Automotive Lifestyle
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
Papadakis and Foust: A Creative Partnership
Bill Wood explores the successful drifting association of Steph Papadakis and Tanner Foust.
Bill Wood  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted December 10, 2008   Los Angeles, Calif.
Three years, two championships, and it’s on its way to a buyer in Norway where it could end up on ice. (Bill Wood photo)

If a dichotomy is a division into two parts, then I have multi-chotomies in my head about drivers, friends who drive and driver friends who compete for championships and The Ides of March. I sometimes cheer for all of the above.

For example, I appreciate several skillsets in the world of drifting, especially the people who navigate stealthily on the radar’s rim like Steph Papadakis and Tanner Foust. They don’t occupy the spotlight at the drift track. You sometimes have to look for their campsite, because it’s usually not defined by haulers and hot pants. Steph’s about business. He’s built the only operation that’s doubled up in Formula Drift’s young five-year existence and he did it with a throwaway car from Nissan, some buddies who helped him when he was drag racing and Tanner – who’s only been drifting four years. Still, two of those years Foust wound up with the title “champion.” You’ve got to love that kind of commitment to excellence.

I found it intriguing that Steph has probably driven a car faster than any drifter in the world. With that background, he’s teamed with Foust who’s probably as comfortable at speed as any drifter in the world. You’d think that would be a green eggs and ham sandwich, but no.

“He and I are both practical people,” Papadakis told me as he explained their compatibility quotient. “We can sit down and come up with some wild ideas then bring each other back to Earth and come up with a good plan on where to go.”
Steph Papadakis (Bill Wood photo)

Steph’s speed credentials are unquestioned. His records include: World’s Quickest Honda (RWD), First Honda into the 6s (RWD), First Honda into the 7s (RWD), First Drag Honda to break 200 mph (RWD), First FWD to break 150 mph, 160 mph, 170 mph and 180 mph. His speed and Honda credentials are unquestioned. He drifts an S2000 when he can and road races a Honda CRX in NASA events during the off season but he told me never talked with Honda about a drift program like the one he’s building with Scion, even though Honda uses Steph’s S2000 in advertising campaigns for its brand.

So, somewhere – probably at this moment – Papadakis is building what no doubt will be the slickest and sickest Scion tC drift car ever, to the pleasure of Toyota/Scion and RockStar, Steph’s biggest drift sponsors. It will be a separate team from Ken Gushi’s Scion effort launched this year. And to the credit of that effort “they’ve been helping us out with a bunch of information.”

We talked about some of the new technology he’s building into the car as he converts it from FWD to RWD. Suffice to say it will be a distinctive step beyond drifting’s norm. He wouldn’t let me photograph even the naked tub and cage because “there’s some sensitive stuff.

“Tanner’s always pressuring me to do something big right out of the gate,” Steph went on. “He says I’m always procrastinating on doing cool new stuff on the car. But, that’s what we were always doing in drag racing. We were always developing instead of getting out there and winning championships. I’ve changed my strategy a little bit to stick with what we know will work. When you make incremental steps you know where you are, you can test and if there’s a problem you can always go back to where you were.

Page 1 of 2
Prev
12
Next
bill_wood's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Wood

SPEEDtv.com

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.