As car enthusiasts, I’d say there are generally two different ways in which we acquire new vehicles. First off, there’s the traditional route where we have a specific model we seek out – often looking at numerous examples and doing much contemplation before we decide to hand over our hard-earned money for the right car. [...]
Ever since running across Nagano-san and his creations at past Nagoya Exciting Car Showdowns, I’ve been wanting to drop by his workshop in the outskirts of Kyoto for quite some time. It’s hard to put a finger on it all but Paint & Cutting Make Nagano Koubou has been extremely influential in creating the very [...]
By definition, a Speedhunter should pursue his “hunt” in a variety of different ways, which means that when we cover events we don’t simply just concentrate on what is served up for us on the show floor, or in the paddock at race tracks. Our curiosity pushes us to wonder around, to head out of [...]
Dazed, sleep-deprived and confused. That’s how you can sump up the demeanor of your average Speedhunter after a day covering one of the many events on our calendar. It all began abruptly at 4 am for me this morning; that irritating alarm buzzer once again interrupting my rest. There was no time for a couple [...]
Change and variety are the single most important things that keep drift series going. D1, after enduring some tough times a few seasons back and what can only be described as a bit of stale period, seems to have regained its momentum again. And while the organizers continue to mix things up by selecting exciting [...]
I’m so glad I decided to go to the Hobby Garage in Kuki the other day. Had I not, I don’t think I would have ever understood what “custom” really means to RC car enthusiasts in Japan. If you thought what you saw in yesterday’s post was impressive, well all I can say is scroll [...]
Seeing this past Sunday was the final Battle Evome of the year that I will be covering, this will pretty much wrap up the first-half of the JDM time attack season coverage, at least at this sort of level. However, there will always be plenty more grip event at tracks like Tsukuba, Honjo and Sodegaura [...]
For my last post on the Premium Day, I will be concentrating on some more tuner cars I came across on the paddock as well as checking out some of the entrants that participated in the Option Magazine organized Super Lap time attack session. I’m going to kick things off with this Yashio Factory candy green [...]
As I touched on during yesterday’s post , being at an MSC event is an many ways like stepping into a time machine and traveling back to the era when drifting was defined by what happened on the streets and small circuits of Japan. A lot has changed since then, even here in Japan, but [...]
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 [...]
Tsukuba Circuit. The modest race track located in the countryside of Ibaraki Perfecture outside of Tokyo is a place of legend. All across the world Tsukuba is known as the proving ground for Japan’s tuners and as the birthplace of Time Attack. Besides all of the history that’s been made at the track, Tsukuba has [...]
It was a tough choice, but seeing Sean, Mike and I had already spent two full days walking the halls of the Makuhari Messe, we decided to spread out the other Sunday and hit some other events to maximize our JDM coverage. So while Mike headed off to Yokohama to cover the Mania Cruise, Sean [...]
It was about three months ago, on my last trip down to the Kansai area of Japan, that I realized I was standing in front of THE car of 2013. As Ueta-san of BenSopra ran the plans he had for his 180SX-based project by me, it quickly became obvious that there wasn’t going to be [...]
It’s time to dedicate a bit of time to the true tuner cars that were dotted around the vastness that was the Tokyo Auto Salon this year. Performance is the name of the game here and if there is a bit of style thrown in for good measure you can rest assured it’s all driven [...]
Before I continue to show you the wild drag cars I came across in the pits during the JDDA drag meet up in Hi-land back in September, I thought a post dedicated to some zeroyon action would make a nice addition to the coverage, after all… …as nice as these cars are parked up, they [...]
