by Michael Kitchens

Brandon “Keoni” Rodrigues is crazy. When it comes to burning rubber, busting insane drifts and defying the laws of physics on four wheels, Keoni is pretty much up there with the best from Hawaii.  I’ve known Keoni since the early days of Drift Session when he was this animal doing big drifts in the sweeper with both hands out the window. He hasn’t changed much.

“I loved cars since I was a little kid.  I had a passion for burning rubber,” says Keoni. What’s more surprising is that he didn’t get his first truck until he was 18. “Mom wouldn’t let me get my license ‘cuz she knew I was nuts!” he says, chuckling. Apparently, his first vehicle was a moped and he scared his mom half to death on that, too. “I was more of a berserker on the moped. She probably should have just let me get my car.”

When you look past the wild-eyed exterior Keoni projects, you can see the gift he’s blessed with. He has an inherent talent for car control that few possess naturally. With his foot slammed on the throttle, he’s able to take advantage of this skill, and was able to take underpowered cars and work magic with them. “Wide open, that’s my style.” He’s also a talented mechanic and fabricator, and that leads us to the 1971 Datsun 510 “gangster” wagon featured here.

Since the track closed, Keoni hasn’t had much opportunity to drift legally. “I sold my 240. I just kept getting into trouble with it. I would eat, sleep, drift,” says Keoni with a solemn look. “So I picked the 510 up from a friend. It was a rust bucket. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that car. Every day, I’d just come home from work and be in the garage with that thing.”

In the span of six to eight months, Keoni cut, welded and reworked the Datsun into the slammed, green-tinged apparition before you. He tuned up the existing engine, repainted the entire car and fabricated an entirely new suspension for the wagon. “You pretty much just have to make your own stuff. A lot of times I try to make things from scratch to save money.”

Keoni fashioned a body-kit from various components — side-skirts from an Integra, a hachi rear bumper cut into three sections and fiber-glassed, and a Datsun front make up his exterior look. He then installed seats from a Nissan 240SX and cleaned up the interior with new carpet and a smattering of awesome accents. His shift knob is insane and his rear trunk consists of an enormous Sony Xplod subwoofer.

From start to finish in his little garage, Keoni really has done an incredible job with the car. “I drove it home with no seats … I sat on a little milk crate. The entire thing was gutted.” He’s also not done with it, and plans to swap the power plant with a SR20DET or the more appropriate truck-motor KA24DE.

The wagon is emblazoned with the Team Kamakaze logo as well as his other friends and supporters.  When asked about how Team Kamakaze came into being, Keoni says, “I don’t know. That’s just our style — crazy, balls-to-the wall. That’s the name. We do everything that way. I’m actually into supermoto now, popping wheelies.”

Keoni has matured quite a bit since Drift Session, but it obviously hasn’t tamed his love for pushing limits.  He also still has his other drift car, a 4^th generation Toyota Cressida waiting in the wings, foot on the throttle, and just itching for an opportunity. For now, in his usual style, he went nuts on this Datsun in true Team Kamakaze fashion and there’s nothing more pure than that.