Slow In, Fast Out: Battle Evome Action

Everything is so fast paced at a Battle Evome meet, there is literally no time to waste. With only two hours of shooting time available, you will just about manage to hit every major trackside spot, provided you keep moving. So with a few more moments available before the drivers went out on track for the four half hour sessions…

…I continued to do my thing around the paddock, trying my best to get a good look at every one of the 27 cars in attendance. This ex-white Y’s Factory BNR32 built in collaboration with Auto Gallery Yokohama has received a set of wider fenders and a fresh coat of light blue paint since we last saw it in 2012. This was the 10th fastest car of the day with a best of 58.416 sec, making it the fourth fastest GT-R at this first meet.

Battle Evome time attackers take things seriously, many cars running race gas for best performance.

It wasn’t long before the cars begun to make their way to the pit lane…

…and one by one begin entering the track…

…for a couple of warm up laps. By 9 am the sun had slowly began to warm things up, the air was still bitterly cold, but the asphalt temps were rising by the minute.

This of course means good constant grip with no overheating from the tires. Actually it seemed like some of the lightest cars on the course had trouble getting proper heat into their rubber, like Horikoshi-san in his Orange Exceed Moat S14 who had to baby his throttle for the first half of the session when exiting the tighter corners.

No such problems from the all wheel drive cars like this THF Evo 6 Tommi Makinen Edition, which was making great use of its explosive traction out of each turn enabling it to get a best lap of 58.941 sec.

It seemed Suzuki-san was almost taking it easy, probably caming out to this session for a little testing.

The truth is you never know what he has done to his engine, suspension, ECU or anything else that isn’t obvious when looking at the car. He is always fiddling around and even if he wasn’t going full out his 53.342 sec he recorded was the fastest time of the day.

It’s hard not to notice the bright white Dream Works RPS13 when it’s out on track, a complete opposite to most beaten up drift 180SXs we normally see at soukoukai events. The driver managed to extract a 58.764 sec lap.

A lot of people seemed to like the 59-sec Wood Village S30 on the previous post so I thought I’d better throw in an action shot of it, powering out of turn one.

Here is another Evo 6, a true old favorite in Japan, a car from the golden era of Japanese sports cars that will continue to be revered as the years go by. This half carbon bodied beast has been tuned by Unlimited Works, the guys that looked after the Cyber Evo up until the other year. It finished the day in fifth spot, with a time of 56.961 sec. Just to put this into context, a 56-sec lap a decade ago would have won you the Super Battle event Rev Speed magazine organizes!

Here is a pan of the AS Mori BH5 wagon, what may well be the fastest and most extreme Legacy in Japan!

Walking to the other side of the circuit I had to stop to grab a few shots of this stunning 997 GT3…

…which was riding on a set of exquisitely offseted 18-inch TE37s. Add to that a set of wild wing-stay boosters and it once again shows us that the Japanese are true masters of making cars sit just right.

57.797 sec was the fastest this RE-Amemiya/Deepgrin/DG5 FD3S managed…

…however the biggest surprise was the Wacky Mate BNR32. I have never seen this car compete in a Battle Evome event, and seeing it is usually set up to attack the technical twisties of Suzuka Circuit I was blown away by what its owner manged to extract from it, a 56.536, the third fastest time of the day right behind Horikoshi’s S14 and Suzuki’s S15. Absolutely crazy!

I was beginning to think that the BCNR33 had been forgotten by the time attack crowd, the slightly portly second iteration of the RB26-powered generation of the “R’s” never seems as popular as the san-nis and san-yons. However this “Totoro” R33 annihilated every R34 present with its 58.010 sec lap time, finishing eighth overall.

The Out Trash BNR34 was only 0.513 sec off its pace though. Maybe it can do better in the next Battle Evome meet this coming Sunday.

The Garage Kagotani GDB in action, simply beautiful. I hope the Subaru guys are not still thinking we don’t give enough love to these cars!

Ok yes. You might be noticing a lot of R34s in these posts, but you have to let me indulge myself at times! It’s not every day that you see quite so many at Tsukuba, these two local cars dropping by for a quick look at the action…

…parked in front of this lonely R32.

The happy faced AP1 we saw in yesterday’s post might not have been fast among Japan’s best amateur time attack cars…

…but it certainly looked great out on track. Its 1:01:546 lap is still very quick, quicker than most modern day supercars would manage at Tsukuba in fact!

Since everyone seemed to like it so much…

…I thought I’d end the Battle Evome coverage with a more detailed look at the AS Mori Legacy.

The EJ20 powering it runs an HKS GT-Pro turbo charger…

…while the whole interior has been stripped down to the bare metal. The only things you will see through the hatch are the relocated battery, the surge tank for the fuel system and the big water tank for the intercooler spray system. Rawest wagon ever? Possibly!

That’s about it from this first Battle Evome of the year. With the HKS Premium Day coming up this Sunday I will have to skip the next meeting but I hope to make it the third or last rounds next month. I hear the Kyushu Danji NSX will be making the trek up from the other side of the country. Uhmmm….

Battle Evome 2013 coverage on Speedhunters

-Dino Dalle Carbonare

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1

Amazing 
 
loveing the r34's <3

2

Amazing 
 
loveing the r34's <3

3

Amazing 
 
loveing the r34's <3

4

Amazing 
 
loveing the r34's <3

5

Amazing 
 
loving the r34's <3

6

Amazing 
 
loving the r34's <3

7

Amazing 
 
loving the r34's <3

8

Amazing 
 
loving the r34's <3

9

that legacy makes me warm  and fuzzy inside....i am an STI swapped BG5 owner myself!!

10

that legacy makes me warm  and fuzzy inside....i am an STI swapped BG5 owner myself!!

11

that legacy makes me warm  and fuzzy inside....i am an STI swapped BG5 owner myself!!

12

that legacy makes me warm  and fuzzy inside....i am an STI swapped BG5 owner myself!!

13

Knarly cars. Knarly post

14

Knarly cars. Knarly post

15

Knarly cars. Knarly post

16

Knarly cars. Knarly post

17

What was the Exceed moat's best lap time?

18

What was the Exceed moat's best lap time?

19

What was the Exceed moat's best lap time?

20

What was the Exceed moat's best lap time?

21

+1 for exceed moat's track time

22

+1 for exceed moat's track time

23

+1 for exceed moat's track time

24

+1 for exceed moat's track time

25
speedhunters_dino

@Andrea1234 I mentioned it in yesterday's post:
 
http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/01/tsukuba-attack-battle-evome-kick-off/
 
55.378 sec

26

Awesome stuff.  I love the circuit stuff here. But, you have the EVO pictures switched :) Great motivation for me and my car though!

27

@speedhunters_dino  Sorry, did not read :P :-)

28

i used to hate those R-Magic headlamps but now i love them for some reason

29

I love this "Special Japan" month !! Why not make a " Special Japan" year ? ^^ LOL

30

Compared to the Scorch Racing S15, the Wacky Mate R32 GTR is almost a sleeper. Makes me wonder what would happen if the owner decides to further develop the car and challenge Under Suzuki for the fastest time on Tsukuba/Eastern Creek.

31

@AmirIzham i wonder what kind of budget you would need to  compete with him?

32

I'm not a scooby kind of guy, just noticed there wasn't that many on here. To be honest, i cant remember the last time i seen a Supra on here either, but if they all look liked polished turds, fair enough. Are there many time attack supra's there? (Or anywhere?)

33

Shot of the Impreza is just stunning! And very nice to see a GT3 on such nicely fitted rims!

34

how are your panning shots soo awesome?! whenever i try it, it rarely comes out looking like a car!!
what kind of setting do you use on the camera?

35

What was the lap time of the CraftCompany (CC) FD?

36

Thank you for showing some GDB love!!! Speedhunters need to show more of them!  Great Article as always Dino

37

the dream works rps13 is sexy

38

@roeby perhaps an unlimited one would get you started in the right direction. ;-)

39
speedhunters_dino

@AndyMyers Thanks!

40
speedhunters_dino

@userjh5174 58.661

41
speedhunters_dino

@Nikhil_P Don't drink too much coffee I guess, if it gives you the shakes that is LOL

42
speedhunters_dino

@roeby The Supra isn't much of a favorite for time attack. From what I hear the Soarer has better aerodynamics too.  They aren't as popular cars as people outside Japan believe them to be. I see far more rare Ferraris than I do Supras for example

43
speedhunters_dino

@AmirIzham  @roeby Going from a 56 down to a 52 sec lap would take a hell of a lot more.

44
speedhunters_dino

@danjapan13 I'm all for it, but I will need to start cloning myself lol

45

Nice to see the attention to the white GD!

46

Correct me if im wrong Dino, but was there ever going to be a feature post on one of the time attack Lotus Exiges from another time attack coverage you had at the end of last year? Reading this post made me wonder.

47

@speedhunters_dino Really, wow. I wouldn't of thought it.

48

@Nikhil_P Practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more. Dino's already got a ten-year head start lol.

49

@speedhunters_dino  @AmirIzham  @roeby Ya it might seem like "only 4 seconds" but there's a world of difference to get that fast. With every second you drop, improvement gets exponentially more difficult.

50

And prohibitaly more expensive.

51

That s2000 looks great.  What engine setup is it running? ITBS? Stroker? 1:01:546 is extremely fast.

52

l

53

@sean klingelhoefer haha ill catch up with him...soon!! ill do some practice at Jap show hopefully!

54

haha ill catch up with him...soon!! ill do some practice at Jap show hopefully!

55

Yayy, lots of subie love in this one! Love how crazy that legacy is

56

@speedhunters_dino  @roeby Is it the same for the Z33 and Z34's? Never see any newer Z's in time attack. Maybe they're too heavy?

57

@grandtouring @speedhunters_dino Good point. And they always looked great on Gran Turismo. Maybe if i win the lotto we might mind out ;)

58

@sean klingelhoefer  @speedhunters_dino  @roeby agreed. that's why i said an unlimited budget would get them started in the right direction. god knows how much more is needed to actually beat the record. and the thing i admire the most about Under Suzuki's achievement is that he did it with the original layout of the S15 chassis without going for custom/batshit crazy mods like the Nemo Evo.

59

Great report! I love the cars especially the Subaru, hope to see some more cool subarus at Speedhunters.

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