A couple snaps through the horseshoe at Road Atlanta while the car was operational.
A snap of the e46 landed on SpeedHunters. I don’t think I have met Mike Garrett, but I do appreciate the kind words!!!
“Speaking of looking good, here’s Andy Sapp’s sexy E46 BMW. This car was at Road Atlanta to take part in the small FD ProAm event that was held alongside the “big league” competition.”
rn
This image sums up my weekend. So what the hell happened?As of now… it looks like the hydro e-brake may have played a role. I was advised by a BMW tech that I could pull ABS fuses, and not trip the car into limp-mode. He said ABS electronics run independent from the motor, so I’m fine. WELL… ABS has 4 fuses… which (I think two) are shared with DSC. I pulled the fuses, and tested the e-brake. It locked up the rears… no problems, right? Wrong. I didn’t get a chance to really test the car out until I was at the top of the hill at Road Atlanta. The e-brake worked fine… but the car was totally in limp-mode and wouldn’t rev past 5K.I rush back to the truck, we replace all the fuses and reset it with a battery disconnect. The car ran fine the rest of practice. Problem solved, right? Wrong. My first qualifying run… I floor it out of the gate. The car was in limp-mode. I flipped a bitch right back to the truck. From this point on… we can’t get the car out of limp-mode. We reset the ecu, clear OBD2 codes, and think we get it out of limp mode… allowing me to redline 1st-3rd gear into 10a… then BAM… back into limp-mode. I almost threw the car into the wall (on accident) because of this shit. VERY VERY DANGEROUS.
Why does something go wrong with this car EVERY YEAR at Road Atlanta? I’ve had this car since 2001 (new)… and it has never… EVERRR gone into limp-mode. Not once. Then I get to the top of the hill on race-day, and I’m stuck with an inoperable car that was totally killing it the week before during practice.Every project with this car has basically been a giant pain in the ass, and I’m pretty much furious with it. I knew running that e-brake was going to cause problems… it was too easy. Standalone seems to be what I need to bypass all the computational over-thinking I don’t even want in the car… but at this point I don’t want to spend any more money on it. All I want to do is thrash and have fun… but I am so pissed at the car right now.
If I drove poorly and fumbled it… fine. I can live with that. But to have the car shit out on me and not let me make a single qualifying run is a spit in the face.
I dream of the 10a-10b complex at Road Atlanta. Seriously. It is a major shame that the track is so expensive to rent… that the locals don’t get any seat time (drifting) at all. The opportunity arose to drive Road Atlanta for the Pro/Am Drift Championship Series. I decided the entry fee was a small price to pay to get back out on my favorite track, and have FUN.
I really can’t wait to be back out there lighting up those tyres, and bombing that hill into 10a as fast as I possibly can. I could care less about competing or qualifying… I just want to have fun like old times, and drive like a gat-damn MANIAC.
2008 Driver Profile – Andy Sapp. from Andy Sapp on Vimeo.
This edit is well over a year in the making. This cut is as close to perfect as I will ever get it. This video is the most thorough, polished, and complete example of my abilities behind the wheel… and my abilities behind a computer. Period.This digital short showcases the past 3 years of my professional drift effort. Features amalgamated footage from Formula Drift and Nopi Drift events, as well as various Nopi/NDRA demos, grassroots competitions, practice events, SPEED TV, and other television appearances.
Very very special thanks to everyone who provided me with the footage to edit this video.
Soundtrack by Slayer.
Keep drifting fun. OR ELSE.
Jacob from Everything Drift sent me a picture from Formula Drift Las Vegas of some new tees that I designed for them. We’re working on some crazy designs and crazier prints… so keep an eye out for more soon.
I was up at the S3 Magazine headquarters on Friday to thrash around guitars, and they had a copy of the Drifting Performance Handbook by Calvin Wan. I was flipping through and found a picture of my e46 listed under the “European FR” section of the “Selecting A Drift Car” chapter! The book has an older picture of me competing in round 2 of the 2005 Formula Drift season at Road Atlanta.
Calvin Wan has been drifting before it’s birth here in the states. He’s an amazing driver… and his Drifting Performance Handbook is very thorough. Definitely a must-have for any drift-enthusiast. You can get them via Motorbooks, or at any major bookstore.
Pick one up and support drifting.Special thanks to Calvin and Antonio for including me in the book!
The 2nd round of Formula Drift went down this weekend up at Road Atlanta. This was my first time since the 2005 season that I wasn’t out there competing. I had a great time kicking back, chilling with old friends, and enjoying America’s best attacking the 10a-10b complex… but it just wasn’t quite the same for me this year.
Making our way down to the pits, we saw this GORGEOUS E30 M3.
I had the E46 down at the Everything Drift booth, where we managed to sell a ton of Slide Styleâ„¢ shirts. rnHuge thanks to Jacob & Thao for hooking it up, and to Lieze for helping with the sales.
This year’s attendance was the largest I’ve seen it since Formula Drift’s first event here in 2004. It was PACKED.
Point-and-shoot action.
What more can I say… “Stay Hungry” is one of the best drifting DVD’s I have ever seen. This movie was what I wanted their last DVD to be. It was an excellent mix of amazing drifting, crazy DA antics, hilarious skits, life on the road, comedy, and most of all… what it means to be America’s most infamous drift team.
Andy Laputka shot and edited everything and really set the bar with this one. He put an enormous effort into making this the COMPLETE package, and he succeeded with flying colors. There was not a dull moment from start to finish.”Stay Hungry” is a MUST HAVE for anyone even remotely interested in drifting.
So go get one… and support these guys in what they do.Andy Luputka getting interviewed by Jarod DeAnda.
Drift Alliance and crew on the red carpet.
We roll deep, and with knives. DriftMechaniks repping it.
Red carpet from the seats.
The title screen.
Outside the theatre, post movie.
We’re headed down to the red-carpet premiere of Drift Alliance’s new DVD “Stay Hungry”. There’s definitely a lot of anticipation surrounding the release. The premiere will be at the same theater we premiered Slide America almost 1 year ago. With the entire professional drift community in town for round 2 of Formula Drift… tonight is sure to be a riot.
We’ll see you all down on the red carpet… in the meantime – enjoy the “Stay Hungry” teaser trailer:
Design-wise, I stepped way out of my comfort-zone (in several ways) with the 3rd issue of Wrecked Magazine. These three spreads illustrate some of the different typographic, illustrative, and layout styles I put into the latest issue..
I spent a few minutes on a retouch of a great photo from Formula Drift Atlanta last weekend.
If you’re the photographer who took this… please e-mail me – I want to give credit where credit is due. :)
The original:
Formula Drift events at Road Atlanta are always amazing. I ran in to some issues with a broken passenger-side control arm… which definitely threw a wrench into things. I mis-calculated my entry back into 10A, and spun… catching the inner lip of the passenger-side wheel on the inside of the rumble strip. It basically pulled on the wheel enough to destroy the inner bushing on the control arm. At first I thought my weekend was done… but Kieran from GTE and Erin Sanford ran up to Strictly German, which happens to be the largest BMW salvage yard I have ever seen. They managed to get an entire control arm & bushing back over to me, and Matt from Foerst Motorwerks got it swapped out on the hill. It was INSANE.
After all of that, I managed to initiate my fastest entry into 10A… I didn’t lift the entire way down the hill… I was hellbent and pissed off, and I remember thinking “I hope this works”… then stabbing the clutch as hard as I could. I didn’t end up qualifying Top-32… but I gave that track hell considering the circumstances. So overall, it was an amazing weekend..
