I got even closer then this, head over to wearedrift.com to view the full series of images.

Everyone knows there is more to drifting then just blazing tyres but no one shows it, so in this video I wanted to show what goes on behind all the tyre smoke. The video starts off slow and warm but it doesn’t take too long before we get back to the throttle smashing tyre blazing. Big thanks go out to Andy and Emily from PowerVehicles.com for karting my butt around and letting me crash at there place, much love.

Part II will be just be a quick run down of the final tandem runs but it was raining so hard it made for some slow and non-eventfil action, hence why its getting its own video as to not take away from Part 1.

HD Video Below

Also Available on Vimeo

http://www.vimeo.com/4928296

Andy smoking out Mobara in his JZX100 from PowerVehicles.com.

To view in full HD click here

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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You done well, you placed in the top 10 at your first D1 event, you have taken wind to some comments saying you might be in line for some tire sponsorship after your efforts. You are in good spirits as you drive to your next D1 event. At the event you manage to lay down perfect runs against your rival Tezuka whose piloting the Goodyear backed Nissan Skyline. You take the long drive back to the start line waiting to hear an outcome. What! Your called back for a re-run, even after your rival made a mistake causing you to lead in the points score, it does not matter the judges want to see a re-run. You know you clearly that you beat him but you head out again for a re-run. The results come in, you just happened to miss out and wont be making it into the top 8. This is your first taste of the real world in D1, as you and your pit crew pack up for the long drive home you cant help but feel some sort of failure.

Your car is all ready, you have paid the ridiculous 70,000 yen entry fee again, the truck is loaded and everything is packed, you just got off the phone to your new tire sponsor, this year Yokohama who are happy to have you on board but did they forget to mention that you will never ever have a chance of wining D1 because of their main tire competitor Goodyear. Goodyear is one of the D1GP’s main sponsors who will always have the last say in who wins, thank the King for the that. You happen to being doing flawless runs but yet the Goodyear backed big guns still manage to score more points then you every run without fail, you can also thank the King for that.

Yoshida from SuperMade in his super gangster S13.

Whose the King you ask, well its none other then Keiichi Tsuchiya also known as Dorikin . The King is the largest icon in drifting, who brought the D1 Grand Prix to all its glory but now he seems to be closing it down event after event with the crazy entry fee costs and his ridiculous judging. Only 2-3 years ago you would find over 100 cars entered into any D1 event around Japan, that was before they decided to up the price from around 25,000 yen to 70,000 yen, and for what? So you had the pleasure of packing up and leaving early because the judges decisions were completely biased. You and the other 40 or so competitors, did I say 40 or so, sorry I meant 100 no actually I didn’t, D1 now struggles to even get entries and have resorted to calling up ex-D1 drivers personally to see if they would like to enter upcoming events. I have seen with my own eyes at the Suzuka 07 D1 event the lengths that Tsuchiya will go to when one of his friends, not mentioning names but he drove a bright pink S15. He did not quite achieve the points needed so they called for a re-run against lesser backed privateer, resulting in the higher profile driver wining. The judging got so bad that they even started brining in guest judges such as Nobushige Kumakubo from Team Orange for the pure fact of just trying to make the judging calls fairer for all participants not just the high profile drivers.

These higher entry prices coupled with the fact the economy is going down the drain is not good for the Smaller privateer drivers who would usually just put everything on the credit card and worry about paying it back another day. Not this year with banks cutting down credit limits in Japan it also means a lot of privateers now have no money to enter D1. Now days you will see most D1 drivers at local events just drifting for the passion and fun of it, before it was taken over by money and sponsors. They are returning into the real drift scene, not this Pamela Anderson version of drift, with new improved bits and pieces but the price to pay is getting Hep C, turning green and losing your hair.

Good friend Tomohiro Murayama from Team Geki in his 550HP SR2.2.

So its clear there is only one way to the top and that’s making it to the Kings table, make it their and your sure in for a win. Do the hard work kiss the right backsides and in no time you will have a spot. But once your there don’t ever think of leaving, leaving the table would result in having all you hair cut off then getting it dyed green upon the Kings request of following the traditions and showing your loyalty. After that process you may never enter a D1 event again unless you make piece with King Tsuchiya. Your now a free man with a name, where do you go? You go to America where the grass is greener, the money flows like water and your fans line up in dozens just to get a glance at you. If you done all of these things you would sound just like Nobuteru Taniguchi also known as NOB, a very smart man who seen the light and happens to be one of the best drivers in drifting or grip to date and whose making a killing for himself in America the land of opportunity.

Another good friend and fellow Team Geki member, Zema in his RX7 along with his bright green D1 Street Legal 180sx below.

So there it is D1 is dying, prices have doubled and entrants have been cut by at least 50% or more. You cant really run a D1 event with no cars drifting. If you do intend on seeing some drifting in Japan I would be hunting down some MSC events or if you demand on seeing D1, the Ebisu event is always the best one to watch.

All my information has been based on facts and truths, its not just a propaganda rag out on the D1 Grand Prix even if it does sound a bit far fetched. My close relationship with a few good friends who happen to be ex-D1 drivers for all the reasons mentioned above have always brought up some great stories about D1 and the trouble it has caused.

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