East Meets West: A Peek At Hellaflush Kansai

While some of our team are busy bringing you live updates from the world’s most grueling endurance race, the Nurbugring 24 hours, I couldn’t possibly have a more different kind of coverage lined up for you from Japan. You won’t find any purposely built race cars here, this is where coolness rides supreme, where a variety of styles meet for a day of appreciation – welcome to Hellaflush Kansai.

After the great success of last year’s Hellaflush Japan gathering in Fuji Speedway, Mark Arcenal and the Fatlace crew knew that there was far more to explore in the ever expanding world of Japanese car culture. So by organizing the event at Central Circuit, located just south of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, they were able to attract a great deal of cars that due to distance were unable to attend last year’s meeting. The turnout, as you will see, was quite impressive.

It was a long eight-hour drive from Tokyo, but when I pulled into the paddock at Central I knew it had been worth it. I’ll give you a quick taste of what is to come, fresh rides like this 326 Power S14 Silvia…

…and this stunning 610 Bluebird-U…

…not to mention impossibly Japanese rides like this Toyota bB on Equips and sporting a bosozoku side exit exhaust.

Much like in fashion, there is a continuous evolution of cultures in the Japanese car scene, an ongoing experimentation, mix and amalgamation of what years ago may have been very defined styles.

The Bee Dragon Cima is the perfect example, a side of VIP tuning that has branded off on its own tangent. You can expect to see this car in a lot more detail in an upcoming feature…but more on that soon.

There is no doubt that enthusiasts like to do things a little more exuberantly down south. Kansai is indeed a great place to soak in some of the best and most unique car culture that Japan has to offer.

How can we forget the famous Osaka Kanjo racers, it may have all but died down these days, but it has left behind its own much respected way of doing things for Honda enthusiasts.

VIP has some curious interpretations and it was cool to see a few cars sporting the “you either love it or hate it” onikyan….or devil camber.

Kei-cars weren’t forgotten of course.

I even ran across a couple of bosozoku cars that were participating in a drag event on the main circuit.

Mark and his crew were busy all day trying to keep things running smoothly but were faced with an unexpected number of spectators that, due to lack of parking space, had to line up for hours outside the circuit. At one point I headed outside on the street to check how the situation was going…

…and was confronted even more great cars of every type. Like most events in Japan…

…the parking lots are nothing short of mind-blowing…

…so of course I stayed out there and walked around for a bit. That’s where I came across this Daihatsu Mira Cocoa slammed onto some green steel wheels.

It was cool seeing the Looking FD3S at the event too, its painstakingly applied coat of candy red shining away under the sun.

So no matter if you are into vintage cars, drift cars, exotics, imports, USDM, vans, wagons, or angular rides like this eighties Toyota Mark II…

…there will be plenty for all to see. I’ll leave you with this image of the Rocket Bunny 6666 Customs 180SX and Ben Sopra GT-R. Stay tuned for a lot more from Hellaflush Kansai!

Hellaflush

Fatlace

-Dino Dalle Carbonare

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

1331 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

In depth car feature on the Rocket Bunny S13 please ! Love the diversity of Japan.

2

I should have gone! If there was an open track day event attached, I would have taken the day off work and headed up....but it seemed like the track was going to be closed to the public for the day.....Looks sick...so many crazy cars. Oh and for anyone wondering, yes, guys do drive around the streets with devil camber in Kansai! ha ha....I see a Celsior in Shinsaibashi every now and again with 45 degree camber.....!
Thanks to Mark and the ILLest crew for putting on a sick event like this, which joins the Japanese scene with fans from the west. Good stuff!
Rene.

3

Fuuuuu.. :D

4

Love that purple bB!! & the RB S13 with Bensopra GT-R in he background..keep it coming Dino!!

5

Cool post,bro)

6

Awesome! I love the coverage of these Japanese events! keep them coming!

7
Function over Form

Terrible it's like a disease!!!

8

Sweet GX71 and EA-T Civic! And please, make a desktop of the Oddysey once the coverage is finished.
 
I don't like Hellaflush, but when the Japanese tune a car, the results rarely dissapoint.

9

(Y) Exactly what I was thinking.

10

feature the bluebird pleaseeeee

11

To much cool

12

Where can you find those s14 tail lights? I've been looking for them for such a long time

13

Very happy to see more Japanese coverage, was beginning to dry up a bit.
Awesome post! More of the same please!
Cheers

14
lastmanonmars

There seems to be a problem with the second page of the blog, it doesn't seem to update, and is stuck with the big red Camaro story at the top. This makes any stories between the newest ones and the Camaro story unviewable. 

15

i what to have the RX-7 FD3S as desktop in 1920X1080 can i have that plz

16

thats because these cars werent styled for hellaflush. This is japanese street styling, you'll see a few rocking blog stickers, sticker-bombed panels, roofracks and all that other B.S that the US guys think is awesome though. They've been doing flush/poke/tuck way before the US guys coined a name for it, eg. VIP & Zokusha scenes have had this down pat for 30years. Hellaflush is just another show and shine to them.

17

oh my god. rocket bunny meets bensopra. likelikelike!

18

Im loving the Looking RX7! that is just so bad-ass!

19

I'll be there in October!!! Can't wait!!!

20

Rocket Bunny!

21

can anyone explain to me, the effect of having that much negative camber on your car? i think its looks cool but man it must cause some problems.

22
Nasty.Bomb.26

Awesome Cars for an Awesome Event !
Thank you SpeedHunter !

23

 @Chrispando Extreme camber can cause problems such as destroying the tires and rims very easily even over slight bumps. The tires also wear out in an uneven manner (along the edge) and this reduces tire life significantly. Occasionally the chassis will experience damage as well. Extreme camber also needs custom suspension parts without which the suspension will be wrecked.

24

 @Chrispando Oh and your cars handling will suck. Badly.

25

Awesome event!

26

it doesn't seem to update, and is stuck with the big red Camaro story
at the top. This makes any stories between the newest ones and the
Camaro story unviewable.

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS