There is something so right about seeing drift cars do their thing at night. After all this is how most people got their practice back in the day before tracks became so accessible.  As darkness fell on Ebisu Circuit on Saturday the action never ceased, as the practice and fun continued through the whole night.

In this third part of the coverage from the Matsuri I have put together a collection of my favorite shots from the night as I made my way from Minami, in the opening shot, to the School Course…

…and all the way up to Kit where I found Chris Pickering in his 180SX edging closer and closer to the pit wall. 

I had heard from Allen at Tomei that Chirs Forsberg would be flying over to Japan to check out the Matsuri. He managed to arrive as things got into full swing on Saturday afternoon. Here he is on Sunday morning taking in the atmosphere at the Nishi course as Goto-san and Drift Samurai were out on track.

Joey Redmond from Wrecked Magazine came out to film Chris as he met with drivers like Daigo Saito and Andy Gray of Powervehicles and took some cars out on track for a spin. More on that later and of course I can't wait to see the final edit of Joey's film.

Back to the night action and right after our very tasty BBQ in the pits at the Minami course Andy took out his 180SX missile for a few hot laps. He had crashed it hard on the wall on Friday during the practice session of the G1 Grand Prix and spent the whole day fixing it and replacing the bent tie rod. 

Alexi from Noriyaro had the cool idea of zip-tying a couple of glow sticks to the spokes of his front wheels before going out for a few hot laps on the Kita course. This, combined by his extremely cool under-car multicolored lights, created a never before seen show of smoke and lights. LOL.  Eventually his rear tires delaminated and began to throw out sparks adding to the spectacle!

Notice the red-hot exhaust on this JZX100! 

I avoided spending much time at the School Course during the day as the paddock was always filled to the brim with cars parked all over the place and people desperately trying to get out. However things quieted down at night…

…allowing me to quietly grab some shots of some of the cars present.

There is always a lot of tire changing going on during the Matsuri and the tire changing machine in Minami was working non-stop throughout the weekend!

This shot was taken as cars enter the main judged section at the Minami course as drivers aim to stay wide on the entrance, to then get back on the power to nail the next apex.

A view from the pit wall.

Things were definitely quieter at night than the Matsuri events I covered last year. I think a lot of people were also there to chill out and chat to friends, not just drive.

In my quest to hunt for more action I moved up to the Touge Course and found this pink hatchless AE86 making the best of a very empty track!

Close to 12 I called it a night and hit the sack for some much needed rest.

I got to the track on Sunday morning nice and early and was so happy to finally see the crazy cambered Celica out in action!

For a front wheel drive car the driver was getting a pretty good angle and was pulling that side brake steadily throughout the corners. Notice the narrow tire mark left behind hinting at how small the contact patch is when running 20º negative camber! It looked pretty cool…

…but not as cool as cars using power to brake traction!

Kawasaki-san's BNR32 is at every event I cover lately! Never got to see it out in action which is a pity but I saw Kawasaki-san checking out some cool cars in the paddock along with one of his staff photographers. Will need to watch out the next issue of Doriten when it comes out!

I noticed this A31 Cefiro has a very curious engine sound when out drifting…

…and upon closer inspection up front noticed that the RB20DET had been replaced with a CA18DET. According to the owner the CA is better suited to high rpm where most of the power is developed at, probably suiting his driving style better. I'd expect this conversion gives a little better weight balance and steering feel too, seeing the engine is a little lighter.

More pink!

And inside too! I bet those feathers fly around all over the place when going sideways!

More action to come from the Matsuri. Don't miss Part 4!

2010 Spring Drift Matsuri

-Dino Dalle Carbonare