Chris Forsberg

Did You Know?

• As a teenager, Forsberg learned to work on cars with a black 1988 Mazda RX-7 FC.
• In the winter of 2003, he held a drift event at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.

Professional drifting career

Forsberg placed second at his first Formula Drift event in 2004 at Road Atlanta, then earned another podium at Round 2 in Houston. He drove a 350Z with an SR20DET engine for part of that inaugural season but switched to a borrowed Nissan Silvia S13 for one race due to technical issues, then finished the campaign in the SR20DET Z. After the Irwindale round, Forsberg participated in a D1 event where he became the first American driver to beat a Japanese driver, defeating Team Orange's Kazuhiro Tanaka.

Competing in the Team Falken Password JDM Silvia S15, he faced Rhys Millen in the season finale; during the battle Forsberg's rear bumper caught fire as he drifted sideways at high speed, leading to a one-more-time run that caused suspension problems on Millen's GTO. Forsberg won the round, securing his first Formula Drift victory. Nissan North America provided him a convertible 350Z for 2006, which received a VK56DE V8 from the Nissan Titan, but the car proved uncompetitive and Forsberg used his backup SR20DET 350Z for several rounds while sorting the V8.

In 2007 Forsberg ran his own team for the first time, collaborating with Maxxis tires on a limited budget; the team finished second overall, leading to a title sponsorship from NOS Energy Drink. That year began with a first-place finish at Long Beach, beating Tanner Foust and Sam Hubbinette.

Special Projects and Vehicles

In 2014 Forsberg bought a stripped 1975 280Z with an RB motor for $4,000, initially not intending it as a show car until AEM asked to display it in their 2016 SEMA booth. Built with help from RAD Industries, the car—named Gold Leader—included CarbonSignal seats, a widebody kit, TechnoToy Tuning suspension, Wilwood brakes, a hydraulic handbrake, a 500 hp RB25DET engine, and custom SSR MS-1 wheels; it won SuperStreet/Meguiar's Best in Show and the Sony PlayStation Best Import award.

The Rally Z buildout, a collaboration between Nissan/Nismo and Broken Motorsports, was an American Rally Association compliant homage to the 1971 East African Safari Rally-winning Datsun 240Z, intended for SEMA 2020 but canceled due to the pandemic. For his YouTube series Good Enough!, Forsberg purchased an ex-Brandon McReynolds NASCAR; after a single 1/8th mile pass at Irwindale Speedway with Ryan Tuerck, the engine blew, and the team swapped in a 2JZ-GTE making 750–800 horsepower.

The M56 is a four-seat demo drift car built in 2010 with a 500 hp VK56DE V8, custom roll cage, Recaro seats, and Nissan Motorsports individual throttle-bodies. Valvoline commissioned Forsberg to upgrade a new Silverado, which he then drove with Jimmie Johnson; the truck was later given away in a sweepstakes. Forsberg co-hosted the YouTube series Drift Garage with Ryan Tuerck, building a demonstration car with a "might as well…" philosophy.