Odaiba Tokyo: Toyota Museum.

After my day of shooting D1GP in Odaiba I was told by one of my indigenous friends that next we were headed to the the Toyota history museum. I was fully into going so we went. All in all I love this place. It glorifies everything Toyota historically inclined and includes other great brands which I'm sure Japan was competing with at the time that made some of their most historical vehicles.

After the history museum we went to the Toyota mega web, which is an interesting name I can't pinpoint the meaning to because it basically is a dealership with other exhibits. So here's a quick sum up of the cool stuff I saw.

This Ferrari Dino was the first thing to greet us in the history museum. First one I saw in person.

Next was a super clean Jaguar continuing the red theme.

I've got a soft spot for the old air cooled Vws because I had one for my first car, and still have it.

I'm surprised this speedster wasn't getting more of the spotlight. It was just kinda set in a hallway out of the way. I guess I can't speak for the Japanese but I really like these, and thought this would have gotten a bit more glory but i guess they hold that off for their countries cars.

Next was a good looking Toyota 200gt. Again first example I had ever seen in person and a fantastic example at that. I have some more shots I'll share on this one later. I just couldn't get enough of it.

I think this is a little Honda 200, might be something different. Either way it was a pretty cool little rig.

I always like seeing any Levin 86. We don't see to many here in the states and they are the cool thing to have.

The day that I went to the museum was like three days before back to the future day so the had a replica DMC looking pretty.

After making the lap of the upper floor we all headed down to the lower level with the mall giftshop and cafe. I could t help but notice a very cool looking mural of the WRC celica. Almost looks like it has wings.

First thing that greeted me on my way down stairs was no disappointment.

Remember what I said about Levins this just was to clean to not get a few better shots of.

Past the levin to the left of the bottom of the staircase they had a giftshop and cafe area. Check out doc from BTTF on the TV!

After the museum and cafe we headed out and over to the mega web.

This was basically a showroom with a bunch of Toyota vehicles and exhibits with aftermarket TRD stuff.

Of course we were greeted with a Toyota gt86. As much as losing scion kinda stinks in the states I'm glad we get a Toyota badge on our NZ6 chassis.

Up the stairs was the TRD display with a few of racecars from various series.

;

And a little further in was all the TRD stuff.

Walls of it.

I really liked the look of this 86 on display really captures the essence of modifying one of these for a street-able track car.

The carbon roof, hood and trunk not only looked great on the car but reminded me of the carbon hood found on a very famous origional 86 chassis.

Although the new 86 does look very different in many ways form the old 86 it fully captures the essence of what the old 86 conceptualized and did so in a contemporary way.

This variant of the 86 is the GRMN. It comes with a bit of a boost in power and torque as well as some better suspention brakes and visual/areo upgrades seen.

Unfortunately these are only available in Japan.

This was the first RHD drivers seat that I sat in feeling a door on your right and having the shifter and E-brake on the left felt weird just sitting there im sure driving switched takes some getting used to.

After spending to much time in the TRD/racing section we moved on a bit and started to head out to get some Ramen at a local shop which brought us past a few more interesting exhibits. One of which was a Toyota Mirai which I had not interest in.

And a dirty old land cruiser looking pretty good and ready to go do some more cruising.

So in case you do get the opportunity to go to Japan I do fully recommend this, and keep in mind they constantly rotate exhibits so you'll defiantly see something at least a little different than what you saw here.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Matsuri: Drifting And Other Fun Things

 This year marks the first year that I have gone to a boneified local grassroots drifting event. This particular event was, in my mind, the showcase event for Stateline Drift. It was, as of now, one of my favorite drifting events I have attended. This particular event was in early July at Spokane County Raceway

This could have been one of the best events id been to just because of the number of people that traveled from different areas of Northwest drifting community. The two in the above picture are both from Seattle, which is very well known for Evergreen Drift and Formula Drift's round 5 Throwdown.

Another feller from the Seattle area. Being from the US and not getting the s15 Silvia from the factory over here its always very special to see one drifted at a grassroots event.

Here is a picture of Cody Hall's door with a guy holding a towel in the background right before the parade lap.

The culture at these events is very respectful, very fair and very self sustaining. I swear these guys, and gals, could all be stuck on a desert island with a race track and everything they needed to drift for thirty years, and never have any fights, and quarrels or qualms, just happy drifters drifting. It's really like a family out here in the drifting world, and that, I love. Here's Nate Schewick, Mr. Antonov and a buddy of his looking savage.

There were some grassroots drifting favorites including the Drift Union Subaru Legacy and the Villains rigs which I didn't get any shots of because I had to bail for the second day of the event but no doubt always put on a show, additionally there were some Seattle folks and one feller all the way from Canada, what a trek and what a worth while trip he must have thought he made.

Stateline Drift is just coming into their better years of drifting in my opinion, starting from humble beginnings with a Facebook page that sprouted the occasional parking lot rental to lay some skid marks to now having full access to a 2.4 mile road course, with some of the best third gear corners in the northwest.

This AE86 was a fun one to see out on track and was the first of the 86's that I saw in person to have an SR engine swap. He was having a good time out there and showing many his great driving skills with a difficult chassis.

This corner seems to be one I shoot a lot at SCR the corner marshal stand adds some more interest and solidifies that we are indeed at a racetrack and not some open country road which is sometimes the case with the track as you have well seen and will see more of later in the post. The blue car above is the one from Canada.

This 86 is a bit more well known especially in the Seattle area for its Lexus v8 swap which has a very peculiar exhaust note and keeps the Toyota guys happy by keeping their Toyota Toyota and not turning them Nissan or Honda.

This RHD rx-7 from Garage52 always looks good out on track but always seems to run into mechanical problems at every weekend I've seen it, Ive only got a few decent pics of such a pretty car.

Another one from Garage52 that is now growing on me, this car looks great from some angles and kinda like garbage from others, no idea why but it does.

Another shot of the Shinchoku car from Seattle. This Shinchoku s13 is competing in the evergreen Pro-Am and is doing pretty well last time I checked the grassroots event coverage pages.

Later in the day I was getting kinda hot and needed some shade but really wanted to keep shooting so I found a tree, one of like three in the whole racing complex, climbed it and turned out to get some interesting shots, not sure if its to distracting or captures the oh so important element of interest we photographers fight for.

This is probably the best one I got from the tree, really did my best to use a slow shutter speed to have blur the trees, but still have the car sharp to keep a good focal point, to bad, aside from the actual drifting of this car it looks like a drifting junkyard on wheels.

Another one of a pretty good looking cressida at the event. this was the only Cressida at the event and I am glad it showed up, the ratio of s13/14 chassis cars in the Inland Northwest is almost unhealthy. so props to the driver for showing up and off.

This feller was one of the better looking Pumps on the track, unfortunately at the end of the first day during the tandem competition, it got in a bit of scuffle and lost some front end, I almost wanted to cry because its such a nice car.

from what I picked up the two involved in the collision were both in drift and the car behind, hit this car as it had to much speed and drifted into this car slowing down to avoid another collision in front of it, merely an accident of drifting.. as unfortunate as it is.

As you can see the front end is a bit tweaked and the upper right frame did end up getting bent from the collision. Its good to see that this guy wasn't to butt hurt and got it back to the pit without to much trouble.

As you van see the other car came away unscathed and drove to the pits under its own power.

After the little mishap with these two S-chassis cars the tandem competition continued for another 10-15 min until the first days award ceremony.

Cody Hall is always looking good out on track and knows how to drift this corner pretty dang well.

These are some of the earlier images from the practice of the whole course. The waste gate on this yellow s13 was to die for, every time it came by I got shivers down my spine.

This is the other Seattle guy that showed up. I've never seen this set of over fenders on an s13 before and I have to say at the right angle it looks pretty nice. This Shinchoku rig is driven by Matt Vankirk. he also participates in evergreen pro-am

Here's that pretty looking s15 again.

And the V86 shot from the tree on the back corner, I really liked this angle but getting a good shot was pretty hard especially considering because only a third of the cars had the power to link this corner from the previous one.

So that sums up the highlights and general info from the matusri, next year hopefully i can make both days and get full coverage on it!

Josh Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo