Drift Girl

Drifting is a male dominated sport but occasionally one stumbles across the female variety and things always seem so much cooler when that happens. The overall-wearing cutie is Ayu and she's responsible for most of the work done on her Toyota chariot. The fuse cover says it all about the engine's internals and the pink highlights are part of Ayu's personal touch.

When it comes to choosing a car for drift duties one of the last makers on the list would be Daihatsu. But last year, while I was visiting 'drift heaven' (Ebisu Spring Drift Festival), I found a very rare and very beat up Daihatsu drifter. The car was a Charmant. Never heard of it? Neither have many other people. Based on the Toyota Corolla platform, the original 1500cc engine had been replaced with a Toyota 1600cc 20 valve 4AGE. There was more unusualness in the cabin with a Recaro baby seat.

YZ Circuit Crash

During my time covering motorsport I've seen a lot of crashes on the circuits of Japan but there's one that always stands out. It was just another day at YZ Circuit, a place that never fails to punish drivers who step over the line, when this happened...