Pacific Rim S13 Silvia Conversion in dorifto, bad is good; And Hilfiger and Nautica are for sailors.

Byline: RICHARD S. CHANG

It was the crash of the D1 Grand Prix. Daijiro Yoshihara, exiting the initial banking with speed to spare, took the Pacific Rim S13 Silvia smartly around to the second major turn. But drifting at 70 mph toward the second turn, the car slid-tires still locked in countersteer, spilling smoke-and plowed nose-first and in spectacular fashion into the hip-high concrete barrier.

The front end was toast.

The sellout crowd at Irwindale Speedway made the appropriate noise-a combination of shock and appreciation-while Jerry Tsai, the 27-year-old team owner who was in the pits when it happened, got it all secondhand.

"My friend gave me the play-by-play over the cell phone,'' he said. "Instantly, I hear the crowd go oooh. Then I hear aaah. And cheering. When you hear the crowd cheering [at a drift event], then it's bad.''

Not so fast. Remember, in the world of Japanese drifting, where recklessness is revered as a skill and an effervescent mountain racer is called the King, often bad is good.

Said Tsai: "After the whole thing, Rodeo Kazama won the event. And that was the first time he had ever won, even though he's been competing since the very first D1. He took the champagne bottle and his driving gloves, autographed them for my driver, and dedicated the win to him. He said that he found his run to be the most inspirational because [Yoshihara is] a beginner and he went balls-out.''