I took my now annual trip down, into the States for Formula Drift this past weekend. After a successful debut with Team Need for Speed in 2010, when I won the ‘Best Looking Car’ with Mad Mike Whiddett for the Team Need for Speed Mazda RX-8, I’ve always had a presence in the series.
The annual Speedhunters Cars of the Year Voting has recently taken place on Speedhunters.com, the car culture blog of video game, Need for Speed.
Voted by readers, two cars designed by Andy Blackmore Design won awards. The Need for Speed Mustang RTR-X, designed with Vaughn Gittin Jr won the Demo car of the Year.
Andy was also responsible for the livery of the Mad Mike Mazda RX-8 which won Pro-Drift Car of the Year. This comes shortly after the RX8 also won ‘Best looking Formula Drift car’ voted by the series and important individuals in the genre.
Congratulations to Vaughn, Mike Whidett and to Twins Turbo, who built both cars!
The Team Need for Speed Mustang RTR-X which Andy designed with Vaughn Gittin Jr was unveiled earlier this week on the Ford Stand at the SEMA Show. The car looks stunning in the flesh.
Twins Turbo and Steen Chassis did an amazing job bring Andy and Jr’s vision to reality. AutoGuide.com said it was “Definitive showstopper”. The launch took place immediately after the Ford press conference. There were more people waiting by the covered RTR-X than at the main conference.
You can follow the build process and the debut of the RTR-X on Speedhunters and on our own detailed RTR-X post
Andy has been working with Formula Drift race winner, Vaughn Gittin Jr, on this exciting new build over the past few months. The build is based off a 1969 Mustang Boss and will be built from a new Chassis, from scratch.
The car will make its debut at SEMA 2010, but you can follow the entire build process including livery voting here at Speedhunters.com.
The outline of the project was presented to Speedhunters earlier this month before a livery vote, showing a variety of designs. The Speedhunters voted in their thousands, literally and luckily our favourite design won. A Dark grey metallic base with Matt Grey elements and Sonic Green highlights. The Green is sure to be controversial, but the last thing we want to create is a bland design. This needs to stand out.
The original post on Speedhunters can be viewed here, while a summary of the build and design can be read here, on Andy Blackmore Design.
Thanks to Vaughn and Rod Chong for the opportunity to work on this unique project.