Makosa Matsuri - Come with me to Finland pt.2
Saturday
After two days of rainy and cloudy weather it felt good to finally see the sun brighten up the track and the pits.
Jäntti was on the hunt for a new SR powered driftcar and his friend managed to find this Cefiro at an action in Japan. Before seeing this car he didn’t even know that the Cefiro existed, but it was in fact SR powered so he made a bid and managed to win the auction and 5 months later it got delivered to Finland.
He knew what buying a purpose built driftcar from Japan could mean and in his words he got a “pretty authentic Japanese-car build experience with all of it’s pros and cons”. Banged up frame rails, no power steering or brake booster and questionable wiring to name a few things. And with the car sitting so low the rear subframe had been raised along with the diff, engine and exhausts that now runs through the cabin for better clearance, but to not risk the fuel tank scraping and catching fire it was thrown into the trunk.
After arrival Jäntti switched out the OEM tank for a fuelcell, changed the management to a Maxxecu and tuned it on E85. Unfortunately the SR spun a bearing while tuning and the car sat for a few months. He swapped and rebuilt an SR in time for the Makosa Matsuri but after 3 hours of driving the SR spun a bearing, again… While not getting much seat time he still got to experience the cars full potential for a few laps and said that the car offered a true and very raw driving experience.
Though being a project, like driftcars always are, I wouldn’t be surprised if this sometime in the near future becomes the new norm of drift project-bases. With clean examples of Japan-exclusive car modells fetching very high prices these days buying a used and abused car for a fraction of that might be well worth it. It’s for sure a huge gamble, but one that might pay off if you’re lucky.
As the day progressed and with this being the second day of the main event people were getting more and more comfortable, driving closer and closer together and doing faster and harder entries on the straight.
At events like this you expect to see the S-chassis, maybe a JZX here and there and E36 coupes and sedans have become quiet popular grassroots-styled cars the past few years too. But in Finland (and Poland) the E36 compacts and Mercedes W202 have become fairly common in the grassroots scene as well.
With the variety of car modells being big the variety of engine sounds were even bigger. Screams from 4-cyl SR20’s, 6-cyl VR6’s, 8-cyl LS’s, 12-cyl 1GZ and everything in between filled the forest around the Pesämäki track.
After meeting him at Ultrace a few months ago it was nice seeing Jokke and his ER34 again on his home turf. Though very capable of being one, you don’t see R34’s being used as drift cars that often.
A car that I was very excited to see was Daniel’s JZX81 Mark II as I’ve never gotten the chance to see a JZX older than the JZX90 before. Daniel has owned and drifted this car since 2019 and has gotten very comfortable in it in the process. But the Matsuri marked the end of the 81, at least in Daniel’s hands, as he wants to switch to another chassi to improve his skills.
If it hasn’t been clear through the photos from this and the first blog post the vibe of the event was incredible.
3 days into the event and I couldn’t be happier at this moment. Good cars, hard driving and incredible wether.
Everybody knows that red cars are the fastest.
After getting to ride in the Cressida from the airport and see how it drove under normal driving I was excited to experience it on the track using it’s full potential. With the car being fairly light despite the heavier than stock engine and a rollcage it felt very well balanced and still being NA the BMW engine didn’t feel overpowered or out of place. Still driving it like an old Toyota needs to be driven, using high speeds and a lot of momentum, Ville showed how comfortable he was in his car and provided a very smooth ride.
While it’s fairly common to see an MX5 being used as a driftcar in the UK or in the US they still don’t seem to have caught on in the rest of Europe yet, despite the NB being one of the cheapest RWD Japanese cars you can buy at the moment. While it might be a bit underpowered for bigger tracks like this there are always multiple forced induction options available, and chassi wise you can get most of the upgrades you need from brands like Destroy or Die.
The “G-Corporation” kitted Heatbringers-E36 is a perfect example of how much colormatching your interior details to the exterior does for your car. It really helps bringing your car together.
Compensating for the bad reputation of the Cefiro SR20DET we have this 180sx that ran without any issues.
With the track closing for the day it was time for the award ceremony where awards such as the “best car”, “best driver”, “best outfit” and two “Lardel’s Best Street Style” awards going to @nuorijapani’s BN Blister S13 and @wwilsson’s Toyota Carina were given out. Afterwards the good vibes continued with some Sandels and pit walks.
Sunday
On the last day of the event the track closed earlier than the rest of the days to allow the Makosa boys some extra time to clean up at the track before heading home themselves.
During the past days I’ve very much appreciated having luxuries like the villa and sauna at the track instead of having to head home early every evening, missing out on a big chunk of the experience.
As people started packing up all throughout the day some still wanted to take advantage of every last minute of the event.
Will always appreciate a good pewter grey S15 on VS-KF’s with Ganador mirrors and a red interior setup, especially if it’s driven on the track.
As the drivers enjoyed the last bits of the event, so did I.
Sandels have become a big inside meme in the drift community and some people take it more seriously than others.
While most people had already driven the whole weekend, it’s during the final hours where the “just one more lap”-mentality comes in.
But accidents are a part of the game.
The contact was fairly light and nothing mayor was damaged. Both the fiberglass front and the tubbed front can be repaired during the offseason.
After bending the tubefront back a little to move the front bumper away from the front wheels Gabi took the car out on some final runs to end the event on a good note.
After packing everything up I headed with Gabi back to town, hung out at Ville’s place and took the flight home the next day. I’m very glad that the Makosa boys gave me this opportunity and helped me with picking me up and leaving me at the airport and made sure I had a place to sleep throughout the week.
Getting to experience this event and the Finnish grassroot scene was great and I’m very much looking forward to coming back next year again.
Thank you for checking out the massive event coverage. It obviously takes a lot of time but I want to think that it will inspire at least some of you in one way or another and that makes it worth it.
Don’t forget to grab something from the shop.