The forest fires in the Amazon and Australia are generating smoke that can be seen from space. And unfortunately lots of these fires were set on purpose.
Potassium perchlorate. Another smoke hazard that is lighted by humans is the ‘fumata’ or conclave smoke. It’s a moment where all eyes are fixed on the tiny chimney perched on the roof of the Sistine Chapel for a sign of either black smoke or white smoke, a ritual that is linked to the election of a new pope. According to the Vatican press office, the black smoke is produced by a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulphur. The white smoke is a mixture of potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin, also known as Greek pitch. But who cares…
About tea and red buses. Since smoke can kill you, you will never see us promoting this sense of nonsense. And that brings us seamless to this guy, Steve Biagioni. To be honest, we get a small appetite from spelling his last name, and we wouldn’t say no to a pizza right now. Online surfers obviously know Steve best as ‘Baggsy’, a drift champion from the United Kingdom, the land of fish and chips, tea and red buses. It’s also a land that is more familiar with fog than smoke.
Not a word about Brexit. But before we will tell you more about Steve’s favourite kind of tea and chips, we need to clear a few things out. First of all, we won’t mention the Brexit in this feature. Second, apparently we just did, so apologies for that. Third, when Steve performs a burnout or one of his epic drifts, he’s actually not creating smoke, but he’s burning rubber. During a tire spin, the friction between tire and tarmac superheats the rubber to as much as 400 degrees. This melts the rubber tread, vapourising the chemicals and oil within it, sending these molecules into the air. The vapourised molecules then cool quickly and condense in the air, becoming the visible white steam you see.
Saving the climate, though not today. So there you go. Tire smoke isn’t really tire smoke but billions and billions of vaporised molecules from a tire’s rubber, oil and chemical makeup. Environmental activists can now safely crawl back into their trees. …
Back to Steve. During Driftenberg 2019, all eyes and camera’s were pointed at co-star Mareike Fox, but that’s for an upcoming chapter in our making-of series. We’re kidding of course. Kinda… Back to Steve aka Baggsy. It’s not the first time that Baggsy and ST suspensions join forces to underline the capabilities of the famous yellow coloured suspension. Ken Block is not the only popular name in our after market industry that thinks highly of the brand. Baggsy wouldn’t trust any other suspension under his 1200 hp Nissan GT-R.
King of dance. It was in the spring of 1987 that little Steve started kicking his mother, and she probably thought he would become a great dancer. A few months later, more precise 12 June 1987, Steve was born. After the crawling and walking period, it was time to get behind the wheel. He started drifting in a Swedish Volvo 340 and bean competing in the Semi Pro class of the British Drifting Championship in a Nissan 200SX S13. Later he would with to a Subaru Impreza.
Behind bars. Baggsy’s 1JZ-GTE powered Subaru made headlines in 2011 for all the wrong reasons when it got stolen while on display at the Santa Pod Raceway. The drifting and general car community pitched in to find the car and within hours of the theft, videos were uploaded showing the car driving on the M1, the M25 and the M4 motorways.The car was recovered and the thieves were convicted with combined sentences of 15 years in prison. An ideal opportunity for the muggers to bin watch the entire Prison Break series.
In the land of the famous. Baggsy is a Monster Energy backed drift driver and features at Monster demonstrations across Europe. He featured in Idris Elba’s ‘King Of Speed’ show, teaching Idris how to drift in a Toyota GT86, and also in Idris Elba’s ‘No Limits’ show, advising Idris on his land speed record attempt. In the first series of Amazon Primes ‘The Grand Tour’ Baggsy teached Richard Hammond how to drift behind the wheel of Baggsy’s LS3 V8 Nissan S13.
The better footwork. Baggsy’s 1200HP Nissan GTR, which is powered by a Chevrolet LSX 454 engine with a massive Garret turbo, is the real eye-catcher of the ‘Return to Driftenberg’ video. But no matter how powerful the car is or how good it looks, it wouldn’t move an inch without the better footwork from Mister Biagioni. And in a way he really is a good dancer, because he really knows how to glide his car over the tarmac…