Battle Magazine — March 1997

At that first event, I felt relieved just to see another girl there with Ms. Yamamoto. Then I watched her drift unbelievably well. I could barely manage the first letter of the word “drift,” and I drove around in tears. Honestly, all I could feel then was frustration. After that I practiced like crazy. If I hadn’t seen Ms. Yamamoto drive, I probably would never have found the motivation to do anything. I’m still a beginner, but I want people to know there are girls working hard with her as their goal.

Apparently there are fewer police patrols now, which makes things easier for people who drive. Turbo cars especially seem to come into their own in this season—quite the opposite of motorcycles. Lately I can’t drive the mountain passes, so I’ve been showing up on the Shuto Expressway late at night. It’s incredible: another world from the mountain roads, with frightening courses, much higher speeds, and unbelievably fast cars. It’s so much fun to run flat-out alongside an R33 or R32, FC or FD. I love cars, and I’m driven by a mix of admiration, fear and not wanting to lose as we run together. Cars really are incredibly fast; it’s hard even to keep up with them.

Also, communication with people who drive cars has increased. On mountain roads there are more chances to talk, and many of them used to ride motorcycles, so they often welcome us into the group easily. The Shuto Expressway teams are a little harder to approach. Sometimes, though, you meet six-wheel enthusiasts who say, “I ride a ZZR too,” or people who like motorcycles as well. I can understand some of it—their spending habits may be different. But not everyone riding a motorcycle on the expressway is obsessed with the manga Kirin’s “I’ll never lose to four wheels” attitude. I hope people understand that. The cars on the Shuto Expressway are all incredibly fast and cool, and I think they have a different appeal from drift cars. To someone like me from the countryside of Gunma, they look especially cool…

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Ms. Miyuki Yamamoto seems to have fans all over Japan. She enjoys driving at a circuit about twice a month. When I saw her drive up close, all I could say was, “Amazing!” Her drifting technique is top-class. If you get a chance to see her, I think you’ll be impressed. Girls, keep drifting!

AE86 Levin

Chiba Prefecture / Navy-blue 180SX

▲ Maru-chan / Kochi Prefecture

I got an AE86!

Hello, everyone. I’m an ordinary college student who loves cars. My friends all seem to have their parents buy them cars, but my family isn’t wealthy, so I couldn’t bring myself to ask my parents to buy one for me…

So I worked part-time like crazy for about a year and finally got the AE86 I’d been dreaming of. I’m so happy… I’ll treasure it and keep driving it. If you’re saving money for a dream or goal, keep going!

That’s right—when you work hard to buy a car…

you know which matters more: the car you earned through a year of part-time work or one simply bought for you. Keep taking good care of your AE86.

Amazing!

My name is Kobayashi. I wrote about manners in the Skill Heart page in the December issue. Winter is really setting in, and riding my motorcycle is getting tough, so I envy car drivers. At my home course, motorcycles aren’t allowed, but drifting is really taking off…

Yamagata Prefecture / My Trueno

Noise Racing

Monkey Boy’s R

They told me the license-plate position was wrong, so I rewrote it. This time I wrote the wheels correctly. Is this okay?

Miyuki / Niigata Prefecture

Everyone has memories…

Everyone has a car they remember fondly. We’ll share those memories in the magazine.

That car from the past…

This is my first letter. The first car I drove was an SA22C RX-7.

A friend asked if I wanted to buy the car for ¥150,000. I had a license but had never owned a car, so I immediately said yes…

The day after I bought it, I went driving on the mountain roads with a friend’s CR-X (Ballade)…

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We went out driving, and it was so much fun we kept going day and night.

That’s why it happened. I like drift cars too, but I think Shuto Expressway machines are the cars truly born to pursue speed. The other day, I took a friend from the countryside onto the Shuto Expressway…

It’s hard to say exactly what I liked about that Seven,

but it certainly had little power, the power steering was broken and heavy, and the windows often fell down. Still, that car was my treasure.

▼ Kochi Prefecture / “Kochi’s Rain Cloud”

It was completely stock, with no modifications at all, but being a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive car…

I had to let it go for personal reasons, but I’d like to drive one again someday…

It was the car that taught me how much fun driving could be.

Chiba Prefecture / Rito fan

it was the car I wanted.

Battle Magazine — March 1997

About this issue

Page 71 — English draft translation