FOUR DOOR MEN: Car Modify Wonder at Nikko Circuit, Part I

Monday was a public holiday here in Japan. “Kinrō Kansha no Hi”, otherwise known as “Labour Thanksgiving Day”.

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than to “do work” at the Car Modify Wonder soukoukai at Nikko Circuit.

月曜日は勤労感謝の日だけど、休みじゃなかった。ＷＯＮＤＥＲ走行会に行こう！

It’s quite common for drifting workshops to run the occasional circuit day, such as the Winds Auto events I always mean to go to, but somehow seem to miss. This day was, of course, run by D1 driver Takashi Haruyama, the boss of Car Modify Wonder.

ボスッ！四枚の男、春山さん．

Haruyama’s slogan, as seen here on a dekotora parody sticker on his bootlid, is “Otoko no Yonmai” or “A Man’s Four Doors”. The meaning is sort of along the lines of “Real Men Drive *insert car here*” stickers, which means that guys who drive four-doors think it’s great, and girls who read it roll their eyes.

Spirant’s Mitsumori-san had already broken his JZX100 by the time I had arrived, so no action shots today.

Here’s something cool though. He reads Noriyaro every day.

“But you haven’t been putting much stuff on there recently.” he said.

I asked him if he had flipped the face of these wheels, but they’re factory offset.

I’m getting some ideas here…

I thought at first that this might have been the Aristo that 326Power Haruguchi built and had featured in Drift Tengoku magazine recently, but the wheels are an inch too small, the rear fender is uncut and it has a normal rear subframe.

That’s not to say it didn’t still look good though. The guy wasn’t a great drifter, but his girlfriend was quite leggy.

That reminds me. If you ever want a laugh, explain to a Japanese person what “f**k me boots” means, as they don’t have the same connotation over here.

I didn’t catch this Verossa drifting either.

Even though this is an old car, done in an old style, I’d say the “look” is quite current, or at least what people overseas are trying to copy.

The owner wanted to know why I was taking so many pictures of his car. Silly question, really!

The KDDI phone network’s version of iTunes is called “Lismo” and the mascot is a silhouetted squirrel who wears headphones.

I think you can understand this parody sticker now, right? If not, Google “Lismo”, and look at the images link.

Most of the Spirant guys were there.

This is where I write a stupid caption that includes a reference to a song by Sir Mixalot.

Haruyama explains the expert class competition judging criteria to one of the drivers just as he’s about to go out on the course.

I think it was along the lines of “just go hard around the whole thing”.

After all the runs were done, Haruyama went out and did a “this is how it’s done run.

I scored a cracker of a wallpaper for Wednesday out of it, too.

This was sitting in the parking lot. If you know who used to drive this car, you are proper old-school drift nerd. The rest of you don’t need to know.

Action shots tomorrow!

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This post was written by Alexi