Exclusive interview with 2013’s Formula Drift Champion
Michael Essa
by Andrew Gates
RUKUS MAGAZINE: Who is Michael Essa?
MICHAEL ESSA: Who am I, well I am just obsessed with cars, uh, basically anything mechanical I…I love to figure out how things work, and see if I can make ‘em better and solve problems…Anytime I can put a wrench in my hands it makes me happy.
RM: What do you do for work?
ME: I own Essa Autosport, it’s a race shop in southern California, we build Porsche race cars, BMW race cars, and we take care of ‘em for clients, we take it out to the track, do track support, driver coaching, and all sorts of other crazy projects that we find, engine swaps all kinds of stuff.
RM: What got you into motorsports?
ME: When I was a kid Chuck Yeager was my idol, he was a pilot…he was the first one to break the sound barrier, and that’s what I wanted to do, I wanted to be an experimental aircraft pilot, until I found out about cars. So, all of a sudden…as soon as I was able to get my driver’s license, I bought a Volkswagon Bug that wasn’t running for a couple hundred bucks, completely disassembled the thing, and basically from that day on all of my focus was on cars and that was it…every second I got I was reading a Chilton manual and in class, you know, inside my math book, I had the Chilton manual inside there just going through every single part of the car, and yeah, from there I was hooked, taking my car out to the track even though it was a beater just having a blast.
RM: How did you discover drifting?
ME: I kind of discovered drifting on accident. So, when I would take my car, I had an old 240z, back then they weren’t that expensive in the late 90’s, I think I bought it for $500 bucks, the suspension was terrible, old tires that were almost bald, and I was just trying to drive the car fast, you know, in the mountains and it just…it would either understeer like crazy or I could get it to oversteer and I could have a lot more control so I just started driving like that. Years later one of my friends introduced me to drifting, it was actually at a car show when the D1 guys came from Japan, they came out to Irwindale. I had my Datsun 510 on display there, and I saw drifting in front of me for the first time and knew…I have to do that, this is amazing! So, I took my car and started going out and just trying to drive, but would spin out constantly and I was terrible at it, but it just made me want it even more, so, I just wanted to…it’s that challenge, drifting is so much fun, but it is a huge challenge.
RM: What was your first impression?
ME: When I first saw drifting, it was actually in person, so, I had never seen…you know, I had never watched these Option videos and seen it magazines, so, I’m out here at this event, and see these guys blasting through this parking lot and throwing the car sideways against walls and it just blew my mind, I mean, I thought I was having a blast driving my car on a road track on a road race course, and I was, but once I saw that I knew, I’m like…there’s so much more you can do with a car and I knew I had to figure out a way to do it.
RM: Tell us about your car.
ME: My car right now is a BMW E46, M3, it’s still got the original M3 engine, it’s an S54, basically the head’s stock, the cams are stock, we still run VANOS, some mods inside the engine, basically ARP studs, and we’ve got Boostline Rods, JE Pistons, very simple build and it makes about 850HP at the wheels, the car now on Achille’s Tires, it’s a rocket ship, so, I think it’s one of the fastest cars at Formula Drift and I absolutely love driving it.
RM: When did you know you wanted to be a professional drifter?
ME: So, when I first started drifting, I had my shop and I was always out at the track with my customers and we would have 6-8 customers that we would take care of and kind of do everything for ‘em and it was a lot of work so pretty much every day I was out at the track it was work. And when I went out and started drifting it was me, you know, by myself just having fun in a car and I honestly never thought about going in to Formula Drift and becoming a professional driver until I started doing some fun competition events and started winning and people were telling me, “hey, you should try to get your FD license.”
RM: Tell us about the moment you won your FD license; Feeling? Where? When?
ME: I went out to a PRO/AM event out in Arizona, just for fun and did really well, came in second or third place or something, and got invited to the Red Bull International…just this crazy event in 2008 out in Long Beach, but not on the Long Beach course. They set up this 115 MPH entry with concrete barriers everywhere, it was insane, but I qualified 3rd and finished 2nd, and got my Formula Drift license.
RM: Did you ever imagine yourself being in the sport for this long?
ME: My first year in Formula Drift was in 2009 and I had no idea how it would go, what would happen and now this is my 10th year running in Formula D. I never…it’s just…the seasons come so fast and you really don’t have time to think about it, but when you sit back and look at it and you go man 10 years of being in the highest level of drifting in the world is pretty amazing, it’s really hard to get away from it, it’s very addictive, all the people you know out here, and just getting behind the wheel of one of these pro cars, you know, 800-1000HP plus, all the grip in the world and throwing ‘em sideways against walls it’s…it’s really tough to leave.
RM: What does life look like after drifting?
ME: You know, I’m not 100% sure, what my life is going to be like after I stop running in Formula Drift, but I mean…the shop will probably do better, I’ll be there more often, and, you know, keep running with the Porsche Owner’s Club, and see what other opportunities open up, maybe more road racing stuff. I’ll still be out there, you know, doing fun events with the drift car for sure because it is so much fun. But I definitely see myself in the automotive industry for the rest of my life, I can’t see myself doing anything else.
RM: If you hadn’t discovered drifting what might you be doing?
ME: If I didn’t discover drifting; I would still be racing, I would be with the Porsche Owner’s Club, with SCCA, with NASA, on the track as often as I could be…it probably wouldn’t be as often as it is for me now with all the sponsors and all the connections that I’ve gained through running in Formula Drift for this long.
RM: Anyone out there you’d like to thank?
ME: I have to say thanks to everyone who has supported me, all the sponsors that I’ve had over the years, made a lot of really good friends, built a lot of good relationships with amazing companies who’ve been on board for years and I’m sure years to come, and the biggest thing I think is the fans, so, thank you to all the fans who come out and support because without the fans we wouldn’t be out here, the sponsors wouldn’t be out here and, you know, I’d be back at the shop just turning wrenches. RM