Adventures in Japan - Drift Trains & Tandems with Crazy Horse

So CTzens as some of you may know, I recently went to the Spring Matsuri at Ebisu Circuit in Japan. 2 weeks of non-stop drifting with friends from all over the world! They don’t call it the Drift Heaven Week for no reason!

I finally got round to writing the next story in my adventure series, so please, kick back, relax, and I promise you it was worth the wait.

This story begins on the last day of Golden Week in Japan (Golden Week is a 4 day holiday in Japan, it just so happened to fit perfectly with the weekend this year), this is important, because as you can see from the photos, I’m actually drifting! 2 awesome Japanese guys came to Ebisu with their DSLR and GoPro and took these amazing photos AND he made a video as well!

On this day me and the Crazy Horse boys from New Zealand were running trains and tandems on North Course. I’ll run you through the 4 cars that were going nuts that day:

1) Me - White S14a
2) Riki - Brown JZX90 Chaser
3) Dan - White JZX100 Mark II
4) Cory - White 180sx

We had quite an interesting mix of power and we all have the skill to run trains and manji the straight over the hill, so to say that we had an interesting day is definitely underselling it!

Out of all 4 of us, Riki is the best driver so we all saw him as the one to follow so we could learn his line and his speed. We would then mimic this so we can get the cleanest trains and once we had that down, run a few one-on-one tandems with Riki.

He taught us to take wide lines so when he does chase us he can get right up to our door (like the featured image). It is an insane feeling when you’re at the top of third gear, smoking your tyres while sideways and you look to your left and see another car right there next to you!

We would also go out for passenger rides in each other’s cars so we could experience each others lines and speed so during the trains we can trust each other more, seeing as my tyres exploded from my various smokescreens I decided to take a break and go out with Riki.

After a few laps I started to understand that all you need to do to chase is not hit the car in front of you (duh!) and just modulate the use of your handbrake and clutch as if you are drifting a course with lots of tricky corners.

I HAD to put on a fresh set of tyres after those passenger runs, then me and Riki killed it on our first run out! It was so good nailing the manji and the switch on camera, I’ve watched this clip over 100 times, it’s just so satisfying!

We then carried on close runs all the way around the corner! I’m at the top of third gear at this point, rev banging with a huge smile on my face! If I had a passenger they could’ve probably touched Riki’s car, unfortunately just before this run my seat belt bolt fell off and got lost in my car so no passengers this time.

I usually get really excited about these tandems and trains so at the end of the corner I usually create a smoke screen because it looks cool and have you heard the sound of an SR20 with a cut exhaust rev banging? SOO GOOD!

This is probably the reason why I went through so many sets of tyres, either way it was my last day drifting with the boys and we had to give the Japanese guys a show! When you’re in their country, doing their sport, and they decide to record you and your boys instead of everyone else, you go as hard as you can!

After the smoke show I jumped in with Cory in his 180 to see the difference between our cars. All I can say is there is a huge difference between our power, lock and handling. Cory has to drive this car really aggressively to keep it on power, he has to come over the hill sideways at a minimum of 110kph so that he has enough momentum to make it all the way down. This can lead to some very close calls!

Last but not least is Dan in the battle scarred Mark II (those scars came from Riki!). This car was originally a street car but she now has an awesome life as a drift car, no more shifts at 3k, rev bangs from now on! Dan was running a bit of a boost leak which meant he had to be as aggressive as Cory in the switches and initiations. However we only found the boost leak after Dan tried a “dirt drop”, I use the term dirt drop loosely as he done it where the concrete was missing on the track so once his tyre tried to come back up he completely cracked his subframe! It was funny watching him crab back to Powervehicles.

The Whole Squad at the entrance to Ebisu!

You may have noticed that I didn’t talk that much about our trains, but that’s because our Japanese friends made a VIDEO! My favourite part is when Riki and I take the wide line to get as close to the camera as possible on the flyby, let me know in the comments what you think of our style!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my Adventure in Japan Series! I’ve also included the rest of the photos in the gallery below. Enjoy!

The Guide to Having Your Own Adventure in Japan!
The Cars at Japan’s Nikko Circuit Open Drift Day
Japan Drift Matsuri Dates, Who Wants To Come With Me?
Adventures in Japan - The Daily Drifter S15
Adventures in Japan - The Salaryman’s S15