2nd DoriTen of the year 2000, let’s get into it!!

Yashio Factory ad

Right away at the start of the magazine, we got a full spread Yashio Factory ad.

Yashio Factory, owned by Okamura Kazuyoshu, also known as Oka-Chan. Is a super well known S chassis tuning shop. They were very well associated with NOB and HKS, tuning both drift and racing machines to high level competition standards.

This as is a pretty early one, before their aero line up was developed, but we can see a few of their other iconic parts like the radiators and exhaust manifold.

The Emperor’s 180sx Development

We got a very juicy one right here. In late 1999, Koguchi took his black 180 and tore it completely apart, and started rebuilding it from the ground up with a very unique goal.

Let’s see what the magazine has to say about it.

“Yoshinori Koguchi and his beloved 180SX have been the inspiration and goal of many drifters over the past few years. His influence on technique is immeasurable, from clutch kicks at super high speeds to super long three swing (mangi/sanpatsu) initiations. Attention naturally focused on the unique machine setup that supported his exceptional driving. As countless drifters emerged, lots of them wanted to at least copy his look. Even the pros of today have undoubtedly been influenced by him, tangibly and intangibly, though they may not say so aloud.

The list of parts popularized by Koguchi and his 180SX is endless.

He made mesh wheels with deep dish in chrome a staple. His influence also led to stainless steel exhaust pipes becoming more popular than turbo swaps, simply because ‘the sound is cool.’ Furthermore, his choice of aero parts and hood ducts, and general exterior styling of course, but also his extremely low ride height, body color, and even sticker placement were considered cool, it drove all the aero part shops crazy trying to keep up with the trends. It wasn’t just street racers anymore; the entire industry watched his every move, eager to spot the next trend before it hit.

Then, in 2000, the 180SX—which had undergone countless spec changes, each drawing attention—was finally in transition for its ultimate evolution.”

“In his own words: ‘I’m building the ultimate 180SX, one that can beat any new car model. Not just in drifting, but a perfect machine that can win races too. I refuse to be told that just because it’s a drift car, it can only slide sideways. Even if it’s Time Attack racings, we want to build a car that can knock your head off,’ he says, his approach is more serious than ever before. Work is currently progressing at a frantic pace as they gear up for the full-scale launch this spring.

The main modifications appear to focus on optimizing weight distribution, starting with the engine’s mounting position. While details remain unclear at this stage, it seems the build will pursue maximum weight reduction and traction. The engine and drivetrain undoubtedly feature some form of reinforcement as well.

Just how much untapped potential lies within? and what kind of driving performance will emerge from it? Anticipation is bound to rise. It’s entirely plausible that we’ll witness unprecedented, next-level techniques. Drift Tengoku plans to cover it thoroughly eventually, but what’s even more exciting is the new drift specs that will surely be influenced and born from this. What methods will rivals, aiming to “catch up to and overtake the old guard,” employ to challenge it?

This will undoubtedly fuel the drift scene’s escalating heat as we head into the 21st century.”

I can’t imagine how exciting it probably was to see this happening in real time. Or even better, be part of of building it! The car would be covered again on DoriTen and other publications once completed, and we will get to it in a later issue coverage!

A brief side note, that might will be relevant for a future project I’m working on, the car from the info and photos I could gather, is being built at a shop called “Racing Service MAX” although not mentioned in this article, the background in the pictures matches what I believe the shop looks like.

Aero Expert, Master of FRP

Here we got two pretty wild 180s, custom bodywork, aero, and small wheels. I was not super familiar with the shop Dream racing till I read this article.

The jest is as follows, “Seki-kun” of Dream racing could not find an aero kit that suited the style he aimed for. So, he took it upon himself to make it.

All the aero parts on his 180sx are his own creation, the bumper, fenders, ducts, all of it. All of it is made out of FRP molds like most aero parts. The idea started when he worked part time at an aero manufacture which made him think “I could do that myself”

He says it was easier said than done, he’s made lots of mistakes along the way, and learnt a valuable lesson from each one. “I don’t know how many times I failed to get to this point. There are still many things I don’t understand. FRP is very complex,” says Seki-kun.

He made front and rear fenders 40mm-50mm wider than factory, back in the day that was considered huge! This guy was a widebody fanatic.

It’s pretty cool to see how determined some people are when it comes to building their cars, making your own aero is pretty up there for DIY projects.

Kei car drifting?!

I thought this was a new age thing, once cars got expensive and drifting became a less common hobby. Guess not?

They didn’t use pcd pipes yet, but they swung those things around no problem it seems. I enjoy watching the Noriyaro YouTube videos and Jesse Streeter IG clips of them drifting these, recommend checking them out lol.

Hiroshi Takahashi: a Roadside Repairs Master!

Hiroshi Takahashi of Running Free gives us all a look at how he manages to get his car working, no matter what mishap arises!

“What would you do if you got stranded with major mechanical trouble at a circuit far from home, or on a mountain pass in the dead of night? Try to fix it yourself with tools on hand? Or just give up and call a tow truck? This guy, Hiroshi Takahashi, is incredibly skilled in such emergencies. After all, he’s broken down on the road countless times, so his troubleshooting skills are sublime! He’s a man who simply never needs a tow truck.”

“He serves as the captain of the Running Free Pier Division and is currently the AE86 Club chairman, a niche organization known only to true enthusiasts. With seven years of AE86 experience, he demonstrated his innate mechanical passion by overhauling an engine in a dirt field on the day of the interview. He is employed by Toyota Technocraft.”

“‘Since you’re going to the trouble of going out for a drive, don’t you want to drive until you’re completely satisfied? That’s why tools and spare parts are essential. So you can fix things right away if something breaks. Though, in my case, I guess I take it a bit more seriously than most…’ He is none other than the legendary, ultra super heavyweight master of on the spot repairs, known only to those in the know. (lol)

His beloved Trueno is a drift car that races all over the country, from docks to mountain passes to circuits. His motto is driving with more passion than anyone else, which means trouble always arises, starting with crashes. Consequently, the number of breakdowns he’s experienced, engine failures, differential explosions, blown struts, all countless. Combined, these incidents number in the hundreds, big and small.

Yet, no matter what trouble he faces, he remains unfazed and cool headed. He always fixes it on the spot, ensuring the car can drive away. He’s beyond just great… he’s legendary! Being mechanically skilled alone isn’t that unusual. What makes him truly great is that he always carries the necessary tools and parts in his car.

You might think, ‘Oh, that’s it?’ But how many people you know load spare differentials, transmissions, or even a welder into their car every time they go for a drive? Exactly. His car is also the ultimate support vehicle. No, at this level, should we call it a mobile open air repair shop since he doesn’t have a fixed garage??”

“The equipment in the car is seriously no joke. It’s packed to the brim with tools and parts, as if to say, ‘Here’s more!’

Beyond the standard hand tool set and fluids, there are specialized tools like torque wrenches, thickness gauges, dial gauges, and sliding hammers. As for spare parts, it’s got steering knuckles, clutch discs, differential assemblies, fuel pumps, every type of engine and coolant gasket, etc. Plus, it’s equipped with power tools like grinders and drills, making it practically a mini specialty shop! You can be sure it has everything needed to work on an AE86.

It’s practically a mini specialty shop! You can count on having everything you need to tinker with your AE86 perfectly covered. Add a spare tires to this setup, and you’re finally ready to head out to the track.

‘Even if it breaks down, you can’t do anything without parts, right? That’s why it always ends up like this. People tend to think I’m ‘someone who loves fixing things’ because I’m always tinkering with cars, but that’s absolutely not the case. I only do it because I have to. I don’t want to fix things!!’ That’s his complaint.

Saying, ‘at the same time you visited me for this the interview, I was entrusted with an AE86 with engine trouble. Under a cold sky and threatening snow, I was in the middle of a full disassembly and overhaul, in a gravel parking lot. If people saw me like this, even if I say I hate repairs, no one would believe me, right!??’”

Hiroshi would carry with him all the following:

-Essential items for street racers

“Tow ropes, jump cords, and even a triangular sign and a bodywork hammer are all must have items for street racers. But how many people bring rubber rings for seating tires? (The thing you use to fill the gap when inflating the tire)

-Emergency response supplies

“The car is packed with loads of gear, including a differential that is always ready to go! And a sliding hammer is essential when removing the drive shafts. Naturally, a spare drive shaft is also included!”

-The main tool box

“You can see that there are quite a lot of essential tools. Socket wrenches and open end wrenches are basic, but even pulley pullers and dial gauges are included, which is impressive!”

-Common necessities

“These are essential items for outdoor work, such as insect repellent and waterproof spray. These items are in the same bag, but is there any significance to storing brake pads and insect repellent spray together? Is Eight-Four considered common necessity?” (Eight-four is a Japanese deodorant lol)

-Replacement parts

“Apparently, he’ll use this disassembled coilover strut as a replacement for the one he’s currently using if it breaks. Repairs require welding, but he says, ‘I have welding rods, so I can fix it anywhere if you can borrow a welding machine.’ Of course, the clutch plate is also there in case of an emergency.”

-Electrical related equipment

“This corner is stocked with maintenance manuals, connectors, sanders, drills, and other items. It seems to be able to handle any situation, including special solder that hardens with the heat of a lighter and cotter pins of various sizes. All of these items are stored in compact boxes, categorized.”

-Consumables

“Not only new tie rods and clutch forks, but new of almost every part and type of gasket the car uses. Even a new water pump, showing just how thorough he is. And also a flashlight mount to a headband, which is hilarious.”

Naturally, Hiroshi has he’s fair share of breakdown stories, he was gracious enough to share a few, here they are:

1-Differential replacement at a highway rest area.

“This happened on the weekend at midnight, while I was on the way to the Freeport Pier on the Shuto Expressway. After making sure there were no other cars around, I boldly attempted to drift on the Shuto Expressway. (?!?) As a result, for some reason, the differential blew out. I quickly made a pit stop at Yoyogi Parking and replaced the differential with one I had with me there, despite being looked at strangely by other cars and taxis. After that, I drove to the pier and drifted as usual. A big amount of differential oil stains remained at Yoyogi Parking… The replacement took about two hours”

2-Welding coilovers at Mu-Circuit

“A long time ago, at Mu Circuit in Tochigi Prefecture, I was driving with too much energy, as a result, the front left strut snapped. Unconcerned, I took out the melting iron I had prepared in advance and, using a welding machine borrowed from the circuit, I completely repaired it. The job took just 30 minutes. Needless to say, I was able to return to the rest of the driving without any problems.”

3-Wheel damage at Ebisu Circuit

“This happened on the Ebisu Circuit South Course. The front wheel (Watanabe) got damaged when it got caught on a curb. I immediately took out the wheel that I had broken previously and cut it into pieces with a grinder borrowed from K-style, the broken part was joined by argon welding and the repair was completed in an hour. ‘Watanabe is convenient because it can be restored,’-he says casually.”

4-building a spare car and driving it to events

“’Various tools, a large number of spare parts, and spare tires… Realizing that there were limits to what I could carry in my car, I decided to build another AE86 with almost the same specs as my beloved car. This car, named the “T Car,” was painted in almost the same body color as my main car, and was driven by a friend when I took part in track days. Of course, the “T Car” never raced on the circuit, but was used primarily as a parts warehouse and spare parts car.’ -Apparently he was prepared to replace the body if necessary!?”

5-Near disaster on the highway!

“On the Chuo Expressway on the way back from Rally Kids Ina. After a successful event, the car was heading home in high spirits when suddenly the engine stalled. Hastily, I parked the car on the side of the road and peered into the engine compartment with a flashlight. However, the Chuo Expressway was pitch black. A large truck would come blazing by almost crashing into the 86. Had I been unlucky, it could have led to a major accident. Since that incident, a triangular signboard has become a must-have item! The engine stall was caused by a faulty earth.”

Eyewitness say:

“That guy’s interesting because he’ll try anything. Like using a driveshaft instead of a horse(hammer?), or welding a cracked wheel back together. Anyway, he piles way too much stuff into his car. When we first met him, we used to make fun of him, but we soon started copying . He’s a skilled driver too, he’s the poster child for AE86 drivers. And oh yeah, if you see his headlights on the course, you better move. He’ll chase you down until you’re wrecked. ‘When the Chairman turns on his lights, it’s bad news’ that’s kind of a famous story around Ebisu.” -Ebisu Circuit Manager Kumakubo

“He’s just a guy who loves working, you know? When we go to the circuit, we often end up together, but the chairman always takes up two pit spaces. Not to park cars, mind you—the whole place gets packed full of gear! The year before last, when we went on an expedition to Tokachi, he was all fired up about ‘taking a spare engine in the passenger seat.’ When I’m traveling with that guy, I can get away with bringing almost nothing.”-Rough World Tanaka-kun

This article might be one of the funniest ones I’ve come across yet. The absurdity of it, the amount of energy and passion it takes to do all that?! Incredible.

I love how Hiroshi mentioned he doesn’t like working on cars, but does it because he has to, and then Tanaka says “he’s just a guy that loves working“ lol

It’s clear that he values driving so much, nothing can stand in his way, and he’s willing to do that for others too. Track side repairs truly separate the strong willed enthusiast from the common track day attendee.

Loved reading this!

The Downhill Queen

Yumi Ito, 24 years old, living in Okayama Prefecture is a downhill touge specialist.

Her home is near a touge pass, so naturally; she learnt all her driving techniques on the street.

She progressively started attacking the uphill, and once confident enough, the downhill. “It’s not that I aimed to get good at driving downhills, but with the Hachiroku, it’s all you can do. And it takes guts.” She says.

She is known locally to be pull off incredibly fast drift, but continues to train often so she can take her skills to the track.

From the article:

“The most distinctive feature of her driving style is that she traces the line as if it were flowing. She picks up plenty of speed, brakes to decide the line when entering, and then just goes full throttle! Her turnaround is also smooth, and she accelerates as she gets out of the apex, aiming for the very edge of the road. The distance is probably less than 10 centimeters. ‘I could do a dirt drop if I wanted to… would you like to see it?’ she said”

86s craft real skill out of drivers, doesn’t matter who you are. If you can drive one fast you can probably drive anything fast. Everyone should strive to drive like how an 86 driver does.

Low R chassis tips

When it comes to low cars, a few chassis come to mind as the easiest to lower. Skylines aren’t one of them. Mostly due to the front suspension setup being Double Wish Bone. Shintaro Yagi here wanted to prove to everyone that it is in fact possible to lower an R chassis and still have it drive good.

His main inspiration is obviously some of the S chassis driver such as Koguchi, and so he purses both style and driving performance. He’s had plenty of success in Ikaten competitions. And also bouts about having one of the lowest skylines.

Why do skylines have trouble being low? Well, it’s because of the double wish bone design as stated before, it means there is an extra control arm at the top, connected to spindle esk arm. As the suspension compresses, the upper control arm moves upwards along with spindle. Since the upper is the highest point in the suspension setup that does not compress. It starts to interfere with the strut tower. For some cars it might just be light tap, others it just bashes into it at the slights bump. Either way, it’s bad.

So, what can be done to combat this? A few things, easiest being aftermarket uppers arms, shorter ones to be exact. They’ll give you more room, but if you go low enough you’ll eventually encounter the same problem. Alternatively, you could just cut a big hole in your strut tower for the arm to pass through, it’s a pretty good solution if you can live with it. But it’s not exactly ideal when it comes to structural rigidity.

But what Shintaro did, would be considered by most the “right” way to do it.

“Apparently, all of the arms in this area on the Skyline GT-R Group A cars are redesigned. That’s why they can run fast even though they’re that low. Well, I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I tried various things to get as close as possible.“ Both the 3rd link arm, and upper arm are cut by around 25mm, paired with Ikeya formula coilovers. The low ride hight was achieved.

Take tips skyline owners, go grab a grinder, welder and go to town!

150 Wheels after 7 Years of Collecting !

We got what I aim to achieve one day haha.

This dude, got almost every single cool small wheel. Wats, MK2s, Longchamps, and many more. Over 150 wheels! “As I gradually collect more and more, I get the urge to buy wheels even if I don’t really want them, and I end up buying them before I know it. Even if it’s just one. With this many, if I buy even one, I’m sure I’ll find at least one wheel with the same rim width and offset when I search through my stock. Plus, if it’s a rare wheel, there might be someone willing to trade it for another wheel, and now I just can’t stop!!”

What a problem to have lol

Coilover Review by B’Club Member

Noboru Saito of B’club gives a quick review on the Cusco Comp S coilovers. Seems like they aren’t Shakotan spec haha.

This car, driven by a different person. Would be featured in one of my favorite articles. Which I plan covering in the next post I make. So look forward to that.

Masa Motor Sports & G-Grow ads

Masa is another OG parts shops that would develop some of their own products as well, such as exhaust manifolds and unique front end conversion aero. Most notable for sponsoring Itai Teruaki and his blue 180sx in 2001, and being part of the N.O.L.S.D drift team.

G-Grow I’ve talked about before, but I love them so might as well include the ad. It’s the same as ad in the previous issue so nothing new to note.

TEC-ART’S & Mythos ads

TEC-ART’s is yet another og (almost every shop worth covering is og in some sense Iol) shop that was an 86 specialist, I believe they’ve been taking care of Keiichi Tsuchiya personal 86 for years. They’ve built plenty of iconic 86s and if you’re an 86 person there isn’t much for me to teach you.

Mythos on the other hand… no clue haha. Never heard or seen them before, aero company with a few kits. The JZX90 kit looked cool enough for me to scan. Mostly because of the Group A vent in the bumper, although it’s well known today for being in the Hot Road 180sx bumper. It’s originally a group A A70 Supra vent! The more you know.

Expert-OZ & Garage S ads

Expert OZ , legendary 86 heavy hitters. I learnt from this ad that they made 180 aero! I didn’t know they made aero or other parts for different cars. So pretty cool to see. They got JZX90/100 aero as well. The 180s have a RUNNING FREE banner as well and I don’t remember seeing a team member with a 180. Regardless it looks pretty sick!

Garage S, to be honest I’m only familiar with the due to the cool hoods they made. Their 180/S13/S14 hoods are very sought after nowadays, the shop is owned by D1 driver Seigo Yamamoto and seems to have been more aero oriented, but also a part dealers for a few brands.

Koguchi’s Monthly Column

The pursuit of fast drifting means battling overheating!

“The Koguchi 180SX is currently undergoing extensive modifications in preparation for its exhibition at the Tokyo Auto Salon in December. Aiming to be the “world’s best 180SX,” the car has undergone unimaginable super tuning, from the body to the engine! We’re sure it will be a jaw dropping sight when it makes its appearance, so please look forward to it!”

“When I think back, I’ve done lots of upgrades and tried lots of different things. But it seems like there’s always room to improve the cooling!?” -Koguchi

“I first started having trouble with rising water temperatures after I blew up my stock engine. That was after I restored it and installed an S14 turbo.

When I turn on the air conditioner and let the car idle in summer, the water temperature gradually rises. If I keep driving under these conditions, it would overheat quickly, so I thought I had to do something about it. So I replaced the radiator with an early model S14 one. It’s a little bigger than the original 180SX one. It was about 40,000 yen new. I thought this would be perfect, but I was wrong. It just made the overheating slightly slower. And it would still gradually increase temperature when idling.

What I thought about at this point, ‘The fan doesn’t spin fast enough when idling, so it’s not pulling in enough air.’ It’s not that the original coupling fan was bad, but at the time I was suspicious of it, so I discarded it and tried an electric fan like the ones in racing cars. I put in two FF ones (Civic, I think) that I found at a junkyard! As expected, the temperature went down. I was overjoyed that it was fine no matter how long I let it idle. But sadly, that joy didn’t last long.”

“As expected, under harsh driving conditions, the water temperature would still rise. My next thought was ‘maybe the air is coming in, but has no way to go out?’

Thats when I decided to add in bumper and hood vents which became an iconic part of the 180sx look. Around the same time I began noticing the connection between oil and water temperature. My 180sx originally came equipped with a small ‘inspection compliant’ oil cooler, it was small but came with an oil temperature gauge. So I kept an eye on it and would occasionally see it raise up to 120C°.

The stock water temperature gauge would start moving at around 100C°. So I decided to lower the oil temperature, by replacing the oil cooler with a Trust 16 row one. This seemed to have a significant effect, and I was able to drive for a while without worrying about overheating.

But I was wrong to think that I was safe! My overheating problems were about to become more serious. Around that time, my driving pace had increased dramatically and I was spending a lot more time on the accelerator. This was around the time when it was popular to run three laps around the East Course at Ebisu or one complete lap around Nikko Circuit.

I’ve been trying all sorts of things day and night. I’ve replaced the water pump and pulley, and even branched off a line from the heater core to circulate it. Lately, I’ve been so focused on preventing cavitation. So much so that I’ve been very particular about bleeding the coolant, and I even made a special valve to efficiently bleed the air out.

As a last resort, I’m even planning to make major changes to the position of the radiator and intercooler to take into account the wind. In any case, I honestly feel that there is no end to cooling tuning”

Koguchi would go on to explain a few different cooling methods he’s been working on. One of them is replacing the blades in the S13 SR water pump with a Pulsar one. He’d end up using an upgraded JUN pump (discontinued afaik) so the pulsar pump might be a viable option today.

Reliable gauges are also important he mentioned, the stock ones aren’t sensitive to heat change, so aftermarket ones are necessary so you can keep an eye on the temperature at all times. He keeps an eye on oil temp till it gets to 110°, after that he keeps an eye on the water temp. Once the water gets to 110° it’s dangerous territory and is time to pull out.

Having the heater on is also another tip, it’s basically like adding more volume to the cooling system by having water flow through it.

“This photo was taken a while ago, but using an electric fan frees up space around the radiator, making it much easier to work with. The pulley where the coupling fan was attached has been replaced with a large-diameter JUN pulley. By reducing the pump’s rotation speed, it helps prevent the coolant from bubbling.”

Driving until it starts to get hot is okay, just need to know when to stop and take a break. Adjusting your driving style can allow you to drive for longer. Pushing where it’s necessary to do so, and taking it easy to keep things cool when possible.

FF ZONE

FWD cars drifting?!?

It’s a thing… on the streets and on track, interesting to see. Especially the Daihatsu “Today” lol! Would be super unexpected to see that thing coming around the touge at full speed haha.

Balancing Working and Drifting

Even at the cost of their jobs, these men made all their choices so they could compete!

“Would you believe me if I told you I quit my job four times just to compete in Ikaten?” -Front Row’s Ryota Yuasa

He continues on “My hobby is drifting. So of course, the Ikaten competitions are important events for me, and I often take time off work to participate in them. as you’d expect, as I keep doing that, the places I work for aren’t as thrilled. That’s why I end up changing jobs so many times because of drifting.

I find that jobs are plentiful if you look for them. But there are only a handful of chances to participate in drifting competitions, the entrance criteries are tough as well… just wanting to participate isn’t enough.”

“I work in order to drift, so if can’t do it because of work, I’ll just quit and look for a new job.”

“I’ve quit my job five times in order to drift… I just want to spend my money on cars”-Douraku GROUP’s Takeshi Takahashi

“The ‘work life balance’ people speak of… seems simple to most but is actually quite difficult.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I work so I can pursue my hobby of drifting. I make money so I can spend it on my car. It’s an unavoidable situation, so getting a good job became a goal of mine.

I’m currently working as a truck driver, it’s not an easy job by any means. But if you choose an easy job, the pay won’t be as good. It’s only natural. There’s nothing worse than not being able to spend money on gas or parts. So there always needs to be a compromise, that’s the tough part.”

“By the way, when I participated in the last Ikaten, I didn’t have a job then, so I didn’t have to worry about things like paid leave, or waking up early before/after the event. I think that allowed me to relax and win.”

“I work till the very last minute” – Night-Zone’s Akinori Utsumi

“I once really wanted to take part in an Ikaten competition, so I managed to get off work l by pretending it was a relative’s wedding , I wondered if that was a bad idea. But I thought I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t go and compete, so I took the risk and managed to get time off, it turned out to be a good thing because I won that event!

Usually I only get Tuesdays off work, but even so I always go racing on the weekends, even if I have work the next day. There’s always a lot of cars so it’s exciting.

Since I have my days off on weekdays, it’s hard to take time off on Saturdays and Sundays when there are lots of driving events and competitions. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to attend a memorial services for relative *he laughs.

It’s true that it’s difficult to balance work and drifting, but it all depends on your motivation. For example, and this is just my opinion, I don’t think anyone would complain if someone who does their job well took a sudden day off once or twice. It depends on the time of year, though too.”

I relate with this on a smaller level. I’m not a competitive drifter or anything. But I live to enjoy this hobby, not much else brings me as much joy to be honest. But life isn’t all fun and games and every now and then you have to “lock in” as they say. It’s hard. I catch myself thinking about what kind of career I want to pursue and if I can fit my lifestyle into it. It can get overwhelming at times, not knowing what you want to do and how you’re going to do it. But you just have to keep on keeping on.

Ikeya Formula ad

I think, with almost complete certainty, that Ikeya Formula is my favorite Japanese brand. If not that then it’s top 5 at least. There are too many cool ones for me to make such a bald claim.

My favorite part of performance tuning is suspension stuff, and they specialize in exactly that. They pretty much make THE BEST aftermarket arms. Fully street legal and inspection compliant, you know they mean business. But that’s not just it, they built sick cars too, their most well known demo car is this 180sx in the ad. It has a few things you could say are unique. I’d love to go over them now, but I have a different magazine issue with a feature on the car, so I’ll leave it till then.

Instead let’s take a look at some of the cool stuff they had for sale back in 2000. Their coilovers although sadly no longer available today, seem to have been all the rage back then, they had a model where you could adjust the ride height at the top of the strut! Looked absolutely wild and cool!!

The arms are always in their signature Zinc gold, the demo license plates are so sick too, wish I could find one for my car.

I definitely 100% plan on doing some sort of deep dive into Ikeya Formula at some point.

Ebisu Circuit & K-Style ads

In case you didn’t know K-Style and Ebisu have a strong relationship.

Both very closely associated because of one person, Kumakubu! Many might not know it but Kumakubo ran K-Style, while also being the manager of Ebisu! His family owned the land on which the track was built. He’s a key figure in the development of drifting in Japan. And K-Style was just an extension of that.

I’ve heard before that K-Style was supposed to be ran by Koguchi? But I can not confirm nor deny that. But the relationship between both K drifters seems to be well as they ran each other’s stickers on their cars. K-Style would also be closely associated with Drift teams Caution and Rapid. I believe Kumakubo and other employees of the shop would be part of both drift teams respectively.

K-Style is no longer around, but definitely another shop I’d love to share the history of, once I know more about it.

Winds Auto & Dunamis Racing ads

Dunamis racing, a shop that I’ve never heard of, but it’s a 180sx on the page so of course I’m scanning it haha. Seems like an Aero brand with unique track inspired styling. The front bumper on the 180 looks like a really slick merge of the oem Chuki 180 bumper with the S13 Silvia aero bumper and lip. I bet it would look great on a Kaido racer style car running 15s!

Winds Auto I’ve seen a lot in my scrolling through magazines, but only learned about recently because of JuiceBox, Neil did a video on the shop explaining the history of the owners, a wife and husband drifting power couple! Instead of explaining myself I’ll link the video so you can watch it after finishing readings this.

Car shop TM ad & DoriTen’s Full Counter Club

Car shop TM seems to be another of the enthusiasts car dealers, selling almost drift ready cars it looks like?

A cool looking 86 with an LSD (main selling factor) and a pair of aero equipped 180s, safe to say the 2000s was the golden age for buying a drift car straight from the lot and going to have fun at any of the famous drifting facilities across the nation.

On the other page, we got Drift Tengoku’s Full Counter Club.

It’s a section in each issue for the editors/staff of the magazine to answer the readers’ questions, share the readers stories or thoughts, or even artwork!

The team would also draw their own art, in relation to the readers’ story in a fun way, this first one for example. A reader sent in a letter saying they saw a “a flashy pink and white two-tone Cefiro waiting at a traffic light” on his way to work. He thought to himself “Could this be the Doriten Cefiro?!”

The staff answered “A pink and white Cefiro in Sendagaya, yeah, no doubt about it. The driver was probably Dai-chan… I think, next time you see us give us a wavy!”

A poor soul, complaining about shops messing up his car, drifting video game discussions, fans asking for advice on how to meet their heroes, and others looking to make friends.

DoriTen even ran a dating letter forwarding service? I’m not sure what’s the best way to describe it so I’ll leave it at that lol.

A mother that drifts wrote in after seeing a related article in a previous issue, she expressed that although some people get surprised when they see her with her child in the car, it’s been fun and she’s met a lot of mothers who enjoy the same hobby, people like to joke that “your kid will grow up to be a street racer too!” lol

Talk of street racing/drifting etiquette is talked about too, in every hobby there always be bad apples. DoriTen tries to discourage that whether it’s people damaging other racers’ cars, or racers putting people in danger by drifting and racing at the wrong place/time. Manners and etiquette can still be found in a rebellious hobby such as drifting.

More discussion from readers, and a Q&A section. Whatever the question a reader will have, the staff will look for an expert to answer it for them. Technical questions about parts, answered by mechanics. Electrical questions answered by electrical/tuning experts.

“How to become a racing driver?” Answered by a racing driver, Max Orido to be exact haha.

I’ll only translate one of them because it’s answered by a favorite driver of mine.

Question: “How do I half-close/wink my headlights? I drive a 180SX (CA), and when I watch Doriten, I see cars like the Trueno and 180SX with their headlights half-closed or winking. How do I make them look half-closed? This is a basic question, but… please tell me.”

Answer (by Break’s Akinori Ito): “If you want to drive with the headlights half-open all the time, I think the best thing to do is to install a commercially available half-open kit. If you only want to keep the headlights half-open occasionally, just turn the knob on the motor attached to the retractable headlight. In this case, once the headlights are turned on, they will return to their original position. Same thing when you turn them off, so you’ll have to adjust them each time.”

“The basic rule is three fingers! It looks coolest that way I feel!”

Classic Ito!

Last page of Full counter Club & Kids Heart ad

Some more art work on the right page and of course, some advertisement for popular shop merch or parts.

On the next page though, we got Kids Heart!

Ran by Takayama, a drift car dealer and tuning shop. The shop’s name is a reflection that we’re all just “Kids at heart” as Takayam said once. Kids Heart is wildly known for the Nissan “Sileighty” project. Something I might cover at later date once I learn more about.

D•Shop Express

We got Dunamis Racing as mentioned before, with a very cool showroom.

Racing Staff II, plenty of drift ready cars up front it seems, I think I spot the MASA s14.5 in there too!

Trader’s which I covered before.

SWAT Aero & Street Spot Ambush.

Once a month, the Doriten team would go to street spots and ambush street drifters for interviews and car showcase sessions.

We got a few ones this time.

-SR swapped Laural
-S13 Silvia
-R32 GT-R
-Another Laural
-A31 Cifiro
-180sx
-S15 Silvia

Another look into what an ordinary enthusiast would be driving in the year 2000, the type of cars you’d seen in a car meet or the occasional track day.

Win’s Sugano S15 [COVER CAR]

Another new driver onto the scene, Sugano and his S15.

Super Circuit review by Naoyuki Nagatsuka

Hero Sinoi circuit is a wild ride for sure, I learnt about it from this article and looked up pics of it online, it looks sick to say the least.

Here we got Naoyuki from team President with his 180sx. I’d like to add that his 180sx might be one of the first to run the Ikeya Formula aero other than the demo car. At least one of the first ones in magazines.

His take on the track: it’s challenging. If you don’t have power, guts, and plenty of skill… you could end up damaging your car badly. Lots of full throttle sections that require commitment.

Cool car.

Cool jacket.

Andddddddddddd that’s all.

This was a long one, there was simply too much cool stuff not to cover. And it’s not like I have a word limit on a caption or a photo limit I have to stick to haha. To those who’ve read thus far, thank you. Hope you enjoyed.

Hopefully you’ll look forward to more of this, I’m staring to get a feel for it, any feedback or suggestions are welcome. If you got info regarding something I’ve discussed here. Let me know. Maybe I could do a little readers thoughts section haha.

Till next time.

-Malek