Once again, it seems like every other day I’m at Nikko Circuit. Before the Tochigi Baka Matsuri though, it was a Shino Kouba workshop practice day.
After heavily crashing her last AE86, Shino has moved all the suspension bits and pieces into this new black Levin while the old engine gets sent off to be refreshed a bit. It might look nice, but it’s pretty rough underneath. The pink pinstriping, done by female painter Kana-chan, helps a bit though!
Drift Matsuri! Two days of as much drifting as you and your car can handle on multiple tracks at the greatest drifting complex in the world, Ebisu Circuit!
I kept my little Nikon on hand the whole time, and took a photo whenever there was something interesting to see.
By request, here’s a higher-quality re-upload of this old video, shot by myself and Laurence Janus (who made this famous video).
The driver is my good mate Yoshio Takahashi. His nickname is “Rii-chan”, which comes from the fact he is the leader of his drift team (say “leader” in a Japanese accent to understand), called “Side Attack”. If you put “-chan” on the end of someone’s name, it’s kind of like making their name sound cute, sort of like saying “Stevie” instead of “Steven”.
A few years ago when I was still just visiting Japan instead of living here, I visited a Drift Matsuri at Ebisu Circuit. Rii-chan was quite insistant that Laurence and I ride in his car on the high-speed Higashi course before the end of the event, because linking the front straight over the blind crest with his TD-06 SR20DET was his specialty at the time.
Just before the spin, you can hear the tyres making flapping noises as they delaminated, but Rii-chan wasn’t going to stop, even on the steep downhill section of Higashi. He was more concerned about my having a good time than he was about crashing! Before you ask about his helmet, it was a souvenir from an old job of his, and no, it’s not exactly regulation.
While we’re on the subject, does anyone else think there’s something majorly wrong with a lot of the drifting videos coming out these days? Am I the only person who doesn’t really want to see an entire video of high contrast slow-motion with tightly-cropped focus pulling, shots of weeds blowing in the wind and other things that have nothing to do with anything? Without some sort of narrative, human interest or personality to the video, it’s like eating a cake made entirely of icing.
Come on guys, you obviously have the skills behind the lens and with the mouse. I know you can do it. If you don’t want to change your style, but still want to make a nice cake, I’ll have a chocolate-orange marble sponge please.
I suppose I should put up or shut up and make my own videos eh? Uh-oh, did I just volunteer to do even more work? Who wants to sponsor Noriyaro with a nice little HD camera then?
Last weekend was kind of busy, with a trackay on Sunday and the D1 Street Legal Regional MSF Shootout at Fuji Speedway on Saturday.
The MSF Shootout (sponsored by mobile content creators Mobile Software Foundation) brings together the best drivers from each of the D1SL Regional divisions, North, East, Central, South and West. All of these guys have already scored a D1SL licence for next year, but this was a one-off comp to see which ones were the most sidewaysiest of the lot. The winner also received ¥300,000 and a free trip to America to watch the next D1 USA event.
