This article appeared in Tokyo Weekender Vol. 2, 2025.
To read the entire issue, click here.
My first full-time job straight out of high school was as a mechanic. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time around cars, in cars and under them. Naturally, I’ve also attended my fair share of car meets and automotive events. From vintage club cruises that ended overlooking Paris from the steps of Sacré-Cœur, to impromptu meets masterminded by local hoons taking over McDonald’s parking lots in the rural suburbs of Australia, I’d wager that I’ve seen most of car culture and the spectrum of community that exists within it.
But one thing I always felt during these gatherings was a sense of transience. Even in cases where the organizers receive prior permission, if a large number of cars gather in a public space, it’s not uncommon for authorities to shut it down after one too many engines gets revved. This means it’s often only a matter of time until people have to move on, taking their high-octane chariots with them and leaving spectators with little to look at besides one another.
Utilizing a grassroots approach, The Clutch Kickback Motor Series — an international event series that blends car culture with music and nightlife — is well on the way to changing this.
Small Team, Big Dream
You’d be forgiven for thinking that large-scale operations involving hundreds of cars and even more spectators would take an army to organize. But at its core, Clutch Kickback is the work of just three people: founder and CEO Cameron Hurd, executive producer Katerina Grusheva and brand director Shion Shibuya. The trio, each with their own event management experience and love of cars, met organically in Tokyo, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“We kept running into each other in various contexts,” the team explains. “We all have our car friends and our nightlife or fashion friends, but rarely do you meet cross-communal people who you’ll see at a Verdy event on Saturday and a drift event on Sunday. Like-mindedness brought us together, and since then, friendship has kept us going.”
And kept going they have. Since its inception in 2022, Clutch Kickback has curated events across nearly every automotive format imaginable. The collective has hosted high-octane drift days at racetracks, where spectators can watch modified cars slide by at breakneck speeds, smoke streaming from screeching tires. It also puts on more low-key gatherings at popular Tokyo spots, using online RSVPs to release last-minute location details. The brand hasn’t missed a beat since it took off — and its most recent offerings, set across a single weekend in April 2025, were its most ambitious to date.
From Streets to Stadiums
When I arrived at the location of the Friday night activation, I was sure Google Maps had led me astray. I was standing outside a stadium in Kawasaki typically used for soccer matches and athletics meets. In the distance, I heard the low rumble of engines and the murmur of voices. Perhaps this was the place after all.
As I got closer, I saw a line of cars pulling into the parking lot beside the stadium and noticed they weren’t stopping. Instead, they were heading into the stadium along with other spectators. I followed.
Hundreds of cars, ranging from street-driven domestic models to battle-hardened drift machines, lined the track. The Jumbotrons atop the bleachers at either end of the stadium glowed with highlights from previous Clutch Kickback events and music videos as a laid-back mix of hip-hop and electronic music drifted from the speakers tucked up in the rafters. The Clutch Queens, a subgroup of young women within the organization headed by members Lani Schaaf and Dani Amaya, mingled with the crowd, all in awe of the cars on display.
The transience that I was so used to experiencing in these moments — waiting for the lights to shut off or the police to arrive — never came. Hosted in conjunction with lifestyle brands Car Service and HUF, this was the real thing, where anyone, regardless of their knowledge or involvement with the scene, could come and hang out for an evening.
A Bayside Block Party
Two days later, I found myself in the middle of Kiranah Garden, a luxury resort-style space overlooking Tokyo Bay and the iconic Rainbow Bridge. In addition to a typical scene of pools, palm trees and open-air cabanas, the garden had been transformed, ornamented with an array of highly modified classic Porsches, a diamante-encrusted Lamborghini and numerous other one-of-a-kind cars that looked incredible against the waterfront backdrop. This was the Clutch Kickback Block Party.
Throughout the day, spectators came and relaxed amid the vibrant festival atmosphere, which included pop-up fashion and food stores, DJs by the pool and a live demonstration by Japanese rope artist Beni Shibari, who applied her craft to a mainstay of Japanese automotive royalty, the Honda NSX. American rapper Xavier Wulf was in attendance with his own car, soaking up the vibes with other like-minded enthusiasts, while professional choreographer Lily Yurika performed live at sunset.
That evening, as the sun disappeared beyond the Tokyo skyline and the cars departed for their respective garages across the city, my only question was: What’s next? After the weekend that was, seeing these cars in settings typically unrealized in the automotive scene, it was hard to imagine what more there was to do. Shortly after, as the trio behind the kickback wound down the event and saw everybody off, I got my answer.
“Bigger and better events and activations across the globe!” Hurd explained. “We’ll always find inspiration through Tokyo’s culture, and as we scale, the vision will remain the same: curating moments through music and motorsports.”
More Info
To learn more about Clutch Kickback and to keep track of its upcoming events, download the Clutch Kickback app or follow the brand on Instagram.
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