HAHAHAHA AWESOME! I love how people have been uploading all their old VHS videos to YouTube. I wonder how many people have seen this old school video!
It’s not the craziest drifting action video or anything, but that’s not the point anyway. I love it because it shows the real style and culture of hashiriya life in Japan. This is what it’s really like… just a bunch of friends screwing around and having fun with their cars!
This particular video features a particular AE86 crew based in the Tokyo/Fussa area; these are the members of a drift team with a pretty strange name… Hey Man! (As if all drift team names weren’t strange.) I love this video because it shows old school footage of some of my real good friends that I hang out with when I’m in Japan.
The driver intros are pretty funny too… these guys look soooo young in the video! This video has a special cameo appearance by none other than Hiroshi Takahashi (Kaicho) from the legendary AE86 drift team, RUNNING FREE. The very first time I met Hiroshi was when he came out to Buttonwillow Raceway (2000? 2001?) to do a drift demo here in the United States as part of a special event hosted by SpeedTrial USA and Club4AG. (Props to Tommy and Moto for arranging that event!) Hiroshi is an AWESOME drifter, and a dedicated Toyota guy… in fact, he now works at one of the Toyota dealers in the Tokyo area. (I won’t say which one, so people don’t go and bug him at work.)
Shinji Minowa, who’s rocking an old school surfer haircut in the video, eventually became a D1 Grand Prix driver sponsored by Toyo Tires. He actually came out with Hiroshi to do the drift demo at Buttonwillow, which was the first time we met. Since then I’ve had the chance to hang out with him in Japan and the USA several times. Just like all the other members of the Hey Man crew, Shinji is super cool. He has a shop near the Yokota area called Hey Man Products… Anyway, if you’re interested in seeing more stuff about Shinji, his AE86 and his shop, let me know. I can probably arrange it!
This video also features some in-car footage with Charlie Tyson! Again, this video isn’t super crazy like one of Ueo’s sick manji videos or anything, but it’s one of the few times I’ve seen Charlie on a video, so I think it’s cool. He’s a pretty low key guy, but the crazy thing is, he’s the very first member of the Hey Man crew that I ever interacted with; he helped me get a set of redline taillights for my kouki AE86 back in 1999 or 2000 when I didn’t even know him! (Thanks a lot to PJ Peji for hooking that up!)
We also see other friends like Jimmy, Maurice, and Christine in the video… but the guy with the Hitler mustache is none other than Robbie Nishida, who most US drifting fans know. I was introduced to Robbie at the Ebisu Circuit booth at Tokyo Auto Salon in 2004. Kumakubo introduced him as a good friend of his, but then I recognized his face from an old AE86 video I had… I think it was an AE86 Club video, but I’m not sure. Robbie told us he would be interested in drifting in the United States, so my friend Kenta and I walked over to the other side of the show with him and introduced him to Nick Fousekis from Falken Tires. In fact, Kumakubo walked over with us too, and he told Nick if Falken would sponsor Robbie with tires, Kumakubo would let Robbie drive one of his own cars. (The famous K-Style S13 K-truck!!!)
At the very first American drift event he ever competed at (Formula D Wall Speedway 2005), Robbie made Formula D history by beating Mopar’s unbeatable Iceman, Samuel Hubinette in a tandem battle! It was pretty damn epic for that time. Everyone was like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!! I remember the reaction in the pit area and grandstands… EVERYONE was going bananas and jumping up and down when the judges announced that Robbie won the tandem match. It didn’t matter if they were supporters of Falken or not… even people from other tire brands were jumping up and down, because they had never seen anyone beat Samuel in tandem until that day. What a good way to start your drifting career in the USA!
Anyway, Robbie will be driving an R35 Nissan GTR in this year’s Formula D Championship series, so if you see him at an event, make sure to walk up to him and say, “Hey Man!”
It looks like the new year has brought some exciting news for the east coast drift community! Southeast Drift is teaming up with Formula Drift to bring an east coast qualifier series to Atlanta for a shot at an FD license!
Atlanta, Ga. – February 2, 2010
Southeast Drift will be bringing an all new pro-am championship series to Atlanta in 2010. This five round series will enable up and coming drivers in the southeast region a place to compete for and win their Formula Drift professional license.
The Southeast Drift Championship Pro Am Series will test drivers as they compete at top notch professional level venues. Drivers who are successful here will transition well into Formula D. Details regarding the series will be available in the coming weeks on the southeastdrift.com web site.
“I am very happy with these recent developments. I can not wait to help showcase some of the immense talent in the southeast drifting scene.” said Marcos Ruiz, CEO of Southeast Drift. “Formula D is the leader in professional drifting in the U.S. and Southeast Drift is proud to be a part of it.”
I awoke this morning to the buzz of my iPhone, and struggled to wipe my sleep-deprived eyes so that I could read what was on the screen. Apparently, the text messages were from my friends Stephen and Mayumi, who regrettably informed me of bad news that was delivered via email from D1 driver Kazuya Bai in Osaka.
Last night, D1GP driver Atsushi Kuroi from legendary Osaka drift team Tinker had a deadly accident while he was riding his motorcycle. Although there aren't too many details known about the accident, Kuroi san's kohai (apprentice) Kazuya Bai says that Kuroi's thigh was apparently injured from the accident, and even though the hospital staff worked diligently to stabilize him, Kuroi san's wounds were too severe, and he passed away within four hours of arriving at the hospital. Read more...
You requested it so we rewind... Following up on our posts on the Drift King's birthday, some of our readers mentioned that they would be interested in seeing a sneak peek at some of the Keiichi Tsuchiya-related fanboy memorabilia that has been archived as part of the Cipher Garage Collection.
As some of our readers may or may not know, I've spent the past eleven years of my life chronicling as much as I could about the history of drifting in Japan, and its progress as it grew in the United States and spread to all the other countries of the world. As you might imagine, this has been an incredibly difficult and arduous process, and I've only been able to do as much as a single person without corporate/financial backing could possibly afford to.
However, because of personal qualities that include my relentless passion for Japanese car culture, my ridiculously resourceful/persistent/determined nature, and the fact that I often find myself (most of the time, accidentally) in the right place at the right time... I've been able to amass quite a collection of Japanese car memorabilia that some might consider historic. (I know I do.) Whether my personal collection of Japanese automobilia may be considered by some to be overrated or not... it is very personal to me. For every rare item in my collection, I have great stories to tell about how I found it and how it came to be in my collection. To me, THAT is the real treasure... even more so than the individual items in the collection.
Those who don't know as much about the subject matter may think it's just a bunch of magazines, stickers, toys, steering wheels, horn buttons, patches, and misc car junk stuffed into boxes, shelves, and cabinets... but over the years, I've come to realize that I've never in my life seen a collection like it - items related to Japanese drifting history... with much of it revolving around AE86s, TE27s, and vintage Toyota memorabilia. Please don't think I'm bragging - that isn't my intent at all. For the most part, I've kept all the items I own very, very private. I don't really advertise what I have or invite people to look through my things, as I never intended to collect stuff to "show off" to others. Instead, this is all just a bunch of things that I personally consider important or cool. Read more...
[I received an email yesterday from an Australian guy named Ian Hancock. Ian is crazy about Japanese nostalgic cars, and is currently on vacation in Japan (or as he says it, he's "on holiday") to check out a bunch of his favorite cars. He sent in a photo of this MX32 Toyota MarkII (Toyota Cressida) that he carspotted in Japan, because he knew it would be just the type of thing that Motor Mavens readers are into! Well, he was absolutely right. Here's what Ian had to say about the Mark II...]
The white Cressida belongs to Naoya Yamaguchi, who owns an old school Japanese wheel shop in Moiyra called Bellezza Auto Produce, about 15km from Tsukuba Circuit. I had been at Tsukuba for the day to watch drifting (and get taken for a ride!), and was going for a walk from my hotel to find some dinner when I came across the shop! I thought I was delirious – it was just too good to be true!
When I walked into his store, he was in the corner smoking, wheelchair bound because of a motorbike accident. Naoya “didn’t want to know me” until I started saying the names of the wheels in his shop, and I showed him pictures of my KB110 Sunny from Sydney. He couldn’t believe that an Aussie 20 year old would be interested in old J-tin. He couldn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak Japanese, so we talked for an hour and a half using a translator on the computer.
The Cressida wears huge SSR 15×9Js (-37 offset) on the back and 15×8J SSR Mark IIIs up front. From what I could gather, it is fairly stock mechanically aside from a healthy lowering, carbs and exhaust. A nice little front lip spoiler and rear spoiler finish it off, and although there are some fender gap issues, it has definately been built in the shakotan style! The body is straighter than straight, and some nice fender mirrors really set it off. I’m buying a set of 7.5J SSR Starsharks from him, and he has invited to take me out in his car next time I come over!
When I’m bored at work, I constantly listen to MP3s and surf the web. The other day, I decided to look at Volkswagen related videos because I was interested in finding more cars that looked similar to my friend Zach’s Well Dunn Passat.
I stumbled across this older video from Wagenwerks Productions, that featureda Volkswagen Jetta GLI owned by a guy named Brandon Nero. I think this video is sick – the music went well with the feel of the video. The Jetta is so simple and clean, yet it’s so aggressive! I gotta hand it to Brandon Nero, he made one dope looking Jetta! I obviously love the car’s super low stance, and the fitment of the BBS mesh wheels? Perfect.
While replaying the video about 4-5 times, I read the comments on the Wagenwerks Vimeo account and saw that they used roller blades to get all the moving camera shots! No fancy rigs or easy dollies used here! I can go on for days about how good this video is, but I think I’ll just shut up and let you watch. Awesome, right?
Okay… this is a super old video, but since I just posted my story about how I felt the first time I ever saw the legendary Best Motoring Volume 41, I figured I should post the video up on the site. To me, this video is totally the shit… it’s a classic that I must have watched about a thousand times, but I still remember how this video made me feel the first time I ever saw it. It was inspiring, to say the very least. And the very first time I ever drove Ebisu Circuit’s East Course, it immediately brought me back to the first time I watched this video, and the sound that the naturally aspirated blacktop 20 valve AE111 4AG engine made at full throttle as Keiichi drove his white TRD AE86 at Ebisu.
I’m sure that everyone must have a favorite movie or CD that they’ve listened to countless times… Inputs like this become engrained into your head; they eventually become a part of your permanent memory, and a part of who you are as a person. For me, these types of inputs include things like the Illmatic album from Nas, the Low End Theory album from A Tribe Called Quest, the Do You Want More album from The Roots, the Legend album from Bob Marley, and the Best Motoring Video, Volume 41. If you have a favorite book, video, movie, or CD, please share it…
I was talking to a new AE86 friend earlier on Facebook, and he told me that today was Keiichi Tsuchiya's birthday. Those that follow the drifting scene in Japan obviously know that Keiichi is highly revered in Japan's automotive media industry; nicknamed Dorikin, or "Drift King," Keiichi basically became the media darling of Sanei Shobo Publishing, which is the media powerhouse that owns and produces Option Magazine (and all its variants), Drift Tengoku Magazine, and Video Option.
Video Option may well be the most powerful media outlet in the group; after all, most of my friends might agree with me when I say that the first time I (we) ever watched an Option Video tape, we were dumbfounded and immediately hooked on drifting and Japanese car culture. (Yes, that's right... I did say video TAPE... I'm showing my age here. I know that many of our readers have never used video tapes, only DVDs.) However, this isn't a story about Video Option... after all, it's Keiichi's birthday, so I thought it might be fitting to share some old school photos of my first (only) encounter with Keiichi's famous white TRD AE86, which inspired the hell out of us at an early age.
I realize that most people might think, "What the hell? A post about Keiichi on his birthday? You JDM fanboy!" Haha, it's okay, I'll admit it. When I first learned about drifting and Video Option and Best Motoring and AE86s and Keiichi Tsuchiya and Initial D in the mid 1990s, I was a fanboy. I don't care if you think that's lame, either... because at some point in our lives, we all idolized someone... whether it be a sports figure or famous celebrity or whatever. The only difference is, I have enough confidence to admit it. As I was growing up, I definitely looked up to guys like Keiichi Tsuchiya (and Nas and Blackthought and Q-Tip and De La, but that's another story...). Read more...
For those who are fascinated with bosozoku style and other aspects of Japanese underground car culture, I thought I’d post up this video clip. I actually watched part of this movie at my friend’s house in Japan a few years back, but it was only recently (on the Bosozoku Style website) that I discovered that someone had actually uploaded the video to Youtube.
This video doesn’t feature outstanding driving or anything… and ALL the cars inside aren’t necessarily cool, although you will find a few pretty nice gems mixed in with the street rubble. What kinds of bosozoku cars can you point out? I saw some pretty interesting non traditional cars, like the AW11 MR2 at the beginning of the movie, as well as the normal bosozoku fare, like Toyota Crowns and Nissan Skylines.
Just think – this movie was released way back in 1987! Sheesh, I was just a kid listening to Eric B & Rakim and LL Cool J back then… I wasn’t even into cars yet!
Fun video to watch! Just don’t get too offended by what happens to the hakosuka at the end…
Guess who got some new kicks? This is Henry Nguyen’s shakotan S12 200SX sure is breaking hearts with its shiny new shoes. Forget those played out Bapes, kid… it’s all about the classic Japanese styling of Speed Star Wheels.
More specifically, 15×9J (-17) SSR Mk3 up front, and 15×9J (-27) SSR/Longchamps XR4 wheels out back. With the front chin spoiler, and rear wing. Definitely a Heartbreaker, damn son.
Hey MotorMavens readers! If you own aniPhone (or iPod Touch), make sure to get MotorMavens on your iPhone! Most of the people in the Motor Mavens Crew use iPhones, and we always check the site from our phones, just to see what's going on and who's commenting... and it just dawned on us that we should show our readers how to do it also! (duh, we're such dummies sometimes for not doing this sooner)
It's so simple, there are only 4 steps! The instructions are below. (With pictures, so you don't really need to read the instructions, hehe) Read more...
Yes, the rumors are true. The green FC3S RX7 that we all know and love is returning to Formula D competition!
A lot of our Facebook friends have been talking about this for a couple days already… but I just figured I should probably post this on the website too, since there are a lot of people out there who read our blog, but aren’t necessarily in the know about the latest news in the world of Formula Drift. Yes again… contrary to popular belief, there are still people out there who aren’t checking Facebook every five seconds. It suddenly dawned on me when I casually mentioned the FC’s return to a friend of mine today, and he was like, “Whaaaaaaat?! No wayyyyy!”
I just got off the phone with Justin Pawlak, the driver of this awesome green rotary monster. Even though he and Bergenholtz Racing have parted ways in the professional drifting world, Justin is quick to dispel any rumors in the mill by saying, “Ron and I are definitely still cool. In fact, I just spoke to him on the phone earlier today. We just have different ideas and figured it would be best to go split the team up.”
While their timing is certainly less than perfect, with the 2010 Formula D season approaching very, very quickly… I’m sure both JTP and Ron B will make it happen for both of their respective drift teams. Justin says, “Ya know what? I just realized I had more qualifying points than anyone else in the 2009 Formula D season.” He’s sure to make a strong statement this year, whether he has solid financial backing or not.
And Ron Bergenholtz? Well, if anyone has any doubts about Bergenholtz Racing’s ability to have a strong presence in Formula D this year, let me just remind you that he (and his brother Ed) didn’t win all those NHRA Wally awards and get inducted into the NHRA Museum for nothing. In professional drag racing, Bergenholtz Racing proved that an underdog actually can compete against (and beat) competitors with big dollar corporate funding. As long as there’s a will, there’s a way.
Bergenholtz Racing will be revealing their official plans for 2010 on Thursday, along with publicly announcing the new driver they’ve signed to pilot their blue Mazdaspeed RX8.
If you’re a fan of JTP and his FC3S, and you want to help him find sponsors for the 2010 season, please visit Justin Pawlak’s Official Blog by clicking this link. Justin says, “Please don’t mind the ghetto GoDaddy banner, cause my webpage was FREE. haha. I might have a ghetto banner on my blog, but at least I got REAL VOLKS on my car.”
I really gotta give major props to Taro and the GT Channel crew! This is the very first video I’ve ever seen that shows the details of the G’s Toyota FT86 G Sports Concept that debuted at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. I was pretty sad that I wasn’t able to make it at first, because when I searched the web, I saw a cornucopia of wack photos of the car (you may laugh at my usage of the word cornucopia, but hey, it’s better than saying a sh!t ton of wack photos)… but this video actually does the car justice.
We can finally see the details, all close and personal! Domo arigatou gozaimashita to the GT Channel crew for giving us the inside look, and posting up the video so quickly! Otsukare sama deshita! Great job.
What I want to know now is… how many AE86ers will be lining up at the Toyota dealerships to buy an FT86 now?
Me personally, I’m not too stoked on the fact that it’ll be coming out with a Subaru boxer engine in it… I wish it had a high revving engine with a Toyota/Yamaha twincam G head, to keep it true to the feel of a real AE86… Either way, I can’t wait to test drive one to see if it really feels like one of the AE86s in my collection or if it just feels like some sort of FR WRX. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Please voice your opinion on the FT86… I’m curious to see what our readers think!
While I was walking around the sea of nostalgic Japanese goodness at the Japanese Classic Car Show last year, a particular S12 Nissan 200SX caught my eye. To be completely honest here, I've never been the biggest fan of S12s. Most people pretty much disregard the S12 as far as "cool Nissans" go... to most people, the S12 is definitely the red-headed stepchild of the 1980s Nissan family, especially when you compare it in popularity to S13s, Z32s, and Z31s... hell, even Nissan Sentras are more popular for some reason* than the S12 200Sx. (*Well... I think one of the reasons the Sentra was so popular for racing is because of all the R&D that Mike Kojima did with them when he was still working for Nismo as a race engineer) Either way though... I'd way rather have an S12 than a Sentra. There's no question about that... especially after seeing Henry's S12?! This has got to be the dopest looking Nissan S12 I've ever seen in my entire life.
So what was it about this particular 200SX that caught my eye? It just had to be the style in which it was built up. Let's take a closer look... Read more...
I was randomly browsing the internet over the past few days, and noticed this photo on the BeeOneOneOh blog in New Zealand, which I only recently found…. very cool site! Seeing these two vintage Nissans line up together on a track is super cool. Old school Nissan power… two generations of Nissan Sunny together at the same time. In the front, we have the Club EPS Works Sunny from the TS Cup. Don’t you just love those old school Advan Racing A3A wheels? Especially in BLACK with the red outlines.
I used to have a set of those wheels, but had to sell them when I was raising money to buy my TE27. Sigh… I loved those wheels, but it was a worthy cause. It’s so lucky that the owner of this B310 Sunny has a set of these wheels… and they have such great sizes too! They fit perfectly underneath the works flares; finding aggressive sizes of Advan Racing wheels is very rare indeed. I love satin black Advan Racing A3A wheels!!!
HOLY FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. I'm currently trying to recompose myself; you wouldn't believe how hard my jaw hit the floor when I first saw these renderings. I must have been shaking my head, muttering expletives for a good 20 minutes.
AMAZING. Now THIS is what it's all about. This is a 3D sculpted rendering of a 1972 S30 240Z, which apparently has ZG flares and a standard Z432 nose with a BRE front chin spoiler.
The artist behind all this is actually an old school friend of mine; his name is Jan Trondsen (pronounced yawn, like you're sleepy), and he is first and foremost a car guy that's passionate about vintage Datsuns, and he has been that way since the first day I met him, over ten years ago. Nowadays, Jan is an alumnus of the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and a professional 3D sculptor working for a major car company... but it wasn't like that when we first met. When we first met, we were just a bunch of super broke car enthusiasts from the SF Bay Area that frequented the illegal street races, hardly able to scrape together enough funds to buy rebuild kits for the Mikuni 44phh carbs we wanted for our cars.
Nothing makes me happier or more inspired than seeing good people like Jan progress in their careers, all without losing focus on what made them passionate about cars in the first place. Let's face it. There are WAY too many corporate schmucks working within the auto industry; men and women that don't give a rat's ass about WHY people devote their whole lives to cars, or what makes cars cool. There are way too many non-car-people out there that scored jobs at big car companies just because they had degrees and were looking for a big corporate job with benefits after college. Jan is definitely not one of those. I'm glad to see there are still some folks out there who are intensely passionate about cars like all of us are (by all of us, I'm referring to the MotorMavens readers). Read more...
I made the short trek last weekend to the Winter Park section of Orlando. It was cold out by Florida standards, but was at least warmer than it had been the past two weeks. Last Sunday's event was the first of it's type (for this area) and the title stated it clearly. Simply Clean..... Proper stance, perfect wheel fitment, quality paint job.... Almost everything a car enthusiast should dream of! There were of course big horse power cars, so they filled in the missing link that we gas mileage savvy people left out. But lets think about this for a second. One one-thousand... Do you really need 500 horsepower when your car sits 1 inch off the ground and has a 95% chance of losing a bumper at every divot? Well, I know I sure as hell do! I can't think of anything better than the ability to yell louder than the passenger screaming in the seat next to you "SHUT UP! I F*CKING GOT THIS!" as you drive over your front lip, while laughing hysterically... Read more...
While 2009 may have come and gone, Joshua Herron dug through hours upon hours of footage to give us one last glimpse at what the ‘09 Formula Drift season held in store for us. This video is amazing on so many different levels. The cinematography is top-notch, it is jam-packed with unreleased footage, transitions through three songs – each with a unique vibe, and it does it all seamlessly. The last segment definitely feels like a throwback to the old skate videos I grew up with.
Amazing work on this video, Mr. Herron! I’m going to go watch it again (and again, and again)!!!
Today I’ve been taking a keen interest in this years Tokyo Auto Salon, and while I was searching around for information and interesting photos I stumbled upon this little gem. Epson Nakajima Racing decided to bring not one of their real Super GT cars to TAS this year but one made entirely out of cardboard and paper!
Now I’ve seen some pretty cool little papercraft cars before. I even tried my hand at making a Nissan Skyline KPGC10 GT-R once (not that it looked anything like one by the time I was done with it) , but a full scale race car is just awesome! After a bit more searching I found the full build of the car on their website. It’s amazing to see the amount of detail gone into it.
The drifter archetype has changed. Today in America, drifting has become the life, in part or whole, to many different people from all walks of life. When I met Russell Walker for the first time and learned he piloted this ready to rock machine, I wasn't too surprised. However, meeting him outside of a drifting event, you probably wouldn't suspect that he's a newly licensed Formula D driver.
In high school, where most young men start to entertain their desires, he started to cultivate an interest in the automotive world. He grew up in Texas, so of course he had a truck at first... but that didn't stop him from causing mayhem. Running over curbs, signs and getting sideways in the rain was a common occurrence for Russell and his truck. However, as far away as Japan is from Texas, the drifting bug still bit him. He picked up this Nissan S13 240sx for $500 at the age of 17 and never looked back. It's his first actual car, and I'd say it's come quite a way from being the white hatch with black Silvia front end that it was a few years ago. Read more...
