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The final round of this years 2008 D1 GP Japanese drift competition was held in Ebisu circuit Nihonmatsu city Japan. The same place they help round 1 this year. But the results were different this time around....

With Ebisu being right in my back yard, (5 mins drive) there was no way I was going to miss it. I actually took my video camera because I wanted to take some video footage of the drifting and put it up here and Youtube to show you but, I had some bad luck and the battery went flat before I could even use it.

I only had my mobile phone camera with 2 bars of battery so my photo taking was limited by that too. Anyway, I was able to take a couple of "ok" photos.


To cut straight to the point, the winner of 2008 Round 6 D1 GP in Ebisu was none other than the owner of the track, Kumakubo Nobushige in his TEAM Orange Lancer Evolution 9.

This 2008 D1 GP drift season was tough for Kumakubo and his team. He hadn't had much luck with rankings, but the weather held off at Ebisu and he was able to score a win and boost his rank in the D1 points table in the final round in Japan! He was very pleased and it showed with tears of joy at the podium!

The final and closing round of D1 GP 2008 drift competition season will be in Irwindale USA in November. But as for me (and the monkeys) and drifting in Japan, I'll still be going to Ebisu from time to time and I'll be able to bring you more D1GP coverage next season!

SAYONARA - from Stu!
www.DriftinJapan.com


:)

Labels: d1-2008-ebisu-round-6, D1GP, drifting, japanese-drifting, kumakubo, lancer drift car, silvia s15, team orange

The D1 GP drift boys were at it again! This time at 2008 Tokyo Auto Salon in a small drift circuit transformed car park just outside the Tokyo Makuhari Messe complex.




Japanese D1 drivers letting loose! Nomuken in the Blitz Skyline making the smoke as usual, Kumakubo in the buzzing Team Orange Lancer Evo 9!

Small area to drift in but still enough to put on an impressive drifting demo!

Labels: 2008, drift-demo, kumakubo, lancer drift car, nomuken, team orange, tokyo-auto-salon

Kumakubo's brand new D1 drift machine - Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 (IX) was finally unveiled and made its debut run at Round 5 of the 2007 D1 grand prix series at Ebisu yesterday, 26th of August 2007.

Kumakubo qualifed in the Best 16 and made it through the first round but was knocked out after he missed a gear shift on one of his runs. He said the cause was a stuck clutch. Thwe clutch pedal didn't come up...OUCH! - The painful woes of a new drift car.



Here it is! - Lancer Evolution 9 D1 drift machine driven by Team Orange's front man Kumakubo Nobushige. As you can see in this picture the 500+hp 4G63 turbo engine is installed north-south like conventional rear wheel drive cars and not east-west how Lancers originally come from the factory.



Kumakubo said he wanted to change to a Lancer after he was a stunt driver in this years Hollywood movie Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift and liked the way the Lancer Evo handled and moved.



The Lancer heading down to the main straight before the fast and aggressive first corner at Ebisu south course.



Kumakubo smokin the tires ang getting nice angle in the infield at at the end of his run. Notice the rear suspension is sinking pretty low. He must have the settings pretty soft.



Some of the TEAM ORANGE members. Kumakubo is in the middle, the manager second from the right and Igusa san (Team Orange and K-style cheif mechanic). Other Team Orange drivers that are not in this picture are Tanaka and Naoto Suenaga - both drive WRX Imprezas.

So now Kumakubo has 3 competition drift cars - S15 Silvia, WRX Impreza, and now the Lancer Evolution...and all orange.

Labels: d1 2007, D1GP, ebisu d1 2007, kumakubo, lancer drift car, lancer evolution, new lancer drift car, team orange, ドリフト, ランエボ, 新車, 熊久保, 選手

Here's a little extra surprise Dorifuto vid for you! This is TEAM ORANGE's Kumakubo heading it off with team mate Tanaka. I mean literally heading it out! In Japanese, taimen means face off, head to head, head on etc....so taimen drift is head on drifting.

These 2 are famous for their "head on drifting" antics. They do this stunt drifting at most big D1 events..if you've ever seen a JDM Option or Drift Tengoku (Drift Heaven) dvd, chances are you've seen them do it before.

They did it once again at the last D1 Street legal meeting at Ebisu last weekend. It was unreal to see it in real life. Kumakubo in his orange Jun made FR WRX Impreza boasting 550hp with Tanaka in his former range s15 Silvia....horsepower???? enough to kick ass on the drift track! With out further adue..here is the "taimen" drift vid!



Look out for one more motion drift vid I'm in the process of puitting together! Cheers, Stuart!!

Labels: D1, d1 street legal, dorifuto, drift, drifting, ebisu, kumakubo, s15 silvia, tanaka, team orange, wrx