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 7 — English draft translation
Some faces made us exclaim, “I can’t believe they’re here!” while others are still tearing around. Few people had drifted for a long time; everyone seems to keep driving at their own pace, and the AE86s really stood out. Some of the guys who once made a name for themselves in Tourer Vs have switched to AE86s. The saying that drifting begins and ends with the Hachiroku is not entirely wrong. Drift Tengoku believes it is important to know drifting’s roots. Ideas like “as long as you can drive, history does not matter” or “the present is everything” are not necessarily wrong, but you can discover a lot by learning about the people who made drifting so popular. Someone once said, “Drifting is culture, not motorsport.” We agree. Drift competitions and street drifting are both drifting. There are different styles within it, each with its own appeal.
Captions and page details
The Hachiroku expert once called “the Chairman” is still driving an AE86… and, as ever, was busy making repairs on site. The car was so loud that he kept driving, fitting a silencer, and repeating the process.
Hiroshi Takahashi (Running Free)
He is said to have led the many competing street-racing crews in Yamanashi.
Do you remember the old “Wandering Tuner” feature? The OCR then shifts into a badly damaged passage about the first leader of Dorian and something bought from Yamashita that day.
Koichi Yamashita (Running Free)
GDASS
denstey
He was active in D1GP and M… until quite recently, but lately he has stayed out of the spotlight. In D1, he is still working behind the scenes as driver Ueno’s spotter.
Hiroki Shimizu (Drift As…)
Don’t underestimate the old-school sand drifters!
When people talk about Chiba’s long-established team Kiwame, they say there may not be many members left now, but you still see Ishibashi at events such as Tsukuba’s front-runner class. Even a Cefiro with its factory bodywork has a cool, understated look.
Nikko: a landmark of the drift scene
…gathered at Nikko.
…too many.
Hiroshi Ishibashi (Kiwame)
A man who used to tear up the streets around Sagamihara—and still makes noise on a certain mountain pass. His pink metallic Aristo looks like a comfortable drift car that would turn heads.
He is famous as a D1 driver and came from Toyama’s notable team DP2. Even after moving to Kanagawa, he kept showing off his skills on the mountain roads for a while. He was known as an AE86 driver, but in recent years he has become a Silvia driver.
HoPalch
Kuniaki Takahashi (Naito Workers)
Hisashi Sugita (…)
Ken Maeda (DP2)
“The Kanagawa style was a boom they created. Tourer Vs and Aristos kept filling the pages. When Fujita bought a new JZX100, Kohama came along to help with the shoot, driving a JZX100 too. They even struck the same pose as back then!”
The “assassin” from Kobe is Nakaho of D-SIDE. Since he often appears among the front-runners at Tsukuba, he may not seem that nostalgic to this writer, but this was his first time driving at Nikko Circuit. A rare sight.
Still driving an AE86…
Ten years since then…
Masatoku Nakaho (D-SIDE)
Masahiro Fujita & Yoichi Kohama (Cool D)
Takahashi, now active in D1GP, was also one of the Naito Workers crew who used to liven up the wharves. We are used to seeing him, but he is a true legend.
Wait, isn’t that street photographer Kinu? You hardly ever see him at the circuit, but he always seems to sniff out stories like this!
The event’s well-known photographer, Mori…