Watch a WRC ace drift against an R34, 180SX, F40 and Initial D… up a mountain

“I was bringing tofu like they do in Initial D,” said WRC ace Kalle Rovanperä. Today, the young rally superstar is bringing the sideways, courtesy of his GR Corolla, a host of Nineties Japanese motoring heroes, and his own comic book hero – Initial D.

The young Finn and two-time WRC champion was “greatly influenced by the famous manga throughout his youth” (which was… yesterday?) and had long dreamed of haring up a scary mountain pass mostly sideways.

And in this project pulled together by Initial D and Red Bull, Kalle’s got his work cut out. He was set the task of drifting up a pass on Mount Iwaki that’s never been done before. And along the 69 corners he’d be viewing through the side windows, he’d have to drift past Japan’s drift heroes.

Including: Yoshitatsu Kaneda in an R34 Skyline, Toshimitsu Masuda in a 180SX, Hokuto Matsuyama in a Toyota Chaser JZX100, Yusuke Kusaba in a Mk2 JZX90, Liberty Walk founder Wataru Kato in that very special LB-Works Ferrari F40, Manabu Orido in a GR86, and… ‘Takumi Fujiwara’ in the classic Toyota AE86.

Sort of. The driver in the video has had Fujiwara’s manga-likeness digitally overlaid onto his face so Kalle can challenge him and… yeah, look, it’s best not to pull on too many of these threads. Basically: rally superstar takes on sub-zero-cool Japanese drift cars up a glorious Japanese mountain with lots of sideways.

“Drifting on a mountain road like this has been a dream of mine for quite a while,” Kalle said. “And being able to do it here in Japan with these amazing landscapes is amazing.

“I have liked it a lot.” Hit go below to see how much he liked it.

Photography: Red Bull