Japan Tour 2016 - Pro Car Shop "SHIFT"

1st, 2nd, 3rd Speed.... Speed.... then Cranked Angle... 

 Welcome to Pro Car Shop SHIFT!

Sobaya-san had already told me that this day would not be a busy day at Shift. Being Mid week and Mid Day we knew the track would be pretty empty. Our night time and packed schedules means that we were always going to miss some busy evening sessions.

But this gives us time to tune reset and evaluate... that didn't mean that we were bored... far from it. 

I also met another old friend. Tekki-san cranked up his 86 and provided constant battle anytime we needed some motivation. It was his first time at Shift also. You know, you never travel 1/12 ~ 2 hours on the train, even when you live in Tokyo. So it was great to catch up.

Shift is in Nishi(west)-Tokyo and the foot hills of the mountains. Real drifting in this region might just take precedence. 

The first thing you notice how the locals run here is how straight things are. 4 corners and 2 long long straights.

There's a lot of speed building before you have that violent entry and 90 degree slide that I love. 

There was one particular wall (shown here) that I hit time after time as I pushed that little bit too hard. Fun though trying for max angle entries!!!


Something the DRB-REW performed as well as any machine I encountered. If not better.

Dave's (Drift Line) flowing style with more constant angle was challenged here. We were still abuzz with the flow and space reminded us of the older GCRC.

The venue is amazing. Great shop, space for PITs, and the circuit itself is in an large building sharing with furniture and hardware upstairs, while a huge supermarket is directly below.

P-Tile here still provided decent grip. 

I don't think James changed his setup at all the whole trip... apart from some Turbo addition and more rims...! 

So a lot of photos are straight line, but that's just because the corners are at the far ends of the track. 

But if you position correctly you still get the action.

I particularly haven't showcased any local guys chassis, you can get a magazine for that. 

By now we had already encountered and tried a number of YD-2. This YD-2 Plus showcased the distinct difference in how slowly the big bore shocks move compared to the lively stock plastic items.  Pushing a fat piston through a larger amount of oil is good or bad? I preferred the Stock Plastic ones.

Again, gentle angle building speed. 

you carry this a good 10 meters before the next HUGE entry.

James was on fire. Ahhh youth. Only to have reflexes of a cat again.

But even with a sorted chassis, the Shift style still dictates limited angle and much more go forward speed.
As the longer corners are wide open also typically it's a faster drift at less angle than we typically run and a vast vast difference to the opposite side of Tokyo.

Even though this is straight. There's a challenge to gaining traction. I had to increase gearing here to make the most of the circuit. 

play with the kink.

Pull the gap if you can then you know 90 degrees is coming.....

You can see here that I purchased an Overdose rear GT Wing. My thin alloy drag wing couldn't handle the suitcase transport. Also my front inter-cooler was now missing from the amount of walking we had done through Tokyo and surrounds dragging the cases behind us.

I was able to extract the best from what I had brought, but there's definitely some particular settings that would work better here.

All our cars could use a little tweaking and advice if we were to run here every day.

Like at any venue we went to, the three of us were easily able to run together, but the challenge is to raise the bar higher.  That's why I also enjoyed Shift. 

Pushing that high speed entry, and challenging when to drift and when not to.

RWD setups really give you that flexibility.

As we were packing up, Baba-san was cranking his Ketsukaki 4WD RC926 Drift Package around the track. I had already packed up, but I could see how that style still lives on, but for me cornering with all 4 wheels pointed straight ahead ended a long time ago. I had only encountered two other 4WD machines on this tour so far. That's about 2%

SHIFT is a place that challenged my setup and my driving. It would serve as a great training day for our next stop. Huge thanks to staff and as usual, it's not difficult to have fun on any RC track no matter where you are. Our SHIFT windscreen banners were an awesome addition and James and I immediately attached them to our R32s.

Next time we will be back on a busy day!