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KING OF VEE: Mitsumori-san at the 2010 V1GP

By in 20-12-2010 9:21 pm

2010 V1GPの優勝三森さん、おめでとうございます！かっこいい！素敵！ナイス！

Congratulations to Spirant’s Mitsumori-san for winning the 2010 V1GP!

The V1GP is a Toyota-only event, run by Ito Auto’s Manki Ito. The “V” stands for “Tourer V”, but that’s not going to stop anyone in a car that was originally lower-spec from competing as long as their skills are up to it. I’ll have more pics from this event up a bit later. Even though he’s been doing pretty well behind the wheel recently, Mitsumori-san has put the Chaser up for sale as he already has plans for a new JZA80 Supra drifter. I guess he likes a challenge!

Since the internet can do videos as well as photos, here’s Mitsumori-san’s full-course run in the finals. I bought a little HD video camera back when I climbed Mt Fuji and I’ve been using it here and there since then. Sorry for the hand-held shakiness and blurriness! Noriyaro has been a photography site up until now, but a little bit of extra audiovisual content can’t hurt now, can it? After this particular event, I sat down and worked out a better way to shoot video smoothly and as take photos at the same time. Wait and see.


Noriyaro Youtube channel

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WEEKEND EDITION: 2010 1JZ Meeting video preview from Hoon Media

By in 19-12-2010 9:30 am

1JZ Drift @ Fuji Speedway from Hoon Media on Vimeo.

So, we all know the type of drifting video that’s popular these days? You know, like lots of focus pulls, weeds blowing in the breeze, vignettes and shots of people doing random things set to some music that the kids like this week?

At least nobody is using Linkin Park or Drowning Pool any more.

Mark Boxer, the editor of Phat Sliggity DVD, put this oh-so-artistic teaser together of the segment he’s making of the video he shot at the 2010 1JZ Meeting when he had a few spare minutes. Don’t worry, the real video will be along the lines of a normal video, with people talking and engine sounds. Mostly 1JZs, come to think of it. Check out my new pink Alliance Speedmetal helmet with custom visor print supplied by the guys at AFG Moto here in Tokyo. Thanks Akira and Jason!

Making Phat Sliggity 2 with lots of content from Japan is still a big possibility (the first one is still available), but whether or not it goes to DVD is another question. We’ll wait and see.

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DRIFTING IS LIKE SEX: Shino on Translogic video

By in 16-12-2010 11:51 am

しのこうば村井志野さんがアメリカのネットテレビ番組に出た！でも、この前にも出ましたよ！

This is the second time Shino has done something for a USA video production. She must be getting a bit of a reputation.

In case you’re wondering, that’s not actually Shino’s car. Hers was having the engine rebuilt when they shot this, so she borrowed this bright pink one from Kazuya from Himawari Racing, since his car was at the workshop about to be prepared for registration inspection.

Bradley did pretty well to drift the Hachi like he did, since Kazuya has the suspension set up about as severely biased to oversteer as you possibly can.

Also, it’s always kind of funny for me to see Shino speak so politely. Regarding the bit where a drifter passed her on the outside, I think that person was Shinji Minowa in his AE86. I think Shino was driving a KP61 Starlet at the time.

Here’s some more stuff about Shino and Kazuya.

Click here for more of the Translogic videos from Japan. The one about various modifying cultures is pretty good.

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WEEKEND EDITION: Living vicariously with Driftsquid and Smokohama

By in 12-12-2010 11:44 pm

Straight from the camera of Hoon Media’s Mark Boxer, the editor of Phat Sliggity DVD (and the video of me at the 2010 1JZ Meeting when it comes out, which looks pretty good from what I’ve seen of it) are these couple of videos that will make those of you who haven’t entered a drift competition a long way from your home wonder why we would even think it’s a good idea in the first place, and make those of you that have think “yeah, it sucks when that happens”.

I like how unlike real-life magazine editors, the internet doesn’t care if you use run-on sentences and large bits of text it brackets, but it doesn’t matter, because this is the Weekend Edition!

Enjoy the videos.

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CRISPY CRESTA: Time for a new project car?

By in 11-12-2010 2:59 am

ドリ天川崎さん、どうしたの？

This is Drift Tengoku magazine’s JZX100 Cresta (seen in better times about three-quarters the way down in this post). Can you spot what’s wrong with it? This isn’t my photo, so I’ll try and find out what happened.

Speaking of Drift Tengoku, I know that a lot of you are still keen to get the mag sent out. Just as I was sorting out packaging supplies and whatnot recently, Japan Post announced that they were no longer going to accept non-account-holder airmail packages to the USA that were over 453g (one pound), due to concern about explosives being sent by air. Considering your average Doriten weighs about that much, and that a fair bulk of orders were going to be from the USA, that kind of threw a spanner into things. Luckily, Japan Post repealed this condition just over a week ago, so things are once again going to go ahead.

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PICKING OUT PICS: Mobara MSC official photos

By in 20-11-2010 3:33 am

You can always count on the MSC guys to get some great pics of all the cars that attend their events. The report from the last round at Mobara Circuit went up yesterday, and here’s the official shot of my Mark II.

Here’s the shot of Nishi Tokorozawa Racing, the triple team I entered in with Shino and her boyfriend Yoshio in the Silvia. You can see the team stickers on the bottom-right of the windscreens.

Shino was driving her practice R32 Skyline, as it would have been a bit tricky to match an AE86 in with large turbo cars. AE86 fans needn’t worry though, as Shino hasn’t given up on them just yet. As I literally type this, she’s doing an expressway run down to Osaka to run in her new Expert OZ engine rebuild.

If you’re interested in seeing more, here’s the link to the Mobara round report on the MSC site.

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WEEKEND EDITION: Driving and not shooting

By in 07-11-2010 1:52 am

What happens when you concentrate on driving instead of shooting? You go a week without any decent pics on the site! The only one I have worth putting up is this one by Casey Dhnaram (shirtstuckedin) who is over here with a Nigel Petrie (Engineered to Slide) and a bunch of other Aussies for the upcoming Ebisu Circuit Autumn Drift Matsuri, among other things. That particular pic was from the past Wednesday’s MSC round at Mobara Circuit.

Monday was also spent at a practice day at a Team Pegasus event, which ended early for me when the turbo coolant inlet line split and started leaking. Unfortunately, the banjo bolt is practically impossible to take off without removing the manifold or the turbo. I spent the next afternoon replacing both the coolant lines, which had perished from the heat, as well as doing a few other bits of maintainence.

The highlight of the event was participating in the triple class with Shino and Riichan in team “Nishi Tokorozawa Racing”! None of us did particularly well as far as results went, but the event itself was a lot of fun.

This upcoming week’s schedule includes the D1SL final at Tsukuba Circuit, an Ito Auto trackday, and the G1GP and Drift Matsuri.

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