The 2011 Formula Drift Session begins now and we wanted to take a look back this week at last years 8th place driver. Taking 3rd place overall in 2009 and been in all makes and models of cars from Toyota to Honda to a Porsche and now Nissan . We look to see Tyler haveing a good year comin back in his Falken 350z for this session. Heres a 2006 interview we did with Tyler for Honda Tunning Magazine(One of the few magazines still in business thank god).
Honda Tuning: How did you get into the RS*R car? Did they approach you?
Tyler McQuarrie:I was talking to them a little bit last year around mid-season; they kind of knew that I was looking to get into a new car. Around halfway through the season, I had made the decision that I wanted to look into other opportunites beyond the Jasper Supra, and I started talking to Ben from RS*R USA from there. Yokohama was the tire sponsor for the Supra, and I’ve been with them for other racing events for quite a while; they really helped to facilitate the talks since RS*R was also sponsored by Yokohama. At the time, RS*R was just looking to run a second car, and continued to have Alex as their primary driver in the S2000. I think they were hoping to run two S2000s, but when Alex moved on to judging, my spot in the driver’s seat was pretty much a done deal.
Tyler McQuarrie:I was talking to them a little bit last year around mid-season; they kind of knew that I was looking to get into a new car. Around halfway through the season, I had made the decision that I wanted to look into other opportunites beyond the Jasper Supra, and I started talking to Ben from RS*R USA from there. Yokohama was the tire sponsor for the Supra, and I’ve been with them for other racing events for quite a while; they really helped to facilitate the talks since RS*R was also sponsored by Yokohama. At the time, RS*R was just looking to run a second car, and continued to have Alex as their primary driver in the S2000. I think they were hoping to run two S2000s, but when Alex moved on to judging, my spot in the driver’s seat was pretty much a done deal.
HT: The Supra you drove for Jasper was a very long wheel base, high HP car, whereas the S2000 is much shorter and much less power. How different is the driving style needed for the different cars?
TM:When I first got into the car, I was expecting it to be pretty hard to adapt to, but it seemed to be an easy transition. With a lack of time in the car, it was hard for me to be consisten. The powerband is actually a lot more linear than I was expecting. With the Supra, I had a much shorter powerband with the weight and the turbo that Jasper used. I think the powerband is more driveable and useable in the S2000 compared to the Supra. Power to weight is way better, so even though the Supra has more horsepower, the S2000 is faster. The Supra was easier to be consistent in though, because it was longer and heavier, but that also meant that it wasn’t as competitive. I just feel like I can get into a lot of different cars and with little time, I can be competitive. I don’t think you’ll ever get all one-sided where someone wins because it’s all car setup or all driver skill; it’s just too competitive. The one thing I’ve struggled with is consistency with the initiation. Once I’m comfortable with the course and the initiation, the S2000 is cake for me.
TM:When I first got into the car, I was expecting it to be pretty hard to adapt to, but it seemed to be an easy transition. With a lack of time in the car, it was hard for me to be consisten. The powerband is actually a lot more linear than I was expecting. With the Supra, I had a much shorter powerband with the weight and the turbo that Jasper used. I think the powerband is more driveable and useable in the S2000 compared to the Supra. Power to weight is way better, so even though the Supra has more horsepower, the S2000 is faster. The Supra was easier to be consistent in though, because it was longer and heavier, but that also meant that it wasn’t as competitive. I just feel like I can get into a lot of different cars and with little time, I can be competitive. I don’t think you’ll ever get all one-sided where someone wins because it’s all car setup or all driver skill; it’s just too competitive. The one thing I’ve struggled with is consistency with the initiation. Once I’m comfortable with the course and the initiation, the S2000 is cake for me.
HT: It seems that Alex pretty much had the car built the way he wanted it. How much did you adapt to the car, and how much did you adjust the setup to be more to your liking?
TM: Most of it was just adapting to how the car was. Alex proved that the car setup worked well the way it was. We changed a couple of small things here and there to make it a little more comfortable for me to drive with my driving style. There’s still a few things we want to change on the new car that we are building for next year, but I think it’s pretty good. I tend to adapt to a car more than I want to retune and reengineer it, doing more fine tuning instead of re-engineering it all. The one thing I really want to get is a hydraulic e-brake in the new car, I think it’s a necessity with all of the tracks that we go to. The mechanical e-brake is just not consistent.
TM: Most of it was just adapting to how the car was. Alex proved that the car setup worked well the way it was. We changed a couple of small things here and there to make it a little more comfortable for me to drive with my driving style. There’s still a few things we want to change on the new car that we are building for next year, but I think it’s pretty good. I tend to adapt to a car more than I want to retune and reengineer it, doing more fine tuning instead of re-engineering it all. The one thing I really want to get is a hydraulic e-brake in the new car, I think it’s a necessity with all of the tracks that we go to. The mechanical e-brake is just not consistent.
HT: Your day job is to just drive and instruct people on how to drive all day every day. Is that truly the dream job that it sounds like?
TM:You know, for what I’ve accomplished and the people I’ve raced against, sometimes I hope that I would be further along in my racing career that I am. But I enjoy introducing people to motorsports and driving every day. Almost every program we have at the school, there’s always a couple of people who say they would kill to have my job, and that’s a good reminder that I have a fun job. But I’ve been at the school for 9 years, it’s easy to get tired of doing the same thing for 9 years.
HT: There are several other drifters at the driving school you work at. Who got into drifting first?
TM: As far as the school, I think I was one of the first guys to get into drifting; it fell into my lap with Yokohama. All the drivers at the track like it, but they weren’t very accepting of it at first. Right now, there’s a lot of instructors that are trying to get into it and asking a lot of questions. I’m kind of the brain at the school about drifting, but I was skeptical about drifting back in the day, too. I remember when Alex Pfeiffer worked at Jim Russell back in 1998 or so; he was a mechanic and I was an instructor. He showed me a video of some underground drifting in Hawaii and I was like “what the hell are you guys doing?” That was way back in the day when it wasn’t even a competitive motorsport like it is now. It was true underground video of guys having fun and that’s all it was. He was the person who first introduced it to me. It’s ironic that now I’m driving his old car.
TM: As far as the school, I think I was one of the first guys to get into drifting; it fell into my lap with Yokohama. All the drivers at the track like it, but they weren’t very accepting of it at first. Right now, there’s a lot of instructors that are trying to get into it and asking a lot of questions. I’m kind of the brain at the school about drifting, but I was skeptical about drifting back in the day, too. I remember when Alex Pfeiffer worked at Jim Russell back in 1998 or so; he was a mechanic and I was an instructor. He showed me a video of some underground drifting in Hawaii and I was like “what the hell are you guys doing?” That was way back in the day when it wasn’t even a competitive motorsport like it is now. It was true underground video of guys having fun and that’s all it was. He was the person who first introduced it to me. It’s ironic that now I’m driving his old car.
HT: Do the other instructors ever try and get into a little competition while at work?
TM:Not as often as you would think. On G4, they joked that we’re always out there on the track drifting but actually we’re not. The instructors always try and drift as often as we can when we’re doing hot laps or autocross, but you’d think I’m drifting a lot more than you I actually am. I’ve literally practiced on the Sonoma track only once prior to the actual competition. RS*R came out about 2 months before the competition and we had about 2 hours on the track, and that’s the only official drifting practice I’ve had there even though I’m at the track every day.
TM:Not as often as you would think. On G4, they joked that we’re always out there on the track drifting but actually we’re not. The instructors always try and drift as often as we can when we’re doing hot laps or autocross, but you’d think I’m drifting a lot more than you I actually am. I’ve literally practiced on the Sonoma track only once prior to the actual competition. RS*R came out about 2 months before the competition and we had about 2 hours on the track, and that’s the only official drifting practice I’ve had there even though I’m at the track every day.
HT: You also drive an RSX-S in the US Touring Car series for Opak and Spoon Sports. How hard is it to jump back and forth between grip and drift events?
TM: I thought when I started doing more drifting that it would affect the racing, but when you get back into the car, you know exactly what to do. As of now, I haven’t run into any problems. I think once you get into the car and your muscle-memory kicks in, everything goes smoothly
TM: I thought when I started doing more drifting that it would affect the racing, but when you get back into the car, you know exactly what to do. As of now, I haven’t run into any problems. I think once you get into the car and your muscle-memory kicks in, everything goes smoothly
HT: How similar or different are the cars you drive in competition? (The S2000 and the RSX).
TM:Not very similar at all, they’re a totally different feel. The S2000 is more like a go-kart, while the RS-X takes a lot more effort to drive. I’ve driven plenty of S2000’s on the track, the RS*R one is totally different because it has gobs of power for an S2000. The RSX I drive for Spoon is naturally aspirated, right-hand drive, and FWD, although my RSX is actually amazingly easy to drive for a FWD car.
TM:Not very similar at all, they’re a totally different feel. The S2000 is more like a go-kart, while the RS-X takes a lot more effort to drive. I’ve driven plenty of S2000’s on the track, the RS*R one is totally different because it has gobs of power for an S2000. The RSX I drive for Spoon is naturally aspirated, right-hand drive, and FWD, although my RSX is actually amazingly easy to drive for a FWD car.
HT: How did you get into that car? I hear it involves drifting.
TM:I started talking to the Opak guys for drifting last year, Gary McKinney introduced me to them last year actually about the same time I started talking to RS*R. Spoon wanted to build a car for Drifting, and ironically, the other driver up for that ride was Alex. Spoon has a rich racing history and they found out I had done a bunch of racing, so the original plan was to have me drift an S2000 and race the RSX for them, but the drift car never got finished so I just stayed with them for racing. With Spoon, there’s a lot of opportunity to grow into other forms of racing down the line outside of the USTCC stuff because they are involved Grand Am and so many other forms of racing. We will see where that goes.
TM:I started talking to the Opak guys for drifting last year, Gary McKinney introduced me to them last year actually about the same time I started talking to RS*R. Spoon wanted to build a car for Drifting, and ironically, the other driver up for that ride was Alex. Spoon has a rich racing history and they found out I had done a bunch of racing, so the original plan was to have me drift an S2000 and race the RSX for them, but the drift car never got finished so I just stayed with them for racing. With Spoon, there’s a lot of opportunity to grow into other forms of racing down the line outside of the USTCC stuff because they are involved Grand Am and so many other forms of racing. We will see where that goes.
HT: Who is your favorite or least favorite person to drive against in competition?
TM:I have two that I enjoy driving against, the first is Sam Hubinette. You can really trust him, and the few times I’ve run tandem with him, you know it’s going to be real close. Any time you go up against another racer, you know they are going to take the same line you are, their thought process is the same as yours, so it’s exciting. The other person I love going up against is Alex, it’s a blast. It’s probably the most fun because we’ve known each other the longest, and we know what each other is going to do. It’s great
TM:I have two that I enjoy driving against, the first is Sam Hubinette. You can really trust him, and the few times I’ve run tandem with him, you know it’s going to be real close. Any time you go up against another racer, you know they are going to take the same line you are, their thought process is the same as yours, so it’s exciting. The other person I love going up against is Alex, it’s a blast. It’s probably the most fun because we’ve known each other the longest, and we know what each other is going to do. It’s great
My least favorite isn’t so much a driver but the corollas. The low horsepower cars are really a challenge, it’s very hard to drive against. With the Supra and now with the S2000, when you go up against the corollas it just throws you off. Your timing is way off, you have to adjust your line, it’s tough. When you get up against a corolla, you really just start stressing. You think “do I give them more space or do I just run my line“ where as when you run against Sam or Rhys or the other higher horsepower cars, you know they’re going to go all out and go as hard as they can so you do the same.
HT: What is your favorite track to drift at?
TM:Irwindale is by far my favorite. It’s fast and I like that kind of entry. I’d rather have the fast long tracks than the tight technical ones.
TM:Irwindale is by far my favorite. It’s fast and I like that kind of entry. I’d rather have the fast long tracks than the tight technical ones.
HT: Do you have any plans to do any driving in Japan?
TM: There’s always talks about it, right now I’m probably going to be going to China for a competition before the end of the year, that will be really cool. But the Spoon guys are always hooked up in Japan, so there’s always an opportunity with that. Whether it’s drifting or racing, I’ll probably end up over there in Japan sooner or later.
TM: There’s always talks about it, right now I’m probably going to be going to China for a competition before the end of the year, that will be really cool. But the Spoon guys are always hooked up in Japan, so there’s always an opportunity with that. Whether it’s drifting or racing, I’ll probably end up over there in Japan sooner or later.
HT: If Honda gave you a free car tomorrow, what would you get and what would you do with it?
TM:That’s a really good question. hmmm….. I’ve always wanted to take an S2000 and go race it in a series. I know with touring car series I’m in, the cars have to have 4 seats, so you can’t race with it in that series. I’d really love to race it competitively and see how it does. There aren’t any flat-out race S2000’s in the professional series, and a lot of it has to do with the rules that they setup, but I’d really love to try it. The rules really keep it out. Being a 2-seater, it gets put into the GT class, but then you’re going against Vipers and stuff like that and it doesn’t have enough power to compete against them. I think it just falls into a category that keeps it out of competitive racing which is too bad because it would be a good platform. Then there’s always NSX’s. With my job, I’ve been able to drive pretty much everything from Carerra GT’s to Enzo’s to McClarens, and the NSX is definitely up there on the list of fun cars to drive.
TM:That’s a really good question. hmmm….. I’ve always wanted to take an S2000 and go race it in a series. I know with touring car series I’m in, the cars have to have 4 seats, so you can’t race with it in that series. I’d really love to race it competitively and see how it does. There aren’t any flat-out race S2000’s in the professional series, and a lot of it has to do with the rules that they setup, but I’d really love to try it. The rules really keep it out. Being a 2-seater, it gets put into the GT class, but then you’re going against Vipers and stuff like that and it doesn’t have enough power to compete against them. I think it just falls into a category that keeps it out of competitive racing which is too bad because it would be a good platform. Then there’s always NSX’s. With my job, I’ve been able to drive pretty much everything from Carerra GT’s to Enzo’s to McClarens, and the NSX is definitely up there on the list of fun cars to drive.