Part two of our Final bout photo dump consists of Saturday and Sunday of the event; I blended both days into the video we just did as it made for a better watch. I was surprised these videos didn’t do well on the channel, but what can you do? Either way, the drifting is nonstop all day Saturday and goes on into the night until about 11 PM, which is so cool.
Tunes are blaring through the system, and they have a best team drift event, followed by a tandem battle where the top guy battles against the Japanese driver over the ship. It’s such a cool even as you are also judged on the style of the car, which aids for points at the end of the day. Here is a sizable photo set from the two days of action. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions, drop a comment below. Cheers.
I’ve split the Final bout photos into two posts because there are many. I enjoy photos, and this blog has become a place for pictures and little writing, which is good as my images are better than how I construct a sentence. I will start here on Friday evening when we arrive at USAir in Shawano. Being Irish, the first thing I have to comment on is the weather; that perfect midwest summer sun was working wonders for anything I pointed the camera at. I wish we got more of those golden hour days in Ireland; regardless, please enjoy the selection of photos from the first night we got to FinalBout, as I feel some of these photos will be a good inspiration for others on how to approach a chassis, a lot of these guys have it figured out. It was great to see this stuff all packed into one venue.
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.
We call to Jimmy Oakes and friends and check out their workshop.
We experience a wild variety of madness at our first US car show, Clean Culture.
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.
Ryota Yuasa Drives his AE86 at Mondello at 86fest 2024
Japanese Drift Legend Ryota Yuasa Experiences Irish Culture and Scenery
Unlocking the Ultimate dream, drifting my new AE86 in Japan
With the lads gone home, I got a train back to Osaka and hooked up with Alex from Circuit Soul. I was meeting up with Rob later in the evening, so I decided to make my way into Dontonbori to wait for Alex. I had a look around and somehow found the 4A-GE vending machine! This little vending machine was so incredible to see in real life. I spent about twenty euros in Yen trying to find all the engines.
Once I linked up with Alex, we made our way to Aslan to Kill and checked out their shop; there are still quite a few Honda shops in Osaka, which I haven’t had the chance to see, and this was one of them.
I love their EG time attack car; it’s incredible. The owner was busy, so we only poked him a little. We left after half an hour of looking around and buying some stickers. That night, I hooked up with Rob, and we got some grub and drove around Osaka in his TE27.
The next day, we went to the USS Tokyo Auctions to pick up a low KM R34 GTR, which was quite the experience. I took a few photos that day as we walked the auction lots, and I’ll post them below with the rest of the images from this couple of days. It was truly unique stuff that I had the chance to see, which, funnily enough, was just another day in Rob’s life.
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.
I will only do a little talking or writing for this day; this was a lucky event that we chanced, and it turned out to be one of the most incredible days of my life. It was like a window into our future because it was related to all the cars we love and their older brothers. I love Tsukuba, too. It is my favourite track in Japan, so to have this experience, seeing all these essentially priceless cars racing around, was a lot to take in.
The JCCA meet at Tsukuba should be on your list if you go to Japan; this blew our minds. Let the rest of the photos talk for this one; I’ve left many of them in, as cutting them out is hard. One of the biggest things that drive me up the wall about old blogs is the little amount of coverage from an event like this; maybe im old school, but I want to see everything, so I’ve done the nice thing and put a gigantic amount of imagery in here for people who enjoy that sort of thing. I hope you like them.