Drift Day

Man, I have not participated in one of these in a long time.
The last drift day i remember.... I cant even remember. Anyway, it was nice being there again. I got to see new talent and new faces. However, alot of familiar old faces were there too. Lets see.. Hiro Sumida, Taka Aono, Andy yen, Alex Pfeiffer, Justin Pawlak, John Russakoff, uhhhh..Who else... oh Naoki ! and uhhh I think thats it. Andy Luk came by a little later to treat us to some In and Out burgers. How nice of him... HAHA
The drifting was fun. I took my beater 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S. It was super slow but it was cool going back to the roots of drifting a super slow rwd. I was forced to stay floored on the throttle to keep the car sideways because it lacked power. I am spoiled now with a 500hp Scion tC. But to keep my drifting fresh, I must go back to an underpowered car once in a while.
This is the after math
I brought a total of 4 extra wheels+tires just in case. But honestly I was quite surprised that the little Corolla even managed to burn off rubber.
This was my second set of tiresI didnt want to be stranded at El Toro so I saved my last set for my drive home.
Here are some pictures of that day.
Here is Hiro Sumida



Hiro brought out his Cressida but unfortunately had a few kinks he had encountered. This cressida is super fun to drive. He let me do a few laps in it. I can't wait to get mine running like his.

Then there is Ceso and Billy. They drove my Corolla too.
And then here is A. Luk
Here is the good lunch he brought us.
Lesson I learned this time: Don't spoil yourself too much with HP. You tend to neglect the basics.

Thanks Naoki and Drift Day and Thanks Andy! for lunch... HAHA

Driiiiiiiiiiift

Tomorrow, the 23rd of May is Drift Day.

Ben told me about it so i am going to take my dad's corolla and practice some quick drifting.

you guys should go too.

It'll be fun~

DRIFT DAY LINK.

check it!

Miki Ryuji and THE BOMBER K GUSHI

I found a video on Youtube which my friend linked me to on my facebook.

Ryuji and I practicing and playing around during practice at Road Atlanta Formula Drift.

I need more bite! =(

also, I found a video of Tanner and I during our top16 runs.
The Rockstar tC and the RS-R Toyo tC is different on so many levels.
I hate to admit it but Tanner is one hell of a driver. He is too consistent, it makes me think he is a robot.
but anyway, here it is.
his car is stupid fast.

Missile.

I just recently became a new owner of a 1989 Toyota Cressida.

I had one before but I sold it because I had bigger plans but my plans never came through.

So I got another one. Actually, my dad got it for cheap and asked if i wanted it.

"duh dad, of course i want it" i said.

I am in desperate need of tandem practice. and so I thought this car would be a great candidate for some tandem practice with other people's missile cars.

a missile has many meanings. In drifting terms, its a car that we use to beat up and drive til its dead.

So here is my old cressida I had before.

converted to 5-speed with a ma70 Supra W58.
There is no point posting up my new one because it is bone stock ugly white. ....OK fine I will after i take pictures. I was just excited so I decided to post.

haha! Plans for this cressida...1JZ, coilover, welded diff, wheels. That is all. Besides, it's only a missile!!!!!

yes, professional drifters need practice too.

I've been wanting to post up the random stuff I have been doing on my off days so here they are.

My friend Daigo Saito came from Japan to run in the D1GP USA (which he ended up winning) and we had a wonderful time hanging out too. He brought his personal JZX100 Chaser form Japan which has a 2JZ and a t78 putting out roughly 650hp.
Here we are at some Gun Range he wanted to check out because in Japan, guns dont exist HAHA!


We got home pretty late everynight because of his D1 relations with other people and so he was tired during the day. He didnt care what they talked about in the driver's meeting anyways.
Dinners can be quite costly. I went out to eat dinner at Manpuku with Hiro Sumida and Miki Ryuji and it was bomb. I can never get sick of Japanese BBQ.

Manpuku with Hiro Sumida and Miki.
After Manpuku, we hit up Pinkberry for some frozen yogurt.

Wockano with Daijiro and Andy. Dai and I met up with Andy in Long Beach because Andy was too lazy to drive up to the 626.
Hooters, where Justin Pawlak joined us to watch the Lakers murder the Rockets.
Well, that was a pretty pointless post.

bye bye

I really don't like the thought of coming back to school after a race weekend. It's as if i was a super hero during the weekend and then BAM! a reality check on the following monday. I'm in my micro economics class right now and it is really boring. I don't know anyone in this class. I can't really focus either because i keep drawing formula drift tracks on my notebook trying to analyze drifting lines. I wish they offered drifting for dummies classes here so i can teach. Drifting 1A at PCC.

Formula D Round 2 Road Atlanta

Im starting to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Formula D round 2 was the best event for the RS-R Scion/Toyo drift team. For the first time we were able to get past the top 16 with the car with minimum mechanical-related issues. In fact, the tC ran really strong all weekend. Just one thing went wrong. Power Steering. Yes, drifting can be quite hard (sometimes impossible for some) without steering assist. My steering rack blew out its seals because we added more steering. This same thing happened during our test session a few weeks back at Horse Thief but we thought it was because of the crash at Long Beach.

Thank god I had some practice in the tC without power steering. I was ready!
So during the practice session on thursday, I drove the car without power steering and found it to be much harder than I remember at Horse Thief. Why? Because the drift course at Road Atlanta is a side-brake entry as to where I was only clutch kicking at Horse Thief. Eventually I got it down and was able to drive it as if it had power steering. Of course, tandem was much harder because it was heavier to turn-in.

Friday, the clouds began to come in and showed signs of a thunder storm. I was happy =) Rain meant lighter steering and an equal playing field. 700hp V8 engines will mean nothing in the rain. But unfortunately, the rain didnt come and we started our practice session. The tC ran really well during practice and I felt confident going into qualify. I needed to qualify because I am ranked 33. (WTF?!)
So qualify begins.

Run 1: I SPIN!! =( ;sadlkfjaslkj WHY?! I didnt spin at all during practice and I spin on my first qualify run. I was terrified. This immediately put a million pounds of pressure on my shoulders.

Run 2: I took the run very cautiously and I guess the judges caught it. I didnt make any mistakes but it was too conservative. But i still qualified 17th (better than nothing i guess).

From here, it's all about tandem. So when practice began for the top 32, I only waited in the follow line.

Tandem practice went well and finished off the day with a practice run with my first competition, Takatori Michihiro.

Saturday morning looked cloudy. I thought we were doomed for rain. But then it never came (again!). Top 32 tandem was about to start and I was getting excited. I beat Takatori after a One-More-Time. Top 16 was against Tanner and his TRD Rockstar Scion tC.
Scion vs. Scion. But a V8 vs. a 4-banger turbo. Toyo Tires vs. Hankook. White vs. Japanese drifting. haha jk!

On the first run I was on the follow lap and I nearly stalled behind him on entry. However, when I lead, I could not stop the car fast enough as he hit my rear wheel and spun. I took the advantage and moved on (my bad Tanner! ).

For the Top 8, I was up against Ryan Tuerck. Again, on the follow lap, I made a mistake and slightly straightened out which probably gave the advantage to Ryan. He ended up moving on and I was unfortunately eliminated.

Overall, I am happy with the RS-R Scion/Toyo tC and the way it is progressing. Before Round 3 at Wall Stadium, we will test different spring rates and other alignment set-ups.

Bye bye.


Jose takes good pictures.

Formula D mini-armwrestling comp.

So some of us drivers visited Apex Usa to check out Miki's car the weekend before Formula D round 1. Since we were bored, we decided to arm wrestle.
Maru-chan from MaruChannel Jp. decided to film us.

check it!