Motorland Suzuka, John Dollison’s PS13, 2011 x

I have to say, one of the coolest things about going to Japan is seeing cars as low as the road driving on the roads. After every drift event we would pack up and then drive the cars back through the cities to our hotels. Here I am riding shotgun with John Dollison after the day at Motorland Suzuka.

We then dropped in to downtown Suzuka at a couple of shops such as Super Autobacs and Hot Road. Hot Road was probably one of the coolest little shops I’ve been in. Here is a photo behind the counter of some Work 01’s, and 03’s. I want to go back so badly!

After our first day wondering around Shinsaibashi we found ourselves at Shane’s workshop in order to prep the cars for the action packed 2 weeks ahead of us. As I’ve stated previously my trips to Japan have been nothing but lack of sleep and a lot of shooting. This particular night was no different. Here is a photo of John Dollison looking very worn out as he was sitting inside his PS13. This photo would have been taken around 1:00am and we still had to drive to Suzuka that night, well I should say morning shouldn’t I.

One of the main dramas was of course TJ’s RPS13 trying to eat his rubber and even the rims. After an hour or so they finally found the perfect medium of ride height and guard clearance, in saying that it still scrubbed. After everything had been sorted we packed our belongings into several low and loud drift cars and set off to Suzuka. This was my first time driving a turbo car, as most of the drivers were completely wrecked after more than 12 hours of working on their cars the majority of them were passed out in the passenger seats. I was lucky enough to pilot Daniel’s SR20 C33. Cruising the Japanese highways alongside several other drift cars will be an experience I won’t forget.

I couldn’t help myself but to post another photo of John entering the tight, left hairpin down the back of the Motorland circuit. Here he is locking up the fronts managing to create some smoke through the wet bitumen. 

Sifting through the photos from our first track day in Japan – Motorland Suzuka, I came across this image of John Dollison tucking the ripple strip down the back end of the circuit. One thing I loved about this course was the amount of natural things I could use to enhance and compose my images. I’ve always been a fan of John’s car since I first saw it at last years Autumn Matsuri at Ebisu Circuit, Nihonmatsu. I’m hoping to attend the same Matsuri at the end of this year too.

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!