Can you believe it’s already April again? While I associate April first with my Speedhunters anniversary, for drift fans it means something much more exciting – the official start to the Formula D season. Long Beach is round one on the calendar and brings with it many highly anticipated build debuts. Today we’ll take a [...]
After checking out the 5Zigen time attack FD2 last week during our special “FF” theme, I thought it would be interesting to take a little tour of their main factory and HQ in Osaka. 5Zigen – pronounced go-jigen in Japanese (meaning “fifth dimension”) – was founded back in 1987 and quickly became one of the [...]
Front wheel drive is, wrong wheel drive. Bold statement, but technically speaking it just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you want to subject the front wheels of a car to so much abuse? They’re already trying to steer the car and in the process attempting to return some kind of feedback to the driver, [...]
I have always wanted proper racing harnesses. In the few instances that I’ve taken my GT-R out on track one of the things that I was always concerned about, obvious safety aside, was sliding all over the seat through corners and under hard braking. And this isn’t even only on track; ever since fitting Bridgestone [...]
Pop quiz: what do you get when you take one of the world’s largest car company’s racing R&D wing, give them unlimited resources and cut them loose to improve the hottest compact car in the world today? Answer: the TRD Griffon Concept. Don’t let the wacky name fool you, this car is all business; and [...]
1980s Week on Speedhunters has been a stark reminder about one of my own personal cars from that era. When I look at my 1989 Volvo 245 estate, I wonder what it could have been by now if I’d have realised that it was a proper project car and not just a bit of fun. [...]
The time attack scene in Japan is just about to begin. As the summer’s scorching temperatures begin to fall, as hazy humidity gives way to crispy blue skies, race tracks begin to populate with a special breed of enthusiasts. Shooting for the ultimate lap has become somewhat of a way of life for some, Scorch [...]
You may have noticed that I sort of skipped over one very important car on the Super GT set up posts. The STI BRZ of Team R&D Sport represents all that is right about the Super GT series. From an enthusiasts’ perspective, to see a much anticipated model get converted into a mean looking racer [...]
