2009 proved to be a very exciting year for D1. Youichi Imamura became the first driver to win two championships, his first back in 2003 behind the wheel of the Apexi RX-7. His Auto Produce Boss built S15, based on Yasuyuki Kazama's old 2005 championship winner car, allowed him to grab points consistently at each round allowing him to finish ahead
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
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
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
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
It seems every time D1 hits Ebisu circuit the weather has something in store for the drift crazy crowds that flock to this, the temple of drift. For the 2009 season opener we were all pretty lucky as the day was mostly sunny but there was a constant reminder that winter is not quite over up in the Fukushima mountains, as snow fell down lightly at times
Well here is my first contribution to Speedhunters , and it will have to be a bit of a short one I'm afraid. Sleep deprived and exhausted from what I can only describe as a pretty hectic week-end, I prepared some teaser shots from today's action at the D1-GP 2009 opening round in Ebisu. 2009 looks like a year for chance for D1 starting with
It honestly seems like it was just a few weeks ago that I was at Fuji Speedway covering the final round of the 2008 D1GP season, but it's already late March and the 2009 D1 Grand Prix season will begin this weekend at Ebisu Circuit. You can expect to see a lot of D1 coverage from Japan on Speedhunters this year, and we thought it would be a good
When it comes to Toyota drift cars, there's basically two paths. You have the light and nimble AE86 OR the big turbocharged monsters like the Chaser and Soarer. For this post I'll be paying tribute to the latter - the "big" Toyota drift cars seen in D1 Grand Prix competition over the past few years. When I say "big" Toyotas
I have a few more posts to go before I wrap up my blowout of Auto Salon coverage, and one of things I haven't covered yet are the D1GP demo runs held outside the Makuhari Messe all weekend long. They first started the D1 exhibition show last year, and judging by the huge crowd of people standing 10-deep trying to get a peek at the action, it's