If you’ve ever been to Hot August nights, you know it’s all about gorgeous classics, super stylish customs, and a few nasty rat-rods in there for good measure. I love classic cars just as much as the next 30-something American male, but this year brought a different crowd of car people to Reno... Drifters.

Photo: Max Rockatansky - Cars: Shawn Zilka


If you don’t know about drifting, where have you even been tho?! But if you’ve never been out to an event, do yourself a favor and check out the next one that comes around your area. This grass-roots motorsporting culture has been blowing up in popularity over the last decade. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a blast! It encompasses some of car people’s favorite things about racing, like crazy custom builds, loud cars, and tons of action, even though it’s not technically a race. It’s better than racing. It’s a competition, but it’s really a lot more like art than racing. Drifting is cartists (sic) painting a masterpiece with two strokes of rubber at a time.



Photo: Ricky Mcleod - Car: Hert @HooniganIndustries


The cars are real hot-rods in the truest sense of the term. It’s going to the junkyard for Chevrolet parts to put in your Nissan, to take suspension out of a Nissan and put it under your Mustang, putting a Toyota engine in a BMW with a turbo the size of a dinner plate. Cutting your steering apart to weld it back with a borrowed welder after making some cuts in your home garage. Drifters have been trying out new things that you’ve never seen with builds before. These cars are experimental prototypes with paint, graphics, and wide-body kits as loud as the engines that power them. Some of the top guys are boasting around 1000hp!



Photo: Max Rockatansky - Car: Dom Martinez


These custom creations from all across the western United States, descended upon the “World’s Biggest Little City,” with one goal in mind, to have all the fun at the expense of hundreds of sets of tires, they scrounged up to turn into clouds of rebellious teen spirit. It was awesome to see drivers of all ages (14-Retired) get into their machines and go chuck them into corners at full tilt boogie! Out in the spectator areas, there were retired folks with $100,000+ uber rare, custom cars, immaculately restored, sitting in a parking lot somewhere, while they’re watching some hoonigans rip the bumpers of their $10,000 beater, only to zip tie them back on minutes later and go run the wall again. It was a truly compelling coming together of gear heads of all walks of life.



Photo: Max Rockatansky - Car: Dean Sullivan


The course was set-up with cones and temporary barriers, by some savages that decided having a massive water drain come across the middle two times, would make things interesting, and it did! It was almost like a roller coaster at full speed! Those dips snatched more than a few bumpers and side skirts over the course of the event. Guys were smashing up their rear bumpers along a concrete wall on the last corner, only feet from a crowd of fans laughing and cheering as a storm front of smoke and V8 powered thunder rolled in upon them.



Photo: Ricky Mcleod - Cars :Unknown


Unlike any other motorsports event I’ve been to, the teams were all sharing suspension secrets, tuning tricks, spare parts, and giving rides to almost anyone who asked to hop in their car for a few laps. It was lit! I have never seen so many spectators hop out of a racecar with the hugest smiles on their faces! It’s hard to not go into a hysterical fit of laughter as the driver just goes ham sammich all over the track, with a couple of his homies in hot pursuit, and you look over at the car next to you and can see all of the joy and excitement of the other passenger and driver through a 5 inch slit in their helmets! The vibe of the whole crowd was fully stoked. Some people broke some pretty serious stuff on their car, or were chasing problem after problem, with multiple trips to the salvage yard and parts store. But random people would stop by and do everything they could to help them get back on the track and have fun again. We were all having more good times than bad. The spirit was infectious.



Photo: Ricky Mcleod - Cars: Scott Bradshaw, Nick Stucky, and Brandon Wicknick


So do yourself a favor and come out to the next one, at $10 to watch and $100 to compete for 3 days, it’s hard to not feel like it was the best money you’ve spent all year. You’ll meet some hilarious characters with great attitudes and amazing cars. If the inaugural event was this good, this could be one of the premier events in the western States in no time. The field was about 50 cars deep and it was an absolute riot to attend.



Photo: Ricky Mcleod


Photo: Tyler Huddleston

Photo: Tyler Huddleston - Car: Jake Fleming

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