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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tokyo Drift In Odaiba June 2008
Odaiba Tokyo, the popular Tokyo bay-side suburb in Downtown Tokyo is not commonly known for drifting - rather it's known for it's TV studios and big shopping complexes.
But for the first time in 3 years, they brought Drift back to Downtown Tokyo with the D1 Drift Exhibition Match held on June 7th-8th 2008.
The Odaiba drift course is large parking lot converted to a decent size course much of the likes of a mirrored Ebisu circuit in shape and speed (120km/h). As the center of Tokyo is packed tighter than a tin of sardines, a permanant drift track is next to impossible so a wide open car park is the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, I say!
Reports say that all the usual D1 drivers (30 all up) were out showing their best drift machines and drifting skills to the Tokyo crowd.
Team Orange also put on their crowd pleasing drift show from the 4 drivers - Kumakubo, Tanaka, Suenaga and new member Hiraoka. Some of their drift stunts included twin drifting, 4 car drifting and the famous "taimen" drifting (head on drift) with all 4 cars (2 x 2)! Wow! Would have loved to see that!
As it was a real D1 match, they had the usual tournament of Best 16 then Best 8, Best 4 and The Final Round.
The champion of the Odaiba Drift Exhibition for 2008 was Imamura in his new drift machine - red Prodrive Silvia S15 after defeating reigning 2007 D1 champ Kawabata in his (not usual) blue Toyo 180sx.
There is a rumor that this may be the last event in Odaiba - but knowing the growing excitement and fan base for drifting in Japan, I hope we can see more drift events in Odaiba like this!
Stu - www.DriftinJapan.com
:)
But for the first time in 3 years, they brought Drift back to Downtown Tokyo with the D1 Drift Exhibition Match held on June 7th-8th 2008.The Odaiba drift course is large parking lot converted to a decent size course much of the likes of a mirrored Ebisu circuit in shape and speed (120km/h). As the center of Tokyo is packed tighter than a tin of sardines, a permanant drift track is next to impossible so a wide open car park is the next best thing. Nothing wrong with that, I say!
Reports say that all the usual D1 drivers (30 all up) were out showing their best drift machines and drifting skills to the Tokyo crowd.
Team Orange also put on their crowd pleasing drift show from the 4 drivers - Kumakubo, Tanaka, Suenaga and new member Hiraoka. Some of their drift stunts included twin drifting, 4 car drifting and the famous "taimen" drifting (head on drift) with all 4 cars (2 x 2)! Wow! Would have loved to see that!
As it was a real D1 match, they had the usual tournament of Best 16 then Best 8, Best 4 and The Final Round.
The champion of the Odaiba Drift Exhibition for 2008 was Imamura in his new drift machine - red Prodrive Silvia S15 after defeating reigning 2007 D1 champ Kawabata in his (not usual) blue Toyo 180sx.
There is a rumor that this may be the last event in Odaiba - but knowing the growing excitement and fan base for drifting in Japan, I hope we can see more drift events in Odaiba like this!
Stu - www.DriftinJapan.com
:)
Labels: d1-2008, d1-odaiba, imamura-new-drift-car, team-orange, tokyo-drift, tokyo-drift-odaiba
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift
The line-up of cool drift cars in Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift is what made the movie as memorable as it is. With nothing less than the best Japanese drift cars making the cut for the movie, its drifting fans heaven.Lets have a closer look at some of the cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift....
By far the star car of the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift has to be the FD Mazda Rx7 with the black and orange duco over the Veliside bodykit. I actually know the guy who sold them that FD and I saw the original while it was still a junker :)
The Mafia's bad guy's black Nissan 350Z which everyone gasped as they watched it drift up the spiral driveway in the car park. That stunt was done by NZ/USA drifter Rhys Millen without any CG, he did it all with just the car!
The red Lancer Evo was a head turner too as Evos are generally known as all wheel drive cars that don't really drift. This is the car he practiced and learned to drift in.
Japanese drifting and racing legend Keiichi Tsuchiya made an appearance as a fisherman when the red Evo was practicing at the wharf.
I remember he says "kountaa wa osoi ne" which means "He's too late with his counter steer."
The 'girl' car, sky blue Mazda RX8 appeared an was driven by Australian actress Nathalie Kelley. I love RX8's but not this one. The color and body kit weren't the best suit for it. I guess they were trying to make it girly.
The 1967 Mustang Fastback was thrown in the plot to mix up the cars a bit. We see new Mustangs drift but hardly ever old school classics like this one drift! But this one was a little different. It had a Nissan RB26 powering it instead of the old ford V8 engine.
At the time of the movie's release, I asked Kumakubo san (Pro D1 Driver) about the cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift (he was a stunt driver in the movie) and he said the Mustang was the worst car to drift out of all of them. He mentioned the Evo was the best drift car...and that's probably the reason he built his Evo 9 drift car for the Japanese D1 competition.The Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift is a movie you can switch on and watch anytime. You don't need to follow the story, just watch the cars, girls and drifting. That's more important anyway!
Drift hard, live safe.
Stu - www.DriftinJapan.com
Labels: 350z, cars-of-fast-and-furious-tokyo-drift, fd-rx7, japanese-drift-cars, lancer-evolution, mustang, rx8, tokyo-drift
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