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 [...]
There is a ton of stuff from the NECS that I want to get through, so pardon the abrupt start here but I’m just going to pick right up from yesterday’s post with a second Spotlight-O-Rama to further highlight the wide variety of cars that always make this one of the most memorable shows of the [...]
This year the organizers of Nagoya’s Exciting Car Showdown created a new prize category to include votes from the various members of the foreign media that covered the show. I thought it was a great idea, but at same time quite humbling to have the chance to give our feedback. What was even cooler was [...]
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 [...]
Here is an interesting scenario. If money was no object and you had hookups to the biggest names in the tuning industry, how would you build up your car? What parts would you pick to put together the ultimate street car, in this case an S15 Silvia? We’ve seen our fair share of S-chassis over [...]
You might have noticed I haven’t been heading down to many night meets at Daikoku PA lately. With the Police constantly closing off the rest stop way before gatherings have a chance to get too big, it has began to take a lot of the fun away from it all. The reason they have started [...]
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 [...]
It was yet another perfect day for time attacking at Tsukuba circuit yesterday and as ever the paddock at the Battle Evome series had a tantalizing mix of impressive amateur-owned cars. No matter how many of these events I attend, it’s always like it’s my first one. The excitement of seeing the same cars get [...]
I hear it all the time. Yes I’d love for you to shoot my car, could you wait until I finish up and fit so and so parts. We all do it, me included which is also why I’ve never really properly shot my own car. But as far as perpetual-projects go, nothing and nobody [...]
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 [...]
Much like Mike Garrett, I too recently spent a day in Japan that I wished would never end. For many of us, there is a tiny circuit just north of Tokyo which is more famous than any large GP circuit on the planet. This track is of course the birth place of time attack as [...]
It may be off season for the motorsport world, but the cold winter months in Japan certainly don’t mean there is a shortage of interesting events to head to. In fact you guys are actually quite lucky because Mike is still here in Japan and spent his day at the JCCA New Year meeting in [...]
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 [...]
