With epic tandem drifts and close calls with incredible-looking cars, this is the coolest team drift event in the world. This is our look at Final Bout.
Im trying to catch up super quick, as I’ve mentioned in. a few of these articles, so the photos come out more or less at the same time as the videos as a nice compliment for those who like photos. I’ve been saying a lot less on here as I feel I cover most of it in the Videos on the YouTube channel, and im pretty sure 99% of the people who come here to see these posts are here after watching the video, so ill keep my rambling brief, maybe I should keep the blog posts for getting into more detail on cars if it allows?
Im open to suggestions as to what people want to see on here. I still have a dedicated selection of people who check the blog, so Im adamant about keeping it running as a nice archive for things, too. This visit to Redline almost didn’t happen. Colton missed the email, but he was such a nice guy and gave us the grand tour of his collection. I’ll let these legends speak for themselves in the photos below. If you have any questions, drop me a comment, and I’ll reply. Cheers for looking, as always.
Here is a selection of photos we shot when we had Yuasa over a few weeks ago; it almost feels like an utterly surreal scenario, and editing these photos made me smile from ear to ear. I’m not saying too much here, as I spoke about it in great length in the YouTube videos we did on this, but I’m so happy this worked out. We made a friend for life out of this, which I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. From looking up to this guy as a teen to having him visit the shed and see Ireland and hear his stories, it’s truly something I’ll never forget. Please enjoy this photo dump from the trip below.
Japanese Drift Legend Ryota Yuasa Experiences Irish Culture and Scenery
We are flying an old D1 legend to Ireland to see and drive his rebuilt AE86, which he sold 20 years ago.
The post will be the final instalment from our Japan with a Plan series. There’s probably no reason to get too deep here, as I covered it in the video, but this was perhaps the best and most terrifying 24 hours I’ve ever had. As we slowly got closer to the realisation that I was going to be driving an 86 at Bihoku, my nerves were in overdrive.
The day before, we washed Robs Te37 and then went to collect the 86 and load them on the truck. It was such a surreal experience with this Levin; it still hadn’t hit me that this was mine, and we were about to go and use it. The whole trip had this cloud hanging over us because it was disaster after disaster on the 86, from Covid to the whole quarantine and then things going wrong with the car. It felt like I would wake up from a dream at any moment.
With the last few of these features, this is photo heavy; I shot as many pictures in fantastic Japanese scenarios as I could, as these would be the very photos I would save online if I found them. I hope you enjoy the pictures from this event. I didn’t shoot as much as I had hoped on the day, as I was shitting myself until it was all over. It’s a severe bucket list thing to do, a situation I could have only thought about as a fantasy a few years ago. To be honest, I’d love to go back and do it again.
I’m going to let the photos do most of the talking here. An all-AE86 4AGE event at Meihan was a severe bucket list scenario, and it was incredible to witness this. Taking the chance to stay in Japan for another week to drive my Levin and experience this day was one of the best choices I’ve made in life! It financially did a number on me but being honest I wont look back at that aspect of it in years to come. Please enjoy this sizable gallery from that event, and if you have any questions, drop them in the comments below. Most of you will have seen this episode on our YouTube channel, so these photos are for people like myself who enjoy the slower pace and look at Photos of cool cars at events in Japan. Enjoy.
We returned to Tokyo; we met with our friend Alec, who works for speed hunters at Daikoku. Unfortunately, the spot was a bust, so I was offered a seat in Alan’s 86. Some older heads might remember this car from years ago; Alan worked for Tomei years ago and helped develop the Poncam for the 86. It was wild tearing around the streets of Tokyo in his 86. Eventually, we made our way to another parking area packed with Hiace vans and a few dotted 86’s. If you’ve seen this video, you’ve probably seen how wild this place was.
After we spent some time at this PA, unexpectedly bumping into some channel fans, which is a rare and exciting thing to happen in Japan, we made our way down towards Shibuya, as we had heard there was a low rider meet happening.
Sadly, luck was not on our side with this. The meet had been cancelled, but we stuck around with Dino and Alec to watch a very diverse selection of traffic, from American cars to traditional Japanese tuned machines, roll through. Enough rambling from me; enjoy the photos from this night below.
Here is a somewhat extensive photo dump from visiting a Fluke event at Nikko. This had a much more locals-only feel; we were the only attendees. First, we made a trip to the gigantic statue out by the Tsukuba circuit, as it is impossible to avoid if you stay near it. The statue is called Kamakura Daibutsu, and it’s a must-see if you are up in that area. The Nikko day was fantastic; I shot a few photos of Tec Arts and friends who looked to be having a day off from work. Winds Auto’s Hiromi and her husband Obata were there too. Nikko events never disappoint; there is always something to see.
We head to Scotland to Dorifest at Driftland, an event focused on style and fun driving.
After helping Sam buy his Dream AE86, I hung out with the Nightride guys in Poland for a week to see their slice of the car world.
Here’s a little photo dump from the recent video on Drift Bashes: Looking back, the E36 was heaps of fun to drift in. I loved every second of it; it’s just a very tiring car. It’s ideal for someone else to do what I did, and if they wanted to, they could throw some serious effort at it to make it look right.
Ironically, for a channel and blog that talks about “Ireland’s Finest” and style, this car doesn’t represent much of that, if im being honest. When we posted this, we had our hands on the cheap-ish 350z and tried our best to make it as presentable as possible. I’ll always have fond memories of this machine, but the time has come to let it go to the next guy. Im always very grateful for the Club Loose guys and the Drift Games lads for letting us come up and throw ourselves around the track.
Anyway, here are a few photos we took from that weekend; I always take very little as I’m mostly petrified of driving, which hopefully will subside as I get the hang of going sideways—massive shout-out to Niall for replacing the wiper linkage on Sunday morning. Good times!
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to make it to last year’s AE86 festival. A close friend was getting married, and there was no way out. Instead, our friend Adam Osborne was there to capture the day with Flip and Josh on the video camera. I wish I could’ve been, as it’s probably one of the best days out, and that’s not being biased toward my favourite chassis; it’s just a decent day filled with a very high percentage of good machines. I’ll let Adams Photo Gallery do much of the talking here, as there are plenty of really nice photos for the eyes. We are fortunate to have such a vibrant AE86 scene here in Ireland.
