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No doubt you have heard of D1 GP the professional Drift competition that started in Japan.

Well, hang on to your britches because the brand new G1 GP gaijin drift competition kicked of with the first ever round during the 2009 Autumn drift festival at Ebisu circuit!

Andy from www.powervehicles.com came up with the idea to have a mini drift comp between the foreigners who were attending the autumn drift matsuri.

When he mentioned it to Kumakubo and Suenaga from Team Orange, they were as keen as mustard to run it and be the judges for it!

So all 16 of us gaijin went to compete on the first ever G1GP at Ebisu Nishi course!

We did it D1 style - 3 runs each where we got judged and then the best 4 went head to head in tandem drift to finally decide the #1 Gaijin Drifter.

Andy and I, even though we're locals, didn't want to show off our skills too much (cough cough) which is why neither of us made it to the top 4. The winner was an Aussie guy who made it over for the matsuri.

G1GP gets media attention!

The first G1GP stirred up enough interest to bring out the Drift Tengoku video crew! They featured the mini gaijin drift event in the Drift Tengoku video released this December.

Check out the snippet of the G1GP from the Doriten video below...



There are plans to continue the G1GP series next year at each drift matsuri!

The dates for 2010 drift matsuri's are:

• May 1 & 2
• August 21st & 22nd
• Nov 13 & 14

So if you think you have what it takes to take a G1 crown, make your way over for the matsuris next year.

Contact me or Andy at Power Vehicles to organize a car for your G1 entry and fun at the next matsuri!

Stu - www.DriftinJapan.com

Labels: drift-tengoku, ebisu-nishi-course, G1-GP, gaijin-drift

Hi drift fans! It's been too long since I've posted on this blog! I've been busy working (English teaching and selling stuff online) and hanging out with Andy and Emily from www.PowerVehicles.com

I met the drift crazy couple Andy and Emily at Ebisu around July this year and we instantly got on like a house on fire.

The same day we met, Andy took me to see his newly acquired garages at Ebisu where he works and keeps his collection of full-tuned, drift power vehicles.

First was his 500+PS competition JZX100 Mark II, then Emily's pink kouki s14 Silvia, show car/full drift spec wide body 180sx and Tsukuba time attack prepped FD RX7. And that was just what was inside the garages.

Outside looks like your local import car sales yard with street going drift cars all shiny and just wanting to be slid...which is because the main business he does at Power Vehicles is buy high performance JDM cars here and then sell/exports them to buyers overseas. Mainly Europe but they will export to any country in the world!

You can get a good idea of what Andy and Power Vehicles gets up to from this video...

Power Vehicles used to be based in Saitama but couldn't stay away from Ebisu circuit so they moved up here to run their business from the best drift track in the world.

Powervehicles.com 2008 Drift Highlights from Powervehicles.com on Vimeo.

Now here in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture Japan, they have a good place to test (Andy loves to 'test') the cars to make sure they are 'driftable' and they were able to have me as their neighbour! How could anyone ask for more? ;)

Power Vehicles also started drift tour packages for anyone who wants to come over and experience drifting first hand. They can organize everything for you from cars to use, to a place to stay to a team orange drift lesson.

Recently, they helped a whole crew from Australia, NZ, and Europe with cars etc. for the Autumn Drift matsuri (festival) in Ebisu.

Thanks to Andy and his 'foot to the floor' way of thinking, he was able to convince Kumakubo and Naoto Suenaga to put on the first ever G1 GP (gaijin only drift competition) where we (myself included) got to battle it out D1 style on Nishi course!

More about the G1 GP later ;)

Learn more about Power Vehicles at the website: http://powervehicles.com and check out their Drift Life Blog to keep up with the latest news from Ebisu.

Fortunately, he updates more than me so you'll always get your fix of drifting there.

Cheers,

Stu - www.DrifinJapan.com

Labels: drift-car-rental, drift-matsuri, ebisu-circuit, G1-GP, power-vehicles