The Japan-set Forza Horizon 6 is stuffed with references to the classic street-racing manga and anime Initial D. But, if we’re being completely honest, there’s another, perhaps less authentic piece of media that helped popularize the Japanese street-racing scene in the West. I am speaking of the 2006 movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Tokyo Drift occupies a strange place in the Fast & Furious series. There’s no Vin Diesel as Dom Toretto, no Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner. It’s a completely unrelated story about a high-school kid, geographically and thematically distant from both the LA crime of the early films and the absurd spy capers of the latter ones. It was a relative box-office bomb and unloved by critics at the time, but it’s become a cult favorite over time, and now clocks a respectable 3.4 on Letterboxd: the third highest-rated film of the series, according to that site’s movie-nerd community. A lot of its enduring appeal is down to the specificity and grimy glamour with which it realizes the Japanese drift-racing scene.
If there are any official tributes to Tokyo Drift in Forza Horizon 6, I haven’t spotted them. But Forza player Yama1354 (who goes by Necessary-Secretary2 on Reddit) has crafted a tribute of their own using the game’s new garage customization tool: a recreation of Han’s Underground Garage. This combined workshop and hangout space, owned by Toretto associate and drift master Han Lue (Sung Kang), is the hub of much of the movie’s activity.
Within the restrictions imposed by Horizon 6‘s garage editor, Yama1354’s recreation is necessarily more brightly lit, a little smaller, and a lot less populated by champagne-swilling women in minidresses. But it’s got the vibe, it’s got the racks of tires, it’s got the vehicles stacked above each other on pneumatic lifts, and it’s got the mezzanine level for glamorous chilling between drift races.
It’s also easy enough to populate your garage with replicas of cars from the movie. For lead character Sean Boswell’s iconic red Evo, grab a 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII (there’s a nicely tuned one in the game’s Welcome Pack DLC, if you have that) and apply the “Fast and Furious” livery design by END INC. It’s easy to find — it’ll be the top of the “Trending” and “All Time Great” selections for the car.
To get Han’s Garage by Yama1354, search the community garages section using the share code 110 339 717. It’s not the slickest layout available (there are some amazing creations already; check out Darth Hoki’s “Streetside Japan”) but for my money, it’s one of the coolest — and for fulfilling your Tokyo Drift-fueled teenage dreams, it can’t be beat.
