Tony Angelo is a US drifting pioneer from Doylestown, PA. He found drifting from Initial D in the early 2000s and started sliding his car around PA back roads, meeting Chris Forsberg in the process. In their turbo FC Mazda RX-7s, they were heavily into drifting before anybody in their area knew what it was. They eventually hosted sanctioned events at Englishtown Raceway, introducing drifting to others on the East Coast including people like Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Ryan Tuerk. In this episode,...

Jonathan Wong, proudly grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California. He was introduced to import racing in the 80s by his older cousins. After buying his EF Civic Si, he and his teammates from Team Macross 7 strived to make an imprint on import car culture through car shows and drag racing. He started his career at the bottom at a magazine called Super Street and eventually moved his way up to editor-in-chief. There, he influenced millions of Super Street fans as he helped to...

Phill Lee is one of the first street drifters in the Chicago area.  He co-founded ClubFR, an organization created to get drifting off the streets and to legitimize drifting in Chicago and the Midwest area.  Under his watch, ClubFR has helped produce D1 drivers and Formula D drivers, they’ve hosted the RS-R Drift Festival, Formula D Pro-Am, and most recently, Final Bout.  From ClubFR’s inception to today in 2024, Phill played a role in establishing Chicago as an influential force in the USA in...

Robbie Nishida started drifting in the 90s in Japan, forming an all AE86 Team Hey Man! with his friends at Yokota Air Base.  He shares stories of the origins of his “drifting team”, how they befriended legends of Japanese drifting such as Nobushige Kumakubo, Dart Izumi Jr., and Hideo Hiraoka. Robbie discusses his 13 year long career in Formula D as a competitor and how he became an FD Judge.  He takes us behind the curtains, and gives us some insight on what it’s like to be a judge and he...

We're pushing the Robbie Nishida release date to next week 1/9/2024. Thank you for your understanding. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sileightymania/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sileightymania/support

Calvin Wan is one of the earliest drifters in the USA, drifting his red Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) in the Bay Area of California. He is a 6 year Formula Drift veteran, driving from 2003 to 2009. During that time, he had multiple podiums, including a 1st place finish in front of his home crowd in Sonoma, being the first import car to win a round of Formula D. He’s also a D1GP licensed driver, author, stunt driver, a drifting judge, and instructor. In this interview, Calvin talks about his humble...

Gary Castillo is an OG who has been a part of the early import drag racing days in the 90s all the way to today’s premier pro drifting series Formula Drift.  He started as a mechanic, became a magazine editor then turned into a fabricator. Gary witnessed almost the entire spectrum of import car culture in the USA as he watched both import drag racing and drifting go from their illegal street racing roots to professional series.  He was a part of the scene as Hondas tried to break into the 9...

Chris Parry, aka Paz, is an AE86 and drifting legend in the drifting scene in the UK. When he bought his first AE86 and started drifting in the early 2000s, Japanese style ae86s and drifting didn't exist in the UK. Over the next several years, Paz owned several different AE86s, and he spearheaded the drifting movement and was a shining light for aggressive driving in low horsepower drift cars in the UK. Paz was a huge fan of Japanese style AE86s, inspired by people like Kaicho Hiroshi...

IT'S A PODCAST CROSSOVER! Palmer is our feature guest and we're also guests on the Goodestcast podcast dropping 9/7! Please check out our interview on his podcast to see what it's like when the interviewers become interviewed, Goodestcast style. Palmer Sanderson is the youngest guest so far on the podcast, but he is making waves in the drifting community in more ways than one. He became a member of infamous drift team Animal Style in 2013, and has one of the best examples of a Japanese...

Chris Forsberg is a US drifting pioneer from Doylestown, PA. He has a 20 year long career as a professional driver in Formula D, and is well-known as a Nissan Z drifting icon. His love for drifting started in the early 2000s with his Mazda FC RX-7 after meeting Tony Angelo. The two would eventually run DGTA, an organization hosting events that would provide a legal alternative to street drifting. Chris towed his car all the way to Los Angeles for the D1 Grand Prix driver search in 2003, and...

Rob Riter started drifting in the early 2000s and is a drifting pioneer in the Midwest, specifically the Chicago area. He started drifting in his NB Miata and became a hub for Mazda Miata drifting information and style through his website roadsterdrift.com. A founding member of ClubFR, they helped bring drifting off the streets and onto the track. He became one of the best drifters in the Midwest earning time in Formula D and Pro-Am. He later followed his dreams and moved to Japan, where he...

LA is a major part of drifting in the Mid-West. You can often find him working at Final Bout and ClubFR events. Before that, he lived in Japan and is a self proclaimed JZX100 otaku. He met and befriended Yokohama drifting legends like Yubo Takahashi and Kuniyaki Takahashi of drift team Night Walkers. He lived that JZX100 life as he owned several (and crashed several). In this interview, he talks about his experiences in Japan, what it was like learning from Japanese drifters, and why out of...

Nikolay Konstantinov started drifting in the early 2000s and even competed in Formula D. He built a tribute car paying homage to his hero Yoshinori Koguchi. He explains the challenges of building a green s13 hatch inspired by a car that no longer exists in that form. He also recounts a recent magical trip to Japan where he got to hang out with Drift Zamurai and The Emperor Koguchi. He even got to see and sit in 189sx that inspired his build. Follow Nikolay on IG:...

Lindsay Ross is an OG US drifter, starting in the early 2000s. He has always been big on Japanese drifting style and Japanese drift car styling. One day he met up with Aaron Suarez aka Dousan and the two of them decided to form a drift team called Pink Godzira. The two were one of the earliest US drift teams to properly color coordinate the way drift teams do in Japan and they did it with style. Take a listen as Lindsay tells us about the origins of Pink Godzira drift team, his...

Benson Hsu won 1st place at Falken Drift Showoff in Irwindale Speedway on March 02, 2003.  It was the first time we'd ever seen a pro drifter on US soil doing drifting demos.  Yoshinori Koguchi, Seigo Yamamoto, Fumiaki Komatsu and Kazuya Bai, very famous and influential drivers from Japan, flew in with their cars for demos and judging.  It was a day that introduced so many to drifting and inspired a generation of future drifters.   Host Nadine Hsu interviews Benson about the day, asking...

Mark Arcenal hails from the Bay Area in California.  He is an artist and a trailblazer in fashion and car culture.  He is a major reason for what is widely known today as "stanced cars". We talk about his love for both industries and how they influenced his journey to create his website Fatlace and Illest brand. He is an inspirational person to many and this interview will show you why. For this episode of Storytime, Mark takes us through his ambitious plan to hold a Hellaflush event in the...

You might know a little about our beloved co-host Nadine Hsu already. You might know her as one of the first female drifters in the USA, or as one of the first women to compete in Formula Drift. Maybe you know her as the co-founder of Drifting Pretty, the first all female drifting program and eventually all female drifting team in the USA. With this episode of Storytime, we're proud to announce that people will now know her as a children's book author! Her book Sachiko Goes Racing is...

Javier Paramo has experienced 15 minutes of fame many times.  You might know him from his beautiful white MA60 Celica Supra or appearance on Wheeler Dealers, Netflix's Fastest Car, his cameo in Fast and the Furious 1, his annual hosting of Supras in Vegas, or his features in Import Tuner and MotorMavens. What you might not know is that there's a good chance he was the very first Mexican drifter.  Javier is Benson's old friend, and they spent a lot of time together in the junkyards, wrenching...

Cole Chalmers was your typical car boy who didn't want anything in life but to drift all day, everyday.  After a breakup, he told himself, "no girls."  He chose the lonely driver life, but did the lonely driver life choose him?   Listen in as Cole discusses early drift life in Kamloops, British Columbia, his snow drifting adventures on logging roads, and how drifting changed his life in many ways, but mostly through finding love during a disastrous road trip all the way to All-Star Bash in...

Lance Feliciano is the son of a professional rally driver.  His father introduced him to cars and motorsports at a very young age, and as a child he would rather watch Option Video instead of cartoons.  At the age of 8, he got to experience something very special - he attended Option Video's very first Ikaten ever held on American soil.  He was in the presence of drifting icons Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya and Nomuken, got a ride-a-long and it forever changed his life.   You can follow Lance...

Ryohei Takahashi from Team Lowbrain, Japan joins us to tell us about Sportsland Yamanashi (SLY), why it's important for Japanese drifting history and what his experience has been like hosting events there and dealing with its unique track owner. Make sure to follow us on IG because Ryohei sent me a bunch of Team Lowbrain stuff and we're giving it away!  Announcement will happen on 7/18 on @sileightymania Ryohei on IG: @lowbrain_yohey --- Support this podcast:...

Adam Goodman, aka Understeerking, has a very popular IG account and YouTube account where he posts all the Japanese car nostalgia that your heart desires.   For this Storytime episode, he tells us about his early years with drifting in Atlanta to his trips to Japan.  During one of his trips, he gets to meet D1 Driver Kaneko Naoya, who offers Adam to drive his 380hp competition car! For more on Adam, find him on Youtube and Instagram! --- Support this podcast:...

It's our very first Storytime episode!  Chob, a member of Team ProceeD and owner/pilot of a Lexus GS300, joins me for a little small talk and then gets into the story about when he accidentally entered a drifting competition at Nikko Circuit, Japan. If you are a good storyteller and have a good drifting story to tell, please go to the following link to submit an application: https://podcast.sileightymania.com/storytime-interview-application/ Have you purchased your Sileighty Podcast merch...

Season 1 has been a journey from all of us at the SileightyMania Podcast.  Our graphic designer Steven Nakamura is an OG in his own right, and you get to hear from him because he finally joins us in the studio.  Bring your own beverage for this one, because we're poppin' bottles to celebrate our 1 year anniversary and a job well done! We also spend some time to pull back the curtains to give you some insight on what it was like making the podcast and we talk about what the near and distant...