●Tsukuba Super Battle 2006 (Rev Speed Magazine)

This is THE event of the year for me. This is what I enjoy the most, fast modified cars out on track proving what they can do. Fastest car this year was the M-Speed GTR which managed a 55.230 sec lap with Tanaka-san behind the wheel. Yamada-san drove the Cyber Evo (now built & looked after by Unlimited Works, not Garage HRS) and posted a 55.864 sec lap. Third place in the lap time rankings went to the R-Magic FD3S with a 55.947 sec lap.

Two days prior to the TSB 2006 Taniguchi broke the track record for a modified car with the HKS CT230R posting a 53.999 sec lap. Modified cars are all getting extremely fast nowadays and its always so enjoyable to be there in person seeing tuners battle it out. I'm already looking forward to next year's event!

A small selection of pix:

●Tokyo Auto Salon

Sorry not going to post any pix from TAS. There are so many galleries on the internet, plus give or take a few angles all the shots look the same ;-)

●Varano Track Day

Few pix from the Italian Evo club track day at Varano circuit.

●Nismo Festival 2005 Review

Check out the English review on the Nismo website:

Click Me

●RevSpeed Magazine - Tsukuba Lap Battle

This is my favorite event of the year. If you want to find out more make sure you don't miss the mags that will be featuring my story!

Here are some shots form the day.

Fastest car of the day, Garage HRS Cyber Evo, with a 55.738

All new Zero Sports GDA featuring custom V-mount. Managed a 57.285

Eiji "Tarzan" Yamada, driver of the 2 cars above....as well as 3 more!

M-Speed GTR, 56.8, not the fastest GT-R

Garage Trial CT9A, another high 57 sec car

Panspeed FD, fastest RE car on the day with a 56.8

Autobacs ASM Yokohama AP1, fastest FR NA car with a 58.0 - But where was the Amuse S2000 GT-1??

57.2 for Garage Kagotani BNR34, one of the coolest 34s ever!

Fastest Street Class car out there, Mine's BNR34 N1 (58.5)

Wide-body, full-carbon S15 from Sunline Auto. Once again FR turbo class winner with a 57.2

Hosaka Tuning Factory sure know how to weld titanium! Turbo inlet/outlet pipes on their BNR34

Gotta love carbs! Not the only Civic running some

Screamer pipe on Tomei&Prova GDB...this car also sported the new Tomei EJ20/25 inlet plenum

●Nismo Festival 2005, Fuji Speedway

Here are some pictures form the cold, wet, snowy day that was the Nismo Festival this year. Weather turned for the worse but still a great day with lots of cool cars to look at! Great to finally have the event closer to home!

Gr.A Calsonic/Impul GTR

Old Z

New Z

Old GTR

New GTR

Legendary S20....with EFI!!

S30 racer

One of 7 400Rs present

Warp speed Micra!!

1999 Penzoil GT-500 racer (RB powered)

2002 Calsonic GT-500 car (VQ powered)

R390 GT-1 (Le Mans racer, came 4th in 1998)

GT-500 Zs

Nismo 350Z R-tune (350PS, NA)

Nice weather !!

●D1-GP Round 7, Tsukuba (FINAL)

Well the D1 is officially over for this year. Kasama took home the (not-so) grand prize of ¥1,000,000 and the rest is history. Looking forward to the 2006 championship, just hope they spice things up a bit as it's getting a tad repetitive and well, boring!

Here are some snaps from a very sunny Tsukuba circuit.

●D1-GP Round 6, Fuji Speedway

Major delay in posting this up! With the D1-GP final coming up this Sunday in Tsukuba I thought I'd better post the pictures from Fuji before they get too out of date!

Fuji was just what D1 needed. A bit of variation! The drivers were taking amazing speeds into the corners making for an amazing spectacle.

Kazama favorite to win. Massive point lead over Sunaga going into Rd.6 but got eliminated earlier on loosing much of his lead.

Orido smoking those tyres!!

Gotta love the background. They don't call it Fuji Speedway for nothing;-)

Tanakas new car for 2006. Tex Modify prepared Team Yukes RWD Impreza

The two finalists, Ueo and Suenaga. Ueo, in my eyes, was by far the most impressive driver on the day. Despite his massive power deficiency he gave it all he had to keep up with the turbo cars. His full speed, flicks into the hairpin corner will be hard to forget. He never used the brakes!!

But in the end the judges picked Suenaga.

Great day of drifting. Stay tuned for more action from the 2005 final at Tsukuba.

●Super GT, Rd.6 - Fuji Speedway

Running a bit behind schedule with the entries, but here are some pictures form the Super GT race at Fuji Speedway. This turned out to be a great day of shooting. Rain stopped and the track dried out so the cars were able to start with dry tyres and I didn't get soaked!

As the Porsche Cup race got under way the clouds started to give way to blue skies.

Nismo Z entering the pits after the pre-race warm-up

GT-300 Z33

Last minute changes...

GT-300 Celica

Kiichi Tsuchiya, ARTA GT-300 team manager

Mr. Hasemi, of Hasemi Motorsport

Forgot to upload some from the last round so here is a small taste, of some tasty race queens ;-)

Some track action

The flamer-club

●Super GT, Rd.5 - Twin Ring Motegi

Some shots from the Motegi round of Super GT. Team Raybrig won with the two French drivers, Sebastian Philippe and Jeremie Dufour at the wheel of the M-Tec prepared NSX. 4 seconds behind came the Takata Dome NSX while Team Calsonic, managed by Kazuyoshi Hoshino, finished in third. For more detailed results you can check out the Super GT official English website.

●D1-GP Round 5, Ebisu

Well even if over a week late here are a few snaps from Round 5 of D1. Close to 7,000 people made the trek to the small Fukushima circuit to check out the action. Only 2 rounds to go now (Fuji & Tsukuba) and Kasama with the Kei-Office S15 is in the lead by a massive 26 points over Suenaga of Team RE-Amemiya.
Kasama is without a doubt the 2005 champion, but no celebrations...there is still some entertaining to do in the last 2 rounds! Next stop for D1 is the UK exhibition in Silverstone on the 2nd of October.

Nobbu

The man behind D1-GP, Option and Tokyo Auto Salon, Daijiro Inada. Had the shittiest car on the paddock! A beaten up S13

Manabu Suzuki. Does this guy ever stop talking??

Tanaka and Miki keeping the crowds cool! Loves to give the finger

Not often you see Kasama this serious. In the pits before Best 16 kicked off

This chick's melons attracted more interest than all the D1 and SL cars put together!! LOL

Kawabata in the Trust S15

Tanaka and his Tex Modify prepared S15. You might be seeing him drive a rather special Impreza in the next rounds....but you didn't hear it from me;-)

Orido using all of those 610PS from his RS-R 3.4 L Poopra

Old school Soarer. This car can't get any cooler!

Kumakubo owner of Ebisu circuit with the most unique D1 car out there! JUN has worked wonders with this Spec C and it's without a doubt the car that can get the most sideways...I'm sure Kuma's skills play a big part in it too!

"Yump"

Attack of the Skylines

Apexera Vs. Trust

Last pic I got of Orido before he destroyed his car!

He must be getting bored of all these awards...

●Tokyo Special Import-Car Show

It's bling time!!! Yeee-haaaa! Driving an import car around the Japanese capital is already a step in the right direction if you want to stand out from the crowds. You even get bonus points if your steering wheel is on the wrong side! But as S500s and S55s are getting as common as taxis and everybody has mulit-million Yen Lorinser or AC Schnitzer kits on their rides it's time to get pimp-tastic and check out what's new in the import tuning world. Here are a few selected pix from the show held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center.

Gemballa Cayenne (no matter what you do to it, it remains the ugliest thing on 4 wheels. Ever!)

CLS by ART. Superb looking car.

Breyton 5-series

Neez Mg wheels for your Enzo?

Uhmmmm, nice!

Admire Nissan for building the coolest and most car-like SUV out there. Hate them for only selling it in the US!!!!

White Ferraris...only in Japan!

Custom exhaust system for Lambo Countach

Even 24" rims look small on the new RR

Very practical.

22" BAZO rims on an SL

300C not cool enough? This SRT8 is the model for you!

Gallardo....they butchered the rear bodywork to fit a spoiler. Who ever did this deserves serious punishment!

H2 on 28" rims. Looks like a 30's pram...

Twin turbo Lamborghini Diablo. Stay tuned for more info on this car!

The ultimate ride for the gentleman drug-dealer:-)

●D1-GP Round 3, Sugo

And the D1 Grand Prix continues. With Ueo securing a surprising win at Odaiba the big boys wanted to get right back on track at Sugo. And that's just what happened as Kasama took his second win of the 2005 season by beating an emotional Nomuken in the final. I, like many, didn't think much of the judging at this round. With drivers like Kumakubo in his JUN Impreza, Kawabata in the Trust S15 and Suenaga in the RE-Amemiya FD putting on amazing shows of skill, physics defying angles and tons of smoke, it's very strange they didn't make it through. Tsuchiya's and Suzuki's eyesight must be getting worse;-) Disappointing run again from Orido in his RS-R Supra.

Got to ride with Ueo in his AE86....Jesus these guys are good! They make it look so easy it's unbelievable. He was happy to show me that he can drift at top speed in 5th gear along the straights...all I could do was grin like an idiot and enjoy the ride! Too bad it was over so quickly!

I wonder if I'm the only one that thinks Kumakubo was by far the best at Sugo? Every drift, full lock, massive speed, excellent positioning and a hell of a lot of smoke!

Tanaka in very good form thanks to a well prepared Tex Modify S15

Kawabata and his S15 in warp speed

To the limit!

Bee-R R324 drift car finally putting down some good runs and proving you need a lot of power and torque to smoke some tyres!

Autobacs BNR34 RWD GT-R drift car. Lots of smoke thanks to a T04Z and a 600PS engine

Toyota Verrossa....without a doubt the ugliest car on the D1 circuit (does the job though!)

Kasama wins with the Kei-Office S15

●Indy Japan 300 Mile, Motegi

Was over at Motegi to cover the IRL race. Once you get over the amazingly loud V8 engines (Honda, Toyota or Chevrolet) it is possibly the most boring form of car racing you can watch. I'm sure the proper circuit races are exciting but these damn ovals....my God...makes Formula 1 look appealing again! Actually scratch that, there are quite a few overtaking maneuvers in IRL...unlike Formula-Ecclestone!

I was told to piss off while taking this picture. Very polite those mechanics!

These V8's run on Methanol. Just standing by the track or next to the car when it's idling will make your eyes water like hell. Smell reminds me of nitro RC cars.

Aguri Suzuki, ex-F1 driver and the man behind the Autobacs backed ARTA project. Also part of Super Aguri Fernandez Racing

Kosuke Matsuura, Super Auguri Fernandez Racing driver. Started 9th, went on to 6th but due to a long pit-stop fell back to 9th again. At least he finished the race unlike Tomas Scheckter who was on his way to a win when he run out of fuel 2 laps form the end!

Super GT test car

Slice of Americana in the form of Muscle cars

Only track action shot I took:-D

●Big X - Part II (Bikes)

Crazy bike stunts. These guys have balls!

Always important to start early!

You would think that this rear tyre has had it...not quite

Still good for some more smoke!

Multicolored tyres your thing? Check out this website: http://www.j-styleinc.com/

Moto X

And no the picture is not upside down;-)

●Big X - Part I (Cars)

In drift crazy Japan you really can't go wrong with an event like the Big X. Drift cars, Moto X, car /bike stunts and a enthusiastic crowd is all you need for a good day out. Kazama, Miki, Tanaka, Suenaga and of course Kumakubo (owner of Ebisu circuit) were present to show off their skills which truly are amazing.

Kumakubo's JUN built RWD D1 Impreza.

Female drifter Natsuko Muraoka

Tanaka's Tex Modify built S15 D1 car

Thank God Yokohama sponsores D1 drivers!

Action

Kazama doens't even have to be in the car to drift!

New drift Skyline from the guys at Tex Modify.

Man behind the Big X

●Fuji Tuner Time Attack (REV SPEED MAGAZINE)

Well hats off to Toyota for bringing the Fuji Speedway into the 21st century. Impressive is the word to describe the transformation the facilities and track have undergone, which are stunning and on par with the most modern circuits in the world. The main pit/paddock area looks like a carbon copy of the Nurbugring F1 circuit facilities and offers tons of space for track days and race events alike. After covering event after event at the "over-used" rusted out, run down Tsukuba circuit it makes for a pleasant change if not a pleasure to come to FISCO. Plus the view of the snowcapped Fuji-san is hard to top!

Rev Speed Magazine organized a get together for the most renowned tuners in Japan to have a crack at the new circuit. Tuners like Mine's, MCR, ATTKD, Spoon, HKS Kansai, JUN, Amuse, Saurus as well as other lesser know names showed up. Fastest car of the day with a 1:46 was the Autech Tsukada BNR32 which was way ahead of the rest on this challenging circuit. Most drivers find it boring at first but its said to be quite technical and tests front end bite on cars with those tricky blind cambered corners. One I look forward to driving on in the future! Some pictures from the day:

-Autech Tsukada BNR32. Features the a clever rear mounted radiator and yet again on a demo car we find the HKS Valcon kit

-MCR BNR34 and the president of the company, Kobayashi-san

-JUN Evo 9 GT demo car. Car features the MIVEC variable valve timing system which, as some in these circles say, is proving to be a weak point of the usually bullet-proof 4G63

-President of Spoon

-The man behind JUN

-Mine's BNR34. Why Mine's doesn't build a full-on race car to take part in these events is beyond me. There is a very good chance it would be the fastest out there but for some reason they set themselves so many unnecessary boundaries! If their street-class car is so damn fast...think what a proper track one would achieve!! Come on Mine's!!

-Midori BNR34. One tuner I respect. They work wonders with their cars.

-Must have been close to 60 GT-Rs present for the track day.

-Track action

-Amuse 350Z. I have a soft spot for this car, sounds superb and goes pretty good too for an NA

-Spoon Honda Legend. Race car under development for the USTCC and a future competitor of the Nurbugring 24h race.

●Tsukuba Hyper Challenge

The Tsukuba Hyper Challenge is a like heaven for Evo, Impreza and Legacy lovers. With all the best tuners showing up for some head to head combat on the track and an amazing display of demo cars, parts and girls it was without a doubt one to remember. Here are a few snaps:

Brand new JUN Evo 9 GT demo car

The guys at Zero Sports have made one hell of a fast Impreza! Based on the non STi GDA this beast can lap Tsukuba in 58 sec and features a lowered engine, custom intake plenum and a curb weight of 1136Kg

The Bozz Speed I featured a few weeks back was having some problems with the hot weather and couldn't manage a decent lap. Its potentially another 58 sec Impreza

Original Rundance Evo. This company from Okayama has built one of the fastest Evos in the world and it lapped fastest during the day with a mid 57 sec lap. Running a 2.2 kit and an HKS T04Z turbine it produces around 650PS....crazy stuff!

One for Fast & Furious 3 maybe;-)

Mine's out in force with their new Evo 9 GT demo car and STi S203 demo car

Not the "real" Cyber Evo, but another less powerful demo car. Weird they didn't run their proper car!

Roketto Dancer Impreza

Another fast Impreza

Cusco Evo

Nakaya, the master of "zero-counter," showing off his drifting skills. Getting an Evo this sideways takes serious skills. You can learn his techniques at his racing school. Stay tuned for some more info on this.

●D1-GP Round 2, Odaiba

D1 just keeps on growing. Bigger stands, more people and new cars was the order of the day for the Odaiba round. Katsuhiro showed that the AE86 is still king in drifting taking advantage of other driver's bad luck and putting on some great runs. Disappointing debut for the JUN built Team Orange Impreza driven by Kumakubo which seemed very slow among the Silvias, RX7s, 350Zs and pretty much every other turbo car! A lot of people were surprised to see the cute little Starlet doing the sideways thing!

Here are a few pictures from the day: