I was back home in Italy this summer, when in the middle of the night I got a message from Saito-san at Yokohama Tire telling me to block off Saturday, the 4th of October.
Something cool was going down and I was invited to check it out. Now for context Saito-san is an OG in the JDM scene – once HKS’s main marketing guy. Some years back he made the jump to Yokohama Tire, and proceeded to reinvent the way the tire-giant communicates.
So when Saito-san told me to block off a day three months into the future – I did it. Immediately.
Fast forward to the beginning of this month, and rumors about October 4th were quickly growing on the grapevine. The word on the street was that Red Bull had organised a secret underground meet, and that it would be held at an undisclosed location in the Tokyo Bay. No flyers, no official site, no leaks,just coded DMs and good ol’ word-of-mouth.
The location was shared on the day. With two invitations in hand, Alec and I got our cars out, dropped the address into Google Maps and ended up at a massive ESR logistics center. There were no signs or rows of cars out front, no commotion, just a pair of Red Bull liveried Minis marking the entrance.
We drove up the multi-storey concrete labyrinth lit with strobes, LED strips and Red Bull signage. Once we hit the third floor it was obvious that’s where the party was at; driving through a sea of modified cars, a DJ booth with music pumping, food and drink stalls, familiar faces greeting us and directing us to our pre-assigned spots.
It was obvious that the entire JDM world was represented, from old school tuning legends like Smoky of Top Secret, “Ama-san” of RE-Amemiya and Yokomaku of Veilside to the more recent players like Kei Miura and Liberty Walk’s own Kato-san. From pro drivers, drifters, shop owners, notorious builders, journalists and influencers it seemed the entire tuning scene was right there.
It was history, evolution, and future all in one crazy location. But Red Bull didn’t just invite the top dogs. They brought in us – the real community.
Most of the venue was filled with private cars, built by true enthusiasts, a lot of them well known and respected in the scene, others mysterious and hardly ever seen. A mix of Japanese and European cars, all tastefully modified, from meticulously crafted show stoppers to RWB Porsches, street drift cars and Wangan warriors from the infamous Midnight Club.
The selection was truly well curated, cherry picked to include every far-out aspect of Japan’s inimitable automotive world.
But let’s talk about the main event – the reason we all lost our damn minds. At 8pm on the dot, the lights went black. Silence. Then that unmistakable high-pitched scream of a 4-rotor echoed off the walls.
Enter Mad Mike Whiddett, in his TCP Magic-built quad-rotor Mazda 3, fire spitting like a dragon. Right behind him, 15 year-old Hiroya Minowa in the Cusco-built, 2JZ-powered Toyota GR Corolla; a smooth Hollywood-like tandem drifted up the warehouse access ramps, floor by floor. It was straight out of the Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift, only rawer, louder, and real. Nuts!!
Red Bull Tokyo Drift was more than a night out. It was a declaration that the culture is alive. The streets are still speaking. And now, the world is listening again.
The real question is, where will they take it next?
No other, yet, has screamed video content quite as much! Great work lads.
This is definitely Tokyo Drift in real life the setting, the cars, the energy matches the vibes
Props to Red Bull for organizing this event and bringing the community together
Endlessly envious of the opportunity you had there. 🙂
This looks so dope, can’t imagine how it must have been in real life!
Thanks for sharing this stuff, you two ! Great coverage, as always !
This events looks nuts ! Cool article like always.
I’m blown away by the real Mid Night cars out there, just a row of silver-stickered speed demons still being driven is amazing to me.
Wow, what an event, amazing pics thanks for sharing this!
This brings me hope that the car scene still has a chance to be as amazing as it once was before. Loved reading the “No flyers, no official site, no leaks, just coded DMs and good ol’ word-of-mouth.” An event for enthusiast who would build a car even if no one is watching. Just good ol’ fashioned organized chaos.