Cars that choose to take on the not-so forgiving walls of Minami generally mean they can steer. I was a bit iffy seeing this little Trueno hatch drive out for the first time. 10 minutes in, my jaw was dragging the bitumen. If there was a stand out car that was smashing Minami, in a good way it would have to be this little AE86. I remember standing inside the pits and watching it hop over the jump, screaming past the wall. Each time I had to either cover my ears and or look away, I’ve never heard a car this loud before.

Exiting off the wall, entering into the tight left corner he gained unbelievable amounts of angle every single time. One reason why he was such a standout was definitely his level of consistency. Note; his facial expressions.

As I continue to dig up photos from the Autumn Matsuri, I came across this set of images of the Kansai boys when they entered Ebisu. Yes, more photos of John’s PS13, but I can’t get enough. This is one of my favourite photos of the car. Just chilling in the touge car park, overlooking the East Course surrounded by a dozen missiles.

Here, Shane’s quad-bike which he uses to scoot around the mountain to not only save petrol in the car but to have some fun! Oh and John’s car sneaking in the background. Damn Hoshino’s rock!

Erin from JDM Garage arrived in this C33 Laurel. Within an hour of there arrival I was in the car having a blast on the Driftland course, only to find a boost leak, which was an easy fix! The car has had an engine swap from an RB20 to an SR.

Drift Kansai, gathered.

Be sure to check out; K-Tours Osaka, Drift Kansai & Auszoku. There are limited spots left for Spring Matsuri with K-Tours Osaka, ran by Erin from JDM Garage.

Building nothing but unbelievably well balanced cars, John Dollison from Ausoku rocked up with this midnight purple PS13 at the previous Autumn Matsuri.

2 weeks prior to the Autum Matsuri, the car was looking far from this, in fact it wasn’t even a rolling shell. The Kansai boys worked continuously day and night in preparing the car for 3 days of non-stop drifting I’m sure John got to know the car quite well during the 11 hour drive from Osaka to Nihonmatsu.

I remember working on some images one night at the Urban Hotel and hearing a couple of rumbling cars enter the street. Looking down from the 5th level onto a side street in Japan with this PS13 alongside Shane Bingham’s 180SX and Erin’s C33 was pretty surreal. Shortly after they parked up, a group of guys with a 100% standard AE86 parked at the local 7-11 sprinted over and were completely loosing it over the cars! I feel so privileged that I was able to not only shoot the car, but have access to the West course 西 回路 at Ebisu Circuit. It will definitely be a day to remember. I look forward to seeing it hit the mountain again in 3 months time for the Spring Matsuri!

Nishi to the left.

As I’m listening to Japanese hip-hop i’m finding it extremely hard to believe the 3 week trip to Japan has unfortunately come to an end.

Over the 3 week period, the amount of driving, cars, workshops and sights we saw was truly spectacular, we wouldn’t of had it any other way. Each day of the trip became the best day of my life, the amount of cars we saw was sometimes too much. Experiencing such events and witnessing such cars in real life is really overwhelming especially when you’ve been dreaming of seeing for years and years. Plenty of photos to come guys!

I plan on going back as soon as possible. That place has definitely left it’s mark on me.

Casey.