Starting with a Nissan 240SX, and now the Mustang, Ken has worked himself to the top level, the Japanese-based D1 league. Not a particularly easy thing when the only driving you get to do is during competitions-Ken says he absolutely doesn't sneak in street driving of any kind as he has far too much too lose-but clearly Ken has the talent and worriless passion of youth on his side. He is looking forward to having a license, though, as he could sure use one for the typical running around an 18-year-old wants to do, and simply seat time wouldn't hurt, either.
In the meantime, Ken has Tsukasa, who on a busman's holiday from his own Gushi Auto repair shop, serves as his son's crew chief and tire man. Working with little more than a tool chest and a tire changer mounted in the back of the shop's pickup, Tsukasa keeps the beat-mercilessly drift machinery sliding. It's a hard-working, unfailingly polite and eager team.
Thank goodness Toyo is a major sponsor. Besides making fine ultra-high-performance rubber, Toyo has a practically endless supply of 275/35ZR-18 Proxes T1R tires for the rear axle (the longer wearing fronts are 245/40ZR-18s). This is important, as the high-speed sliding and rolling burnouts that are drifting positively murder rear tires-just two or three laps and the rear hides are toast. And junk tires don't work any better in drifting than they do drag or road racing. When Ken needs traction under his mega-powered Mustang, he needs traction right away to make a correction or squirt past a competitor, and sloppy, imprecise tires don't cut it. A custom rear suspension from Endless Zeal, a Japanese company wanting to branch out, provides the unique blend of control and wheelspin a drifter needs. Up front, Ford Racing modified the spindles to allow more steering angle-gee, we wonder why-and coilovers are fitted at all four corners.
Branching out is not a bad term to describe a drifting Mustang. A uniquely Japanese form of autosport, right down to the judges and style points and the striving for the art of tandem drifting-Tsuisou-the discipline is the natural home of Toyotas and Nissans. But even if the purists are offended, many are ready to make room for the massive round eyes and their sometimes 8.0L engines. More than one Viper competes, and Pontiac has no less than Rhys Millen in a mega-dollar GTO doing battle. Ken says he takes plenty of heat in the chat rooms for taking on the Mustang, but he thinks domestics are vital to the long-term interest of the sport. He's also bullish on big corporations getting involved, and sees the X-Games as a perfect springboard to a broader audience.
Brought up in the 240SX, Ken has found the Mustang a bit different to drive. It's not so much the extra power Ken has had to adapt to, but mainly the Mustang's greater weight. This makes the Mustang less snappy, less able to juke and jive in tandem contests, or shine on especially tight courses. But the greater mass also means greater inertia, and that translates into longer drifts, and it's there that Ken seeks a Mustang advantage. The Mustang's huge power means it can drift at faster speeds, in Fourth gear. The Nissan does its thing in Second and Third.
We rode along for a few demonstration laps with Ken in both the Nissan and the Mustang, and the extra weight was noticeable. Ken puts the 240SX sideways with a simple-but heart-stoppingly brave-heave of the wheel, but the Mustang is best transitioned into the low-traction world with an at least as medal-worthy move on the handbrake. To give the handbrake more power and control, the stock cable system was ditched in favor of a hydraulic arrangement. And while the Nissan was pretty good at snapping back and forth, it didn't quite compare with the Mustang's ability to bellow smoke at will.