This is one car I have been hanging on to for a while now. Shot back at Gatebil in July, very late at night as the midnight sun approached, it remains one of the most memorable drift cars from the event. Why? Well how can I put it; let’s just say that a lot of [...]
This white R35 GT-R is probably one of the most easily recognized Japanese demo cars of 2012, a car that over the years has been displayed at Tokyo Auto Salon through its, very ambitious, development process. This was supposed to become Ken Nomura’s next D1 Grand Prix drift machine, a beast capable of unleashing a [...]
There is something refreshing about the variety of cars we get to examine each day on Speedhunters. It’s all a part of being a true connoisseur of car culture – approach everything with an open mind and learn to appreciate the details. This ethos extends to the vast majority of readers that we are so very lucky to have. Combine this attitude with a massive knowledge base and a heap of enthusiasm, it all equates to one simple formula – you talk and we listen. This is a car that you asked for, and we’re proud to finally share it with you.
This is first detailed look of a car that everyone has pretty much already seen. Such is the power of the internet, where news spreads as it happens and is old a day later. Except there is nothing old about the ride you see here. This is the freshest and at the same time one [...]
When it comes to building cars as tough as they are unique there aren’t too many people out there that do it better than New Zealand’s drift export, Mad Mike Whiddett. But while his famed MADBUL RX-7 has proven itself on the international stage, Mike’s the first to admit that his other car – an RX-8 named [...]
One of this year’s highlights for me was getting the chance to cover Gatebil back in July. It may have been a few months ago, but it is quite hard to forget such an experience. It’s a weekend filled with craziness, bringing together similarly minded people from the far corners of Europe. Ultimately for me [...]
After a hiatus of a more than a year I tracked down Nigel Petrie and asked him about the progress on his drift Hilux. I have been following his guest blogs on Speedhunters with great interest and was glad he wanted to collaborate again. So I’ll let him explain what he has been up to. [...]
One of the underlying factors that shined through at Gatebil was that everything revolves around having lots of fun. Some obviously take it more seriously than others, maybe invest more time and funds into their cars, but you can bet every single car there has had a whole lot of passion poured into it. And [...]
My first memory of anything Hachiroku, and also anything drifting, started with a gentleman named Katsuhiro Ueo. I am sure many of you remember those short, gritty, AMAZING drifting video clips to first come out of Japan. I know this is technically an AE85, and not a REAL 86, but this was what started it [...]
Trying to pick a favorite car at Gatebil is like trying to determine if it were the chicken or the egg which came first. You’ll think you’ve found a sure-fire favorite, then moments later a new one appears. I’m not entirely sure if I even have a single favorite car from Rudskogen, but without a [...]
It’s quite rare, but every so often you stumble upon a car that is so raw and insane that you can’t help but fall in love with it. I’m talking about the type of car where no two panels are the same color, where aesthetics aren’t just an afterthought but scarcely a thought at all. [...]
Ryan Tuerck is leading a triple life at the moment, with his Formula Drift persona mirrored by his off-season hooning and missile car madness – the latter ably abetted by Tony Angelo, Chris Forsberg and Vaughn Gittin Jr. Ryan lives just a half a day drive away from Wall Speedway so when Formula Drift came into town [...]
There is just something so right about dropping a big motor in a little car. Especially if it’s a V8! It was something that Sakai-san from motorFIX had been thinking about for years and finally last year, he went for it. From a mechanical point of view the Toyota 1UZ now residing under the lightweight [...]
One of the first cars that made an impression on me at Gatebil was this 1 Series BMW driven by Daniel “Limmet” Liimatainen and prepared by Schmiedmann, a renowned and well respected BMW tuner and parts specialist in Europe. It’s not as wild as some of the cars that attend the Gatebil events, but it’s more about how the build has been executed.
A question for our readers outside of Japan, can you remember the very first time you were exposed to contemporary Japanese car culture and drifting? Maybe it’s a case of looking back at things with rose tinted glasses, but I still have a fondness for JDM cars from the late 90s and early 00s. Things seemed a lot simpler back then as there was quite a simple equation to having a good looking car: take your base car + bodykit from a reputable source + increase power + lower car + add wide wheels = guaranteed success.
Today, in my opinion (not that anyone cares) things have become too complicated. There are so many variations of style and differing scenes that things have turned into a bit of a strange concoction – the Japanese scene is now taking styling cues from the US scene which was originally inspired by the Japanese and it’s just become a big, giant mess.
