Ryan Halpin of Emulsion VHS

Heart of the Machine

Check Out Emulsion.VHS

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This one is personal.

What a lot of people don't know, even some of our mutual friends these days, is that Ryan and I grew up in the same hometown, and at different points, even lived in the same house. Many years ago, we met in Rockwall, Texas. We had mutual friends for years before we actually met, and when we finally did, it was during a transitional stretch for both of us. I was getting ready to move to Dallas, and Ryan wasn't far behind, getting ready to leave for university. Our overlap in Rockwall was short-lived.

Early on, we met when I had my first S13 hatchback, but we really began hanging out soon after I picked up my JZX81. Ryan lent a hand on that car more times than I can count, and I did my best to return the favor working on his Miata in its early years. I think back on these times fondly, both of us chasing drifting and trying to figure out everything else in life, where we wanted to take our cars, and ourselves.

Nowadays, I count myself lucky among plenty of others who get to admire his work, the coverage of events, the art, and everything else going on in drifting today. Outside of just the media, though, his own car is just as captivating: a build still shaped by an unwavering devotion to one specific era, all these years later.

Here's Ryan of Emulsion VHS and Drift Team Oasis.

Origins

Just like many others who got into drifting at an age where it's not easy to afford the expense, Ryan didn't start behind the wheel. Instead, his start was behind the camera. Media was the next best thing, a way to stay close to it as he figured out the direction he wanted to go, some time before he could fully dive into drifting on his own.

Emulsion VHS came together in early 2021, after a couple years of watching friends street drift and prep their cars for track days. The name is two stories stitched into one. Ryan had spent over a year shooting Polaroids before moving to 35mm, back when bulk film was still cheap, what he calls "the golden years of the format." Emulsion is the literal substance on a strip of film, the layer that gives each stock its own distinct rendering, no two exactly alike. VHS traces back to the actual VHS recorder he shot on from 2021 until its internal mechanism finally gave out around 2023. He shoots on MiniDV now, so the name doesn't technically fit anymore, but it's stuck around on social media long enough that it's staying, new releases on the website aside.

No matter the format, his mission hasn't changed: document the evolution of drifting, primarily in Texas and the rest of the US, with an eye on the late-90s/early-2000s era and its D1GP and Japanese street-style roots. Domestically that means FinalBout, KnuckleUp, SuperD, and most things ClubFR runs, including RioBash.

The Work

My own perspective has always come from the driving side. I've never truly dove into the media side of things myself, so I've always been fascinated by it, the eye, the creativity, everything that goes into capturing someone or something well. So, one of the questions I've been meaning to ask Ryan for some time now, since he does both, is which he actually finds harder: driving well, or capturing someone else driving well.

His answer isn't one a lot of people are in a position to relate to, and it's driving, not capturing, that he actually finds harder. Ryan lives in Amarillo, ten hours from the nearest track, so if you're lucky enough to live close to one yourself, that's worth appreciating, not everyone gets that. On top of the distance, he's funding both worlds himself, the media and the driving, right alongside everything else life costs, which makes driving tough to do consistently no matter how much he wants to. When he's not at a track, he's got a sim rig to keep the driving going though, and it's made a real difference.

I've always found it amazing watching people go from the sim to the real thing, seeing years on a rig turn into something that looks like second nature on track. Ryan was no exception.

He did remarkably well at his first real track day, a @KnuckleUpTX event at Speedsportz Racing Park, especially given how limited his actual seat time had been before that. While he hasn't tested his new CA18DET in the S13 yet, getting to watch that build come together has been exciting for everyone, and I'm sure it'll only get better as soon as it hits the track.

That's the driving side, though. Capturing someone else comes much easier to him, so long as there's a real personal connection behind it. One of my favorite parts of his answer was what he said about that: that it's much easier to capture a driver once you actually understand who they are, their style, their instincts, not just their car.

Proudest and most recent don't always match up, and Ryan expressed that. If we go back a bit, there's the Animal Style Attacks Meihan video, one I watched almost daily for months, my favorite ever put out. Ryan drew from that same well: his own proudest work is the 2022 FinalBout SSS & Knuckleup DC2 video shot entirely on Super8 film back in 2022, an expensive format he's only run through twice, once to test the camera, and once for the event itself. All in, about $300 for three minutes of usable footage, audio recorded separately, every shot forced to count. At the time, this video was likely the only other drift video shot on Super8 on Youtube, outside of the Animal Style piece.

The mix of the format and the footage itself did well enough to get the attention of a director of photography in the film industry, someone genuinely interested in opening up an opportunity for him.

I don't need to tell you it's right below this, but I will anyway: spend three minutes, feast your eyes, and enjoy.

"Every video ends up a reflection of exactly how I felt in that moment; in the music I pick and the way I frame each scene."

His most recent release, EmulsionVM Vol. 5, covering FinalBout SSS '26, took a different approach on purpose, less montage, more a straight document of the event as it actually happened. He's suggests there's room to improve, as it's only the second time he's run a camera like that at full effect, but he's happy with how it came together and we all are too.

When asked if a moment has stuck with him more than any other throughout the years of media:

ClubLoose San Antonio, Summer of 2021: On video, he caught a Miata's wheel spacer snap mid-drift, then followed the wheel as it bounced loose all the way into the pits, smacking a barrier right next to spectators. I remember him sending us this clip, and we had just been there for the previous event. We were definitely a little bummed we didn't get to see this live. Don't forget to tighten your lug nuts.

HIS BUILD

Watching other people's builds come to life has changed the way Ryan sees his own. Through his work, he's picked up a balance between show-perfect cars and near-missiles, and found his own footing somewhere in between. Stylistically, he credits @Nq.jr, @Estegucci, and @Benallen_ particularly, especially their touhoku-adjacent styling on their own 180sx builds, which he counts among his favorite 180s ever built. His HotRoad front bumper is actually a piece of Nq.jr's old setup, one that exploded on track, it took Ryan a couple months to put it all back together. When it comes to driving, Ryan suggested that most of what he's learned behind the wheel comes from James, @Jhimezx, through track rides in his Silvia and time together on the sim.

His own chassis is built from a stock 1991 Nissan 240SX hatchback, out of Colorado, untouched before it reached him, full brown interior intact. He sent me the photos when he was buying it, and it caught me off guard in the best way. I was definitely living a little vicariously through him (and still am). It took me all the way back to owning my very first S13, and everything that came with that build.

He ran it naturally aspirated on the stock KA24DE for a while. Between that and years spent in an NA Miata before it, the question of more power eventually came up on its own, and the KA24DE was enjoyable, but still a step slower than he wanted, so the switch to a CA18DET became the obvious next move.

When asked if there's anything he'd change if he started over, Ryan suggested there wasn't much, maybe checking the head on his CA18 more carefully before the first install, maybe not running a completely smoked T28. That's good advice for us all.

His car is far from finished, though: a set of Blitz Technospeed Z2s, one more Honda Hurricane mirror to complete the set, and a 2-way LSD are still on the list. It's shaping up to be exactly the kind of reflection of that era and style he's always been chasing.

His own chassis is built from a stock 1991 Nissan 240SX hatchback, out of Colorado, untouched before it reached him, full brown interior intact. He sent me the photos when he was buying it, and it caught me off guard in the best way. I was definitely living a little vicariously through him (and still am). It took me all the way back to owning my very first S13, and everything that came with that build.

He ran it naturally aspirated on the stock KA24DE for a while. Between that and years spent in an NA Miata before it, the question of more power eventually came up on its own, and the KA24DE was enjoyable, but still a step slower than he wanted, so the switch to a CA18DET became the obvious next move.

When asked if there's anything he'd change if he started over, Ryan suggested there wasn't much, maybe checking the head on his CA18 more carefully before the first install, maybe not running a completely smoked T28. That's good advice for us all.

His car is far from finished, though: a set of Blitz Technospeed Z2s, one more Honda Hurricane mirror to complete the set, and a 2-way LSD are still on the list. It's shaping up to be exactly the kind of reflection of that era and style he's always been chasing.

Influences

For driving, domestically, Ryan splits his answer between @Collindoesdrifting, whose street-first car he prefers, and @Patrickcarson, whose T5 entries at Speedsportz he's always found the most exciting to watch and capture.

On the art side, he references people like Karl Hammer of @AnalogCulture, a big inspiration for Emulsion VHS, who's also a fixture of ClubFR in Wisconsin. Ryan met him once in person in Houston and hopes to cross paths again, maybe at US Air. Hammer is the one who taught him how to actually shoot action, down to shooting as low as 1/15th of a second on 35mm, which he calls risky, but as beautiful as it gets when it works.

The motivation

As Ryan put it, and we'd agree, drifting is the best form of motorsport there is, because it has room for people who are broke and people who aren't, and what actually defines you is the direction you choose to go, not what's in your wallet, so long as you don't let it get in your head.

On the creative side, he shoots analog and primitive digital on purpose, not out of any objection to newer gear, just because it's what he enjoys, and because it means not chasing the newest equipment for its own sake. He'll eventually move up to the higher-resolution version of his current MiniDV camera, the XL1s, but only once he feels he's gotten full use out of what he has. It's the same advice he'd give anyone getting into videography: pick up a cheap secondhand camcorder and start shooting, don't spend thousands of dollars on gear you'll never fully use.

"Just try to have some fun, you've only got one life. Might as well have fun while you're here than spend it slaving away just to regret it later."

— Ryan Halpin