Car Spotlight>> Fighter Engineering Cappuccino

Weighing in at only 725 kg in stock form your can imagine the Suzuki Cappuccino is quite the fun little car to drive, despite only 63 HP at its disposal. Of course once it's stripped out and modified to produce over three times its original power then it becomes something else all together. As soon as I saw the tiny orange ER11R from Fighter Engineering I knew I had to run a spotlight on it, as this was unlike any other Cappuccino I had ever seen.

Out on track it managed laptimes in the 1-minute 7-seconds, which is barely believable…

…until you take a look under that lightweight vented hood. The F6A 3-cylinder powering it has been stroked to almost 800 cc and now revs to 9,000 rpm. Force-feeding it air is an upgraded turbocharger which supplies enough boost to allow the tiny engine to pump out as much as 205 HP.

Pretty much everything has been upgraded and here you can see the racing radiator with the tiny intercooler directly in front of it.

The placing of the air filter is optimal for that "ram-air" effect.

The interior is fully stripped out with only a Bride bucket seat for the driver while the Cusco roll cage adds safety in case of a roll, let's not forget it is a convertible after all and that hard top is very flimsy.

The stock dashboard has been ripped out and a custom aluminum one created in its place. This is where all Defi gauges and additional instrumentation are fitted. You can also see the GReddy ProfecB boost controller and GReddy e-manage piggyback ECU.

Lightweight 16-inch SSR Type-Cs are shod in 225/45 super-sticky Bridgestone RE55S semi-slick rubber for optimal grip. 4-pot Project µ calipers up front help slow the little Cappuccino down.

Is this the wildest rear wing ever? Probably! It's even braced on the custom rear diffuser! The almost central exhaust silencer is also very cool.

It's cars like these that make grassroots time attack sessions some of the best events in Japan.

Fighter Engineering

Omega Oil Tsukuba Soukoukai

-Dino Dalle Carbobare

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1

Is it just me or is the rotation arrow on the wheel/brake pic facing the wrong way on the tire? Don't tell me that mounted it wrong! I know some tires say inside/outside but this says outside and an arrow.....

2

You're right... It seems they swapped left and right wheels :)

3

soooo cool.

it looks like a mini supra

4

i actually thought it was a Mazda MX-3 from the looks of the first picture :D .. i remember reading something about the MX-3 being called "Mazda Cappuccino" in Japan . . i think; i'm not sure~ maybe i got all those cars mixed up ( O .o)

5

wow. that thing must be a blast to drive.

6

that shot from the rear would be a great desktop!

7

too bad u can't see any of these cappuccinos in europe and u can only find the boring suzis here...

8

wow finally someone did one

9

found this one a while ago on the net and absolutely fell in love with it. so un-usual but really, great engineering, fast and supercool. and way cheaper too than a lot of the "big" cars that run same laptimes :)

really great machine and props to the owner / Builder

10

This looks like fun !!!Amazing little machine !

12

very amusing car, i wish i could have a kei car....

13

yeah it says outside and the arrow is also pointing in the wrong direction. I'm assuming it's alright though because they're semi-slick it's not like you have much tread to worry about, and if you're using these tires in rain you aren't going anywhere no matter which direction they are rotating.

14

Casey S: Good eye. Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road, they also run their tires backwards. It's no wonder they're so much faster!

15

@Casey; Note how it says "OUTSIDE", so its mounted the right way

16

i like how they re routed the stock gauge cluster under the dash!

17

god the things i would do for a Cappo in the US.

18

If I were to build a wild a Cappuccino, I'd power it with a rotary engine (small yet power).

19

On dry it doesn't matter, and if they're running some camber switching tires might give them more track time!

20

look like a toy



beautiful car

22

pretty sure Phil is right. those are non-directional tires. they're "on correctly" as long as the OUTSIDE mark is on the outside... which it is.

23

How about a 'busa turbo engine?

24

The tires are mounted backwards and they used worm gear hose clamps instead of T-bolts on the charge piping. That kind of epic JDM tuner bungling always gives me a good chuckle. I'm not saying it's not a cool car but those two small details make me laugh when I think of all the other work that's gone into the car.

25

Rad. I'm feelin this.

26

I love this grassroot scene, I hope to one day build something to this nature.

27

WOah, I would like to see some video of this car on the track. Anyone know any links to some footage???

28

Casey, I don't think its an arrow

even if it were, if the tire were rotated to the other side of the car, it would face the right direction

29

The head lights look just like the mx-3s...verry cool car!!

30

wicked.. a little pocket rocket! it would be nice to know what times this puts down on track though - yes that rear wing is very imposing bt needless to say vital - quality photos

31

oops.. just seen those times!! mega..

32

seems like it would make more sense to fit a bike engine in it, that mess around with the 3 cylinder

33

what is with up with that mirrored stickers on the side?... I see that on many drift racing cars, but haven't figured out why they make them mirrored???

34

A lot of guys run tyres the other way round to get slightly different braking I have never tried this myself although when I was involved in V8 Supercars I saw them do it quite a bit and only on the front.

35

@ Phil: RE55's cannot be swapped left to right, so it is actually mounted on the wrong side. Oops!

36

WOW what is that NX in the first photo?

37

I'm pretty sure that the wing is helping support the diffuser, not the other way around.

38

One of my favourite car in Gran Turismo.. It must be so fun!

39

About the tires...I am almost sure they mounted it backward to ensure better breaking...like on a few high-powered carbon Catherham, for exemple on the Fluke Westfield S2000...remember those are extremely light.

I am not sure about Cap but we have Coppen in Europe at least in Switzerland.



;-)

40

Developed for gymkhana and circuit racing, it features asymmetric and uni-directional

tread pattern to optimise tyre performance.

@ http://www.bridgestone.com.au/tyres/motorsport/RE55s.aspx

41

With so many great time attack cars participating at the recent Omega Oil Soukoukai, some of the not

42

KustomSpirit You get these in the uk, I used to live by a suzuki dealer and they went through a few . I always thought they were cool. Unbeleivably small in real life, as small as a Honda beat. no good for me though I am tall.

43

205hp on such small car. P/W Ratio to make you soil your pants.

44

Awesome machine, I have a slightly modified Cappucino I use on track days here in NZ.

Great fun with only standard turbo, would be wicked with 205 hp. As they used to say " the only thing more embarrassing than driving a Suzuki is being passed by one" !

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