Click here to view the embedded video.

This is pretty much a video of this entry.

http://om1kron.blogspot.com/2010/01/digital-climate-control-madness.html

Wangan (湾岸) in Japanese simply means “Bayshore”.

Tokyo’s infamous Bayshore Route 首都高速道路湾岸線, noted for street racing.

The Bayshore Route of Shuto Expressway 首都高速道路湾岸線, Shuto Kosokudoro Wangan-sen or simply Wangan-sen for short, is a stretch of toll highway in Greater Tokyo, 70 km, that runs from Yokohama city, Kanazawa ward, to Ichikawa city of Chiba Prefecture. It’s an important route that runs between artificial islands of Tokyo Bay by way of bridges and sub-sea tunnels, bypassing Tokyo entirely.

Shuto Expressway

Shuto Expressway 首都高速道路 Shuto Kōsoku Dōro. Metropolitan Expressway is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the Metropolitan Expressway Co., Ltd. 首都高速道路株式会社 Shuto Kōsoku Dōro Kabushiki-gaisha.

Most routes consist of elevated roadway above other roads or over water, and have many sharp curves which require caution to drive safely. Tunnels are also used on routes near the waterfront and Haneda airport.

Speed limit is 60 km/h in most routes, but 80 km/h in Bayshore Route, and 50 km/h in Inner Circular Route.
All trips on the expressway require a toll be paid, but unlike most expressways in Japan, though similar to the Hanshin Expressway system in Osaka, the toll is the same regardless of distance travelled. As of 2008, the toll for a standard-size car is ¥700 on Tokyo routes (both circular and radial), ¥600 on Kanagawa routes and ¥400 yen on Saitama routes.

The Wangan

It runs from Yokohama through the Yokohama Bay Bridge and Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge, the Kawasaki Subsea Tunnel, the Tama Subriver Tunnel, Haneda Airport North tunnel, Tokyo Bay Subsea Tunnel, which connects it to the popular tourist spot of Odaiba, and then on to Urayasu (near Tokyo Disneyland) in Chiba Prefecture. It is designated National Road 357 (国道357号). It facilitates road travel between Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures.
The Wangan is infamous among street racers all over the globe, its notoriety rose in the mid Nineties when a number of American, British and European Jap Tuner magazines first started heading over to their shores… what came back was some of the most shocking images and articles to grace any automotive scene. Drivers clocking up speeds in excess of 180mph were common, as were blasting past police vehicles without care… the average engine power was up, as were the numbers competing on this amazing road.

One feature of the Wangan that has been some what of a fueling factor to the high speed mayhem is the commonly known fact that if a speeding car is traveling above a certain speed the police will not give chase, this although true is not the whole story, many of the Wangan ‘Racers’ are now running with their number plates taped up or on motorized mounts, “why?” I hear you ask… simple, a lot like our sneaky British counter parts, the Japanese authorities are now using technology more and more in keeping the speeds down with use of cameras, often doling out fines and points (a lot like here) as well as being able to immediately take away licenses.
The grass isn’t always greener… but this distinct breed of law-breaking racer plays the same whichever side of the globe they are on.

The Traffic

Much cargo from Narita International Airport in Chiba destined for southern areas travels by way of large diesel trucks on Wangan-sen. The opening of Chubu International Airport has helped ease heavy truck congestion somewhat. It’s notable as Tokyo’s first offshore highway, has spectacular urban views including Minato Mirai 21, Odaiba and Rainbow Bridge, downtown Yokohama, and Yokohama Bridge, and is frequented by street racing during late night hours, although heavily congested in the day.

Osaka Street Circuit

The Osaka street circuit, a lot like it’s brother, the Wangan is world renowned as a top drifting spot, it has been seen in countless videos and is rumored to be the inspiration for the Fast & Furious – Toyko Drift.
Although the local scene has a vast Tuning community locals are saying it is becoming harder and harder for drifters, it would appear they are having similar issues to us here in Britain. The Police. The Japanese police force although they may not ‘give chase’ to those speeding excessively on the Wangan, certainly do not hold the drifters in the same respect, large raids on the areas are often carried out with the punishment for this illegal behavior becoming more and more strict.

Rather than bore you… I’ve decided the best way to show you is by showing you where it is… you want to check it out, get a flight!

Osaka Street Circuit

Daiba District Wangan

So famous i’m not gonna tell you what the street’s called, you should be able to clock it, I did put a map in the link…

Ghosts on the Wangan

The Mid Night Club (ミッド ナイト クラブ Middo Naito Kurabu?) was a Japanese street racing gang that hosted illegal races on the Bayshore Route (known natively as the Wangan) of the Shuto Expressway between Tokyo to Yokohama. The gang became one of the most notorious and highly respected clubs of its type, which led to it being featured in over 200 editorial features in most of the leading Japanese auto magazines and even in foreign magazines such as the Danish Autoviz, the British Max Power and the American Turbo magazine. One of the earliest non-Japanese media referrals was in the first episode of Jeremy Clarkson’s Motorworld in January 1995, when the presenter Jeremy Clarkson, driving his Skyline GT-R around Japan, stated that his car “is more likely to be seen in the Mid Night Club”. That and because of its dangerously high racing speed, it gave street racing in Japan a worldwide notoriety, The club was regarded as one of the longest running street racing gangs.

To join the club, which was formed in 1985, was not as easy as the other clubs as it was governed by a series of rules and was better organised. Additionally, unlike in other groups, the hashiriya (street racer) car must be capable of going over 250 km/h (160 mph), as a racing speed of over 300 km/h (190 mph) was common. As new member are regarded as apprentices for one year, they are required to attend all the meetings. Only 10% of drivers would qualify for full membership and they would have to leave if they posed a danger to other motorists and to other members. Members would bear the trademark small rectangle Mid Night sticker on their bumpers, a larger sticker on the sun visor area, and sometimes a Mid Night Racing Team sticker on the side skirt. The high standard of the drivers made it difficult for the police to catch them.

On average, there were 30 members in the club, and they met in a gas station in Yokohama at midnight, as the name implies; races would take place on the Bayshore route and lead to another gas station in Tokyo.

(‘The’ only petrol station worth meeting at… now gets used for photo shoots for a number of well known Tuning House’s)

As full-fledged members’ cars were capable of performing over 320 km/h (200 mph), the cars were capable of reaching over 400–1000 bhp and one member was rumored to be spending over $2 million on rebuilding and modifications of his Porsche 911. The drivers’ professions were never revealed, as by club policy members were not allowed to ask how other members got the money for modifications. Only Max Power, in 1995, revealed the professions of two drivers: one, a RX-7 FD3S owner, was a property developer; the other, who drove a Skyline GT-R R32, ran his family car sales business.
The club was disbanded in 1999 when a group of Bōsōzoku were waiting for the club to “play” with them as they were racing down the expressway, culminating in an accident in which six bikers ended up in the hospital and one was killed. As was the club policy, such a happening would cause the club to be disbanded immediately and forever. Since then there have been numerous imitators, but with tighter traffic laws making things difficult, most of such groups have since been disbanded.

Despite being no longer in existence, many automotive medias still cite the gang as an inspiration to more irresponsible street racing gangs, such as the June 2008 issue of Max Power, when it ran an article about a street racer gang in London, who claim to race in town centers rather than in expressways.

This is unless you know the Wangan and a club member… then you will all ready know the ‘Club’ still run.

Fast.

I drove my car out to the Fontana Nissan toy drive back in December to give some toys out for the children. Someone really liked the car and took a picture

of it and then put it on a flier for a meet at Riverside Nissan, which I wont be making it to most likely. Which I’ll get to in a few moments.

I drove the car with no wipers to this event, you can imagine my frustration with a foggy windshield. On top of the fact it was raining cats and dogs, I decided it was time to finally fix my windshield wipers which haven’t worked since I bought the car.

Luckily, Jeff Jordan (GSXRRJordan) took a look at the wiring for me and discovered that the body harness wire for power had a break in it, we ran a fused wire to my dashboard fuse panel I made and bam. Wipers worked, Jeff also bought me a new pilot bushing for my shift lever as well as a rubber boot to cover my shifter housing. The car never had one and has been smoking really, really bad when I went fast in the car.

It still kind of does it now and then but only because I have yet to wire wheel the burnt transmission fluid off of my exhaust.

After that I was given a heads up about using my car as an “extra” for Crime Scene Investigation : Las Vegas, so my car basically made about 250 bucks for itself to buy a catch can and it’s wheel spacers.

The car itself obviously was drivable, but it wasn’t running 100 percent, something was retarding my timing, it was giving way too much fuel, my low end power was like non existent.

I ended up taking some videos to try and let some internet armchair mechanics diagnose my issue.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Basically It was deemed that I needed to get this thing to someone to test it out and run a diagnostic, check my timing and compression, etc, etc.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I took the car to Steve Shadows for him to give me the “whats what” with my car, after running into a snag with my vacuum hoses (my bad, I got rid of the 5/16th sized adapter hose before showing up) he found my timing was off by 33 degree’s, I’ve never hooked a gun up to the car to check it’s timing. But that explains how my car was able to make 9lbs of boost with no load. Because of the unburnt fuel getting into the turbine housing.

However now that I have a blacktop ecu in my car, I don’t think it’s even picking up a signal from my throttle position sensor, on top of the fact it’s currently zip tied to the throttle body (a whole other story on it’s own.)  I have a KA24DE TPS and throttle body on my intake, why I don’t know, was my previous ecu chipped or something to get a proper signal from it, I also don’t know but it’s probably why the car ran good 33 degree’s off of it’s timing settings before I purchased the motor.

Cause the car now is barely drivable, if it even gets to 4k rpm in any gear it wants to turn off. So it’s pretty much a garage ornament until I get a new throttle body and tps, AND modify my engine harness to use an SR throttle position sensor.

Recent modifications to the car are as follows.

I now have an s13/s14 hybrid valve cover to help with oil baffling properties. on the other side of the engine you can see my greddy catch can. I may keep it where it’s at and build some kind of line routing system for it when I have cash, or find a way to shove it next to my radiator. I plan on having new intercooler pipes fabricated for the car to get rid of unnecessary routing. As you can see I have an s14 cold pipe on an s13sr and quite frankly it’s retarded.

Before

After

the springs hadn’t really settled yet after dropping it back on the floor.

Drove the car around a bit, and for the next few days kept the tq wrench and wheel key in the car to make sure everything seated correctly and none of my lug nuts were coming loose. So far so good.

This is the passenger side of the car after everything settled. The pull is “slightly” more aggressive on this side of the car, but you can already see if I turned the coil overs a few more notches it would constantly contact the body. So I’m happy with the result, it’s not “HELLA FLUSH” material or anything, but it looks way better to me I think.

I also took the time to paint the spacers and hub hats before re-assembling everything for a cleaner look.

And I think once I have to replace these rear discs I’m going to do the altima rear brake disc upgrade which uses the z brake bracket, the original s14 rear caliper, and a LARGER altima rear rotor so I have the same stopping power as a z brake rear upgrade, without having to put a whole new rear brake setup (shoes, brake lines, etc, etc) on my car.

And I am currently in search of an sr20 throttle body with the tps sensor intact and possibly a pigtail for it.

thanks for looking.

I like drifting… and the roots of drifting run alot deeper than a famous comic or a series of Hollywood glamourisations.

With this in mind I decided to throw abit of a thread together with some cool bits of Touge that I find whilst cruising the net at work… so expect there to be more.

I also grabbed the Wikipedia ‘definition’ just in case anyone has been living in a hole…

…as a side note the ‘comic’ (InitalD) is also responsible for laying some of the ‘rules’ down in stone and even introducing concepts such as ‘one-more-time’… but that’s another story…

Touge (?, toge?) is a Japanese word literally meaning “pass.” It refers to a mountain pass or any of the narrow, winding roads that can be found in and around the mountains of Japan and other geographically similar areas.

Placing a series of s or bends in the steep roads that provide access to and from the high elevations of the mountains was intended to be a safety measure, usually to prevent commuters from reaching unstable speeds or creating excessive wear on the vehicles associated with them. It is therefore ironic that these same passes have become popular with street racers and motorsport enthusiasts in the last two decades, providing a dangerous and therefore challenging course where nightly competitions are not unheard of.

Usui’s

Contents
1 Racing
1.1 Cat and Mouse/Sudden Death
1.2 Straight up
1.3 Random battle
1.4 Time Attack or Ghost Battle
2 Misconceptions
3 Media

Akagi

Racing
There are 4 types of Touge battles.

The dude is wearing a helmet… lol… but where’s his concern for his passengers safety?!? Maybe he just doesn’t care… or is married to her…

Cat and Mouse/Sudden Death
The lead car wins if the space between the cars increases considerably, while the following car wins if the gap between them stays the same, decreases from start to finish or the following car overtakes the lead car. If any car spins out or crashes, the other one wins the race.

Outside…

This method is used when the road area isn’t wide enough to allow passing, but if the car in front does indeed somehow get passed, the overtaken car automatically loses.

Interior…

Straight up
If the road is wide enough, this method comes into use. Instead of the lead and chase type of start, the cars are lined up next to each other. If there is a handicap in power, a rolling start would be used up until the 1st turn. Whoever is in front at the end of the “touge” road, is the winner.

Random battle
A challenge is communicated through the use of the hazard lights. Then according to the road, use of one of the 2 prior types of battle.

Time Attack or Ghost Battle
A Challenge in which one car is timed from start to finish, and the opponent attempts to beat the other drivers time. The opponents do not actually race at the same time.

Misconceptions
Stemming from this surge in popularity, the term has been pirated and misused by overzealous enthusiasts (often incorrectly as a verb) to erroneously describe almost any event involving street racing, even when there are no mountain passes involved. Including the common misconception that the Hackiroku (meaning 86) is actually the best drift car there is… this of course is non-sense. Everyone knows that it is a Mazda RX7. (…lol)

Hachiroku anyone?

Another common mistake is the association of drifting with touge, implying at times that the words share a common definition. While drift is considered a style or form of driving, touge does not necessarily have any binding relationship to motorsports. Drifting can be used on the touge to prevent the chaser from following their proper line. For example if there was a chaser and one were to drift the drifter has now eliminated about 60 percent of the chaser’s possible lines forcing them to choose slower lines that can be predicted. Also in doing this one can cause the chaser to slow down in order not to crash into the drifting car in front, which might cause complications due to keeping rpm’s high and traction and all other variables to consider in slowing down for a corner.

Where Togue driving differs from standard Rallying is uncertain.

Blah Blah Blah…

…and never forgetting the cost of throwing slide rides down mountains…

I was very lucky in the late 90’s with the guys I drove with when I first started driving Driff Wagons, one our the ‘crew’ I used to drive with was a Second Generation British-Japanese…

I got given the low down years ago, and have been extremely lucky and have met members of some of the ‘orginial’ crews… my mom has even cooked for a few of the Osaka crowd!

And it couldn’t be a proper view of Drifting until it been reported on by the Super Street gang…

Lunatic Fringe

D1 is for wussies. We cheat death Touge Drifting with the outlaws from Japan’s Team Slip Stream.
By John C. Naderi
Photography by John C. Naderi, Wesley Allison

D1 is for wussies. No sooner than I hunt-and-peck that little gem onto my monitor does the anticipation wash over me. I can almost feel the seething wrath besieged upon me from the online drifting community. The boards will be littered with posts from hoards of larger-than-life luminaries whose signatures boldly declare their allegiances. Ass hats like “AE86DrftKing4LYF” or “SlydWayzSilviaDude27″ will sound off for 14 pages on another thread about “Why Super Street Sucks.”

When it’s hardcore drifting… there’s bound to be a chick handing guys ar$es to them on her 180 shaped plate…

Before you jack into the only world where you feel accepted, I should expand upon, elaborate, even defend my point–pontificate, if you will. I know what you’re going to say: “Super Street chews ass!” “The editors are morons.” “The staffers from [insert any one of the dozens of other magazines here] are way smarter.” “None of the Super Streeters can drift.” “I saw Nads picking his nose at D1.” Guess what? All of this is true, including the pick. And I suppose you’ve never dug for gold in your lifetime? Truth be told, none of us Stupor Streeters can drift. I’ve tried it, and much like my brief foray into rhythmic gymnastics, I’ve discovered that my bad drift technique makes Ralph’s feet sad.

Red 200SX

I have another confession to make: I can’t handle the rock. (I also can’t smell whatever it is the Rock is cooking, but that’s another story altogether.) Even though I can’t play b-ball, I still consider myself a big fan, having followed the game for a number of years. I am familiar with the particulars of the game–the pick and roll, the run and gun, the backdoor cut–and this allows me to differentiate between solid fundamental play and what my beloved Lakers brought to the finals (way to go, guys, now I’m gonna lose my kneecaps!).

I feel the same way about drifting. I am a huge fan with nothing but the highest respect and admiration for the masters of this controlled disaster. I’ve been to a round of the very first season of the D1GP. I’ve been up close and personal to witness drifting both here in the States and in Japan, on circuits, in bayside industrial areas, and on parking lots. I’ve sat shotgun with some of the world’s best drifters and even embarrassed myself behind the wheel of a genuine D1 sled. I’ve broken bread and clinked glasses with a D1 champion and been privy to the inside stuff and backroom politics that taint this movement as it moves into mainstream America.

All of this is not designed to make me sound like a big man. Oh no, if I feel like it, I can insult Jonny to compensate for my own shortcomings. I just want to drop a little background to let you know that I can tell the difference between a chokudori and chokin’ the chicken. I do realize drivers in D1 are bar none the finest drifters in the world and that their surgical precision is beyond compare.

The talent of the D1 warriors notwithstanding, the simple fact of the matter is that at just about every circuit, the most severe casualties involve some fractured fiberglass or mangled sheetmetal. Even at Irwindale Speedway, where the threat of the Turn 1 infield wall looms large and imposing, the consequences of failure are not much greater than a totaled car. But drifting’s roots are far removed from a roundy-rounder’s oval track in SoCal. They go way back, and way up into the mountaintop roads of Japan.

Magic Mountains

It is upon one of these roads that I find myself propped precariously against a rusted metal guardrail. It is a steamy Sunday night in July, the hairpin corner is longer than it seems, and each lane is bike-path narrow. On the inside of the corner, the entry and exit points are blocked by the mountain itself, and on the outside (where I stand), the other side of the rail is cloaked in darkness. I wouldn’t have been so skittish had we not been here earlier in the day to “scout the location,” as our shooter/surf god Wes likes to say. In the daylight I could see over this rail and down into the sheer abyss that plummeted hundreds of feet beneath me. It was during this paralyzing moment of fear that I realized that D1 is for pussies.

If I haven’t already made it perfectly clear, I do understand the size of the talent and testicles required of a D1 driver. I also know that every one of these grand masters cut their teeth and their tires on the touge, or mountain pass roads, long before D1 was a sparkle in Keiichi’s eye. The touge is the essence of pure drifting; a circuit or a cone-lined parking lot cannot even compare.

This is where I should interrupt this story with a message from our in-house law firm of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe. In all seriousness, Super Street does not condone or support any illegal or illicit behavior on public roads that could pose a danger to yourself and others. If you want to drift, we strongly urge you to do it only in a controlled environment. During this night at the touge, we are only fulfilling a journalistic purpose in order to report this story to you, our readers. With that said, we now return to our regularly scheduled story already in progress.

Opps… drifting is art, so expect a few scribbles and thrown away sketches!

Touge Party

Our exhibitionists for the evening are the members of Team Slip Stream and Keita Tanigawa, who facilitated our invite. Keita-san is the owner of Avant Garde, a small tuning shop just outside Tokyo in Hachioji. The crew normally comes out later in the evening when traffic is less dense, but now the night is still very young. It would seem that Slip Stream’s favorite touge course is also a heavily trafficked two-lane connecting Hachioji with another town. Meandering Sunday drivers, commercial trucks, and everything in between snake past us from either direction on the winding road.

In typical Japanese fashion, Keita-san apologizes for the traffic and asks if we mind waiting. We don’t, but the opportunity to show off for the gaijin cameraman is too much for one Slip Streamer to bear. Team leader Sugita fires up his clean magenta 180SX and slides out of our rest stop base camp and into traffic. As we wait for Sugita’s return pass, it doesn’t look as if he’s going to be able to do anything because of the amount of innocents still on the road. Then, almost miraculously, the traffic coming from Sugita’s direction clears up. We hear the 180 winding through the gears, and just as he comes into view, Sugita’s back end comes around and he smacks the inside curb with his Kouki bumper. Fortunately, the damage is limited to a little paint and a little pride. We later learn that the shunt wasn’t from an error on Sugita’s part but because his flip-flop got trapped underneath the throttle. Flip-flops?! Flip-flops. On his return pass, Sugita carries even more speed as if to flaunt his defiance for the mountain that wounded his bumper. This time he carves a perfect arc around the corner and out of view–in your face, Japanese mountain!

As the traffic thins out, the other Slip Stream drifters get into the action with varying degrees of success. Somebody makes the ludicrous suggestion that I ride with Sugita to experience this whole touge thing firsthand. Self-preservation (read: cowardice), however, is one of my more endearing traits, so I sheepishly decline the offer, but my hosts insist that it’s not a big deal to take a passenger. Excuse me, but it’s a very big deal for this passenger. I ask if any of these nut jobs from Slip Stream have been here during the day to witness exactly how big the cliff is on the outside of this turn. I worry that my cries of protest have fallen on deaf ears, but then I realize that none of them speak English.

Right before I get into the car with Sugita, I decide to engage him (via a translator) with some small talk to lighten the mood and, more importantly, allay my fears. I ask Sugita why he likes touge drifting so much. “I used to drag race on Friday nights and drift on Saturday nights, and I felt more fear with the drifting. I like to scare myself. There is not that element of danger in circuit drifting. I like the danger.” Me, I’m more of a danger-light kind of guy.

Dude (Sugita) with Buddha, lots of love there! I wonder if the Bodisafa can drift?

Sugita also continues to tell me that he never worries about cars coming in the other direction on the touge. But what about accidents? Has he ever been in a bad accident? “Seven years ago I hit a semitruck in my 180,” Sugita recalls. “The car was totaled.”

All righty then, so much for my engaging small talk. As we blast up the narrow road, it’s obvious it will take an Austin Powers 17-point turn to change direction, and there’s still some oncoming traffic. I’m ready to call this game on account of rain, but for Sugita this is more nuisance than deal-breaker. He picks a gap and rotates the car with a quick 180 into the other lane through the perfect mix of parking brake, steering, throttle input, and finally a stab of the clutch to keep the engine revving. He holds his position and clicks on the hazards. The cars behind him wait patiently as harsh words, a horn, and a hand gesture are no doubt clear violations of the Japanese social order. Rikdaddy wouldn’t make it here a week before he’d have to choke a bitch.Once Sugita creates enough of a gap with his own private traffic break, he launches the car and winds it up to what looks like way too much speed for the corner. He seamlessly unweights the back end and hangs it only a few feet from the edge. He repeats this process more times than I like and I find myself wishing he’d worn his British Knights, or Chuck T’s, or whatever it is that’s en vogue for today’s outlaw drifter on the go. Anything but those damn flip-flops.

Group shot!

Real-World Rides
Not all drifters roll in rides as exotic as Nobuteru’s S15 or Ueno’s Soarer. Team Slip Stream’s cars are daily drivers, and they are proof that you don’t need big coin to go drifting. While we were with Team Slip Stream, Wes used his magic camera to shoot a few of Slip Stream’s cars. How do we know it’s a magic camera? Because Wesley’s snaps always come out better than ours. How else would you explain it? Oh yeah, we suck.

Once Sugita creates enough of a gap with his own private traffic break, he launches the car and winds it up to what looks like way too much speed for the corner. He seamlessly unweights the back end and hangs it only a few feet from the edge. He repeats this process more times than I like and I find myself wishing he’d worn his British Knights, or Chuck T’s, or whatever it is that’s en vogue for today’s outlaw drifter on the go. Anything but those damn flip-flops.

Assemble YOUR Crew
After sliding up and down the mountain for some time, we sat down with the men and women of Team Slip Stream. Yes, there are women in the club, in addition to a husband and wife who both drift with Slip Stream. Some members even bring their kids to the touge–family fun for everyone!

The crew was founded in 1988. Sugita was the second member, eventually taking it over from the founder. At first Slip Stream was a motorcycle gang, which is where the name came from. Later, everyone switched to cars and tried to emulate the tone of the motorcycle straight pipes. The only requirement for membership is that you come out to the touge every weekend. If you don’t come to the touge, you get kicked out of the club–simple.

Sugita tells me he’s been drifting for 13 years. He started out with a Toyota Levin, and he cultivated his skills with patience and a lot of practice. He also has some advice for would-be drifters. “At first you should find a wide-open area. Just practice in circles, and try to remember the feeling. When you first drift on the touge, don’t try every curve, just try every other one.”

Sugita also says he couldn’t care less about the D1, but one of the girls has visions of D1 greatness in her head because she wants to prove herself as a better driver than the guys. However, she is quick to point out that there is no oncoming traffic in D1. “If it is another drifter coming at me, then it does not affect me, but if a regular car comes, then I get scared because I cannot tell how they will react.”

Another female Slip Stream member is 26-year-old Makui. She’s been drifting for seven years, and her current ride is a 180SX. She also harbors dreams of becoming a D1 driver. Makui tells us the hardest part of drifting is doing her own maintenance. Makui must be getting good at the maintenance thing, considering she rolled her Hachi Roku five years ago and it probably took more than zip ties and JB Weld to fix that one.

Ichimi says he likes to go to the touge in order to release some tension after a bad day. He says that in order to do well at the touge, you have to get rid of the shock of getting sideways with oncoming traffic, but he also acknowledges the fear factor. “When a car comes from the other way I get scared, and sometimes when I try too hard to impress the gallery I scare myself,” says Ichimi. “But the scariest thing ever is our team leader, Sugita!”

Twenty-three-year-old Tomohiro was one of our favorites on this night. His beat-down FC3S looked like something Xzibit would push into West Coast Customs. For the most part, Hiro’s RX-7 is red with six different shades of primer spotted all over the body. The 13B has seen better days, but this bombastic beater made more passes than anyone else on this night.

Hiro has all of the molding equipment and tools to make his own parts. The thing that scares him most about an accident is figuring out where to get the money to fix the damage and replace the parts. Hiro has no aspirations for D1 greatness. “I would rather stick to the touge,” he said. “I don’t think D1 is any different than the touge. To me it’s the same. In D1 you have to go at a certain time. People decide when you drive, but at the touge you can decide for yourself. At touge you can go drift whenever you want.”

As much as we respected Sugita’s power and Hiro’s tenacity, they were no match for Inako. Our hormones were powerless against her charms. When she stepped out of her midnight-blue S14, she looked more like an F1 star’s trophy girlfriend. Like the touge, Inako is curvy in all the right places, and her tight white jeans stayed impossibly clean at our grungy pit-stop rest area. The 29-year-old hottie works in real estate, and aside from her car, nothing about her says, “touge drifter.”

But our doubts are shut down as soon as Inako starts ripping up and down the touge. Not only does she have the hottitude, but she’s also got mad skills to back it up. She’s been drifting for five years, and for three years before that she rode crotch rockets at the touge. She’s been in Slip Stream for two years and seems to have worked hard to earn her slot. “I’m friends with Sugita,” Inako tells us. “I wanted to be on the team for some time, and he only asked me to join Slip Stream two years ago.”

As much as she wanted to run with Slip Stream, Inako is a little more casual about her life as a touge drifter. She doesn’t see any differences between male and female drifters, and touge drifting is more of a hobby for her. Inako’s favorite part about it is the sheer convenience because the touge is only about 15 minutes away from her house. She doesn’t even want to move into the professional ranks. “I think the D1 gets too serious.”

Inako does have some words of encouragement for all of the would-be female drifters. “Being a girl, it is hard to get into drifting,” she says. “Don’t worry about your heart; just get in there and don’t be scared. Just keep going and work on improving. Don’t stop drifting. Even if you mess up, don’t worry; you’ll get it.”

Just don’t mess up too much at the touge because otherwise you’ll, um, die. You know, those parking lot drift events are looking that much better. It seems to me that cones cause less carnage than cliffs.

October 31st, 2009: It was wet most of the day. This is a short compilation of footage I grabbed. I hope you guys enjoy it. More good stuff at Southeastdrift.com. –Puregroove

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Southeast Drift spent Halloween at the all new Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga hosting “Drivers Only 3″. The facility is everything people have said it is. Perfect surface that gives stellar grip in wet and dry. With morning showers drying up in the afternoon drivers got a chance to really experience what the surface at GMP is like. The day was divided into 2 run groups of 10 drivers. Seat time was plentiful all day long. Course layout was changed throughout the day including flipping the entry and exit points to give an added challenge. We are very eager to get back to GMP to close our 2009 season with “Land of the Great” Nov. 28th.”

Let me tell you, having a full tank of gas and changing your fuel pump out is not the business. AT ALL!!! Like literally gas was at the tippy top of that bitch.

Whats funny was when I finally got the pump out of the car it looks like it was previously installed without the fuel pick up sock/filter.

Awesome, that is probably so good for my injectors =/

I took the car today to wax the wheels over at moms.

I should have purchased a clay bar, I left water spots on the wheels for too long and the barrels got a little nasty.

I’m no detailing expert to be honest, and I’ve never used a clay bar so that’s probably why I forgot to buy one.

I knew I needed it. Oh well.

I really love the fact that these wheels look like shit in pictures, it kind of reminds me of Forest Wangs S14 which also looks like shit in pictures, but in person.

WHOA MAN, BOW DOWN. I think he has since gotten rid of the Kouki front end and put a strawberry face on it…

if that is the case, props:retracted.

The wheels after being waxed actually look roma red from the honda civic color chart rather than candy apple red, but again I use a shitty point and shoot to take pictures of my car.

My neighbors came over and spent a good 20-30 minutes just staring at them going wow.

I then tell them you people hate them, and they’re like “ARE THEY CRAZY”.

To Each his own.

My brother also came through with my “VOLK” center cap stickers, I personally don’t like how they came out but they look pretty decent. (i know this does not make sense.)

If anyone knows someone from VOLK RACING/MACKIN INDUSTRIES who would be willing to sell me the new stickers for the GT LOW BLACK caps with the RED writing and not the GOLD writing, I would appreciate that.

Maybe even send you nudes of my girlfriend for your troubles??? Maybe nudes of me. haha j/k

Brother Bert said to wash the car since I had dust from the wax all over the car. It’s a bitch to get off if it dries.

He was right, it was a bitch to get off.

It’s probably EXCEEDINGLY hard to see this because again, point and shoot camera, but when the light isn’t shining down on the car like the clouds hate me.

You can see the weave too the hood ever so slightly. I thought that was neat since it wasn’t really intentional.

It doesn’t look all HOT IMPORT NIGHTS GAY like the people who purposely lay on a light ass coat of paint over a carbon hood.

I think the corner where the hood broke from the buffer gives away it was once carbon finished.

I think I got most of the white wax gunk out of the grille, I’m going to have to double back with cotton swabs and shit to make sure I get it all.

My brother said I should’ve paint matched the grill. I disagree, thoughts would be appreciated. All in all a few things need to be repainted (eventually).

I want/vs/need some kind of engine management and new intercooler pipes, and some new heater hoses because I smell a coolant leak but cannot find one.

I think it may be headgasket related. A compression check is a good idea I think, should probably do that sometime.

The car completely rips now, minus the leaking blow off valve and the tps sensor plug that comes loose anytime you need to move the ecu (godamn broken plugs)

I’m rambling, if you haven’t noticed.

I’m happy, going to hit up violent running zach to do his photo shoot of the car since SKYLAR (violent running squidd) has the aids, then mr. sureshot Alvendia hopefully can make some time for me.

Maybe Allen Chu can shoot the car and get that punch in the face he wanted.

Modified Magazine shoot goes down sometime next week, even if the car never makes it to print, I’m sure my buddy Nate will produce some sick ass flicks of the car for my personal enjoyment.

It’s not a show car, it’s a go car, I drive this on the streets, there is no daily, while some may think it’s stupid. It’s my choice.

I don’t drive like a complete asshole, and only boost on the freeway and maybe here and there. Turbo is fun, definitely a big change from the KA that previously occupied my engine bay.

-Wayne-

]]> http://www.violentrunning.squidd.org/news/2009/11/put-a-fork-in-it-this-build-thread-is-done/feed/ 8 http://www.violentrunning.squidd.org/news/2009/11/simone-panera-bread/ http://www.violentrunning.squidd.org/news/2009/11/simone-panera-bread/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:03:43 +0000 Wayne T. Edwards http://www.violentrunning.squidd.org/news/?p=1685

Posted…

Any photogs want to get your photoshoot on, holla at cha boi before the streets consume this beautiful Vertex Lang body kit lol.

My dinky ass cannon point and shoot cannot capture the flake in the paint or anything crazy so this is the jist of what I can share, the car is being buffed out right now, life decisions and shit being made with double sided tape.

Also if you guys remember or not I repaired my #62 ecu way back, blew the fuel pump circuit line. Turns out it took some resistors/capacitors with it too and was DUMPING fuel at idle, shit was running rich, boost was gayer than a tenis helmet.

The homie had a spare blacktop ecu laying around, threw it in, checked the codes. #55…

BACK IN THE BOOST GAME SON!!! shit walked on the mean streets of fontana today lol

Feels so good to drive, I had a cop roll up on me yesterday and then he pulled up to the side, checked the car out, nodded, and took off.

dope!

The DriftHustle team held a private drift session the day after halloween. For us living uphere in the chilly northeast it was probably the last drifting to be had for the entire season. Fun was had. There were plenty of sniffly noses and I got food poisoning from a Mcdonalds in the middle of nowhere. One driver smashed his oil pan off in the middle of the day. People pitched in removed the pan made a run to walmart and he was back up drifting. The footage is a little shaky as i didn’t use a tripod. I know i know what was I thinking. Hope you enjoy it.

Had the last little bit of drifting for the year up here on sunday. Another private track day at Adirondack International Speedway. Just me and some of the drift hustle Bros.

I would just like to state that the sky in this last picture and most of these pictures was not Photoshopped in anyway. Sun set up there was beautiful.

And stay tuned cause i spent most of the day taking HD video of this event so stay tuned for a video once its editted by my friend.

There are more pictures to be seen here:
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y80/eghatchattack/AIS2