Golden Week in Japan is a time when families leave behind their daily lives and take a vacation. That means most businesses are closed and everyone piles onto the Shinkansen (bullet train) or the freeways.
Golden for Enthusiasts
For car enthusiasts, it means touring around to different events like we did. Those events included the AF IMP Super Carnival, SR All Star Meeting, Wekfest Japan and a brief stop at Hitomi Go at Meihan Sportsland.
Finishing off this marathon of events was something pretty amazing: Drift x Dressup. Unfortunately or fortunately, not having a car meant taking the Shinkansen and then transferring a couple times to the local train lines. That landed us pretty much in the middle of a forest thanks to our map application.
Lost in the Forest
Equally as disoriented as us, we met a father and son from New Zealand (No, it wasn't Mad Mike and Lincoln Whiddett) who were here to check out the same event we were trying to find. As we made our way out of the forest, there waiting for us was the Suzuka Twin Circuit. By the sound of it, the drifting was already in full swing! Instantly everyone's jaw dropped as we saw the best looking cars drifting together.
Doridore + On Fleek
Drift x Dressup (doridore) could be considered a drifting all star meet with the variety of styles on hand including pro, shakotan and the very interesting itasha (more on those later). Simultaneously there was a car show called On Fleek that was just as diverse. Many on display were also at in attendance at Wekfest Japan.
Some would say that there were around 90 or so drift cars; we couldn't confirm or deny this. All we know is that there were a lot, and each of them would fit right in at a car show — although, it is much more entertaining watching them drift.
The event is organized in part by THe☆BReaST and headed up by Takashi Mine. Each car had to pass approval for appearance and style, while each driver's skill level had to be intermediate level or above.
Style Points
We saw several familiar faces from Final Bout Special Stage Japan, and we met a lot of new drivers that we were familiar with via other car shows and the internet.
Some of the most interesting cars were the itasha cars. Itasha means "painful car," which may seem like a derogatory term, but the itasha crowd embraces it. Their cars are wrapped in elaborate themes with their favorite manga or anime characters.
Stance, shakotan or whatever you prefer to call it were also participating. The baby blue S15 of Presto Auro was very low and very loud. That loudness was thanks to a combination of a SR20DE and motorcycle exhaust piping. The camber didn't offer much grip, but it was really interesting watching this style drift in person.
Climax
Drift x Dressup finished in spectacular fashion pitting two of the top teams against each other for title of best team: Mind Control Racing (MCR) in their signature purple drift machine against none other than THe☆BReaST. MCR had the numbers on their side by running eight cars, while THe☆BReaST only had six which then went down to five.
In the end, MCR was the clear winner with consistent drift trains that were something you had to see in person to believe. If you go online and search for #doridore, #driftdressup or #ドリドレ, you can find some video footage of the event.
