This year’s World Time Attack Challenge in Eastern Creek is going to be one hell of a showdown. On top of the tantalizing selection of cars from Australia, the US and New Zealand the above four Japan entries will be put on a ship later on today. I headed out to Daikoku Futo early this morning to meet up with Daniel from GCG Turbos and the guys from Panspeed, Unlimited Works, Scorch and Revolution…

…to grab some shots of their cars being unloaded and prepared for their 4 week voyage down south. It was an insanely hot morning on that huge expanse of concrete overlooking the bay of Yokohama…

…but it was so worth the sunburn to be in the presence of Japan’s best time attack cars!

As I arrived, Under Suzuki and the Scorch Racing guys were already there with their freshly rebuilt and barely run-in S15. The car is looking ready to go with its impressive dry carbon body…

…including many new parts like this massive front lip spoiler.

Good to see that Suzuki-san has kept the Speedhunters stickers on the car ever since I gave them to him a few months back in February at the final Battle Evome meeting, the same time his SR20 decided to put a conrod through the block!

The Cyber Evo, built and maintained by Unlimited Works was all prepared to be put in its container, Voltex spoiler removed, suspension raised up as far as it would go…

…and fitted with a set of stock Mitsubishi wheels. I noticed they are now running an all-new braking system with massive Brembo 8-pot calipers up front and smaller 4-pots are the rear.

With the side skirts removed it’s possible to get a good look at the carbon fiber diffuser that Voltex designed and fitted to the underside of the car.

You can see here where it’s located, centrally under the front doors. As we saw a few days ago, thanks to Allen Lorenzo’s photos from Fuji Speedway, Voltex has really gone all out in fine-tuning the Cyber Evo’s aerodynamics. They will no doubt help make the car even faster and give Tarzan Yamada a chance to defend his and the Team’s title.

Out of all the cars present I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of people that will come to the event will root for Suzuki-san. Here is a man that has managed to do the impossible…

…challenge the best tuners out there by building his own car from the ground up and driving it himself, recording barely believable times around the Mecca of the JDM time-attack scene, Tsukuba circuit.

The Silvia has had a lot of work done to it since its last outing in February, which includes a brand new engine built with the help of NAPEC in Nagoya as well as a lot of new components from sponsors that have come on board to help make this S15 as competitive as possible. Ignore the rally-car-like stance, like the Cyber Evo the suspension was set like this to facilitate loading and unloading from the container. The windshield and side polycarbonate windows were also protected, just in case things move around in the container.

Panspeed had unloaded their car, as well as various equipment and spares, the night before so out of nowhere the unmistakable yellow RX-7 appeared, its brap-brap-brap-brap-like idle attracting the attention of dockworkers loading up ships around us.

Revolution got stuck in traffic on the wangan, so to kill some time the Option Magazine guys, who will be heading to Australia to cover the event, started to line up the cars for the shot everyone was waiting for.

What an amazing backdrop!

With temps around 35ºC and rising, not to mention the tropical humidity, Sato-san and his two mechanics from Unlimited Works attempted to keep a little cool…

…as Daniel tried his best to find out if Revolution was making any progress on the highway.

In the meantime the Option Video cameraman was filming an interesting discussion Suzuki-san was having with Takemura-san of Scorch Racing.

Eventually, the Revolution guys arrived with their…

…cool 2-car transporter as the shipping company guys breathed a sigh of relief, as the cars needed to be loaded straight after the group photo, and time was running kind of short.

The first glimpse we got of the Revo RX7 was its rear matte bronze RE30…

…and then the rear end as the hydraulic platform swung open.

The widebody beast was carefully rolled out…

…and the platform lowered. This car oozes presence, but not as much as when it was sporting its more raw unpainted carbon look!

You can see the massive Yokohama Bay Bridge in the background and of course Daikoku PA is only a five-minute drive from where we were.

This is as high as the ride height could be set, so the FD will be loaded into the container by lowering the truck’s platform into it. I hope they can figure out how to unload it once it reaches Sydney!

And finally the shot we had been waiting for!

Totsuka-san of Panspeed will be heading to Australia this year and can’t wait to get down to business. He is confident the car has a good chance of doing well.

The 2010 Champions will be fighting hard to defend their number 1 spot and, like Panspeed, will be bringing the experience they gained last year with them!

Aoki-san of Revolution actually had pretty high fever today but wasn’t going to miss seeing his creation loaded up safe and sound in the container.

Suzuki-san and the Scorch Racing Team, along with Revolution will we working twice as hard as they will need to set up their cars for Eastern Creek as well as learn the track’s layout. We can only wish them the best of luck, and may the best man win.

This is going to be one an epic event!!

World Time Attack Challenge official website

Speedhunters WTAC 2011 coverage

GCG Turbos

Panspeed

Unlimited Works/Cyber Evo

Revolution

Under Suzuki/Scorch Racing

-Dino Dalle Carbonare