Bridgestone’s Drift Experiment

B.I.M Creative Studio, a subsidiary of tyre giant Bridgestone, was a project tasked with moving the brand into the wheel market, much like Yokohama did with AVS and Advan. Over the years, BIM created several iconic wheels. But the real groundbreaker for BIM was the Drift Master wheel, introduced around 2003.

Targeted squarely at the emerging drift scene, the Drift Master quickly gained attention, with D1GP Champion Yasuyuki Kazama becoming one of its main ambassadors. He ran the wheel on his iconic green D1GP machine, as well as his red S13 convertible drift car. Beyond Kazama, the wheels were also seen on the Hippo Sleek demo C33 Laurel and 180SX, Daigo Saito’s orange and red JZX90, and Missile Miyamoto’s various JZX’s from the era.

The wheel was designed with extreme driving in mind, featuring a two-piece construction with a forged centre, prioritising strength and reliability under hard drift use. By today’s standards, a two-piece wheel for competition use isn’t ideal due to weight, but performance wasn’t the only appeal. The Drift Master’s design was its calling card, boasting a distinctive six-spoke layout and offered in a wide range of finishes. These included black with a machined face, silver with a machined face, blue and red sputtered finishes with coloured inner spokes, and the most popular option, bright chrome. Custom colours were also available but not officially listed, as seen in examples with full gold chrome faces. Sizes ranged from 17×7.5 to 18×9.5, with custom offsets available directly through BIM.

Sold through Bridgestone’s own retail chain, Cockpit, the Drift Master was relatively popular but never produced in the same numbers as wheels like the Volk GT-C, or SSR Professor SP1. As a result, it has since become one of those rare early-2000s wheels that was only produced for a short period.

Today, with the number of sets steadily dwindling, wider widths and lower offsets tend to command the highest prices. That said, with more companies now rebuilding and restoring wheels, it’s good to see Drift Masters being brought back to near-original specifications rather than disappearing altogether.