Its the start of an insane weekend and to kick it off is the heart stopping breeze that brushes across you skin instantly waking you up from your slumber. Its a weekend like no other, its Ebisu Drift Matsuri! Three events a year held at the world famous Ebisu circuit over the course of 2 days, ohhh did I forget to mention 2 days 32 hours non stop drifting from sunrise to sunset. Ebisu is scattered with more tracks in one location then you could ever dream of and filled with hundreds of people all with the same passion for drifting.

There is no event on this earth that can compare to the pure insanity that happens at a Drift Matsuri, the countless crashes and cars rolling around on their roofs, the people you meet and friends you make all come together to make one event you will never forget.

Loading the cars on to Hoshino’s truck, his personal touge car and my borrowed naturally aspirated S14.

Community, what does this word mean?

Community : a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common.

Lets take intent, not one person that comes to Matsuri is here to prove him or herself their sole intent is for fun with friends and the drift community. Now lets take resources, use what is around you, your vehicle or your friends vehicle, your tools, sharing your tools, exchanging tires or parts for those in need, together as a community we use each others resources and the ones around us to make this weekend possible. And finally lets take risks, within the first half an hour I seen two cars flip on their roofs, I found myself running out each time with a crowd of drifters as we roll the cars back on their roofs and make sure all the people inside are not injured, as a community we help each other. You find yourself mixing with people you don’t know, drifting side by side with others, helping anyone that’s in need anyway you can because your part of same community that make this event so special.

 The start of the 3 our journy to Fukushima where Ebisu Circuit is located.

Another cheap naturally aspirated S14.

The drift matsuri allows you to enjoy and see what drifting really is. Never have you realized how much drifting is based on a communities movement and working together as a single unit. It also allow you to mix with many of Japans most famous drift personalities that are all here to just relax and have a good time. It gives you a chance to meet your hero’s in a sociable non stress environment where they are willing to talk with you and just kick back. At night everyone gets together around a huge bon fire where huge amounts of fresh meat are cooked on big rotisseries another chance to make more friends and talk about the crazy days happenings. But after that its time for bed, time for drinking, or in our case it was time to hit the track again until the sunrised.

Life may be hard, the daily grind may bring you down but these 3 events over 6 days each year will reassure you of why you love drifting. Weather it be in your personal car or a cheap go-man ($500 US) naturally aspirated thrasher car this event promises to deliver memories and friends that will last a life time. People ask me why it is I throw countless amounts of cash at this sport and my car, I just mention the same things I have talked about here with you and they soon realize drifting isn’t just about cars but about the community and the passion we all share.

Drifting is community.
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Video and more photos below.

Quick stop off at garage K-style to talk with the boys from Team Orange.

The entrance to Ebisu Circuit / Safari Park.

All the cars unloaded and ready to start.

First 30 minutes of arriving at Ebisu and this 180sx flipped on its roof at north course. We rolled it back over checked everyone was ok and then they carried on drifting all weekend!

Those tire tracks seem to lead into the wall, hmmm…..

That because this fine example of a 180sx just had a little mishap, the wall won.

Myself on the left and my best mate Aaron as we stand star struck with Kazama.

A short video of me drifting the NA S14 on north course, the crowd was loving it with my NA S14 nose to tail with the turbo cars.

 

This AE86 also had a run in with the wall, featured in my video below but when it was a little straighter.
No problem a couple hours later this thing was back out drifting with the help of his friends.

Koro from Team Geki waiting at the entrance to one of the most infamous courses in Japan.

Another one bites the dust!

This JZX90 was sitting at a local highway stop point on the way home, nice and clean but was having engine troubles.

The Ebisu Matsuri Video, hope you enjoy
Featured in this video is Daigo Saito, world number 1 drifter in his blue JZX90 thrasher car powered by  a T67 pushing out over 500HP along with a whole lot more action.

To view in HD quality please follow this link below.
http://www.vimeo.com/4029026

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 11:42 PM and is filed under Crashes, Drifting, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.