Samuel Hübinette is a 2 time former champion in Formula Drift. Racing in the Nuformz/Mopar® Dodge Viper in which he won those 2 championships in. Changed up from last year’s Mopar® Dodge Charger in which he still placed high up in Formula Drift. As we head into Round7: The Finals. Sam is currently 26 points behind last year’s Champion Tanner Foust. We caught up with Sam at round 6 in Sonoma prior to the event to ask him how it feels to be back in what has proven to be a winning platform, drifting abroad in Mexico & when are we going to finally see the Dodge Challenger.
EverythingDrift: Sam, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to interview you here in Sonoma. You’re back in the Viper and won 2 Championships with this car and now in the points lead for you’re 3rd championship. Can any other chassis compete with the Viper?
Sam Hübinette: You know there are other platforms out there that have a good size and wheel base. Like 240’s and Nissans they have a good wheel base, and a fairly light car, so they can be very competitive too. The Viper is a great platform, it’s very strong and made for road courses so it can take the punishment we do. Putting a big fat Mopar® V10 helps it to have the torque needed. It makes it a little easier to stay in the same gear and so on, which could be helpful. But overall drifting is really, definitely a driver sport, you can’t just rely on the vehicle to do it for you. You have to really be on it out there. Which is very cool with this sport, you can do really well with a car that doesn’t cost as much as our vehicles.
ED: You recently drove the Mopar® Dodge Charger for the Mexico demo. Do you miss driving that car?
SH: It was really fun to bring it out again, I hadn’t driven it since last December. A high revving V8 is definitely exciting. People always get pretty amazed by what a fairly big platform can do. It’s got a 120 inch wheel base so it’s a big monster. I had my own charger for a couple of years, had a lot of fun with it. It’s a lot of car for the money. Once you get a lot of the upgraded parts in it for a very good price. It was fun to bring it out, and showcase it down there in Mexico and try to get the sport growing down there. It was a good effort to show the sport down there. BFGoodrich actually put that event together down there, which is actually our sponsor, one of our sponsors. But competitor wise, I’m stoked to be back in the Viper, it’s less heavy, so less mass to pull around the corners. Which is pretty important in drifting, especially the level Formula Drift is top, top level in the states. I’m anxious to go out and compete this week and see what the outcome is going to be because we only got 2 events to go. We are on the top right now, and always going to try and stay up out there into the finals, well see how it goes. Anything can happen.
ED: Tell us what it was like drifting in the rain in Seattle?
SH: You know it was definitely something new for Formula Drift, first time we did an event in the full rain. It’s just basically really slow and sketchy because surface changes affect the grip level a lot. There’s no need for a lot of horsepower, its just about trying to get as much traction you can out of the car and the tires. A team like NuFormz to help me setup the car really quick for the rain surface, and having the opportunity to drive on KDW which is rain and dry tires from BFG. That allows it to have good grip even if it’s raining, so those small things helped me to really be on top there and almost got the victory but it was another 2nd place. But it helps keep the momentum going.
ED: We heard you’ve been doing a lot of demo driving away from Formula Drift. How did you get into that type of driving and what demo work have you done recently?
SH: I been a professional driver, a paid driver since 1992. I have been very fortunate to make a living for so many years. Lately I have been working on a show called head 2 head, which is a car review show on the Internet. You can see it on Torque.tv and other sites like Streetfire.net. We took out a bunch of really extreme cars at willow springs, and we did 4 episodes. That’s the latest thing I been doing, we took out some monsters. We had some Porsche’s, we were supposed to have the Hennessey Viper but it didn’t make it out. We had the Evo and STI, the new 2008 models, which were 2 that were up against each other. We also had the GTR Nissan, a couple of them. One cop tuners and Streetfires own GTR stock. It was a really good day, it was really fun. We get to do a show that’s really popular, sponsored by Royal Purple Oil. Looks like were going to do even more shows, we done 14 episodes so far, it seems to keep growing and its really fun. But that’s all about going fast, there’s obviously no drifting, except I’m definitely showing off between the lap times we do there.
I also went to Sweden and did the Camaro Cup Spec Series over there. Believe it or not but there’s over 30 cars line up over there, racing a full blown Camaro series over there. I got 2nd place, so I’m happy with that coming in to a visitor’s car. They have one extra car for guest drivers. With that set, I was happy with 2nd place. Stina was out there racing with me too; she did a touring car race out there. An endurance race, she got the 2nd best lap time. Were ripping around out here.
ED: This year you we’re supposed to be driving a Dodge Challenger. How is that car coming along, and when can we actually expect it?
SH: We’re building a challenger, and its going to be unveiled at SEMA this year. We’re launching it at the Mopar® booth at the 2008 SEMA show. It’s going to be exciting, and we’re going to start testing it over the winter. The plans are to launch it for next year. NuFormz is working hard with it back in the shop in Ontario, California. When we’re not working on the Viper.
ED: How excited are you for the Red Bull World Championships? What are you most looking forward to from this event?
SH: Yeah, I heard some information about it, I don’t know exactly the layout but its going to be done on Terminal Island in Long Beach. This is definitely going to be a different type of Venue, its most likely going to be around buildings. It sounds more like a movie set; you know I’ve done some driving down there myself, different commercials and movies on the docks. You know, we make a mistake you might end up in the water, who knows (chuckles). It’s always fun to see teams coming in from all over the world and gathering together. We’re excited about it, we’ll see what kind of track layouts they do, but I’m sure its going to be really exciting.
ED: Fast & Furious 4 is coming out in 2009. What are your thoughts on this movie?
SH: Fast & Furious 4, I don’t know a whole lot about it, but I know some of it. I got to drive in the movie for a few days. I came in and did some drifting, its Vin Diesel, you know he’s back in business. I don’t know at all really the whole theme of the movie. I’m sure there’s information out there. But I’m glad they keep making them. I’m glad it became so popular, the Tokyo Drift version. So they feel confident to do another one. At least we did some good driving out there, Reese, Tanner, Rich and I, plus all the amazing stunt drivers involved with it. It’s just great for the business in L.A. for so many people, keep going, more movies and I want to be in it too. More, more work for me! (Points to himself)
ED: We appreciate the time and everything you do. We as well do read your blog! Feel free to check it out here. http://blog.samuelhubinette.com/
Final words from Sam… “Drift Ya Later!”
Pingback: Wrecked Magazine Blog - Drifting’s #1 source of information and stupid! » Blog Archive » Sam Hubinette Speaks to Edrft
Pingback: bfgoodrich momentum tires | Bookmarks URL