Tag Archives: Drift

Hibino Qualifies First in Autopolis D1GP

hibino

Over the weekend it was a special cocktail of AE86 community love that brought everyone’s favourite Ebisu-jumping-drift master into the number one qualifying spot.  Driving Toshiki Yoshioka’s old red NOS-assisted 4A-GE, now painted in a striking coat of matte black (and sporting some wicked bolt on flares), Hibino worked his way into the top spot in preparation for Sunday’s showdown.

Unfortunately the race day was not as kind to him, as the final standings saw him in fourth position, knocked out in the semi by the eventual round winner (and AE86 legend himself) Youichi Imamura driving the Team BOSS Potenza-backed S15 . Fourth isn’t the win but still a position worthy of some praise – especially considering the calibre of top-notch sponsored teams up against him! Well done Hibino! Can’t wait for the exhibition round in Tokyo!


The Man Behind DriftKulture

beau_header

Possibly the most outspoken and in your face person in the Aussie AE86 scene, Beauman Jones, son of legendary hot-rod builder and multiple-time Summernats Champion Mark ‘FAT57‘ Jones, gives HR Blog a few minutes to fill us in on his new project: DriftKulture.

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All Weather Fighter

grassroots

You said you wanted more grassroots drift AE86’s in Japan and here at HR blog, we listen. Alexi over @ noriyaro again has the scoop on a local unsung drift hero, this time piloting an AE86.

This three-door Levin belongs to an unassuming bloke by the name of Tadashi Yanagawa. The interesting thing about him is that he can drift as fast in totally wet conditions as he can in the dry. I saw him at a recent track day at Nikko Circuit and had to have a look at his car. Surprisingly, there’s not much more to it than many other AE86s out there, but it’s still pretty damn cool.

Check it out! Noriyaro.com


One Cool Motherf*cker

coolmotherfucker

When I see a purple drift-spec AE86 I think of only one thing: T-50 Japan. Tomonori Akai (pictured being cool as f*ck) is the proud owner of this hachi…go!

Yep that’s right this ones originally an AE85, but it has come quite a long way since it rolled off the line with a measly 3A-U in it!  Now rockin’ a 190bhp 10,00rpm 4A screamer, Tomonori takes it to MSC drift events all over the land of the rising sun and smashes his opponents to bits.

For the rest of the pics (and the specs of this nutter) hit up noriyaro.com (cheers Alexi!)


VIDEO: Eric O’Sullivan Interview

Motors TV reports on the 2007 Irish Prodrift champion: Eric O’Sullivan.  It’s an interesting insight into the Euro scene from someone immersed so deeply into it.


RB Drifting World Championship; Politics Over Substance?

I must admit my interest in the drift scene was re-ignited a few months back with the announcement of the Red Bull World Drifting Championship. A competition that would ‘bring together the worlds best drivers’ and bid them to do battle on a custom-made circuit so that no one would be at an advantage.

I keenly checked the website for news of which new drivers had accepted the invitation, and I was counting down the days when I learnt that two Aussies; 2008 Drift Australia champion Leighton Fine (An AE86 kid at heart) and Luke Fink (2008 runner-up) would be attending. NZ, Norway, Ireland the UK and a string of other countries were also represented. I take my hat off to the organisers in the this sense. They really went all out and tried to make the tournament live up to its title. But hold on…. it all looks to have gone a bit fishy according to some?

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AE86s @ Fuji D1 ’08

Alexi from noriyaro again provides us with the latest coverage out of Japan and today he shows us an endangered species – the D1GP AE86.

Caught in the wild at the D1 Grand Prix final in Fuji Speedway last weekend, these AE86’s are the few still competing in what has become a huge horsepower competition. It is a shame to see the AE86 losing it’s competitive edge in a world dominated by machines boasting 400ps power output figures, but it is still exciting to watch the dedicated ’86 pilots in their do-or-die corner entry speeds, flat to the floor to keep up with the big boys!

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No Frills, Just Skills!

Back in 2004, the now well-known sport of drifting was only in it’s infancy here in Australia.  A driver well known to the ’86 fraternity for competing in his pink Levin Hatch in Drift Australia and more recently for putting a 1UZ-FE V8 motor into his now red Hachiroku, Josh Young began his 86 drifting career in a piss yellow ’86 sporting only the most basic of basic modifications. He showed that you didn’t need massive amounts of power or fancy mods to be competitive in the drift scene back then.

Please be sure to check out an old article about this car which was originally published in Drift Battle Magazine as well as 10 minutes of video footage of this car in action after the jump!

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Ueo Katsuhiro: The Greatest?

Few people garner as much respect from AE86 enthusiasts as Ueo Katsuhiro (植尾勝浩), In fact perhaps the only man to make ’86 fanboys jump with glee like giddy schoolgirls more would be Keiichi Tsuchiya himself. I thought it was high time we at HR Blog took an in-depth look at the history of the man who brought the AE86 to the world professional drifting stage. Should we stick to fact or legend? Is Ueo the greatest AE86 drift pilot of all time? Is that a worthy title? Let’s find out.

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’86 Drifting Bikini Girls? Oh Yeah

Probably the coolest yet most bizarre thing I’ve seen this year, this spin off of the ‘DRIFT’ series of DVD’s is the story of 3 girls dubbed the ’86Angels’, one 86 and an all-girl drift battle to end all battles.

Titled DRIFT Special: Beauty Battle, you only know it’s going to be awesome. Here is a short highlight, but make sure to watch the entire story (with dubious subtitles) from the first video.