I want to get started on my Spotlights from the STF x All That Low ‘Drift Experience’ event with a car that instantly struck me as interesting. Honda S2000s are far more commonly found at grip-oriented events in Japan, so every time I see one built and used for drifting I’m always a little intrigued…
This particular AP1 fit the bill perfectly! Like many of the cars that were there on day, it served as a good example of not really needing to go overboard if you just want to have fun and slide around. So, on top of a drift-specific suspension setup and a few spare sets of wheels and tyres you’re pretty much ready to go with a package like this.
With these simple things in place – which results in an obvious drop in ride height and a more aggressive fitment – it’s often impressive to see how an otherwise stock-looking car can be visually transformed.
The owner of this car is clearly safety conscious and added a rollcage to address the fact that apart from the windscreen frame there’s not a lot to protect you if you have a rollover. A nice, deep bucket seat is a must for a drift car to make sure you don’t slide around too much, as are some additional gauges to keep an eye on engine temperatures and pressures.
The owner was looking pretty damn good out on the drenched track!
If you like the stock look, then this Silvia is another car that might interest you. Obviously it’s sitting on some proper adjustable coilovers and has the sort of fitment you would expect to see on a street-driven drift car.
But there was actually a little bit more to this S15 than first met the eye…
A quick peak under the bonnet and I instantly understood why there had been a constant crowd of people checking it out all day. The 1JZ swap – which was completed with help from the guys at STF – had just been finished and this was the car’s first on-track outing.
Call it a shakedown test to make sure that the whole conversion was working properly… It looked great out on track and sounded even better – or should I say different in an attempt not to anger any of you die-hard SR20 fans out there!
It did have a few minor issues that needed sorting out during the day, but everything was taken care of and the owner was able to hit the track a few more times.
Practice Makes Perfect
When Toyota and Subaru joined forces and came up with the ZN6/ZC6, satisfying real driving enthusiasts was one of their main aims. By this I mean the kind of guy that packs a spare set of wheels/tyres in the car, a few basic tools and hits his local track on his day off. This was actually something the two manufacturers researched during the early development stages of the car, and one of the reasons why the rear seats fold down to easily accommodate four tyre-fitted wheels.
So it was quite cool seeing a BRZ out there and being used in this way.
Smaller tyres are cheaper of course, so it’s not surprising to see the car riding on some 16-inch SSRs fitted with some pretty generic-looking rubber. The brakes had been upgraded with Impreza GC front calipers, which despite being decades old now are still a great and affordable upgrade for any new-gen Subaru.
This is what it’s all about! Getting out there and having fun, and finding out what your car does at the limits of grip.
And… over it too! Spinning is, of course, part of it as well. Because, in finding out when the tyres are finally going to let go and learning how to use throttle and steering inputs to hold the car in a controlled slide, it all comes with the territory.
The 1JZ motor powered a number of Toyota sedans and coupes back in the day, and as we saw in the first chapter it often gets mixed and matched with a variety of other chassis. But here is one car it actually belongs in: a JZX100 Cresta.
Visually this thing looked pretty imposing – the already-wider aftermarket aero fenders fitted with additional flares to help contain RAYS Gram Lights 57XX wheels with some pretty aggressive offsets.
A few basic modifications, like a hard pipe kit and an induction upgrade, are necessary additions when you up the boost on these engines. A thicker radiator is also a good idea when you put the car through extended periods of abuse out on the track. This car even has a swirl pot to help separate the air that will generate in the coolant once the temperatures rise and it starts boiling!
On top of the aero package there are also additional under-skirts both at the front and on the sides – a very common addition on drift cars of any type in Japan.
A much less common sight than the Chasers and Mark IIs that share the same chassis, it looked really good out on the Fuji Drift Course.
This S15 from Jack Racing is pretty much a fully-fledged drift car, having given up its road registration and number plate for a more extreme setup.
There’s been a lot of work put into this car to make it unique, and that includes a widebody conversion that also gently blisters the rear guards. I quite like the centre-exit exhaust – it’s something you rarely see on S15s for the simple fact that unless you cut up the chassis and trunk floor there is just not enough space under there to route a couple of pipes! I won’t comment on the scissor doors, but you either like them or you don’t…
When I asked the owner if I could see the engine, he had to pull on this stealth release cable to open it up.
Hiding underneath the carbon vented bonnet was an SR20 with a textbook 400hp setup – the perfect amount of power to have some decent fun with.
This was one of the best-driven cars out that day – even if it looked like the driver was only using half of the available power due to the super-slippery surface.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into another angle of the Japanese grassroots drift scene – something that is to me, the most appealing of the whole movement!
Dino Dalle Carbonare
Instagram: speedhunters_dino
dino@speedhunters.com