Drift Tengoku — October 2013
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About this issue
188 available scans from Drift Tengoku — October 2013, in right-to-left reading order. Japanese OCR and English translation drafts are available throughout. Drafts have not received exhaustive image proofreading; unreadable source remains recorded in the archival data.
Page 129 — English draft translation
You can imagine how it might go, but would there be enough time to finish it for the September show if the work happened only at night after the day’s job? In early August, a photo arrived saying the engine was in and the rear suspension position had been set. I alerted the office that this was really happening. Then another photo came on August 25: “It moves now! I’m taking it to get the alignment checked.” We could not just ignore that, so we set a shoot date and succeeded in photographing the world’s first drifting New Beetle. Watching through the camera, I thought it looked easier to drive than the Pao. Most front-wheel-drive cars converted to rear-wheel drive keep their original front-drive handling, making it hard to hold angle and easy to spin. Maintaining a steady angle is difficult. This Beetle had none of those problems, and even though we shot in a parking lot, the session went smoothly.
Captions and page details
The pink-and-white two-tone paint honors the FR★EP “Tarett” project built by Drift Tengoku. The “KS” and “SILVIA” decals and playful emblem treatment complete the theme. The wheels are 17-inch, 9J with +17 offset at the front, and 10J at the rear with …
WAKOS
The build quality exceeds expectations! It might even be easier to drive than a Silvia!
Because it has a stock engine, it starts and idles like a normal car. The stock clutch makes takeoff smooth, and the power steering feels normal too.
The stock clutch makes it easy to pull away, and the power steering feels normal.
Even when making a large loop around the parking lot without drifting, there were no creaks or rattles at all.
That was a little moving. Even when I swung the steering wheel from side to side, it did not feel especially strange; in fact, the car felt light. Is that a benefit of the front-mid-engine layout?
When I tried a first-gear “manji” drift, I immediately realized, “This is an easy car to drive!” …
Maybe the solid-mounted subframes are responsible, but slide control is surprisingly good. It never feels as though it will spin unexpectedly. Even entering a long corner in second gear at full throttle with a long handbrake-style slide, the angle stays stable. The balance is good too.
There is one problem, though: forward visibility is terrible. The dashboard is so long …
Apart from that, it feels like a completely normal drift car. It may be easier to drive than a Silvia. The Pao was so quick that I had to concentrate on anticipating the countersteer to avoid spinning, but this car is manageable without that effort. A little more power would make it seriously fun!
… right? ♪
Maybe it was just a lucky miracle …
The stability is great!
When you apply countersteer, it just doesn’t spin at all.
I think so!
… isn’t it!
★J-ei★
WAKOS
SR20DET mounted longitudinally!
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