The SileightyMania Podcast - Drifting Interviews with OGs and Pioneers

Javier Paramo has experienced 15 minutes of fame many times.  You might know him from his beautiful white MA60 Celica Supra or appearance on Wheeler Dealers, Netflix's Fastest Car, his cameo in Fast and the Furious 1, his annual hosting of Supras in Vegas, or his features in Import Tuner and MotorMavens. What you might not know is that there's a good chance he was the very first Mexican drift...

Cole Chalmers was your typical car boy who didn't want anything in life but to drift all day, everyday.  After a breakup, he told himself, "no girls."  He chose the lonely driver life, but did the lonely driver life choose him?   Listen in as Cole discusses early drift life in Kamloops, British Columbia, his snow drifting adventures on logging roads, and how drifting changed his lif...

Lance Feliciano is the son of a professional rally driver.  His father introduced him to cars and motorsports at a very young age, and as a child he would rather watch Option Video instead of cartoons.  At the age of 8, he got to experience something very special - he attended Option Video's very first Ikaten ever held on American soil.  He was in the presence of drifting icons Drif...

Ryohei Takahashi from Team Lowbrain, Japan joins us to tell us about Sportsland Yamanashi (SLY), why it's important for Japanese drifting history and what his experience has been like hosting events there and dealing with its unique track owner. Make sure to follow us on IG because Ryohei sent me a bunch of Team Lowbrain stuff and we're giving it away!  Announcement will happen on 7/18 on @sileigh...

Adam Goodman, aka Understeerking, has a very popular IG account and YouTube account where he posts all the Japanese car nostalgia that your heart desires.   For this Storytime episode, he tells us about his early years with drifting in Atlanta to his trips to Japan.  During one of his trips, he gets to meet D1 Driver Kaneko Naoya, who offers Adam to drive his 380hp competition car! For m...

It's our very first Storytime episode!  Chob, a member of Team ProceeD and owner/pilot of a Lexus GS300, joins me for a little small talk and then gets into the story about when he accidentally entered a drifting competition at Nikko Circuit, Japan. If you are a good storyteller and have a good drifting story to tell, please go to the following link to submit an application: https://podcast.s...

Season 1 has been a journey from all of us at the SileightyMania Podcast.  Our graphic designer Steven Nakamura is an OG in his own right, and you get to hear from him because he finally joins us in the studio.  Bring your own beverage for this one, because we're poppin' bottles to celebrate our 1 year anniversary and a job well done! We also spend some time to pull back the curtains to give you s...

In Part 2 of our Hawaii series brought to you by In4mation, our old friend Jason Ryan from Grip Video tells us to hold on to our okoles as he tells us about the early days of Grip Video and his observations of early drifting in Oahu and the mainland.   In this episode, 2 OG drifting pioneers in the USA and Hawaii graced our podcast with their stories and experiences in the early days of drifting o...

In Part 1 of our Hawaii series brought to you by In4mation , our good friend Layton Takaesu gives us one propah kine podcast intro, teaches us some Pidgin and then recounts some of his memories seeing early drifting on Oahu when he was a kid.   Our 3 guests in episode 10 are all pioneers of drifting in the USA in the early 2000s.  Not all of them drove competitions, but what they were do...

Alex Pfeiffer started drifting in the early 90s on the island of Oahu, HI.  Back then he was already an avid fan of Option Video and Japanese drifting and would emulate what he watched on the now infamous mountain road Tantalus in Hawaii. In this episode we try to figure out if Alex Pfeiffer is the very first American to drift.  We talk about his roots and what it was like growing up in...

Tommy Chen founded SpeedTrial USA, a group that hosted road racing events in the 90s.  With his friends, he was able to get Option Video with Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nomuken, and Daijiro Inada to come host the very first drifting competition on US soil in 1996.  In '99, Tommy hosted the first sanctioned US drifting event under the guise of "car control" run groups.  In 2002, Tommy made hi...

Toshiki Yoshioka started drifting in 1996 when he discovered it at touge as a young boy in Japan.  In this episode of the Sileighty Mania Podcast, he talks about how he got started with drifting and became a member of Team Bross Running Crazies.  Listen as he takes us behind the scenes of early drifting in Japan, spills the tea on fellow D1GP drivers, and what he thinks of the difference...

Most people today recognize Toshi Hayama for his heavy involvement with the Fast and the Furious franchise movies. However, Toshi's influence on US import culture goes all the way back to the mid 90s when he started Apex'I USA. With Apex'i, he was able to broaden Apex Japan's product offering to include tuning parts for the ever popular Honda market in the USA. He brought over from Japan the Apex...

Brian Harte aka BH, aka BH World, aka Brad Harte aka BH2 joins us in-studio.  Brian became quite popular in the mid-2000s as a member of the drift team Pink Godzira with his website BH World.  He talks about his still-relevant philosophy about drift car style and the ever important sticker placement.  Listen in as we swap funny stories, and special guest Rhys Millen joins us for the...

Moto Miwa likely could've been the next Japanese noodle king of the United States, but his heart and passion was into cars and racing instead. In the early 90s, he built his first ae86 coupe with a supercharged 4agze and founded the now infamous website for all things toyota - Club4AG.com . Moto talks about co-founding Drift Association and hosting possibly the earliest legally sanctioned drift ev...

Nick Fousekis wasn't always the Director of Advertising and Promotions at Falken Tires. He was a street racer and import car enthusiast from San Diego who had a job opportunity and an idea. After acquiring an entry level position at Falken Tires, he dreamed up the idea that Falken should make a name for themselves by being the first American tire company to support drifting.  He spearheaded t...

Ken Gushi is on his 17th year in his career as a Formula Drift professional athlete, a stunt driver, and a level 40 Pokemon Master on Pokemon Go.  He is well accomplished celebrity, and rightfully so - he is on the Toyota website!  But when we first met him, he was just a 14 year old kid who had a love for cars and drifting. We reminisce about his days as a young kid, his run-ins with th...

Mark Hutchinson and Dave Scholz met in the late 90s and became America's first drift team known as Slide Squad. In this episode, hear about their adventures both in Japan and the USA with infamous people like Nobushige Kumakubo, Hideo Hiraoka, and Hiroshi Takahashi. They recall the drama of the first Super Street article introducing us to drifting on American soil featuring their team. Mark and Da...

In this introduction episode, get to know the hosts Benson and Nadine Hsu and sound engineer Marc Mondoy.  Learn about why this podcast was created and what to expect in future episodes.