Two Snaps Up In 2 Formation

Who’d a thunk it: chris forsberg can build award-winning cars, like this 280z

- Jonathan Wong

Chris Forsberg had a hell of a ’16. He nailed his third Formula DRIFT championship, found time to stunt around in viral videos with the Donut Media crew, turned a missile car into a daily driver, and most recently won a pair of awards at SEMA with the Datsun 280Z you see here—Best Import in the Sony Gran Turismo Awards as well as our Best of Show for the second annual Super Street SEMA Awards. Noticing a trend here? All Z-cars. It’s a relationship with one of Nissan’s beloved sports coupes that started in ’03 when Forsberg was looking to see if he could turn this drifting “thing” into an actual career, before there even was such a thing as Formula D. After moving to California (for the first time) from Pennsylvania, he decided that he needed something newer and a little bit nicer than the ’88 Mazda RX-7 he owned at the time. So, he went and financed a brand-new 350Z right off the lot, swapped an SR20DET into it (the first ever), and started drifting with it in FD’s first season the following year. “The Z has been a great chassis [for drifting],” he says. “I feel fortunate that Nissan worked with me throughout the years, allowing me to stay with it and develop it into the package it is today.” We chatted with Forsberg about his drifting career, what it takes to be a competitive player in the current game, and why he built this crazy, sexy, cool show car.

On his drifting roots with Drift Alliance—How did a bunch of East Coast guys get into drifting?

TUNING MENU ’75 DATSUN 280Z

OWNER CHRIS FORSBERG HOMETOWN LOS ANGELES, CA

OCCUPATION

PROFESSIONAL DRIFTER

ENGINE