Snowboarding and Kei Car drifting!

Pictured above my good friend Don from America and me in yellow hitting the hard packs around Gunma. I only just started snowboarding last year and I was lucky to have about 10 years worth of skateboarding under my belt which made the transition for me much smoother. It only took me about an hour to get all the basics down and in no time I was going flat out down the mountain trying to lunch myself of anything I could find. I cant wait for this years snow season to start so I can get back out in some nice fresh pack snow.

After you get yourself some gear or rent it from the shops around the mountains it will set you back about 5,000 yen for an all day pass which usually includes 1,000 yen for lunch, pretty damn cheap!

Once night sets in you take a basher Kei car like the ones pictured below add snow tires and you hit the snow covered touges. Most weekends you will find yourself along with about 30-50 other cars up around the mountains all racing around in snow. Many cars travel up to the snow covered touges around Akagi from full blown rally cars, 4WD and of course the most popular of all the Kei cars.

Hoshino and myself driving his Kei car around Mt Akagi excuse the mobile phone filming. Hoshino reaches speeds over 100kph+ in the snow and manages to keep up with rally spec WRX’s uphill and downhill in a 660cc FWD turbo Kei car he mad fast. When you go out in a big group you will see about 3-15 cars all running in snake formation up and down the mountains.

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Broken S14 at Kiryu touge.

The main aspect of the touge which I enjoy is the fact that everyone is out there for one purpose and that’s fun. There are no real attuides or classes just everyone drifting together and having a good time. If by some stroke of bad luck you do crash your car no problem, everyone will come running in to help, offering advice, tools and phone numbers to contact local tow trucks if you cant manage to limp your ride home.

A cats eye managed to wreck a rear suspension arm and wheel, they are serious business. The s14 seen here sitting on a space saver until parts arrived an hour later. After the S14 was fixed she was ready for some 4th gear touge.

Touge is where many people come to learn how to drift, a very dangerous way to start learning which often ends up in bent panels and tears. Akagi is infamous for the huge amount of learner drivers that race up and down the mountains every weekend. Because of the high volume of beginner drifters / grip racers this means far more crashes, more police activity and more cats eyes. This lower speed touge is busy every weekend with out fail but the price you pay is being surrounded by extremely slow and dangerous drivers spinning off course and into your path 70% of the time. On rare occasions you will find some higher level drifters running the mountains, but like I said that’s on rare occasions.

Hoshinos old 180sx pictured below as he leads the car in into the darkness. I have never witnessed larger braking entries on the touge then with this man behind the wheel, he simply laughs and talks like the touge requires no attention, his driving is amazing!

Head about 1 hour in the other direction and you will find yourself in the mountainous area of Kiryu. The main touge around Kiryu is where you come to drive after you have had several track days or you know the limits of your driving skill and your car. This higher speed touge will see speeds of up to 150kph and more and you will find yourself working through the gears from 4th gear all the way down to 2nd gear. Most of the drivers that come here know the course like the back of their hand and will be seen doing 4th and 3rd gear entries with their front and back wheels locked up heading into the main corner, a far cry from the 2nd gear handbrake entries that Akagi mountain offers. Many local D1 drivers can be found here drifting with friends away from the high stress D1 scene.

The touge fast or slow demands a lot of respect, any error of judgment or laziness will cost you a large amount of money. Some higher level drivers I know find the touge of no interest due to the higher risks or the much lower driving speeds then on offer by their local circuits. I suppose once your use to drifting at the top of 4th gear at around 190 clicks the lower speed touge does not really cut the mustard. But many people still come to the touge to socialize and have fun and it will still this way for many years to come, you wont find drifting anywhere else that’s cheaper then a tank of gas and some spare tires.

Akagi claims some Aussie victims, pictured below myself and some of my mates from Australia on a 3 month sponge of your mates drift holiday. A little too fast going down hill ended up with some damage, tried it again and repeated the same damge but on the right hand side haha, the touge is all laughs when your in a cheap junker S14.

Below is the touge video, nothing special just a quick slice and dice with the old equipment i had available to me at the time. This year i will be heading out more with a better video camera in hand to hopefully get some higher quality footage for everyone.

The first half of this video is in-car footage at Akagi with our mate whos a D1 driver also in Team Geki driving his wifes very stock S14 running .7 bar boost with just coilovers, diff and an exhaust. It really needed more power for the up hill, the blue 180sx had close to the double the power over the S14. The rest of the video is around Kiryu area with some Team Geki guys and other randoms.

At around 1:05 of the video you will notice an overtake attempt and a very close guard rail encounter!

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A week later I got a phone call and list presented to me with the title JZX90 at the top and under a list of all its modifications and in a flash we were in Hoshino’s cars heading down to GOODS car yard a good friend of Hoshino’s to see what they had lined up for me. Presented to me in all its matte black dented up broken aero glory was my future JZX90, after a quick test drive by yours truly I handed it over to Hoshino for the drift test to which he had no problems kicking it out sideways inches from the corners guard rails, a very good selling technique I must admit.

After some hard work by myself, Andy and all the guys down at Hoshino Car Style the car had been sanded back, fixed all these little dents that were everywhere on the body of the car from the last owners who also decided matte black was a good paint scheme, pulled the front and rear fenders to suit its new shoes and she was ready for her new war paint and my welcoming to Team Geki or in full Geki Kassou Dan.

Look at her, all pretty and new not a dent or a mark to be seen, she was in need of some new wheels and lower stance but that was already organized.

After a couple track days at Honjo Circuit and Ebisu disasters struck in the name of understeer and lack of confidence. When attacking Ebisu’s Minami course there is one main thing you need, its called confidence. If that course senses for a second that your not committed to every corner laid out in front of you it will make sure your car does not leave with out a reminder of your stupid mistake.

The car had a touch up and got pulled straight it was time to head back out to Honjo Circuit for a shake down as it just had some new Swift 14kg / 12gk springs and rear Ikeya Formula solid mounts installed. On the day I was playing around with my damper and that in conjunction with my front tire choice being Advan Neova’s this car turned from a sluggish boat into a car that felt very much like any smaller chassis S13 or S14 drift car, it felt great!

Some video footage from the Honjo track day.

Now that the car was feeling perfect and it had just had all its paint work finished, got some new offset and adjusted the car height I had my eyes set on conquering Ebisu’s unforgiving Minami course at the upcoming Drift Matsuri. Some gentle persuading and hints from my friend Paul who was over from Australia on holiday and success, I had now mastered Ebisu. I was so worried about crashing again I lost all my confidence but after Paul forced me to do it I realized how easy it is as long as you treat it with the respect it needs, it really is such a scary and dangerous course in person, DVD’s don’t do it justice. The only bad thing about drifting on Minami is not one course I have been on gives me the thrill that Minami does, when your faced with completely writing off your car with just one little mistake it adds to the adrenalin rush.

New wheels filled the guards perfect!

New ride height made sure I could ummmmm, no longer store drinks under my car.

My front guards after the Drift Matsuri at Ebisu, was cool to see streams of smoke coming from my front tires while drifting.

This is a shot grabbed from the below video of my car on Ebisu’s famous Minami course.

Drifting footage from Ebisu’s Minami course.

After a great last year of drifting its now time for a little break and a breather, this year the JZX90 will be lucky to see one track event and the last time I drifted it was at Mt Akagi last week which was cut short by a JZX100 crashing. So its just going to gather dust in waiting for its retune in 6-8 months. Until then I will try and borrow some junk cars to thrash at local events but that’s about it for me and drifting this year.

How the JZX90 currently stands, dirty and rough around the edges, how any drift car would look after 12 months of hard work.

Current mod list
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Engine standard running 1.1 bar on standard gutless twin turbos
HPI Front mount kit
Re-Tuned ECU
Coilovers 14kg fronts and 12kg rear springs
2 way LSD
Defi guages
Bride Seat
CST Wheels 9.5 +15 offset at all four corners
Full straight through exhaust
Big Koyo alloy radiator
Real Dream Aero
Rear floor brace
Rear Cusco sway bar
Project Mu brake pads
Slotted front rotors
Ikeya Formula solid mount rear end

Im sure I have left off quite a few mods, but they are the main ones.

The offices front desk.

Nothing great in here, it just works and does its job.

Team stickers, Geki Style!

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