Japan Rocks! Volume 2

There was another earthquake; I think it was Monday morning. In any case it’s the second one that I’ve slept through even though this one made it onto a brief news clip in the states and my parents both sent me emails to ask if I was okay. Still no building surfing for me. I brought my swim trunks and everything. Eventually I’m going to wake up in an earthquake. That’d be interesting; assuming it was fairly weak and that I’d wake up enough to notice. -_-

SLY Drift Day

I can safely say I’ve just completed one of those days that will help me look back on my life and nod, thinking that I’ve lived it for all it’s worth. One of the days that inspires me to keep learning about driving, and also a day that many drift enthusiasts may never get to experience in a lifetime.

…Of course, living in Japan at all is something like that. But there’s no reason to stop there, right? ^_~

I got up at 8:00 and hit the shower, then I rushed to the station and grabbed a bite of food. It was still raining from the typhoon and hadn’t stopped yet. I was a little worried the event would be canceled but I refused to check the website for an update before leaving; somehow I thought that if I did I’d jinx myself and find out it’d been called off.

I was running a little late and made it to the station just in time to grab a bag of McDonald’s for breakfast and the hop on the train. I ate on the trip. Everything was going swimmingly. In fact, I nearly had to swim just to get there. Damn typhoon.

I stepped onto the boarding platform and looked around. No sign of Hisato. There’s no reason he’d be on the platform anyway; it’s for ticketed passengers only. I descended the steps and took a peek outside. I didn’t see his Jeep, nor did I spot him in the lobby. He must be running late. I was already running out of energy as I was actually so excited I’d had trouble sleeping the night before. I bought a calorie mate for lunch later that day and waited around for about 20 minutes. No sign of Hisato. It looked like the event had been called off. What was worse, it looked like Hisato had forgotten to let me know or was held up to where he couldn’t meet me at the station. I paced around for a few more minutes wondering what to do.

The rain stopped. It was the first good omen of the day. It looked like it could start up again at any moment, but at least I didn’t have to lug the umbrella around. Finally, I thought over approximately what it would require to start up the gist of a conversation and stepped into the police box next to the station. Nothing was going on inside and I asked for the phone number, then was asked to describe the place and how far away it was. I was fairly prepared and things went well.
They were able to find SLY in the phonebook and gave me their number. I marched over to a phone and sat down for another minute, again thinking of the basic things I needed to know and making sure I knew what kinds of questions to expect, (I do that for English calls too if I’m nervous about making them, so it’s not just a Japanese language thing) then I picked up and dialed.

They answered and I asked for Hisato. The person on the other end asked who was calling and I gave her my name. Within a few moments she told me to wait and that Hisato would be right there. I asked if the event was still on. it was. A mix of relief and annoyance came over me for a moment, but all was good. I’d waited about 45 minutes, at least 30 of which holding an umbrella in the rain, but I hoped it’d all be worth it. I bought a can of iced coffee (for the energy, I was already dragging my feet again) and sat down to wait.

Hisato came fairly quickly and we got on our way. He apologized for forgetting about me, but by the time he showed up it wasn’t on my mind at all. I’d been looking forward to today for 2 weeks so an hour of my time wasn’t much to lose. We climbed the mountain and I warmed up my Japanese. Language wise, everything was flowing smoothly and easily. Either I knew it and I could say it almost naturally or I didn’t know it and I had to try to fudge something intelligible together. Let me reiterate that Hisato’s English is enough to communicate, especially combined with my Japanese. But I kept in Japanese mode as much as possible. Honestly it’s much faster assuming I know how to say what I want to say. Plus it’s my favorite way to practice. I even used the grammar constructions I’d learned in class on Friday. My ability to talk about cars and driving in Japanese is improving. Now if I could only learn something more normal…haha!

The turnout was a little small because of the rain, about 21 cars. Still, SLY circuit isn’t huge and 21 cars all running at the same time would probably not leave much room to drift. The 4-wheeled lap record is 37 seconds or so, and the drift course is shorter than the long course. Still, 10 to 15 machines were on course at one time, and when things got crowded, the majority of drivers didn’t let it stop them from doing their thing. I observed one of the first big differences between Japanese drift practices and American ones. In my experience anyway, US drifting events run cars single file until the tandem finals. At this practice session there were groups of 4 and 5 cars drifting in tandem only a carlength or two apart. Not because they decided to, it was just normal since there were 10 or so cars on course. Maybe it has something to do with SLY being owned and not rented out, so that insurance costs and accident liability works out differently. Then again, Americans seem more concerned about lawsuits and damage liability. At SLY, there was a natural tandem battle practice built into their regular drift practice sessions.

Another thing that was immediately apparent was that these cars were loud. The NA cars especially, were painfully loud. They were most likely tuned up running bigger pipes and such, but it sounded like they had no mufflers at all, even though the standard muffler tip was at least visible. I wish I’d brought some earplugs, my head still hurts and if I think about it I can easily hear the sound of them passing by. The turbo cars were closer to standard tuning decibels. Up in the mountain where SLY is located, I don’t think there’s any risk of noise complaints. There’s not a house for a few miles either way as far as I know. Not besides the one that’s right next to the circuit.

Hisato introduced me to a few people straight away, including a somewhat famous local driver who was able to compete in one of this year’s D1GP events. He doesn’t seem to be attending every event and competing for year-end points, but being allowed to compete in a D1GP event at all means he’s definitely at pro level. I think Hisato said he had about 15 years of drifting/career experience. What a guy! His car was also impressive, with 450-500 HP. It accelerated about like a fighter jet. I believe his car is known as a Toyota Mark II 2.5 JZX90 (inline 6 cly engine). It’s one of those cars that probably has a name, but has gone all metal gear and just goes by some code numbers now. Somehow JZX90 makes 240Sx seems rather simple to grasp. Aside from sounding like the ultimate weapon for the next iteration of Doom, it’s a beast of a machine. At least, his in particular was.

Hisato left me to go about his running of the place, and I strolled around taking pictures and shooting videos. Then there came a time when everyone pitted and the mountainside drift temple fell silent. Not a single RPM could be heard in the entire vicinity and a calm serenity descended upon the land. In English, we call it lunchtime. I gathered my things and sat down outside. By now the clouds had parted and the track was drying up. By the time everyone was finished eating it would surely be dry. It was turning into a beautiful afternoon; somehow I’d gotten lucky with the weather and would have a chance to see everyone go all-out without worrying about the track conditions.

It was also getting a little bright out so I started putting on sunscreen, having learned my lesson from the last few outdoor excursions. A female SLY employee came out to me holding a box and checked to make sure I could speak Japanese, then we chatted for a short moment and she left the box with me. Long story short: the boss said I got a free lunch. And what a lunch it was! I probably only finished about 3/4th of it at best! There was a heaping bed of rice, 2 portions of vegetables, a cut of salmon, some shrimp, several thinly shaved slices of grilled beef, and some other things I never even had the stomach room to try. I also received a cup of tea. I thanked her profusely and ate a full meal. So much for the calorie mate lunch! What a treat!

Toward the end of my meal Hisato came out and asked me if I was having a good time. I thanked him and quickly reached into my heaping bag of tricks[hiking backpack], pulling out 4 different volumes of last year’s Sportscar Magazine; the monthly publication of the SCCA, my driving group in the US. I had brought them to Japan knowing I’d eventually find people who loved cars and gave them to him to add to his collection of car magazines for everyone to read inside the ‘Tea Room’ aka on-site restaurant. He already knew of the SCCA and was really excited at the coverage of so many different styles of motorsports in America. He used to be a racer himself so I knew that it’d be appreciated.

After people started running again, Hisato took me to some of the better spectating points that were off the beaten path from the main straight and the viewing tower. Here, one could really get a close up view of the action at ground level, and appreciate the technique being employed in greater detail. Many drivers were initiating with the side brake, several were clutch kicking, and a select few were inertia/brake drifting all the way. There were several who would feint from quite a distance away, always in 3rd gear which meant they were probably initiating around 75+ mph off of the main straight and then running the rest of the course in 2nd. We chatted some more and I took more pictures and videos.

It tends to go one way or the other: I talk to alot of people and interact but take few photos or I take a bunch of photos but therefore don’t spend to much time getting to know the drivers. Everyone was a high level and seemed to have no fear so I felt a little quiet considering the low level of my own technique. (At the amateur events I went to last year I could hold my own, but then again that region was still be developing) Almost all of these drivers were pushing good to excessive power-weight ratios and overspeeding into the turns like there could be no second lap. It was really enlightening.

The day proceeded on like so and eventually they held a D1 style competition. They decided a top 16 and each pair of drivers went at it in the classic 2-run tandem battle style. The entire audience; composed mainly of the drivers who didn’t make the top 16 (there wasn’t really a gallery of spectators, just family/friends) would vote on who performed better. There were some excellent battles and in the end the D1GP driver took the top spot.

After that everyone came back to the main spectator area and the drivers all went back to casual running (which for the daring drivers involved more tandem drifts than the practice tourney, though under much less pressure). It was at this point that something incredible happened. I was hanging around the paddock when I was offered a ride in the D1 pro’s car, with him blasting around the course at full throttle! Someone found me a bit of protective clothing and I hopped into the bucket seat and latched down the 4-way seatbelt. The driver (this will be edited when I remember his name…so sorry but I’m brain dead right now. Besides, he may not be someone US drift enthusiasts would know…we’ll see when I find out what it is.) told me he was going to take it easy, but as soon as we hit the straight he drove hard enough that I wasn’t sure that was the case.

As usual, the nagging anxiety of barreling towards a corner at the edge of control without being the one driving came up, but I endured it. That damn monster of a car accelerated so fast I mistook the adrenaline for fear at the first turns. And it wasn’t just the car that was monstrous, they suited eachother.

As I was shoved back into my seat by the force he shifted into 3rd gear, steering to the left. The car went into a drift with ease. He was back on full throttle instantly and just before the front left tire went off the road (we were approaching a right hand corner) he used the brakes to change the direction of the car, then slammed the throttle back on full. We were going way too fast to make the turn but he braked fairly strongly and did a heel-toe downshift slightly before the apex, then the throttle was floored and we were picking up speed again. After that it was the standard link and change of directions but once more he would vastly overspeed for the next hairpin corner. He got onto the brakes hard again as the car pitched to a greater angle around the hairpin and was back on the gas. Off for a fraction of a second and on again as we rounded the last part of the S-bend. Finally a short kink before the final corner and the straightaway. As expected he drifted through the kink beautifully. There were only a few moments of straight travel time before we’d be able to start our entry to the final corner but somehow when he stepped on the gas the car picked up a ridiculous amount of speed in such a few short moments. He was onto the brakes again and flung the car around the final corner , then tipped the throttle down all the way. We were on the straight again and though it looked like we were traveling in a straight line even a spectator would know the rear of the car wasn’t planted. We were going straight but the wheels were spinning more than the car was accelerating until he shifted into third. For a second we had traction and the car blasted forward even quicker as though we’d just been hit from behind. I was absorbing my surprise from the acceleration of the car at full traction when Mr. D1 steered to the left and the tail kicked out yet again. We were back where we started with even more speed. He followed through with the second half of the feint and was on the brakes and downshifting again before powering away from the apex. This was the true meaning of the braking drift. It’s not just that you use the brakes to initiate a drift; it’s that you use them to keep from burying yourself into the embankment on the outside of the corner.

I was completely blown away. I knew all of the physics that were in motion and my body and eyes could keep up with what was going on just fine but there was no way I could have imitated even the basic idea without months of practice and probably a 40% faster car (yay 125hp -_-). The real thing that was scary about it was how far from my own ability the ride was. But that also made it very inspiring. It felt really amazing and while I wasn’t able to learn much in the way of technique I had a major revelation about the spirit of Japanese drifters. I think divers is more appropriate though, with those corner entries from halfway down the straight. It was a lesson in attitude, and if I can hold it onto until I get behind the wheel again I could employ to improve my own drift techniques more than from a technical pointer. That’s part of the reason for the detail behind this entry: it will help me remember for image training later. Even though I only got to go around the track with Mr. D1 for 3 laps today, I’m going to go around the track many more times with him before the details fade from my memory. I’m going to etch into my body the feeling of that driving and wait for the moment when my own driving feels the same, which will be at least a year from now. When it matches even for a moment, I’ll take off and my ability will level up, just like it did when I learned how to drift in the first place. What a thrill!

In the end everyone packed up and I got hungry again. I ate one of the calorie mates and waiting for Hisato to finish cleaning up the facility before we called it a day. I asked one of the employees but it seemed there was nothing I could help out with. We hopped in his (S)UV and headed for the station. I explained what I’d learned and he seemed pleased to hear it. We talked about some of the complicated basics of competition driving and said our goodbyes when we arrived at the station. This time a train was about to leave so I hopped on and was back to Kofu within 15 minutes. The car/train approach rules compared to walking. What was I thinking? Then again if I hadn’t none of this would have happened. It pays to be a little reckless sometimes.

When I got back to the station I was so pumped up I had to play a few quick games of Initial: D, especially since the stores were closed and I wouldn’t be able to buy the latest D1 video. I’m going to try to find the video in which Mr. D1 took part so I can see more of his driving. I was really moved by that experience and by how hard everyone was driving. Only against the lowest level driver would I not have looked out of place, and even he was probably ahead of me.

Still, you never know until you get into your own car and try it out. Especially for me: when I’m not driving the car it feels so fast; but if I get in my car I can go around turns at the same speeds it will feel completely manageable. That’s why I’m excited to improve my machine to the point where it’s speed can imitate the feeling of today’s drivers. It won’t take 450HP either. I think I can do it with 220 or so. Just enough to power through if the revs get low on the slow corners and just enough to reach those apex diving overspeeds in the short straights. Hell, being able to accelerate while sliding at all will be an improvement for my stock KA. When I get back I’m going to have to remember how to drive fast anyway (not nearly as hard as learning…but could take a summer of autocrossing), I may as well re-learn how to drive on a car with different qualities if I’m gonna bother. I’m improving my machine at the first chance I get, once I hit stateside.

Sports Land Yamanashi Drift Test and Tune 7/16/2007. 最高だったぞ。