I’ve decided to kick off this first Spotlight from the idlers Games in Tsukuba with what was physically-speaking the largest car there, and probably also the biggest surprise. I mean, if you asked me to name 50 cars I thought were the best fit for an idlers Club event, I would never, ever, utter the [...]
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 [...]
I always thought the age old debate of “form over function” is a funny one. At the end of the day, does anyone out there really need to change anything on his or her car? Do we need to upgrade turbochargers, or fit adjustable suspension along with stickier rubber. What enthusiasts gain from modifications is [...]
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 [...]
Right it’s time to get cycling again now as I finish up my ride along Kanpachi-dori in Tokyo, checking out the cool shops, dealers and anything car related that I came across. I’m very happy to see how well the first part went down, it’s great that a lot of you guys out there want [...]
This is Thomas Hamilton's number 19 D-Sports Racer, a 750lb D Sports Racer. This thing is tiny; it looks to me like a shrunk down version of a Can-Am car Jim Hall might have come up with in the 60s! This car is actually an A-Mac chassis built in the 90s by Art McQueary in [...]
I spotted this Autozam AZ-1 at the Roaster & Rotary Meeting last week and I thought it deserved it's own Random Snap post. You see this little Kei-car perfectly represents what made the Japanese car scene so cool and diverse back in the nineties. It's curious and daring cars like these that enthusiasts want to [...]
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Suzuki has released an image of the new 2012 Swift Sport ahead of the car’s debut at next month’s Frankfurt Auto Show. The current model is a popular platform among compact car enthusiasts and the new one looks to improve on that, offering a 134 horsepower 1.6 liter four cylinder and 6-speed manual transmission. There’s [...]
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Anyone else a fan of oddball vehicles? Check out this Suzuki Cultus GTi race car from Motor Sports Shop Target in Japan. Equipped with a 1300c twin cam motor, this little Suzuki delivered respectable performance for its time, and its featherweight chassis made it a joy on the backroads. Here in the US it was [...]
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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 [...]
Now for something a little different. A kyu-sha inspired Suzuki Carry Truck from a shop called "Hello Special" out of the Kyoto area. I drove a couple of these things in Japan, and found that I do NOT fit well inside them. If I did though, this would be the best work truck ever. -Mike [...]
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Hello Speedhunters! My name is Scott Grunsky and this is a brief history of my Suzuki 1991 Suzuki Alto Works RS-X that I imported from Japan a few years ago. When I first set out on this endeavor I had desperately wanted a similar age Suzuki Cappucino to build in to a track car. However, [...]
200 mph… this used to be the holy grail of 1/4 mile drag racing… who could be the first to break this magical barrier? It seemed unobtainable for many, until one day in 1964, at a New Jersey 1/4 mile strip, when a 32 year old top fuel drag racer, by the name of Don [...]
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If you are even slightly interested in Japan's car culture, then there is no doubt that you are familiar with kei jidousha, the tiny little cars with yellow license plates that can be seen in every corner of the country from the alleys of Tokyo to the fields of Hokkaido. Now how do you determine [...]
