Jesse Streeter Interview

Arguably the best non-Japanese drifter to ever see the streets of Japan, Jesse Streeter holds a special place in all drifters hearts. That skill doesn't come easy however, Jesse has been in the sport of drifting for about 20 years. 

"I've been skidding cars on dirt and more since I was 15. I was 25 years old when I got my first dedicated drift car, a 180sx. Drifting wasn't very big in Australia during the mid to late 90's so I did mostly street drag racing"

   It wasn't until around 2000 that Jesse really got into it, spending most of his time drifting the Melbourne Industrials. A couple of years went by and Jesse decided to relocate to Japan, the birthplace for the sport of drifting. Jesse has had many drift cars, but his three most known chassis are the 180sx, S13 Silvia, and his company promo car, an FD3S 26B 4-Rotor RX-7. His current Silvia, also one of our main topics, is going on a staggering 12 years of ownership. 

"I've taken it to a couple tracks, Meihan Sportsland, Suzuka Twin, Suzuka Sportsland, Bihoku Highland"

Jesse tries to drive every week and over so much time he has made many crazy memories though, none that particularly stick out.

"For me it's always about fun, Naoki Nakamura and Hiroaki Kouno have always been a lot of fun to drive with"

With 17 years or so of experience drifting touge, the PS13 as well as his 180sx have both seen a lot of carnage. Jesse's worst crash occurred at Meihan Sportsland on C course. If you've heard of it, you know the level of commitment and difficultly the track presents for even seasoned and expert class drivers.

"I ended up backing it into the wall pretty hard, lucky enough I didn't end up breaking the rear window. If you're not crashing generally, you are not pushing hard enough"

Jesse is well known for his aggressive and close proximity driving style, there's no doubt we've all wondered how much power his car is making, as well as what suspension mods he's running, and much more. Believe it or not, the PS13 is a pretty basic build and doesn't have anything too crazy hidden under the hood or chassis. 

"I like the r33 gearbox as I've had a lot of issues with the stock SR box before changing it"

With his PS13 being the middle balance power and modification wise, of the three, I asked Jesse which car he prefers more. This is a question that varies amongst different drivers, some prefer high horsepower builds with huge angle, while others prefer low to mid horsepower builds with minimal mods. Both present an equal amount of fun but when it comes to seat time, Jesse values it, choosing his 180sx as his preferred drift car.

"My old S14 was re-shelled into my current white 180sx, a lot of its parts are still in the 180sx now. The car also has the lowest mods and least stress so it's easy to jump into and just drive"

"The FD is by far the biggest event amongst the three, after all, it gets the most noise complaints and is a lot more expensive and stressful"

Jesse Streeter FD3S promo car interior via "JESSE STREETER- Private garage tour" YouTube video by Jordan Tweedie (video linked at end of page)

 "That picture was at Osaka Docklands, About 2005-2006, I drove there a lot. I had stock knuckles back then so I couldn't give the car too much angle. I remember going to Atsushi Kuroi" a professional drifter who competed in the D1 Grand Prix "and asking for scrap stainless steel for the bumper to stop the FRP" Fibre-reinforced plastic "from wearing through on the gutter. He thought I was an idiot, he was probably right"

Watching a couple videos, you would think street drifting in Japan was normalized and not enforced by the police. Well you'd be right, drifting was normalized, but it was also enforced to a certain extent. Although it seems cop free at first glance, they did eventually show up. Some cops were strict and some a little more lenient.

"It depends on the cop, most of the patrol guys are great and very courteous. I drive deep in the mountains at night so I rarely run into cops these days"

Jesse has driven the Osaka Docklands a lot, but his favorite drift spot is the one featured in the majority of his instagram videos. It's a very technical course with each and every corner being quite different from the next.

You can follow Jesse Streeter on instagram to see some of his other builds including a EG6 b18c, FD2 type-r, and more (@jessestreeter94)

So what's the motivation behind why Streeter drives, he says to simply have fun. 

"I don't think I've progressed much in the past 8-10 years, for me it's just about the joy of actually doing it"

We all have something we love doing, regardless of how many times it's been done already, drifting is the same way, and to Jesse there's nothing better.

"I love the feeling of balancing the car while sliding, with low room for error (like on the mountains) while keeping close proximity with the car in front"

So to conclude this article I ask the question I'm sure everyone is curious to know the answer to. Aaron Losey of Lone Star Drift touched base on it in a couple of his YouTube videos. What is the street drift scene like in Japan right now, is it growing or is it slowly fading away?

"It's definitely WAY smaller than it was when I first got here around 2003 and apparently already much smaller than it was just a few years before I arrived. I mainly drive mountains with small groups now so I don't really care how popular it is, as long as I have a few friends to drive with, I'm happy"

I would like to thank Jesse Streeter for taking the time to go through with this interview and I would also like to thank you for taking the time to view this article. Make sure to visit the Streeter Corporation website for all your Japanese parts exporting needs at jessestreeter.com

Check out multiple videos you can watch of Jesse in action, as well as some build breakdowns! 

- An interview by Kris Wyche - 

April 2020