Night 1
Osaka, Japan
When word spread that JR was going to Japan to drift, '10 Mustang or not, I knew it was going to be an experience of a lifetime. Here is JR, the quintessential American (his racing shoes are red, white and freakin' blue, for redneck's sakes), taking his U.S.-built car, and going across the Pacific to drift the mother country. This was historic. Japanese D1 drifters and their smoke machines have been coming to the States competing against Americans for years, but never has the situation been reversed. JR was going to whoop some JDM ass, and on their home court! If drifting was Pearl Harbor thus yet, this was a one man Doolittle raid, and I wanted to bear witness.
Since most of us arrived in Japan around the same time, we'd planned on taking it easy the first night. Apparently, "easy" meant meeting up with old-school drifter/former Falken teammate Seigo Yamamoto at midnight, out by the docks in Osaka for some street drifting. One problem: it's 12:37 a.m. and by Japanese standards (where arriving five minutes before an appointment is considered timely), we're 42 minutes late . . . and we haven't even left our hotel yet. Five of us pile into the three-row Toyota Hiace minivan, hop on the Hanshin Expressway and arrive at the globally universal site of all illegal street racing activity: the industrial park.
Waiting for us, patiently might I add, is Seigo and seven RWD Nissans. The clear star of the group, other than the towering JR, is a purple S13 Silvia on fluorescent yellow 57D Gram Lights, trailered in from Nara prefecture, one and a half hours from Osaka. Driven by Naoki Nakamura, a D1 drifter and the unspoken leader of the group, he answered Seigo's call to show a bunch of Americans the roots of street drifting. It's a good thing, too. Not only did he and the other S-chassis rip it up with seven-car drifts (yes, seven cars at once) Naoki's is the brave S13 that performed the donuts, distracting the cops so we could get away. But why would a pro risk life, limb and legal repercussion by drifting illegally?
"Because it's dangerous and fun," says Naoki. "I started drifting on the streets nine years ago when I was 17 and I still love it. I drift almost every night in my home prefecture of Nara."
Now would be the appropriate time to say: Don't try this at home, kids!
After our stint at dock-side drifting was cut short by the Japanese law, it was on to Seigo's Plan B: Omote-Rokko Driveway. Don't let the "driveway" fool you. One of several streets within the Mount Rokko ranges, it's a touge filled with tight switchbacks and steep elevation changes. The only thing "driveway" about it is its width-an H1 Hummer or a pair of contestants from The Biggest Loser could easily span the entire one-lane road. But from the way Naoki and company were making use of the road, you'd think it was an empty Walmart parking lot. And for over an hour, we stood in a turn-out, watching the drifters attack with solo runs, two-car tandems and full-team drifts, barely avoiding the rocky outcrops of the mountain, while coming within centimeters of the guardrails. Takumi, eat your tofu-delivering heart out.
A handful of times, while Naoki and crew were mid-drift, an unbeknownst civilian would drive through the mountain pass. What should've been catastrophic, only demonstrated the grit and experience the group had in the touge, as they would quickly transition out of a slide and continue on, seamlessly, as on a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive.
Day 2
Okayama, Japan
After being up for more than 29 hours, I start the second day of the trip with only two and half hours of sleep. Today's agenda has JR drifting at Bihoku Highland Circuit in Okayama, Japan. Kenta Ogawara, friend and acting translator for the event, offers to let me testdrive the new Mustang. When I find out it's a three and a half hour drive west of Osaka-a time greater than what I've slept-I politely decline.
Located in the mountains above Niimi, a small city on the western edge of Okayama Prefecture, Bihoku is a small track out in B.F. freaking E. Surprisingly, the circuit is one of D1 Street Legal's stops, although where the crowd would park-let alone how they would make it in the tiny one car driveway-is beyond me. In accordance with Japanese standards however, the track itself is immaculately clean-after each event, a small team of men armed with brooms inspect and sweep the course.
Waiting for us again, still patiently, is Seigo Yamamoto and a different handful of Nissan S13s and 14s. In attendance is our hero from last night, Naoki Nakamura and his purple S13, who it turns out, wrenched all night to get his car ready for the track.
JR, clearly excited about popping his drifting-in-Japan cherry, wastes no time joining the fray already drifting on track. Like a newborn fawn taking his first steps, JR is clumsy in his supercharged Mustang-the car was freshly built and shipped straight to Japan for the adventure. Instead of the brash JR we're all used to-hauling ass, screaming wide-open throttle through clipping points-he circles the track cautiously. The first few solo initiations end in anticlimactic spins.
By Carter Jung
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