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Posted
Oct 31 2009, 09:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 22 comment(s)
These are the posts I love the most, allowing readers to get a more down-to-earth look into companies and personalities. Away from the limelight it is always so refreshing to see just how normal people are and the guys at T&E were a great bunch to spend the best part of a day with. I dropped by their main shop in Yokohama to try to get a behind the scenes look at what is one of the most respected aero parts makers in Japan. The man behind it all is Takahiro Ueno, who currently drivers the 2JZ...
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Posted
Oct 28 2009, 05:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 19 comment(s)
It was hard to pick a second D1 driver to do a small retrospective on, following the post on Ueo's career as a professional drifter. There are just so many great drivers in Japan to choose from, but after much deliberation it just had to be Nobuteru Taniguchi. Taniguchi is one driver I have great respect for, having managed to build a racing career with his own two hands, starting off in small one make racing sereis making it all the way to Super GT. In fact as I write this he is preparing to...
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Posted
Oct 20 2009, 04:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 29 comment(s)
With the D1 Grand Prix all done for a good five months I thought it would be cool to take a look back over the last few years and more to the point at some of the top drifters that have participated in the Japanese drift championship. I've picked two names that are synonymous with D1, drivers that for some reason or another are no longer competing at a professional level in Japan. First up is Katsuhiro Ueo, in my opinion the best AE86 drifter out there... ...driver of the unmistakable Racing...
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Posted
Oct 16 2009, 07:15 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 8 comment(s)
The GP Sports kitted RSP13 from the D1 post seemed to go down well so I just prepared a wallpaper of it. You can grab the widescreen and standard resolution versions over on the desktops section. - Dino Dalle Carbonare
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Posted
Oct 13 2009, 11:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 19 comment(s)
I really can't believe how fast the D1 Grand Prix season has gone by this year. The new twin-round format certainly makes it seem that way, but at least every race weekend was jam-packed full of action for 2009. Round 8 ended with the drivers thanking the crowds for their continuous support, with Imamura, the new Champion, taking the lead in a big group bow. The drivers had provided the usual close racing during the Best 16, with plenty of close calls and tons of smoke like Inose with his Friends...
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Posted
Aug 31 2009, 03:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 20 comment(s)
This weekend was a busy one for the Japanese D1GP series with a two day "double-final" event at Ebisu Circuit. Normally Dino would be out there shooting for you guys, but since he's in Italy at the moment we'll have to improvise. Here are some photos from the weekend's action at the temple of drift. ...
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Posted
May 31 2009, 03:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 18 comment(s)
Before spending some time looking at the D1 Divisional Round in Mobara we were in the middle of last weekend's Tokyo Drift Exhibition coverage, held in Odaiba. To wrap things up I want to go back and check out some more action from this event, one that does a great job of promoting drifting to the masses. The House Nation Dancers where busy signing autographs and posing for pictures around the paddock for most of the day. It is exactly one year since DRoo-P introduced the Lexus SC drift machine...
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Posted
May 25 2009, 04:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 27 comment(s)
The Tokyo exhibition rounds have always been a great success for D1, attracting a great number of spectators, not to mention TV coverage. The TV Tokyo HD video cameras were set up around the temporary tack catching all the action from the week-end. After seeing Orido rip up the tarmac in Odaiba over the years, there was something not quite right with his driving yesterday as he was struggling to drift smoothly. It looks like more set-up work is needed to fine tune the NATS JZX161. He managed to make...
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Posted
May 24 2009, 09:10 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 24 comment(s)
I woke up this morning in a confused state, not having the faintest idea where I was. Looking around I soon realized I was back home in Japan, and after being here less than 24 hours I knew I had to get up and get myself down to Odaiba for the D1 Tokyo Drift Exhibition. After the Italian Speedhunting trip, I was beginning to miss the JDM side of things and I'm quite glad to be back. Nothing lets you know you are back in Japan like the smell of burnt rubber early in the morning! However there...
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Posted
May 12 2009, 03:00 AM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 58 comment(s)
It has seemed like so long since D1 was last in the United States. There have been many fans (including myself) that have relished the glory days of D1GP USA. Fans that have locked in their minds that those events were the best drift events ever put on in the states. Those were the days when the events actually counted as points towards the overall D1GP season. Many Japanese drivers attended the state side events because it really did matter that they came! Who can forget the hysterical screams from...
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Posted
Apr 28 2009, 08:12 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 11 comment(s)
Man, if only these guys had come out to the Red Bull event last November... I think we would have seen the greatest drift competition ever!... Oh well, for now we have to watch these shakey cam-corder videos... None-the-less you have to marvel as the madness of the Nomura's drift initations! Completely Jaw dropping....
:R
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Posted
Apr 27 2009, 11:32 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 18 comment(s)
If I look back on the days when I religiously watched Option videos, there's one particular volume that sticks out in my head - the one that covered the 2004 D1 round at Autopolis. There was just something about the high speed course that kept me glued to the TV the entire time through. I can't even recall how many times I watched that DVD, which featured drivers like Taniguchi, Miki, Ueo, and Kazama.
Compared to the other D1 courses of the time, Autopolis was a track that separated the men from the boys. It's entry speeds were incredibly high, and even if the drivers could survive the opening transition there was a good chance they'd get sucked into the sand pit next to the main corner. It's because of that event that I've always taken an interest in D1 events Autopolis. ...
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Posted
Apr 24 2009, 10:06 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 9 comment(s)
Was surprised how many people were interested in a desktop of Tanaka's old Tex Modify S15 Silvia. The hi-res and low-res versions are now available, so head to the Desktop section to grab them. Dino Dalle Carbonare
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Posted
Apr 24 2009, 02:05 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
What do you do when you need to get your drift car from one Japanese island to another?
You load it on a ferry of course.
Here we see Takahiro Ueno's BMW 3-series being loaded onto a ship for the journey to its competition debut at D1GP round two this weekend at Autopolis. ...
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Posted
Apr 22 2009, 07:57 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 22 comment(s)
There is no doubt that years ago D1 used to be a little more diversified when it came to venues. Looking at this years' schedule you will notice that they have decided to hold multiple rounds at Okayama, Fuji and Ebisu, in an attempt to slash costs for teams and to get a good spectator turn out. I guess it's a good idea in such hard times, but I can't help thinking back a few years when D1 hit tracks like Tsukuba, which we looked at yesterday , or probably my favorite, Sportsland Sugo...
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Posted
Apr 21 2009, 07:50 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 15 comment(s)
The first time I ever saw Japanese drifting in person, was at an event called GT Battle, held at Rockingham Circuit, UK in the summer of 2005. After watching a lot of JDM Options and reading any Japanese magazine I could get my hands on, I was pretty excited to see two D1GP icons on European soil. The event was held in preparation for the D1GP that would kick off later that year at Silverstone on the 2 nd of October 2005. In the morning we headed out to the circuit and there I saw the Kei Office...
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Posted
Apr 09 2009, 06:55 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 11 comment(s)
Let's face it, drifting wouldn't be half as fun without some proper tire smoke. As you can see from the opening shot above, taken back in 2007 at Suzuka, Ryoji Jinushi has no problem lighting them up with his 4-Real Works JZZ30. The candy green Soarer has been his car of choice since entering D1 at a professional level and ever since seeing it for the first time at Fuji, I knew I had to take a closer look. Jinushi-san started meddling in drifting during his mid twenties and as most people...
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Posted
Apr 07 2009, 01:45 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 14 comment(s)
Despite not being quite ready for competition yet, I thought you guys might like to take a little look at Ueno's ¥30 million D1-GP BMW project. Last month I dropped by the SUI•VAX workshop to take a few shots of the 3-series, which as you can see looked very much completed, aesthetically speaking. The project was based on a 320i, which was completely stripped down and build from the ground up. The body is custom made by the guys at T&E and features some pretty mean widened fenders...
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Posted
Apr 03 2009, 07:08 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 18 comment(s)
When Rod told me my first month here at Speedhunters would be a drift month, I was pretty excited. Over the years I have shot my fair share of drift specific cars, but in the last year or two it seems shops have just gone crazy. D1 is in the middle of a power war it seems, with the top teams coming up with more highly tuned engines every season. To keep up, smaller and less financially backed teams are doing the best they can, and one perfect example is the AWA Tire FD3S you see here. Jeroen did...
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Posted
Apr 01 2009, 10:11 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 21 comment(s)
There is so much stuff going on behind the scenes of a D1 event that it would be a real pity not to take a small look at the paddock area. So take a walk around with me as I show you some of the cooler stuff I saw at Ebisu this Sunday. The opening shot of the 1/10 scale HPI Racing RC drift car sitting right in front of its 1/1 scale big brother, is one I really enjoyed taking. The HPI staff saw me trying to get a good angle and helped me out by repositioning the car and dusting it off with a microfiber...
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