at it.
so wait, is he doin fd in the s14 still?,,,
To all fan boys, don't fret i'm sure it'll look like a rolling japanese billboard for cereal or some magic face cream like the rest of D1. Oh and a HUGE wing.
its about time we started to see some american domination in drifting like we saw in the U.S. of course the next step would be a corvette or a viper
awesome
how wrong! i think i threw up a bit in my mouth!
TRAITOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i turn my back on u !!!!!!
"It will probably do about as well as the jzx100/110 do on tight courses."
Just tell me where are the "tight" courses in D1 nowadays. Ooops theres no more proper tight course. Put that "shit" on Bihoku or Meihan and it will make a nice crash.
YES! this will be so cool! I just hope the graphics look cool and sits as flush as the old markII and chaser did.
For the haters.... Are you guys serious? the Exposure this car will get is gonna be nuts in japan, the style for running a non S-based chassis in D1 is gonna be good for him too. And No kidding hes not gonna win the championship again, when was the last time someone won D1 twice... never.
Lol, so what happens to his Mark2 and Chaser? off to powervehicles to be sold off overseas I guess.
I don't really care either way. I'll always be the proudest JZX100 owner on earth, but I'll also always support my favorite drifter: Saito.
Meh dont know what the deal is, hes a bad ass driver that will put any car he gets sideways at over 180 clicks. I must admit im not a fan of the crap looking mustangs but thats cause i love Toyoto's.
I want to see Ueo's BMW for D1 the little pictures i have seen already look nice!
i think it's cool, and besides, for all we know it might be a fox-body 'stang, which would be even cooler
The 'Stang looks pretty cool from what I can tell. In the Option pic it's sporting the same Prodrive wheels that are on the 100.
Honestly, I think that the Mustang would do just fine. I'm sure if it was back in the day, and you saw the first heavy-ass drift car come up out of development, you'd all freak just the same. I think it's time that there was more than maybe 3 foreign cars in the Japan D1 games, (Matsui's Il Salloto M3 and some others here and there.)
It won't be short of any interesting bits this season, that's for sure.
I say let the man drive a Mustang, who knows..it might actually look good!
Jr???? Where's your reaction????????
well why not........... it wont stop me enjoying his driving
So I guess the rumors of Daigo running the Chaser in FD for Hankook next year was just a rumor....
Oh well Congrats....
Big rumors coming out of D1 USA. I am hearing that Daigo will be driving in the D1 USA series in 09'' with Imamura, Nomura, Ueno, Kumakubo, Kawabata & Yoshioka will be jumping ship from FD to drive D1 USA too. Rumors are eveywhere and I am hearing many other FD drivers are ready to cross over. It's going to be an interesting year
Thats badass, the 05-10 Mustang is a proven drifting chassis, this just goes to show that the japanese are getting tired of seeing the same cars over and over, that why formula d is better because there is variety. You jdm guys are really butt hurt, hahaha!
Looks like the "JDM" fanboys are pissed ...
Damn..... Mike, you rather have this story covered. I just spotted Daigo Saito's Mustang in one of the video on Youtube at TAS2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjfMARutR1Y
@ 3.26 in the video
Heres pics if any one wants to see the mustang if they ahve not already