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Posted
Nov 17 2008, 02:21 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 26 comment(s)
Last week I tried I new kind of post where I showcased some of the cars I spotted on the streets of Tokyo, and judging by the feedback on that post, it sounds like you guys want to see more of that kind of stuff. With this in mind, I took my camera along yesterday when we out shopping. "Inaka" is what the Japanese call small town rural areas and the cars you find out here make an interesting contrast to the stuff you see in Tokyo. For example, check out this '90s Toyota Crown wagon dropped on some big-lipped wheels that I spotted cruising down Route 294 near Shimotsuma city. Cars like this are common sight in rural Ibaraki Prefecture....
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Posted
Nov 11 2008, 01:47 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 42 comment(s)
The other day when I was in Tokyo, I decided I would try a new type of post here on Speedhunters. I was actually remembering my first trip to Japan and just how excited I was to see random cars on the street, and though it might be kind of cool to show what kind of stuff you see "in the wild" on Japanese streets. If you guys like this sort of thing, let me know and I will do it more often. Events and races are great, but there is always something kind of special about seeing an a cool car on the street....
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Posted
Nov 11 2008, 08:51 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 3 comment(s)
When I visited the East Car shop in Toride earlier this fall, I planned to shoot one of their finished projects and as soon as I arrived, this white Hakosuka Skyline jumped right out at me. The Hakosuka is one of the quintessential vintage Japanese cars and a perfect fit for our Nissan month. Like I stated in the previous story about East Car, the shop's specialty is restoration, so this is obviously isn't the fastest Hakosuka around, but it's a great example a top quality traditional restoration with a few tasteful modifications thrown in for good measure. ...
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Posted
Nov 10 2008, 11:27 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
The eventful 2008 season of Super GT is now in the books. The final race of the year was held yesterday at Fuji Speedway under and despite the not-so unusual cloudy weather, things were looking bright for the Nissan GT-R teams that were aiming to finish off their season of dominance by taking the GT500 drivers championship. From the photos, it looks like the stands at Fuji were packed. According to Super GT, 47,100 race fans braved the cold and cloudy weather to watch the final race of 2008....
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Posted
Nov 10 2008, 03:27 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Tokyo, and while I was there I figured since it was Nissan month on Speedhunters that it would be a good time to head over to Ginza and have a look at the car gallery at Nissan's corporate headquarters. After taking the short walk from the Higashi Ginza subway station, we arrived at the Nissan hon-sha building to find this gleaming red R35 GT-R parked on the street outside the place. Kind of a cool way to begin the visit don't you think?...
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Posted
Nov 06 2008, 01:56 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
I was originally planning on running this story last month, but since old school Nissans play a pretty big role here, I figured I would save it until Nissan month. Earlier this fall, I took a trip down to Toride City here in Ibaraki Prefecture where I had made arrangements to visit a classic car dealer and restoration shop called East Car. Although I have seen plenty of cool vintage Nissans at events here in Japan, I was pretty excited to check out the facilities at East Car and get a deeper look at the world of Japanese classic cars. We were greeted by the manager Akihiko-san who kindly took some time from his day to show us around and talk a little bit about the shop and what they do....
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Posted
Oct 30 2008, 04:30 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 16 comment(s)
Before moving on to some other things, I wanted to wrap up my coverage from the D1GP finale at Fuji Speedway with a few more photos. Up above we have another view of Kenji Takayama's R-Magic-built FD3S RX7 as he makes one of his qualifying runs on Saturday, This is surely one of the coolest of the several RX7's that can be seen competing in D1. Note how the car is sporting neon-colored Gram Lights 57D's in different colors on each side. Hmm...will this be a new trend among drift cars?...
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Posted
Oct 28 2008, 04:11 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
I don't think there's a better way to open my second D1 Fuji story than with a shot of 2008 D1GP Champion Daigo Saito's 800hp JZX100 Mark II. It's no wonder that Daigo won the championship this year after getting the chance to see his driving at Odaiba and Fuji Speedway. He drives aggressively and consistently, entering with maximum angle and letting the 800 horsepower slide the car through corner with gobs tire smoke and a screaming exhaust sound. Daigo actually had a good chance of winning the event and wrapping up a perfect weekend, but his car developed mechanical trouble and he was forced to retire from his semi final match against Masao Suenaga. Fortunately for him, by that point he had already clinched the series title....
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Posted
Oct 27 2008, 06:33 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
There is nothing quite like a D1GP event in Japan. Sure there are pro drift series around all around the world with some incredible cars and drivers, but there is something special about seeing Japan's best competing in their homeland. Fuji Speedway might not be the most iconic drift course out there, but it is one of the world's top racing racing circuits. Just two weeks ago Hamilton and Massa were screaming around the track in their F1 machines during the Japan Grand Prix, and this weekend the D1 drivers were here to leave their mark (literally)on the same Fuji course....
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Posted
Oct 26 2008, 06:45 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 9 comment(s)
I just got back to my apartment in Tsukuba City after the LONG drive home from Fuji Speedway. Driving the highways in Japan is NOTHING like in the US and let's just say that a Sunday night is not the ideal time to be driving on the Tomei Expressway coming back from the tourist haven of Mt. Fuji. I'm about ready to fall asleep here at the computer, but before I do I wanted to post the top 10 finishers from today's event and 2008 D1GP season champion....
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Posted
Oct 25 2008, 03:47 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
As I'm writing this it's about 7pm here in Gotemba city Japan and I just returned to the hotel from the first half of this weekend's D1GP season finale at Fuji Speedway. This was actually my first trip to Fuji Speedway and it is an amazing circuit. Probably the most scenic I have ever been to, but I'll be talking about that in another post.There was heavy rain during yesterday's practice sessions, but fortunately today was dry.My stomach is growling like crazy, but before we head out and enjoy some yakiniku, I wanted to post up a few quick shots from today's qualifying and practice....
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Posted
Oct 23 2008, 08:40 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
In just a few minutes I'll be heading out the door for the trip out to Fuji Speedway to cover the final round of the 2008 D1GP Season. The battle for the series championship is tight with both Youichi Imamura and Ken Nomura within reach of current points leader Daigo Saito. Besides the D1GP match itself, the event will also include a large rotary car gathering and parade lap. It will also mark the last run of Takahiro Ueno's Toyota Soarer before he retires it and switches to a new machine for next year. It has been raining all day here, but I'm hoping things will dry up a little Saturday's qualifying runs. I will try to post some updates from the track so stay tuned......
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Posted
Oct 22 2008, 09:15 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
Anyone who says that a minivan can't be cool has probably never seen the Japan market Honda Odyssey. Unlike the US-spec Odyssey which is big, boxy thing, the JDM version is a sleek vehicle that looks more like a wagon than a van. Even though the previous version still looked modern to most, it has already been on the market for several years and Honda has just unveiled the redesigned Japan market Odyssey. Based on the popularity of the outgoing model, Honda kept the changes "evolutionary" instead of drastically altering the proven design....
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Posted
Oct 21 2008, 04:46 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
The end of the 2008 Super GT season is almost here, and following this past Sunday's race at Autopolis, there is just one event left on the schedule. Fans and race teams were greeted with sunny and pleasant fall weather at the track which is located on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu and is one of the nicest race tracks in the country. It has been great year in Super GT for the NIssan teams who have campaigned their new GT-R's to a number of victories. Things were already looking good for the GT-R at Autopolis as the Nismo Xanavi GT-R would be starting from the pole in the GT500 class....
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Posted
Oct 20 2008, 04:14 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 7 comment(s)
Lately I have been thinking about how fun it would be to take a quick vacation down to Okinawa, AKA the "Hawaii of Japan". There's just something about the clear ocean water, and soothing shamisen music I always see on TV that makes me want to hop on a plane for a little visit. Car-wise, Okinawa is not quite the same as the mainland, but they do get a few events there. The photo was taken at this month's Yokohama Drift Meeting at Nago Circuit which included a number of D1 drivers ferried their cars to the island for a drift exhibition. You can see Testsuya Hibino, Yashio Factory Oka-chan, and NOB Taniguchi taking part in this four-car tandem run in front of the fans gathered at Nago....
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Posted
Oct 17 2008, 02:32 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 5 comment(s)
The Subrau Impreza WRC car from 1998 had to be one of my favorite cars from the 2008 Motorsport Japan Festival in Odaiba, so I had to upload a high resolution desktop wallpaper of it. I have to say that this is probably one of the most iconic Japanese-branded race cars of all time. There are also few combinations better than that of Subaru's rally team and the driving talent of the late Colin McRae. As usual, standard and widescreen versions are available in the Desktops section....
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Posted
Oct 14 2008, 11:09 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
Way back when Speedhunters launched, I wrote a brief introduction about car culture in Japan and the the diverse automotive styles that can be found here. One of my goals has been to show that there is much more to Japanese car life than just the "JDM" stuff you hear about most often in the auto media. Obviously, a large part of our audience are primarily interested in the traditional sort of Japanese tuning, but I hope showing some of these other "sub-cultures" iwill expand people's appreciation of cars in general and help them grow as enthusiasts. And that brings us to a look at the world of traditional kustom car building and hot rodding in Japan......
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Posted
Oct 13 2008, 05:00 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 14 comment(s)
It's SoCal month here on Speedhunters, and while there is a wealth awesome car stuff to be seen around LA, it can be a bit hard to access since I am in Japan right now. That's no problem though, because the SoCal influence can be seen on cars all over the world, and especially here in Japan. I have been researching some of the US-inspired custom cars in Japan and I came across a really unique build that I thought was worth a closer look. The majority of the cars that I have featured here are commonly seen models, this one surely is not. Before I get into the details of the build, I should probably give a little background info on the Nissan PAO....
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Posted
Oct 10 2008, 04:35 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
The crew at Spoon Sports has been really busying getting their new NSX-R race car ready for next month's Macau Grand Prix. After first bringing the car out to the I Heart Honda!! event at Tsukuba Circuit last month, they continued their preparations by taking the NSX to Sportsland Sugo in Miyagi Prefecture yesterday for some testing. Yoshi at Spoon has been keeping me updated on the progress of the car and he sent me some photos taken yesterday during the testing session....
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Posted
Oct 09 2008, 03:24 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 3 comment(s)
In a lot of places the internet is taking over print magazines as the primary form of automotive media, but that's not the case in Japan. The car magazine is still king here and every month bookstore shelves fill with TONS of high quality automotive magazines about everything from Ferraris to Toyota Hi Ace vans. This month I will be looking some of the SoCal/US- focused magazines, and one of the most unique of these publications is a magazine called "Cruisin'". I first came across this magazine when I was on trip to Japan a few years ago, and was very impressed with it. It's all about American-inspired custom cars and the culture that surrounds them. Everything about Cruisin' magazine is ultra high quality, and I would say each issue could almost border on being a book, or "mook" as the Japanese like to call magazine-book hybrids....
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