Meanwhile in Japan......

Some friends are on TV showing some typical Americans what drifting is - Go Shino!!

Tsukuba Circuit

One of my last Japan post before the next trip, whenever it will be and a return to Tsukuba Circuit for a small time attack event, quite a busy one too. Tsukuba is quite poor for places to shoot from so this set is similar to the last time I was here. Cheers to Mike Garrett of Auto-Otaku for the lift and hanging with us for the day

This very tidy Nismo kitted 350Z was zooming around

And a nice FD2 Honda Civic type R

Nice Suzuki Swift Sport, I love these

And a very cool and fast....

Honda Fit (aka Jazz) with a J's Racing bodykit, and Id say a few J's bits underneath too

Only in Japan would you find a Ford Ka running on RS watanabe wheels and at a trackday too...

You cant escape, AE86's are still everywhere

And much rarer stuff like this Z31 300ZX

Most R35's I have seen so far have been parked up, or being wafted gently around - but not this 1, the first time Ive seen a R35 get some proper right foot action, and this 1 had a rear wing, different wheels, a Cobb accessport ECU and a centre exit exhaust among other things

Needless to say it tore up the track, overtaking everything and proved to me that the GTR is a fast car, and one that is even faster with some tuning applied

Impulse AE86 shop

Well following on from this AE86 at Auto Salon,my good friend Chris was most insistent on seeing the shop that created it, so once again it was off on 1 of those jaunts where you went with an open mind and came away satisfied, so in the suburbs of Kobe, Japan we set off with the aid of some scary looking taxi drivers to Impulse

As always some nice cars for sale outside, but aswell as sales they are known for their restoration projects



Like this, I had a good look underneath it, not 1 bit of rust - anywhere!
20V engine conversion

Bareshell rebuild

N2 racecar, along with even more shells for restoration

And immaculate cars for sale, as much as the AE86 is popular globally, its true home is still Japan

European Drift Championship Round 4 - Santa Pod

Santa Pod was the venue for Round 4 of the European Drift Championship, where Phil Morrison in the Driftworks 2JZ powered S15 Silvia was definatley smoking things up!

This was the second of 2 rounds that Team Orange from Japan attended with their RWD converted Imprezas. After a strong competition it was Nobushige Kumakubo (on the right of the photo) that came 1st, and his friend and team mate, Katzuhiro Tanaka (left) that placed 2nd
But it was not all plain sailing from Team Orange, when Tanaka spun during the final, then again Kumakubo spun on the previous run, it took 6 runs for Kumakubo to win

Not so much luck for Chris 'Paz' Parry in his S2000 powered AE86, suffering this bad crash during qualifying, but the damage is not as bad as it looks and the car will return

Mark 'Sidewaysbuff' Luney takes the Santa Pod R32 GTS-T out for a few demo runs, and gave me a passenger run in 1 of them, Cheers Buff!!

The next day there was a team comp, Team Orange took a well fought victory, practicing with the other drivers, above and below but even though they are regarded as the best in the world they still faced good opposition



Team Green will be more impressive next time round after making a big improvement

Team Driftworks fielded the only 3 car team

The Real Tokyo Drift

So been in Japan for 11 days and have not seen any decent track again - until now, and its off to Mobara circuit on the outskirts of Tokyo. The last time I was here, I was 'spoiled' a bit as there was a very good lineup of drivers and nice weather, but today was a bit colder, but far more civilised, mostly local drivers and less extreme cars, mostly driven to the track too. Myself and Chris were the only non Japanese there, so were easily spotted by Tada san, the owner and manager of the circuit, who tried out his English on us. He said it was rare for people to visit on these quiet practice days


At most drift days there is always 1/2 drivers that stand out and today was no exception, this SR20 powered C33 Laurel was great to watch


and this AE86, driven in a very committed fashion, the only way to drive an AE86

JZX100 Chaser just about to lose it

Most cars were dented with chipped bumpers,dented wings etc but this 180Sx Sil80 really took 'well used drift car' to another level, every panel dented, Sil80 front end conversion and mismatched panels

Very fast JZX110 Mark II

The skill level was fairly low today, so no D1 spec driving, but its still fun to watch.

Back to Kanto

Well as much fun as Kansai in West Japan is, it was time to head back to the Kanto region in the East,Yokohama,Tokyo,etc, so after an early start Chris and I were on our way

Its the 1st thing many people think of when they think of Japan - Mount Fuji, also the countries highest mountain at 3,776 m (12,388 ft). Passed it on the Shinkansen on the way back to Yokohama. The plan was to meet our friend Shino and hang with her for the day. We 1st met Shino on our 1st trip in 2006 and she is the only person we have met all 3 times, she leads an easy life, mechanic by day and drifter when she is not working, not bad. Big U2 fan, she does not like the fact I dont live too far away from them either!

Random Japan Part 4 - free tissues. You will see this a lot outside train stations in Japan, someone handing out small packets of hankercheifs. Not for blowing your nose, which is seen as very bad manners in Japan but for when you go to a public toilet and there is no toilet paper,as many public toilets wont have any. Saw them being handed out a lot, but this girl was making a big effort to hand out as many as possible, not to mention the fact that I thought her coat was cool. She didnt give me or Chris any though!

Outside Shinos garage, called Amazement

Shinos very cool circuit spec AE86, with a side exit exhaust. The last time I visted Japan Shino brought us to a drift day at Nikko Circuit

A targa top Datsun 260Z,FC and FD RX7's,a S14 Silvia and 2 AE86's outside the garage

Later and to my shock there were slippers that fitted me!! Unlike the Hotel in Osaka

Later after a fine meal it was once again time to engage in that greatest of all Japanese social activities - Karaoke

In some Japanese karaoke places you can sneak in drinks, so I brought in Chu-hi, which is a Shochu mixer, strong stuff!! Well its well known that too much alcohol makes people show off a bit, particularly me........

The Karaoke machine in this place gives you a score out of 100......

Chris just picks up the microphone and makes some singing type noises, scores 78

Wow aswell as being a mechanic,drifter and general nutcase Shino can sing really well, she scores 92...... So I had to go for it

And I did with that well known rock tune Black Dog by legends Led Zeppelin, not good enough, I only got 89. Ah well, if you dont enter you cant lose

The next day, back in Shinos old traditional Japanese house, almost entirely made from wood, and its not a camera trick, the doorframe is quite low, got a nice bruise on my forehead when I forgot to duck.. Not to mention the very narrow steps leading upstairs, oh well I got used to kids staring up at me lol

Ja Ne Shino, see you soon!!