April 28, 2006 Drift Like Nomuken! The first day of Rim has traditionally been run on tarmac, albeit scraggly, worn out and nasty tarmac, but it would be my fist tarmac rally and I was kinda excited! I mean, twisty mountain roads, a closed course, a rear-wheel drive car... When your daily driver is a car that basically started the drift craze, these things excite you. I’d spent lots of time watching drift, togue and time attack videos and I’ll admit it, some Initial D, loving the fact that at the end of each episode of the anime series was a driving tutorial. It took me a stage to get used to tarmac, and we did get a flat tire which was changed without a hitch, but the second stage was where it was at! I remembered my lessons from the JDM Option video Drift Like Nomuken and Initial D, downshifting to drift, keeping my lines clean and picking the straightest paths, even using my hand brake and kicking the clutch. It was awesome slamming into a corner and feeling the rear end let loose and hearing the squeal of my tires as I slid around a tight mountain road. My heart rate increased and race fuel pumped through my veins! Tarmac is rad! My initial joy, however was dampened when the last stage of the night became engulfed in a thick fog that left us wondering where the road went. We were so slow! But then again, so was everyone else. These things happen. At least I got to drift for the first time. I had a great time reliving my drifting moments with our drift buddy and part time rallyist, Mr. Gushi, who had had a similar conversation with me after he’d done his first rally stage. This was a positive start to the rally, and I was ready to tackle the big Saturday stages. Back to Diary of a Driver.