It's just no where near as cool as it used to be.
I loved the old school JDM street styling of the car. I loved the fact he was the home-built underdog in a crowd of big money machines. That was so much a part of it for me. So what if you're not winning every event!? Just to be there, having fun, mixing it up with the big boys, that was what it was all about for me. I can't relate to Rhys Millen and his über engined, Hyundai. I could relate to Matt and his father and son built Nissan, making the most of the KA24DE. I guess the never compromising with style massively always appeals to the graphic designer in me too. All things very much at the heart of the ideals of Sweet Oblivion.
It's here I take a pause to think how ridiculous it is that the specific arrangement of a few bits of metal and rubber can stir up such equally ridiculous thoughts and feelings in myself and other people haha! Most people get in a flap when the phrase "sell-out" pops up. I don't believe this phrase applies to Matt in any shape or form. Yes sponsorship is progress, there's no denying that if you're taking part in competition. More than anything he just compromised. I guess it makes no difference with someone who doesn't have anything to say or have any integrity in the first place. He and the car did for me. Matt made a real positive impact on the drift world. He's made some decisions about what he wanted to do this season and went with it. Fair play to him! Makes no difference to me and my life. I just don't think his computer game advert car is cool. Same as John Lydon, lead singer of the Sex Pistols, now advertising butter and Iggy Pop selling car insurance with a bloody puppet.
However, I'm not about to shed a tear about it haha! I'm sure he won't loose any sleep over it and neither will I. Instead, I find myself on the rebound already. With my eyeballs firmly set in the direction of the R32 of Ian Fournier from Drift Safari, a new privateer who was taking part in the last round of Formula D at Long Beach.
And the balance of the (my) universe is restored :)
