Stop! Don’t read anything without this music playing

This time I’ll be introducing “DEC International”, part of the picturesque DEC Sekia Hills circuit complex in Kumamoto Prefecture. This cool and iconic pro shop was popular not only for tuning cars, but also for selling original parts and, later, for its original decals.

Sekia Hills can’t be discussed without first recognizing VX3000’s contributions to our understanding of its history. The soundtrack for this newsletter comes from his “Sekia Sessions” mixtape. Please also check out his in-depth documentary on the beautiful circuit.

I’m going to add some additional color to our understanding of the shop located at Sekia Hills, focusing specifically on some of the locals, or “frequenters,” of the shop—normal people who got their cars worked on there. First let’s do a quick history lesson.

A “Driving Enjoy Club” is born

When "DEC Sekia Hills" opened in the Tamana district of Kumamoto Prefecture, it was the talk of the island of Kyushu. It was an attractive circuit, nestled in the woods, offering reasonable driving fees and a pro shop, office, control tower, kart track and pit area. Created as an amenity in Japan's largest leisure and shopping city which had a central hotel, ski resort, a small zoo and a large shopping street, this mini circuit was located in one dreamy corner of it as a place were driving events could be held. Its most distinctive feature was that it was attached to a large car shop. After purchasing suspension parts, tires or even engine parts and having them installed, customers could test drive on this circuit in order to experience the effect of the parts right after they were installed. It truly was a shop and circuit that offered a driving experience like no other before it.

The first mention of DEC Sekia Hills I could find shows up in Battle Magazine November 1998 and I’m going to assume it opened earlier that year.

The circuit itself was 1km long and had 12 corners. The layout is shown in the illustration, with hairpins, S-curves, and reverse banked corners, making it a very fun, challenging and technical course layout.

Interestingly, at the time of opening unregistered race cars were not allowed on the circuit. Only regular cars with license plates that had passed vehicle inspection were allowed. After a license and tuition fee, you could drive on the track using a ticket supplied by the circuit.

This track would later become more lenient, allowing unregistered cars to drive on the circuit and be stored at the facility. This helped it to become a huge hotspot for Kyushu drifting. With very reasonable track fees, starting at 6,000 yen per day after taking a license course, drivers could enjoy the circuit all day for an extremely low price. Unsurprisingly, the affordability of the track helped the local grassroots drivers get more and more engrossed in progressing their driving.

The accessibility was also a big plus. It was about a 10-minute drive from the Nankan Interchange on the Kyushu Expressway. If you were traveling with your family members, they could go shopping or enjoy leisure activities while you were racing on the circuit.

Unfortunately, from its inception Sekia Hills was owned by a Japanese corporation that went bankrupt in 2008 as Japan’s bubble economy was bursting. An attempt by local drifters to save it would keep it open for a few more years before it closed for good in 2012 to be converted into a solar farm and chemical plant.

Welcome the Frequenter

During Japan’s golden era of drifting DEC was home to D1 Grand Prix, D1 Street Legal, the Kyushu BM Cup, MSC Challenge and Option Ikaten. This means it saw more than its fair share of famous drifters. D1 drivers Ken Nomura of URAS, Katsuhiro Ueo, and Ryoji Takata were all local to the area and were regulars at the track, and of course all of the celebrities of the Option and D1 Grand Prix media empire made appearances as well. If it were still open, you can imagine how popular the place would be with content creators and YouTubers.

In spite of this Sekia’s special focus was on community. Because of this I want to shine a spotlight on an interview Battle Magazine did with the regulars in 2005.

These were the customers of DEC International. It was a reliable tuning shop for the locals, trusted to do tuning for drift and grip cars, as well as dressing up cars. And of course since the shop was located next to the circuit, customers didn’t need to worry about breaking anything while driving! I think you’ll find the owners and cars represent a diverse variety of all genres.

Let’s take an in-depth look at two of the local cars, Ryu Hiroki’s red PS13 Silvia and Hideki Takeshita’s white S15 Silvia.

Unfortunately, Ryu, the owner of this red drift machine, couldn’t make it to the track on the day of the photo shoot, but his car is beautiful with a rather simple finish. Here are the specs:

Suspension:

Tires: Front Neova (215/40-17) Rear Rev Spec RS02 (235/40-17)

Wheels: Gram Lights (Front 8.5J, Rear 9.5J)

DEC original suspension (8k)

Kaaz 1.5way LSD

Nismo twin clutch

Final 4.3

Engine:

Power Enterprise PE1420 turbine

Racing Gear 2-layer radiator

R32 genuine intercooler

GP sports muffler & front pipe

HPI exhaust manifold

Apex air cleaner

Interior:

Bride seats

boost gauge

Nardi steering wheel

Exterior:

K-STYLE front bumper

This S15 Silvia was owned by Hideki Takeshita of Kagoshima Prefecture. It’s finished off with a pearl white paint job, M-Sports full aero, and original DEC International decals. For the interview all Hideki had to say was simply "drifting is fun" and that he would like to try drifting at circuits other than DEC as well. Here are the specs:

Suspension:

Tires: Front Neova (235-17) Rear Federal (245-17)

Wheels: Front Model 5 (9J) Rear Work Emotion CR kai (9J)

Tein coilover suspension

Rear brake pads URAS

Kaaz LSD

Exedy clutch

Engine:

Power Enterprise PE1820 turbine

Yashio Factory copper 2-layer radiator

Greddy intercooler

HKS cam

Blitz muffler

Unknown downpipe

HPI exhaust manifold and air cleaner

Interior:

Bride seats

Greddy additional gauges

Nardi steering wheel

Exterior:

M Sports full aero

Origin GT wing

One thing I especially like about these articles is the wholistic look they give us into the early 2000s Japanese drifting scene. Rather than just featuring pristine show-ready cars, they show everyday cars, the kind we might have seen at local Japanese circuits on the weekend or cruising around car meets in Fukuoka. Of course these “everyday” cars would become a standard for drifting around the world, showing a lot of us how drifting should be done and how the cars should look. The raw skill and style that unfolded at Sekia Hills is what made it the legendary track it was.

“Back Issues” for paid subscribers

I’m still working out how I’d like to package “Back Issues” content. As I’m beginning to understand email length limitations I think it makes sense for me to release multiple “Back Issues”. That being said, paid subscribers can expect the following, in potentially multiple releases:

• Interview content and full spec breakdowns for all 15 DEC International customer cars featured in the Battle Magazine December 2005 article

• Full build breakdown of Takashi Sakai, the president of Sekia Hills, yellow S15 DEC demo car

• In depth driver profile from 1997 featuring Takuo Miyade of team D-Side, the same team Takashi Sakai was a part of

• Event summary of D1 Grand Prix 2002 Round 6. This was the first time D1 made an appearance at Sekia

• Archival material related to DEC body decals and their style influence on drifting

• Letters and comments from readers of Battle Magazine in 2005

If any of this content interests you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber of Zasshi Club!

Readers’ Corner

I want to hear from you! Have questions about this issue? How about recommendations for future issues? Please make use of the comment section, and let me know how you feel about your reading experience.

Leave a comment