MCR Factory, which stands for Mind Control Racing, is owned and run by Masashi Yokoi. Yokoi is one of the most up and coming drivers in Japan who has had much sucess in D1 Street Legal, MSC, and more recently, the Drift Muscle series. You only have to search Youtube or the videos on our blog and it’ll soon become very clear to you why his name is out there so much of late – the man’s driving is bordering on perfect. MCR Factory is also home to Mind Control; probably one of the best and highly respected street teams in not just Nagoya, but the whole of the Aichi prefecture itself.
I’ve been a big fan of Mind Control ever since Mitto had shown me videos and told me about the experiences he had with the team while he lived out in Japan. We’d already met Yokoi and some of the Mind Control crew previously at the Nagoya Super Autobacs Power Day, which I was more than happy about, but thanks to Mitto and Travis being good friends with them we had a chance to go down to MCR Factory and hang out with everyone and check the shop out!
We headed down after our visit to Kids Heart. As it got darker and the rain started to fall it gave the area a wonderful moody feel, which was great fun to photograph in. The first thing that hit me on arrival was the amount of cars scattered about the streets, most of which belonged to team members or customers.
Outside the shop sat an old S15 Silvia belonging to one of the team members and a Kouki S14 Silvia that I think was used by Yokoi in D1GP years ago.
Inside is relatively small with an office and a little spraybooth tucked in either corner. It’s not the prettiest workshop, nor is it the tidiest by a long shot.
But with car parts (check out the amount of knuckles on the floor!), tools, and random creations everywhere, the place is packed with character that you can only get from these smaller Japanese workshops.
Further over in the corner of the workshop was this super clean S14 that was undergoing work, and Yokoi’s S15 Silvia, which is a street car that’s also used in the Drift Muscle series.
You’ll find most cars within the Mind Control team are this gorgeous shade of purple. I find it hard to look at a purple Silvia and not think about Mind Control these days.
His rather special D1SL D-MAX S14 was parked up inside the workshop too. The next Outsiders feature will be on this very car.
MCR Factory provides a service involving pretty much anything to do with drift cars, from bodywork, to suspension, to engine tuning, the works. Yokoi and his crew are just as skilled in building cars as they are driving them.
The one thing that really made an impression on me about MCR and a lot of cars from the Nagoya aerea was the perfect balance of subtle styling with the odd special detail that makes you stand back and say “wow”. For me that had to be some of the incredible looking engine bays in the the MCR cars. Yokoi just so happens to be a very talented painted too, and this is his art.
As well as the beautiful pattern sprayed bays, Yokoi also paints these rather special rocker covers.
The engine bay jobs and rocker covers are yet another service MCR Factory provides. The rocker covers are availbile for SR20s, RBs, and more recently JZ engines.
Getting to spend time with Mind Control was a very memorable and inspiration experience. Their style, skill, and whole attitude towards drifting feels right. MCR is the complete package.
For now though I’ll leave you with this photo of Mitto and Yokoi (rocking a MEI NO MAI tee!), and a big thank you to Yokoi and the Mind Control crew for giving us a glimpse into their drift world.
Stay tuned for more MCR soon!
– Daniel Bridle
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Damn, what an awesome feature. How do you think one would go about getting one of their custom valve covers for a 1jz? Or is that all by special order?
where do I order for a SR20 cover?
and shipping?
Please let us know 🙂
Awesome article Diddles! :). Yokoi is currently fitting a full set of Driftworks Geomaster Knuckles to his D1SL car, so future video’s of him should be even more insane!
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Where do I get an sr valve cover?