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Watch two drift masters kick out a touge battle in the mountains

James Lisle
Content producer
10 Oct 2017
2 min read

I mean, what else would you be doing on a bright Sunday in Japan?

Kicking it out in a tiny Toyota KP61 Starlet and a Datsun 1200 - both of which are manual and rear-wheel drive (yes!) - the video highlights "Drift King" Keiichi Tsuchiya and Takuya Kurosawa taking it out to the mountains and driving them on roads that helped define the small Japanese sports car.

While these might not fit the modern day sense of 'sports car', with huge power figures and acceleration times, the (obvious) trade-off with these little hatches is a sense of agility and responsiveness you don't really get with a V8 bruiser weighing 1700kg.

I mean, yeah, the Toyota pushes out a whimsical 55kW at 5600rpm, and the Datsun's not much better at 61kW - which would probably struggle to blow the froth off a cappuccino - but they're just so cool. And light, too - around 700kg.

As expected, the cars lack ABS, power steering, and traction control, but they bring back a time when driving down a road could be something to savor and enjoy. An attitude level best described as 'spirited driving' rather than just attacking flat out.

But it gets even better. Should you be unable to afford a motoring focused trip to Japan, you could ask Tsuchiya-san yourself this weekend at the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney. Boo-ya.

What do you think of the Datsun 1600 and Toyota Starlet? Are there better cars to take through the mountains? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

James Lisle
Content producer
James Lisle (aka J3) likes all things cars. Cynical and enthusiastic in equal measure, James loves to clamber into anything with a steering wheel and a decent amount of grunt. Although it may seem the J3 glass is half empty on first acquaintance with a new ride, he maintains a balanced approach and will happily lose himself in technical details relating to even the most common, mass market models. Bore and stroke ratios, specific output stats, and thermal efficiency figures are his guilty pleasures.
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