Firstly, I’m back! Felt good to get behind the lens again after quite a long hiatus. Reminded me of the good old days.
A little late to the Matsuri posting game, but regardless I managed to snap a few shots off over the course of the weekend. I didn’t get many as most of it was spent socialising, passengering out on track, and avoiding the ridiculous heat that always seems to be on show at Queensland Raceway every year for Matsuri. If you don’t already, know Matsuri is a drifting event held around Australia. It takes inspiration from the ‘Drift Matsuri’ held every year in Japan. The guys from Queensland Raceway and SecretDrift.com came together to bring it to Australia, with one held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne each year. The event runs on a weekend formula, with track opening at 8am Saturday morning and then closing at 10pm that night, to re-open Sunday morning at 6am and close at 4pm that afternoon. Sadly the 24hour formula that the Japanese event uses could not work over here, so they decided to make it ’24hours of track time’. It works a treat and the whole event is like one massive car scene party; easily one of the most looked forward to events on the calendar.
With 250 cars entered in total and probably close to 1000 people camping and countless spectators over the weekend, it is a HUGE event, and easily the best drifting event of the year. I didn’t get that many shots, but enough to warrant me throwing a post together. So roll on the shots:
Matsuri usually brings out Queensland’s best quality drift cars and drivers, which is also one of the biggest drawcards for the event. Thankfully that means genuine wheels all throughout the paddock.
The dudes from ‘Gravy Garage’ who are primarily based on the Sunshine Coast were out in force at Matsuri, bringing a number of top quality cars and killer drivers. Not sure who was steering the supermade kitted S13 but it was on fire all weekend. Jamie’s Cefiro is a familiar car and face in the drift scene, having thrown out the RB20 in favour of an SR20. It is an awesome car to watch sliding, and rolling on a set of Work VS-KFs it looks the goods too!
The boys from Hit N Run Drift Crew came up for the weekend all the way from Sydney. It was awesome to see them out in action, being probably the most famous drifters in the country currently, even more so than the likes of Beau Yates who we interviewed in the article before this (and Charlie Hadfield from the Internet). The guys from Hit N Run made a name for themselves for doing BIG things in badass cars: a close bunch of friends in ridiculously well put together drift cars going out and having fun, with Scott Mitchell catching it all on camera. This has landed them some killer sponsor deals and a big fan base, while still staying true to the ‘grass roots’ ideals. I myself am a huge fan of them and was stoked to see them out. Sadly I only got one picture, which is of TJ in his Hot Road kitted Type-X 180SX and Jack in his D-Max kitted 1J powered 180SX which looks like it belongs in Formula D (compliment, not an insult Jack if you are reading this!).
S13s were everywhere, which is expected at their current price range! Top picture is Casey Dhanaram from shirtstuckedin‘s S13. He has kept it NA and drives the absolute wheels off of it. The car looked awesome rolling around as well, I have always liked SSR Mk3s!
Once owned by Buckna and before that apparently coming from D1SL in Japan (not sure on the legitimacy of this), this S13 has done the rounds. I don’t know the current owner, but the car looks wild to say the least. It is no longer SR powered either: it has an LS1 under the hood, much like a lot of drift builds these days.
Loved this ‘Tiffany’ coloured R32 that was out blazing all weekend long!
Another LS powered S13, this one was running a smaller wheel and tyre setup and because of these was pumping out the smoke like crazy.
180s for daysssssss! Another really popular slide car due to their affordable nature and perfect chassis for embracing drifting.
A not so popular chassis for drifting is the VE SS Commodore, however Arif loves it and it seems to work a treat as he tore up the track all weekend. Arif is also dubbed as “Australia’s Worst Hoon” from the Media and it is a sort of funny piss-take these days. It is nothing new to learn that 90% of the guys out sliding all weekend honed their skills on the street.
An extra special surprise was seeing Nigel Petrie of Engineered to Slide fame bringing his phenomenal Hilux Drift Ute up to Queensland for the event. He made the massive journey from Victoria just for the event. A dedicated and passionate drifter with a tremendous amount of talent and ingenuity he has ground up built his Hilux into one of the worlds most followed builds. Not to mention his highly decorated 180SX pro series drift car and award winning S13. Nigel is car scene royalty and is as down to earth as they come!
Jay from Streetkarnage had his JZX100 out on track, such a huge soft spot for X Chassis’s and Jays is (well, was) a fine example. However I think he has now sold it and moved on to an S15.
This RX-7 sounded insane, not sure on any details about it but I was a big fan. I love my rotors and also love my Work Equip 05s.
Trains are a huge part of Matsuri and easily the best thing to watch over the weekend.
Lachlan’s 180sx is always awesome to see. Super well presented and rolling on a set of awesome Blitz Type 03s.
Twinning! Well almost anyway. Muski brought his S14 up from Victoria for the event and it was one of the best looking cars over the weekend. The second purple people eater is my boy Tom’s! Having watched this car go from green to where it is now has been a blast. So much love for this thing and it is always progressing (sometimes the wrong direction) but always a pleasure watching him steer it. SR powered with a TD06 it makes solid power to match its killer good looks. GramLight 57Ds under the guards just tops it all off!
Another of the bros, Hilton is one of the coolest cats in the drift scene! His 32 Sedan is also one of the top tier cars around too: 1J powered with a GTX30/76r it makes a tonne of power and bakes impossibly hard. With his new paint job and custom widebody rear guards to give it that GTR 4 Door look it was as pretty as can be all weekend (until Hadfield put a tyre into it). You can never go wrong with Work VS-KFs as well!
If you follow me on Instagram (@downshiftaus) this car will be all too familiar. Finn is a good friend and his S14 is a favorite of mine, for obvious reasons. Not really much else to say about it, everything on it is just A-Grade.
No real surprise who I am going to end this post on!
Charlie is one of my oldest friends and also probably the most popular drifter on the Internets. I am just playing around, but his S13 has progressed ridiculously fast, just like his MX-5 did. Its Matsuri setup is SR powered with a TD06 making around 450rwhp, BN Kit with Rocket Bunny rear guards and Work VS-XXs under the guards. I say this because that is changing to bigger and better again. Loved watching him kill it all weekend long, he had minimal dramas and gremlins over the weekend. It was probably making some of the biggest bushfires of the weekend and it looked the part the whole time. Got a lot of love for the kid as well as a bunch of the guys in this post!
Hope you enjoyed this brief post. Lots more to come from events just passed!
Rory.