Before it became a national pastime in America and every other automaker turned it into a marketing tool, drifting was something of a forbidden fruit in Japan. Passionate drivers would gather at their favorite winding mountain road and practiced incredibly precise maneuvers, often at the risk of huge fines and jail time. Why? Because it game them a huge adrenaline rush.
It wasn't about having 800 horsepower and laying down huge clouds of smoke and rubber in front of huge crowds. Drifters were more concerned with coming as dangerously close as possible to the apex of the corner or in the case of a duel to the other car.
This next video shows the tradition of drifting is still going strong in the land of the rising sun. It reminds us of the Initial D series, except the passengers aren't throwing up. Instead, they are participants in this dangerous form of motorsport. The second time we watched this amazing video, we noticed that the passenger (left hand side, because this is Japan) is actually giving instructions to the pursuit driver to come closer. What showmanship!
This video is from 2013 but only now went viral. Youtuber Saturno Kiyoshi has many more like it though, featuring all the timeless classic cars. The second video we featured shows onboard footage from the Nissan Silvia S15. This shows just how much angle he gets. The white drift machine looks like it's been kissed a number of times on both doors and the rear bumper. In the drift scene, this is called a love tap, something adopted into many video game graphics systems.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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