I get the feeling some people will lose the plot over this post.

“I’m sick of Silvias and Skylines and AE86s!” they say.

“I want something a bit more unique! Something a bit weirder!” they cry.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you kei truck drifting.

“Keitora”, as everyone calls them here, is a contraction of “kei jidousha torakku”, which is the Japanese word for “compact car” combined with the Japanese pronunciation of “truck”. These little workhorses are a familiar sight in the agricultural areas outside major cities, and are usually seen being driven by old farmers with a load of fresh produce in the back. They are also commonly used by workmen like carpenters and builders, which seems to be the sort of jobs the guys who drift these cars have. I’ve heard that Team Burst’s Naoki Nakamura, who works as a landscaper, drifts his keitora every day in the mountains for practice.

This is Ishida. His Suzuki Carry isn’t as heavily modded as most of the other trucks that were there, but it was definitely the biggest sleeper of the lot. Those are Advan Neovas on those steel wheels.

The engine had been swapped for the turbo engine found in the Suzuki Every microvan, and the suspension had been modded. That’s about it, he said. He also uses the truck for his day-to-day work, which is why it’s still almost factory in appearance.

The interior is fairly standard, with only a Bride bucket seat bolted in place of the original.

He also fabricated up a neat meter panel for the tacho, boost gauge and Blitz SBC.

This guy is generally considered to be the Keiichi Tsuchiya of keitora drifting at the moment. His name is Kamisama (God) and drifts this slammed Suzuki Carry.

That’s Kamisama, with “driver one”, “tuner one” and “tuner two”. These four guys all chipped in to buy this truck together! The engine is from an Alto turbo engine with a spacer plate adapting to the normal transmission. There’s even a little intercooler under the engine, and an oil cooler on the side.

Those Hayashis are fake, if you were wondering.

Check out Kamisama’s Youtube channel to see this car in action by clicking here!

That’s a Go-Kart bucket seat in there.

Suspension is Silvia in the front, and revalved motorcycle units in the rear.

I don’t need to point out the obvious advantage of drifting a truck.

The look on his face says it all.

This is Shin33.

This sort of thing just makes you want to giggle. Look at those Panasports on the rear.

It has a Cappuccino engine, which uses the same block as the Carry. It also has a rather unique intercooler mounting location!

That says “Sato Tiling”. This is Shin’s daily work driver, as well as his drifter, and he sometimes takes it out on the Shomaru touge.

You could easily imagine this to be the interior of a Silvia if it didn’t look like a van.

Yep, the seat is bolted to the top of the strut tower.

This is Hirano, and his Suzuki looked a fair bit less agricultural than the other trucks there.

I’m not really sure what to think of this one.

It’s a truck, but it’s drifting, but it looks like a VIP car.

Even the interior has been done up in a VIP style.

Shin works for a body shop, and he uses the truck to cart around bumpers and other car parts.

The coolest thing about these trucks were the wide range of modifications and engine swaps that everyone was trying out. This one is a Wagon R engine mounted sideways.

Internally mounted front tower strut braces? Mind your shins.

Gotta love Japan, eh?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 am and is filed under Kei, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.