I have that same wish. There’s no way I would have been able to afford it. I was trying to get a CA18DET Silvia with ice cream money. It didn’t work out.
Drifting has been around in Canada for a similiar time frame to the States. Video Option went to Laguna Seca in 95, and not much came of it. California had a large Japanese population, so gradually drifting trickled back to the States via Club4ag (Moto P) and Taka Aono, whom started Drift Days. Hawaii also had local drift days going on as well, and there was DG Trails out east starting up. It was all grass roots though, and mostly parking lot drifting (except Hawaii). I’d say drifting didn’t take off in the States until Funiaki Komatsu was brought over to Hawaii to tear it up in the Mazora Drifter X car back in 2001. Signal was planning to open up shop in Torrance, so they started to do these exhibitions for shop publicity. These exhibitions garnered a lot of publicity, and caught wind of many notable people (Apexi namely). Fallen also was starting to do exhibitions at the time, with Koguchi and co-Drift Show Off.
Drifting had exploded in Japan, but was still under the radar in the US. I"d say Signal and Falken really helped put drifting on the map, enough that big players like Apexi and HKS wanted to bring their guys over as well. Then the D1 Grand Prix went down in 2003. Drifting already had strong roots in SoCal because of the aforementioned, but it wasn’t massive yet. The first D1 is what really triggered the explosion. And a year after that, drifting was in Canada…But hasn’t really gone anywhere compared to the US.
It was so bad in the States, Lorin couldn’t get any American sponsors for Drift Xtreme. Nobody would put up the funds. APC was the only company really willing to pony up anything, hence the APC decal on Kumakubo’s Siltruck. Lorin was bringing transmissions through the airport, etc. Nopi was also one of the few avenues willing to give drifting a chance. People saw it as a fad, and there was a lot of resistance. I would say Lorin was responsible for putting drifting on the map outside of SoCal, Hawaii, and Englishtown, going to places like Atlanta which would later become a battle ground for Formula D.
The craziest thing abou DX2, was that it had two pioneering forces in North American drifting in one venue, in Canada. It was such a force, that D1 was gonna come to Toronto and do a drivers search! Then after D1 was like, "Drifting in Canada? What drifting? " And that shit never happened. Then I guess Angelo couldn’t afford to keep going with Drift Nation, and it went under or something. Drift Nation did a lot to bring the action here, but there wasn’t much of a foundation to work with. There still isn’t.
I know there’s loose ends. Guys like Neko Punch from Northwest Nissans I would say is one of the most notable people for bringing drifting to the Internet masses while it was a hungry baby looking to eat. Northwest Nissans had it’s thing going, then there was Benson Hsu with one of the most famous Sileighties, documentation from oilcoverkid and the GMR scene, touge explosion, etc. Drifting.com became the early days breeding ground and portal to drifting for a lot of people. The owners saw the cash cow potential and turned it into a business above all else, and that caused a lot of bitterness to the site.
Also Mike from Grip Video played a big role, documenting drifting in Hawaii ore-D1 and releasing it to the masses. So many ends, so much shit to cover, I went way off track. I guess it’s been pretty cool to watch drifting from its infancy here. I am glad I got to see it and be a part of history by attending unique events, and talking to lots of people over the years.