Autosport International 2010 - Part 2

Part 2 of Autosport and we arrive in easily the highlight for many of the show - the Live Action Arena. 1 entire hall is transformed into an indoor racetrack for racing and demonstration runs, so tight racing and very noisy! The Fiesta racing was the 1st racing demo out

Followed by the European Drift Championship drifters - Mark Luney, Paul Conlan and Pete Barber

and some close dirtbike racing

Then 5th Gear presenters Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler Henderson doing some semi drifting - Tiff struggled to do competitive drifting way back in 2006 so he might be better next time he fancies a proper go - or not, particularly when he claimed not to be able to turn the traction control off on the Jaguar he is seen driving above.... Vicki was a bit better in her Porsche though!

Then we have the Autograss specials - purpose built chassis, usually motorcycle engine powered so a very high power to weight ratio - so wheelies and the ability to drift almost the entire arena easier than the drift cars almost, although I think the wheelies were more for show, still good to see though!

And close racing, Id love to see these on their natural surface - grass and mud

The Formula Palmer Audi single seaters were good too, plenty of flames, although this,again, might have been done for the show with the cars adjusted to overfuel slightly, but looked good in the dark!

The cars were being driven by the finalists of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award

Pat (on the right, Fiesta) and Liam (on the left,Citroen C4) Doran about to do a rallycross demo - but given these cars are ideal for the slippery surface of the arena (4wd and 600bhp) the show they put on was a little tame compared to what Ive seen them do before, but then again with 17 shows to do over the 4 days of the show and practice sessions, you have to make the cars last

F1 stockcars - big, heavy, fast - and loud with their unsilenced Chevy V8's - always a favourite of mine - you dont just hear them, you feel them

Being RWD with low grip meant they too, were easy to drift around the arena and are full contact racing, so bumping,nudging and pushing is allowed

An original (not a replica) Lancia Stratos, sounded lovely with its raspy Ferrari V6

An original Audi Sport Quattro - driven here by none other than Stig Blomqvist - the original Stig!

And to end, figure of 8 banger racing, the previously made comment regarding 17 shows applies here too, Id say the last show on Sunday was entertaining!

Part 3 soon

Meanwhile in Japan......

Some friends are on TV showing some typical Americans what drifting is - Go Shino!!

Mobara Circuit

After the excitement and hatred of Auto Salon it was off to Mobara Circuit in Chiba for a SR drift day, which meant mostly Silvias but a few other cars too

A 180SX 'Missile' drift car, I wonder is this the same 1 from the last time I was here?

T&E's S14 Silvia, the day before this had been on T&E's stand at AutoSalon. Not long before I took this picture Mr Ueno himself was asleep in the car, not allowing himself a day off after the madness leading up to Autosalon where he was a busy man

Japan boasts plenty of girl drifters and some of them are really good and would put many others to shame

This 1 was very aggressive in her C33 Laurel

but with a slightly unaggressive interior and helmet, are girls allowed gearknobs like that....

Too fast into the first bend and you get stung....

and off into the gravel

and then hide in shame behind the dust cloud

I love Japan

If you managed to move on from the previous pic there were a few non Nissans there too like this SR equipped Mazda RX-7

On the apex of the 1st corner

Then later a few reverse runs around the track

Including G-Corporations amazing 180SX

Crash......

It was going to happen sooner or later and it did at EDC Round 5 at Silverstone :( Thankfully there were no injuries

BIG DRIFT CRASH
Uploaded by darkandier

European Drift Championship Round 4 - Santa Pod

Santa Pod was the venue for Round 4 of the European Drift Championship, where Phil Morrison in the Driftworks 2JZ powered S15 Silvia was definatley smoking things up!

This was the second of 2 rounds that Team Orange from Japan attended with their RWD converted Imprezas. After a strong competition it was Nobushige Kumakubo (on the right of the photo) that came 1st, and his friend and team mate, Katzuhiro Tanaka (left) that placed 2nd
But it was not all plain sailing from Team Orange, when Tanaka spun during the final, then again Kumakubo spun on the previous run, it took 6 runs for Kumakubo to win

Not so much luck for Chris 'Paz' Parry in his S2000 powered AE86, suffering this bad crash during qualifying, but the damage is not as bad as it looks and the car will return

Mark 'Sidewaysbuff' Luney takes the Santa Pod R32 GTS-T out for a few demo runs, and gave me a passenger run in 1 of them, Cheers Buff!!

The next day there was a team comp, Team Orange took a well fought victory, practicing with the other drivers, above and below but even though they are regarded as the best in the world they still faced good opposition



Team Green will be more impressive next time round after making a big improvement

Team Driftworks fielded the only 3 car team

Prodrift Licencing

Recently Prodrift held their licencing weekend at Rosegreen, for semi pro drivers to attain their pro licences, provided they were good enough

A sad occasion as due to a recent court ruling over noise issues, this was the 2nd last drift event to be held at Rosegreen

Former BN-Sports Nissan PS13 SilviaEx Koguchi Power / Falken D1GP Toyota JZX100 Chaser

The wall of death...

Claims another victim
My favouite photo from the day, E30 M3

The Real Tokyo Drift

So been in Japan for 11 days and have not seen any decent track again - until now, and its off to Mobara circuit on the outskirts of Tokyo. The last time I was here, I was 'spoiled' a bit as there was a very good lineup of drivers and nice weather, but today was a bit colder, but far more civilised, mostly local drivers and less extreme cars, mostly driven to the track too. Myself and Chris were the only non Japanese there, so were easily spotted by Tada san, the owner and manager of the circuit, who tried out his English on us. He said it was rare for people to visit on these quiet practice days


At most drift days there is always 1/2 drivers that stand out and today was no exception, this SR20 powered C33 Laurel was great to watch


and this AE86, driven in a very committed fashion, the only way to drive an AE86

JZX100 Chaser just about to lose it

Most cars were dented with chipped bumpers,dented wings etc but this 180Sx Sil80 really took 'well used drift car' to another level, every panel dented, Sil80 front end conversion and mismatched panels

Very fast JZX110 Mark II

The skill level was fairly low today, so no D1 spec driving, but its still fun to watch.