I’ve always been fascinated with the love our antipodean friends seem to have for the rotary engine. It’s not so much a passing interest, oh no, they’ve developed quite the affliction with the buzzing Wankel. Our first trip to Australia in 2010 is where we got our initial exposure of all things rotary, when we [...]
Style is a funny thing, but more so is the speed at how people judge various interpretations of it. I think Nagano Koubou serves as the perfect example here, in particular the pink Onevia I posted last month following a quick tour of the little Kansai-based bodyshop. Over the last few years Masayoshi Nagano has been [...]
How about you take a form over function sort of car, and actually make it function? What would you have then? Is that even possible? Are these two terms not mutually exclusive? I apologize if I start a car feature with so many questions but this pink Nagano Koubou Onevia really does make you wonder about a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
We couldn’t possibly have ended our TAS 2013 coverage without dedicating some space to one scene that has come to define JDM car culture just as much as extreme tuner cars, vintage rides and dorisha. As we have seen in the course of the last few years VIP style has proven to be the fastest [...]
I still can’t believe what Ueta-san of BenSopra has managed to create in such a short space of time. When I first met him earlier last year he told me that for a long time he’d been thinking of ways to launch his own tuning brand. I did sort of dismissed it initially believe it [...]
Let me stop you right there. I know, we have been seeing far too many 86/FR-S/BRZs over the last few months – not to mention from SEMA – but the runaway success this little car from Toyota and Subaru has been enjoying, is very much deserved. But the car you see here is not another [...]
It was an easy pick to go with this crazy military-themed S14 zenki from Hayashi Auto Service to start off this spotlight-o-rama from Slammed Society. This wild ride has really made the rounds on the interweb and was one of the most popular cars at the event. Aside from the slammed stance the car sports [...]
I’m going to move swiftly along with another look at some of the cars of Slammed Society Japan, and trust me there is so much to see I could post images from the show for the rest of October! While Japanese cars obviously make up the majority of the vehicles present, there are always some [...]
Choosing five cars out of the 200 that were present at this year’s HachiRock Festa was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Pretty much each car there deserved a detailed look, or even a full feature, but time as ever is always the biggest issue. Still, I hope you like what I [...]
Wheels, wheels, wheels. We all love them, we all have our favorites and ones we lust over. At the HachiRock Festa this weekend, on top of the cars themselves, there was a superb selection of wheels to drool over. So I thought that as an interim post to the regular coverage it would be cool [...]
Finally I did it. Despite having attempted to cover the HachiRock Festa twice in the past, I managed to get my AE86-fix yesterday at the 2012 event. I think a lot of people abroad can’t comprehend the absolutely grueling traffic jams that plague Japan’s capital. It’s all about timing; leave 10 minutes too late and [...]
