Tanoshidori – Europe’s Answer To Final Bout Brings JDM Culture To Ireland
“50 good-looking street-style cars in Ireland, door-to-door on a tiny Japanese-feeling car track. Teams, style, noise, smoke, and a good atmosphere.”
This quote sums up the recent event held at Watergrasshill, County Cork, which has been ten years in the making for the Juicebox team with help from TS Drift Days.
Last month, Tanoshidori’s organizers headed to Wisconsin to check out the legendary drift event that inspired Tanoshidori – Final Bout.
Known as the mecca of street-style drifting, it’s where America’s ultimate JDM low-style cars get together to throw down their best drift trains and tandems in front of like-minded crowds.
With similar events across the globe (DoriDore in Japan, Dorifest in the UK), Juicebox worked hard behind the scenes to bring the same vibes to Ireland.
Like many old-heads who’ve been around the drift scene far too long, the guys were initially inspired by old-school drift videos from the likes of Drift Tengoku and Hot Version.
Then came the glory days of drifting in the UK and Ireland years later, when affordable JDM cars and parts flooded the market.
From there, Irish drifting has delivered serious success at the top level. James Deane smashed the record for most Formula DRIFT wins not just once, but twice, and is now the five-time champ.
Pair this with ‘The Shanahans’ (Conor and Jack) continuing to impress on the world stage with Conor clinching the Drift Masters title this year, and it’s easy to see why many Irish drifting fans are more inspired than ever.
But with all the success, things have changed drastically along the way. In the past, you could rock up to a comp with a slightly-modified S-chassis running an SR20.
These days, you mostly need 1,000+ horsepower paired with a huge budget and sponsors to stand a chance of keeping up.
That’s why they created Tanoshidori (“fun drift” in Japanese) to bring back the golden era of the ’80s and ’90s JDM scene that so many of us still live for. Back when “keep drifting fun” was the goal and style was the priority.
To avoid missile E36s stealing the show (sorry guys), they hand-selected 50 drivers for the event, split into two groups to maximize track time, along with a dedicated team session just like we’re used to seeing at Final Bout.
Plenty of rare cars and big names joined the action, so check out the official aftermovie to appreciate everything that went down over the past ten years, and what’s next for Tanoshidori:
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Bill is a writer and photographer who has been part of the Drifted team since 2015. His work extends to various print and online publications, including Wangan Warriors.
As part of the King of Nations team, he traveled extensively for several years, capturing top-tier international drift events worldwide. His hands-on experience, including rebuilding his own Nissan Silvia S15 drift car, gives him unique insights into drift car building and global drift culture.
When not behind the lens or keyboard, Bill can be found browsing classifieds for his next JDM project or shredding virtual tires on popular simulators like Assetto Corsa, CarX, and Forza.
You can learn more about Bill’s story here or follow his socials on X (formerly Twitter), Flickr, Facebook, and Instagram.
