Beyond borders for the love of cars

THE HUSBAND-AND-WIFE team checking on the Supra of the author

The love for cars is truly universal. In my career as a motoring journalist, I’ve had memorable moments meeting luminaries, legends and pioneers in the automotive industry as well as highly-respected motoring journalists who also truly profess an innate love for all things cars, motoring and driving.

I’ve met the likes of legendary racecar driver and Porsche Nurburgring specialist Walter Röhrl, a handful of F1 and other racecar drivers, my favorite motoring journalist/columnist Paul Horel, as well as Dino Dalle Carbonare of Speedhunters fame, who is based in Japan.

But meeting husband-and-wife team Kimihiro Obata and Hiromi Kajikuma was closer to home. Both have been regular judges at the Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship, thus visiting the Philippines a few times each year in the process. Hiromi is the more popular of the two, professionally drifting in Japan, Southeast Asia and the United States, and is often tagged as the Drift Queen. Her husband Kimihiro used to drift professionally, but now acts as her primary supporter on her numerous trips abroad to compete in drifting.

The pair met over two decades ago while working for separate car shops. Hiromi was working for a carwash/detailing/gas station shop, and Kimihiro for a tuning/race-prep shop. Their bosses, who were good friends, decided to set the pair on a date. The rest was history!

While they represent the Hyundai brand locally as principal judges for its drifting events, the two are actually very passionate Toyota owners. Thus you can see how meeting the pair was VERY close to home.

Both Hiromi and Kimihiro started out driving the famed “Hachi-Roku” or Corolla 86 before progressing to the more modern RWD Toyota machinery. Today, Hiromi drifts her Toyota Altezza (a first-generation Lexus IS sedan) with a modified 2.5-liter Toyota 1JZ straight-six engine pushing out 600 horsepower, while husband Kimihiro likes to play around with his 750-HP, 3-liter 2JZ-equipped Toyota Supra MKIV, the very same type of car I own.

So when the opportunity came to finally meet them, I immediately asked them to come over to my friend Tommy Teng’s shop, DTM Motorsports, where my Supra is (as always) getting its next round of modifications and upgrades.

So one quiet weekday, after the second round of the Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship, Kimihiro and Hiromi met me, and took a quick look at my car. While we are all happy to meet each other, Kimihiro, being the mechanic, immediately asked me: “How much power does your Supra make?” A very direct question, but one that he later explained was curious to hear. I quickly replied: “Around 550 wHP, which should translate to just over 600 HP”—to which Kimihiro smiled.

HIROMI Kajikuma and husband Kimihiro Obata are regular judges at the Hyundai Lateral Drift Championship.

I felt Kimihiro was measuring me up with how serious and dedicated I was with my Supra build, gauging if I was a real Toyota enthusiast, or someone who was simply following the trend. He later told me that while driving skills in drifting in the country have been steadily improving, the level of car builds for drifting is still at a level. The Philippines still lacks the high-level precision engineering and preparation that goes into a proper professionally campaigned drift missile.

But that is changing, with more people seeing the benefits of making a proper ground-up car purpose-built for drifting. According to Kimihiro, my own Supra, while still short of his own Supra, is one of the better builds he has come across in the country, having the right combination of parts to make good power.

I couldn’t be happier with that comment! We talked in length about tuning (ideal ignition timing, maximum boost), hardware and engine setup (HKS versus GREddy turbos, American versus Japanese engine brands), wheels (both are proudly sponsored by ROTA and my Supra also rocks ROTA wheels!), tires and suspension/wheel-alignment settings and, finally, my very own custom, 7 inches wider than the stock bodykit, which both Kimihiro and Hiromi found most impressive.

When I told them it was a locally fabricated, custom-made one-off bodykit, they were surprised because they have never seen custom-designed, one-off fiberglass work of this level on the many drift cars competing on the Hyundai Lateral Drift Series.

Kimihiro and Hiromi eventually offered to source for me some rare parts for my Supra. We’ve kept in touch through Facebook, with me asking Hiromi to source me some rare trim parts for my Supra.

I’ve also asked the couple the reason they’ve picked Toyotas over the other brands. Their reply was so surprisingly simple: the legendary reliability of Toyota. Toyotas might not be the best, the fastest or quickest, but they’re the toughest, which, when you’re saving every penny you can to build, buy and tune your drift/track car, is very reassuring to know. I guess my Supra never got that memo, though, because it likes to be in the shop a lot.

Back in Japan, Hiromi and Kimihiro (along with their cat Tama) run Winds Auto, an all-around tuning, modifying, maintenance, and shaken vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspection shop.

Ironically, Kimihiro does all the work himself, while Hiromi often answers Internet queries as they also sell used cars abroad. You can check out their website www.windsauto.net. It’s in Japanese but certain apps and programs can make some basic translations. You can also find them on Facebook. When they aren’t travelling or on the track, Hiromi loves to cook while Kimihiro loves fishing and offroad trailing in his cute Suzuki 4×4.

Hopefully I’ll see them again very soon, and hopefully they’ll have some goodies for my Supra in the future. We’re far from finished discussing our love for Toyotas, the Supra and the legendary 1JZ/2JZ engines. This is the part of car life, of car culture that I love the most: connecting with people from all over the world, and in the end realizing that despite all our differences, we all share a common love—cars.