On June 16th the third Fast and the Furious movie was released "Tokyo Drift". The film featured drifting and is sure to increase drifting on our streets. We had already been receiving reports of drifting related deaths, injuries and fraudulent claims, and we expect this to increase with the movies debut.

Historically films such as this inspire an increase in nighttime illegal vehicle activity. When movies such as the Fast and the Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious were released there was a measurable increase in illegal street racing, accidents, fraud claims and numerous other related incidents. During the year the first Fast and the Fraudulent movie was released, 152 street racing fatalities were reported in the United States. A significant increase from the previous year.

Refer to the Drifting and Touge articles on this same page.

History is a good indicator of future trends. The latest installment of the Fast and the Furious, Tokyo Drift was released June 16th and we should pay more attention to collisions involving popular drift cars. The movie will feature a Mitsubishi Evolution IX with a rear wheel drive conversion; Nissan 350Z; Mazda RX-7, RX-8; Volkswagen R32 with a rear wheel drive conversion; Toyota Chaser; and Ford Mustang GT-R. As explained in the newsletter, additional cars to watch are the Honda S2000, Nissan 240SX, 180SX, Skylines and Silvias, and Toyota Supras.

Claims and crashes involving the following cars should be evaluated as to their possible involvement in Drifting: Nissan 350Z, 240SX, 180SX, Silvia, Skyline; Toyota Corolla; Ford Mustang; Honda S2000.