In my world, there is only one annual drift event called the Super Pumpkin Smash and that is the one which transpires at Western Speedway on Vancouver Island. I had first heard of this event, which is organized by Capital Drift, years ago when I still lived in the prairies. Often I would find media people dressed up in ridiculous Halloween costumes as what appeared to be complete chaos took place on the track. As winter slowly prepared to dominate the next six months of my prairie existence, I would watch videos and look at pictures from this event and wonder why I lived somewhere with such a small drift season window.
Inevitably things change and now I no longer have to wonder. The Good Vibes Street Tribe were nice enough to let me tag along with them this year. This meant I could be track-side and watch the chaotic mayhem unwind right before my eyes… or at least that is what I expected.
The island’s drift scene had always been exploited as a no-holds-barred event (sort of like the cage match equivalent of drifting). At first glance, you’d probably think “Yeah, that makes sense.” More often than not, the cars are pretty banged up, paint is anything but mint, and the aesthetic is that of whatever it takes to keep on drifting without draining your wallet.
Yes, there are few cars from the island I really enjoy, but a lot of what I saw stood in strong opposition of what I’ve decided is my cereal box philosophy of the moment. That being said, drift cars should be nice cars driven hard, but at the end of the day are still pretty to look at.
This is a philosophy I think the guys at Good Vibes are striving towards, which makes shooting their cars exceptionally satisfying.
If I was a much simpler person, I would end my argument there. I would say my friends did it right and everyone needs to take a page out their book. I would go home, rest my head on my pillow and dream of Final Bout or something really Japanese and feel really fulfilled. After all, this is something we see all the time in the car community or just the world at large. We often mistake our opinion as fact, or at least the best case scenario for most situations. Think how often you hear a car enthusiast turn up their nose at a Honda, or the stance scene, or whatever else is going on out there.
The drift world is no different. Everyone finds a philosophy that suits them and holds onto it real tight. So what is Vancouver Island’s philosophy? I can’t tell just by looking at it, but here’s a lesson for anyone who doesn’t know me: If you ever have a conversation with me about cars, it’s fair game for me to talk about it on the site. So, allow me to paraphrase what I learned from an Islander.
They said: Although the island is probably geographically as close as you can get to Japan in Canada, ideologically it’s pretty far away from it. That is to say that most (not all) people in the island’s drift community do not draw their inspiration from Japanese drifting. Yes, they do really cool things that are reminiscent of earlier Japanese drifting, but that’s just a byproduct of the main reason they are there and that’s for the driving. Island drifting, above all else, is drifting function; cars are modified to perform better on the track. Big aero will inevitably explode, paint will fade and wheel fitment is just impractical. Long story short – their cars are more or less a tool required to get the job done.
Now that was one person’s interpretation of island drifting and although I haven’t spent a lot of time on the island, it seemed to make sense to me. Mostly because of the results produced and no Van. Island team I can think of encapsulates that mentality better than Husky Situation. I don’t think I’ve ever come across such a large team that can drive so well together, and their cars have scars to show that it wasn’t an easy process to get that good.
Even if you take a drifter off the island, they still stack up in team tandem competitions. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s always an island drift team that takes home first at Drift Union Invitational.
All this should be enough evidence for me to forfeit my drift philosophy of aesthetically pleasing automobiles going sideways, but it isn’t. At the end of the day, I just take pictures – and usually I want those pictures to have “pretty” cars in them. However, what I will admit is that arguing for one school of thought over another is like arguing that red is a better colour than green. It’s all subjective. Sometimes even I forget this, but what I enjoyed the most about the Super Pumpkin Smash event is that these two worlds collided and all this philosophical horse shit I’m talking about just doesn’t seem to matter. At the end of the day, it was just about having fun.
