Look out Gymkhana you have competition. Ken Block is the king of sideways antics but he has company in the form of Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Daigo Saito as evidenced by their Drift Battle video which we brought to you last December.

Gittin Jr. and his 550 horsepower 5.0-liter V8 Mustang RTR are in Niigata, Japan to tangle with Daigo Saito’s 650 horsepower V12 drift-spec Lamborghini. Saito’s wicked Lambo was built by Liberty Walk and Phat Five Racing, the latter which converted the Italian from all-wheel drive to rear drive.

In Gymkhana locale plays a big role and Drift Battle follows suit as these two drift legends square off on a classic touge type road that runs through the abandoned Niigata Russian Village. The stark, post-apocalyptic silence of this eerie place was shattered by engines screaming at redline and tires screaming for mercy. As we mentioned in our December post the village is “a picturesque example of the “ruin porn” trope that so often fixates on places like Detroit or New Orleans. Opened in 1993 in a bid to improve relations between the two nations, Niigata Russian Village was shuttered in 2002 due to a lack of visitors, perhaps owing to the fact that the main attraction was a replica Russian orthodox church. While it may have failed as an amusement park, it does make a wonderful race track, as Gittin Jr. and Saito expertly demonstrate.”

A ‘behind the scenes’ style video about the making of Battle Drift recently resurfaced so we are taking the opportunity to show it and revive the original. Enjoy.

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