Mater Goes Drifting In Tokyo

Mater from Pixar's "Cars" tells his "Tokyo drift" story.
Funny stuff!! "Domo Arigatou, Mr. Tomato".... haha

I just had to share this after I found it on Facebook.

It's basically "F&F 3: Tokyo Drift" to a tea.. just condensed down into 7 minutes and much better acting.

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

Event News: Four Gaijins In D1SL Divisional

A year ago, only 1 gaijin appeared in the D1SL divisional round at Ebisu. This year there were 4!

Andy "the one and only" made his appearance in his red JZX100 Mark II smoke machine the same as last year but this year, his fiance Emily Loudon, along with Aussies Chris DeJager and Leigh Pidwell entered the local D1SL comp.

As for Disco Stu, well... I would have loved to have been in it to support the "team" but my S13 still needs a little bit of fine tuning and I('m trying to save some $$ so I can buy some plates and stuff for our "soon-to-be" new house.. but that's another story.

Anyway, the other gaijins did just fine without me. They all made it through the first qualifying round and 3 out of 4 of them made it to the final Best 16 tandem drift tournament.

Leigh Pidwell "missed it by that much" coming in 17th after the second qualifying passes. Not a bad effort for just a "visiting" gaijin.

 

The day ended with the usual award ceremony and the janken taikai (rock, scissors, paper) game to win prizes. I won a Yokomo t-shirt but Andy came away with a brand new exhaust system! Lucky bugger.

It was another full day of drifting, nice cars and a ton of laughs. Can't wait for G1 and matsuri coming up next month. Stay tuned for coverage of that!

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

Lovin' The "Rat Look"

WTF is the "rat look"? Take a look at these "zombie" death-on-wheels looking things and I'll think you'll get the idea...

no need to wash after drifting through dirt

that wing is the shiznit! just a little heavier than carbon...

While some people might want to run to get a bucket, I think this rusty antique and shiny, bright color fusion look is very sick (i.e. the "cool" sick)...

your worst nightmare is now a reality

I'm not exactly sure how the "rat look" is achieved but I can only guess that they grind all the paint off (or strip it with acid or something?), let it sit in the rain or under a tree to let it rust then rub it down with diesel oil or something to stop it completely turning to a pile of rust. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Surprisingly (or not), there aren't a heap of cars getting around with this rat look, but I really hope it catches on. There is a website dedicated to the rat look (www.rat-look.com) so it shows there are a group into it.

Actually, there are a few "rat look" cars that get around Ebisu at drift matsuri time. But they are not made to look that way intentionally.. they are usually old Corolla KE70s and 86s that have been rusting from the day they came out of the factory.

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

BAKA IN CAR Stickers For Sale

Do you drive like a BAKA? Now you can show the whole world just how much of a BAKA you are!

(sidenote: "BAKA" is Japanese for "idiot, fool, crazy" so it's the perfect word to describe someone who likes going a bit mental on the drift track)

My small shipment of "BAKA IN CAR" stickers just arrived from the US so now they're for sale to all baka drifters around the world!

Made from quality vinyl so they will last and not peel or fade. Size is 5" x 5" (12.5cm x 12.5cm).

Cost is just US$3.00 each and postage is US$3.00 worldwide for up to 5 stickers.

Click here to go to the order page >> 

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

How Close Can You Go?

Nothing's quite as cool as watching close drifting - whether it's another car, or a course fixture such as a concrete wall!

I went out with the master of close drifting Chris "Carnage" Dejager from www.DriftWeapon.com yesterday for a little drift session on Ebisu's school course.

After a few twin drift laps between I and him, Chris went on his own to show the crowd how to get close to the concrete wall. I was there with my handy cell phone camera to capture a few passes.



After Chris finished his tires, the crowd was pretty warmed up wanting to see more so he was kind enough to lend me a pair of his good used tires so I could take the Cefiro out for a few "close calls".

I wanted to make one video for all my passes but something is wrong with the files or my edit software so I had to upload them individually to Youtube. I recommend watching them in sequence. Enjoy!







The good news is that my Cefiro missile is still good for another day.. hopefully many more! Actually, the worst damage it received was when Chris slammed the left side earlier on doing tandem and now the passenger front door won't open!

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com

Stagea Ute? Can It Drift?

Sometimes I browse Yahoo Auctions for cars and parts and come across some pretty funky stuff on there.

Here's a Nissan Stagea Truck/Ute with a RB25DET and manual conversion. It might not be to everyone's liking but I think it's pretty damn cool. Especially with those 19" deep dish chrome wheels.

I assume it's been made into RWD.... Wouldn't you turn some heads showing up to the drift track in this? 

It's for sale too at the moment for a only 450,000 JPY on Yahoo Auctions. That price is more than double the price of a regular Stagea in Japan but for something this modified and cool, not a bad price!

It can be registered in Japan as far as I know but not sure about overseas. You'd need to check with your state's road laws and engineering rules to see if something this radical can be street legal.

Disco Stu
www.DriftInJapan.com