Any veteran sport compact observer of the SEMA Show could tell you that the overall sport compact content of this year’s show was at its lowest in memory. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any sport compact related news to talk about, but gone are the days when a major press conference involves a new drag car sponsorship or unveiling. Even the white-hot sport of drifting barely cracked the news surface at a SEMA Show that was refocused on American muscle. Despite the apparent “right-sizing” of the sport compact industry within the SEMA Show, high points were provided by the high visibility of B-Segment cars like the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, and Toyota Yaris as well as drifting news from Formula D, NOPI, and Hankook.

B-Segment Battles
The Honda Fit won the much anticipated showdown between it, the Nissan Versa, and to a lesser degree the Toyota Yaris. While Versa projects were only to be seen in the Nissan display, Honda obviously has been busy handing out Fits to the tuner community. Besides a slew of customized Honda Fits in the Honda booth, aftermarket companies including HKS, Extreme Dimensions, and Seibon prominently featured the Fit.

Fit Sport Extreme Concept
Besides customized Fits from Super Street Magazine (Fit of Fury), DVS/Drag Cartel ("Get In Where You Fit In” Fit), King Motorsports (Super Fit ), Ryan Shutt/Hasport (Forever Orange Fit), Skunk2 Racing (Fit R), TJIN Edition (Unique Fit), and H&R Springs (Fit Sport), Honda also showed off their own Fit Sport Extreme Concept. Repainted in a combination of Scorched Orange Metallic and matte black, the Fit Sport Extreme Concept features a custom front bumper featuring carbon fiber components, HID fog lights and LED daytime running lights. The no-nonsense Fit body lines were also resulted with aarge fender flares and side skirts to complement a lower ride hieght. A rear carbon fiber diffuser with a center exhaust outlet and a rear wing finish off the Fit with a equally unique look. Current Fit owners will also note the Concept’s use of factory Japan Domestic Market (JDM) rear LED taillights and side mirrors with integrated turn signals. Other noteworthy features include Brembo brakes, Recaro Civic-Si style seats, and 17” black wheels.

Extreme Dimensions Fit
The ultimate Fit though had to be the Extreme Dimensions Fit already mentioned in our SEMA coverage (and selected by Technical Editor Evan Griffey’s for the Most Significant Car Award and Gran Turismo Awards for inclusion into a future Gran Turismo game). Still, its worth going over the specs of this super Fit once again – K Series swap with a high-mount Garrett turbos system expected to produce 700 hp, FMIC, a race-ready cantilever rear suspension setup, Work wheels, and a time attack ready cockpit. You can say this Fit is Go!

Turn 3 Creative/Siphon Magazine Versa
Of the different Versas on display in the Nissan booth, two that stood out included the Versa Cup-themed Turn 3 Nissan Versa. Working with Siphon magazine, a new Primedia publication focusing exclusively on the B-segment movement, turn3 built a dual purpose street/track Versa. The preparation for track duty included removing roughly 200 lbs. of weight. For increased engine performance, the turn3/Siphon Versa features an AEM cold air intake and a DC Sports competition exhaust header with a custom exhaust. The suspension has been upgraded with a custom TEIN Super Street coil-over kit, and bringing this purpose-built machine to a halt are Hawk Performance racing brake pads and shoes. Adding style and handling prowess for the street are 17x7.5 Volk Racing CE28 forged wheels with Kumho tires, and for track duties RAYS Engineering 15-inch lightweight wheels and Kumho’s Ecsta V710 R-compound tires are used.

Outside, the performance intentions aren’t mistakable thanks to a APR Performance carbon fiber front splitter and rear spoiler, custom front grille and lighting treatments by Five Axis, and NISMO-inspired race graphics by KTC Media Group and Spin Imaging. The Siphon Versa’s cabin features Sparco racing seats, harnesses, steering wheel, pedals and shift knob. In addition to gauges by Defi, the Versa has a full complement of vehicle dynamics equipment by Pioneer Electronics including forward and rear-facing cameras. Rounding out the interior is a stout roll bar engineered by M1 Fabrication. Did we mention that wacky concept car constructor Troy Sumitomo of Five Axis Models was also involved?

Fox Marketing Versa
Getting the award for quickest turnover is the Fox Marketing Versa. That doesn’t mean that there were shortcuts taken though; pushing an estimated 270 horsepower to the wheels, the Fox Marketing Versa was probably the most bulked-up Versa in the hall. The 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine was beefed-up with a ZPIracing Turbo Kit with a Garrett GT28RS turbocharger, Fujita cold air intake system, ZPIracing 22x9x3 intercooler, Nitrous Express N-Tercooler sprayer, Tial blow off valve, ZPI Velocity Stack intake, ZPIracing 440cc fuel injectors, ZPIracing stainless downpipe and two-inch stainless up-pipe, ZPIracing high-flow oil pump and Tanabe Medallion Touring Exhaust.

Outside, the Fox Marketing Versa has an Impul front bumper, front lip spoiler and rear kit, all covered with BASF R-M Sapphire Blue paint. The attitude of the machine is set with 1.5-inch lower Tanabe NF210 Springs and 18x7.5 XSA-02S Work Wheels wrapped in 225/40/18 Toyo Proxes tires.

Inside, the interior is outfitted with MOMO accessories, including red Street Racer GT front seats with custom seat brackets, custom red rear seat, shift knob and boot, steering wheel and hub. Sounds are provided by a Rockford Fosgate entertainment system.

Tein Toyota Yaris
Not to be left out of the B battles, the Toyota Yaris not only fought off competition for attention from the Fit and the Versa, but also from its xA/xB cousins at Scion. Several quality Yaris stood out at the Show – including the Tein-built Toyota Yaris hatchback. Also sporting a track-based Yaris Cup theme, the Tein Yaris sports a Power Enterrpises supercharger kit, stripped and painted interior, a custom roll cage, Enkei wheels, ACT clutch, and of course – a EDFC-quipped Tein coilover system. And to complete the Toyota racing package, be sure to want to order the Tein-themed Toyota Sequoia tow/support vehicle that Tein also built – complete with matching Tein graphics, Bride seats, and Takata harnesses.

Street Image Yaris
The bang-‘em-over-the-head Yaris was supplied by Street Image in the form of a time attack (yes, a very popular theme for SEMA 2006) 4-door Yaris. Not one for blending in with the plethora of other time attack projects on the show floor, Street Image took the time attack theme to the limits for the Yaris – swapping in a fully-built Garrett-turbocharged 2ZZFE engine (Celica) with AEM EMS engine management and moving the driver position rearward for better weight distribution. The caged and stripped interior also sports tasty race bits such as a Tilton pedal assembly, a built in air jack system, and a Sparco Circuit competition seat. Outside, custom 19” alloys, a coil-over lowered ride height, APR aerodynamics, wide body fender flares, and a tsunami-themed graphic over blood red paint make sure this Yaris isn’t mistaken for your neighbor’s station car.

Drifting 2.0
After three years of solid growth in the U.S., the drifting scene showed signs of entering a new maturity at the SEMA Show. Capped off by Formula D’s standing room-only press conference, the drift news at the 2006 SEMA Show wasn’t nearly as fast and furious (pun intended) as in the past two years, but still showed positive signs of growth.

Formula D
After crowning its third series champion this past season, Mopar’s Samuel Hubinette – who was also the inaugural champ, the first North American Drifting Championship laid out the groundwork for its next phase of growth. While mostly operation and business related, Formula D’s announcements included a tentative 2007 schedule which again features 7 rounds of competition, but also includes five team drift competition events tied-in with Champ Car.

2007 Formula D Championship

The biggest news from Formula D though was the announcement of exclusive global partnership with IMG, the world’s leading sports, entertainment and media company. The relationship will mean that IMG, who counts the Tiger Woods, Wimbledon, and the New York City Marathon as clients, will work closely with Formula Drift across all areas of its business, including licensing, interactive, event development and television representation.

Hankook Tires
The biggest drift entry announcement came from Hankook tires. After successfully competing in the Formula D series this year – including a third place finish at Sonoma - with the JIC Nissan S15 Silvia driven by Kenji Yamanaka, Hankook expanded their drift involvement with arguably the most exotic Formula D entry yet – a Porsche 993 GT2. With a twin-turbo fully built 3.8 liter engine rated at 600+ horsepower, the JIC/CROSS suspension-equipped Porsche will be an interesting challenge to current crop of Formula D heavies. And with the expected retirement of Mopar’s Viper SRT-4, the Porsche only competes with Signal Auto’s R34 Skyline GT-R as the most exotic (read expensive) entry – at least in a MSRP comparison.

The Hankook Porsche will also be the only rear-engined competitor of the field – placing an additional challenge on the driver. Luckily, Hankook has placed the difficult to drift Porsche in capable hands – those of Tyler Mcquarrie. Mcquarrie, who was the driver of the RSR Honda S2000 for 2006, was announced as the driver of the new entry at a press announcement at SEMA. Let the Stuggart Slide begin!

Honda Element-D
The craziest drift entry announcement came surprisingly from Honda. Apparently, a group of eager and enthusiastic Honda engineers are responsible for the Honda Element-D ("D" for drifting) – yes, that is not a typo. The group, from the Honda R&D Americas office in Ohio, replaced the stock 4-cylinder/Real Time 4WD drivetrain with a custom-designed and longitudinally-mounted 3.2-liter Honda V6 and rear-wheel-drive. Reportedly producing 500-horsepower, the twin-turbocharged Element is supposed to be campaigned in the 2007 Formula Drift Series. We’ve heard of the rumors of a Ford F-150 and a Nissan Titan factory drift programs, but we have to say that this Element trumps them all. Good luck, we say.

NOPI Drift Series
The coming together of the drift and drag worlds was previewed by the joint NHRA/D1 event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back in July and there are rumors of an expanded cooperation in 2007. NOPI, not one to be left behind in a new pursuit, announced at SEMA the formation of a 2007 NOPI Professional Drift Series. Although still lacking details (including dates), the creators of the XBOX Racing Series, the NOPI Nationals, and the jelly pit, promise to “take it to the next level”. Whether or not that prophecy will be fulfilled remains to be seen – especially when Formula D is already in a leadership position and the D1 series owns the JDM/international aspect of the sport. Throw in the fact that at least two other organizations are also starting drift series (including the International Drift Championship) in 2007 and suddenly its 2002 again when NOPI joined the crowded drag field that was occupied by Battle of the Imports, IDRC, and the NHRA.

Of course, NOPI brings their own flavor to all their endeavors and NOPI Tunervision on SPEED is supposed to be a part of the package. Of course, the other way – besides exposure – to encourage participation is to put money on the table and NOPI intends to do that with a prize purse worth at least $10,000 per event.

2007 Tentative NDRA and NOPI Professional Drift Schedule

Events also TBA in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami