Auto Otaku: Car and Life

Coverage: Top Drift Rd. 5/Ziptied All Star Bash 2 (Day One)

As I am typing this the 2nd (biannual?) Ziptied All Star Bash is in full swing at Willow Springs' winding Horse Thief Mile Course. I was there yesterday for the final round of Just Drift's Top Drift Battle and the "warm-up" day for the All Star Bash. It was my first time to HTM, and if you have never been the track itself is quite a sight to see. Photos and video do not do justice to this course and they don't convey the track's elevation changes. I was quite worn out after climbing up to the top of the track. The weather was cool and overcast with an occasional rain sprinkle. I was happy enough not having to worry about being sunburned.

This event drew cars from all over the United States, like the Gleb Antonov's Blue S13.4 from Washington and Brian Wilkerson's bashed-up S13, which he towed out to California earlier this week.

Brian was able to advance into far into the competition despite the unfamiliar course.

Gleb towed his car down from Washington to drive this weekend.

Hiro Sumida, who is one of the judges for the competition was out in his battle-scarred JZX90 Chaser.

Brian Harte, the father of ASB.

Pat and Chris after crashing during the tandem rounds. Both of the cars were able to drive away.

In the end, it was Forrest Wang in the green S14 who defeated Henry in the Pink FC3S for the Top Drift Rd.5 victory, congrats Forrest.

Sunday's event should be just as good, if not better. Unfortunately, I was only able to cover Saturday's action because of upcoming mid-term exams. This event was my final grassroots drift event in the US before moving to Japan in December, and it was a memorable one.

Click here to see the full album of 130+ photos .

Ziptied All Star Bash Part 2 This Weekend

The most anticipated drifting event of all time is just days away! The second edition of Ziptied.com's  All Star Bash is shaping up to be an even bigger spectacle than this summer's original ASB. It will be held this Saturday and Sunday at the infamous Horse-thief Mile course at Willow Springs International Raceway.  Despite the fact that Southern California is going up in flames, drifters from all over will be coming out for hours of tire-liquefying, aero-shattering drift action. The event is being held in conjunction with round 5 of Just Drift's Top Drift Battle Championship.  I will be there  on Saturday to check out the action and snap some photos, so look for some photographic coverage soon after.  Unfortunately, due to looming midterm exams the following week, my attendance will be limited to Saturday alone.

To get an idea of just how awesome ASB2 will be, take a look at the ultra-limited edition ASB2 T-Shirt.

If that wasn't enough motivation for you, here are a couple photos from the original All Star Bash back in June.

See you on Saturday?

Yoroshiku Mechadoc

A couple months ago I made a post about some the Japanese car manga  that has been produced over the years. I recently came across another one by the name of "Yoroshiku Mechadoc". "Mechadoc", which is short for "mechanical doctor" is the name of the tuning the shop that the manga is centered around. Besides the manga which was produced from 1982-1985, there was an anime version that aired on Fuji Television in 1984 and 1985.  From what I  have seen it appears to be a cross between Initial D and  Speed Racer. 

A number of classic cars are featured in Yoroshiku Mechadoc. The main character often appears behind the wheel of a mid-80's Toyota Celica XX. Some of the other cars include-

-SA22C RX7

-S30 and S130 Fairlady Z's

-C10, C110, and R30 Skylines

-Early Honda CRX

-Toyota Sports 800

-Many more

The racing happens both on the highways and on actual Japanese courses like Tsukuba Circuit, which I thought was pretty cool. Of course because it was made in the early-mid 80's , there are some bosozoku/yanki characters as well.

Fortunately there are several clips of the anime that have been uploaded to YouTube. Yahoo Japan also offers streaming versions of complete episodes but it will not work if you are accessing from a non-Japanese IP address.

Here are a couple clips. They are a little cheesy, but you have to remember we are talking about a mid-80's Japanese cartoon here, the cheesiness actually makes it more fun to watch. If you have some free time take a look.

Maxrev.net: Circuit Specialist

We are now more than halfway through the month of October and that can only mean one thing - time attack season is coming! Next month are the season finales for the Super Lap Battle and the Redline Time Attack held at Buttonwillow and Laguna Seca respectively. I came across
Maxrev.net a while ago, and was very impressed with the site.

Maxrev is the creation by Robert Walker, a California-based driver/enthusiast who can be found behind the wheel of the some North America's best tuner cars including the AJ-Racing S2000 (pictured above) and the Evasive Motorsports Evo 9. His personal car is a circuit-tuned, GT-winged S2000 that can be found at race tracks all over the West Coast.

Robert lived in Japan for six years and his S2000 is heavily influenced by tuned S2000's found in Japan. It has minimal power mods, but heavy suspension work and functional track-tested aero parts. On the Maxrev site, Robert keeps a log/review of all the modifications done on the car and how they effected the car's track performance. Instead of simply throwing a bunch of random parts on the car at once, the benefits of each part are considered in regards to the overall balance of the car.

You can find a nice blog with detailed reports from Robert's track days with both his S2000 and with other cars like the Evasive Evo. You can see the improvements in lap times as more changes were made to Robert's car. You will even find a few pictures I took at Buttonwillow on the site like the one above.

Head on over to Robert's site to enjoy some great racing action. I can't wait to see him in action next month at Buttonwillow and Laguna Seca.

Protec: Preserving the Soul of the GTR

In 1969 when the first GC10 Skyline GTR appeared with it's race-bred twin cam S20 engine, it was destined to become one of the most legendary cars in the Japanese automotive world. Due to their low production numbers, the cars quickly gained value, and now fully mint examples have been known to climb into the six figure price range. With their high value and rarity, the majority of the remaining GTR's kept in their original, stock form and are rarely driven.

A company in Kanagawa prefecture by the name of Protec is dedicated to keeping the classic GTR's in their original habitat, Japan's racing circuits. Not content with having the C10 GTR's kept as museum pieces, Protec offers a variety of parts and services that that transform the original GTR's into modern, circuit-going machines without straying far from the original GTR formula.

Protec offers full overhaul and service for the C10, as well as a number of performance parts. Among these parts are original exhaust manifolds, brake upgrade kits, and special full-coilover suspensions produced by Aragosta.

Protec also has coilover kits for the S30Z and 110 Skyline. They are not cheap at around $3000 US, if you are going to modify these historic machines, only the best parts will do.

On their site website you can find some photos showing the in-house overhaul of a '69 C10 Sedan pictured below.

The prodigy of Protec's efforts is their KPGC10 Skyline GTR demo/race car. The car is powered by a fully built 2.2L S20 with the whole catalog of Protec parts thrown at it. The transmission is an original overhauled Protec unit, and as expected it features Protec suspension and brake work. With all the work done to the car, it has ran a 1:08 best lap time at Tsukuba Circuit. To put the time into prospective, a 1:08 at Tsukuba is in the 350Z/BMW M3 time range.  You can see the car in action in the video on Protec's site . A normal S20 sounds amazing, but wait until you hear the sound Protec's "stage 5" version.

While any C10 Skyline GTR is impressive, you have to admire Protec for continuing to push the hakosuka and the S20 to new levels, nearly 40 years after it's introduction.

New Civic Type R Coming to the States!

Okay, so Honda has not decided to import the latest FD2 Civic Type R sedan to the United States, but 5Zigen announced on their blog that they are shipping their recently completed Civic Type R demo car to the United States. The car is scheduled to be displayed at the SEMA show, and more importantly it will be campaigned in the upcoming Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow Raceway.

You might remember in 2006 when 5Zigen sent over their Accord Euro R and Super GT driver Ryo Michigami to drive at Buttonwillow.

5Zigen's CEO, Kinoshita-san personally drove the new Civic for a shakedown run at TI Okayama International Circuit last month. 5Zigen posted up a short video from the shakedown on YouTube.

You can't help but love the people at 5Zigen for their support of international motorsports. I'm looking forward to seeing how the 5Zigen CTR runs in a few weeks.

NY Times and Some British Drift Action

Buzz about this past weekend's Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach has been spreading all over the internet like wildfire over the past few days. Earlier today Richard S. Chang posted a piece on the New York Times  automotive blog about the growing popularity of older Japanese cars. The piece touches on the JCCS and this summer's Motoring J Style event, among other things. The Japanese Nostalgic Car  site is mentioned as well as my post on this very site about the appearance of classic Japanese cars in ads. I thought it was awesome to see this site mentioned in the article. Thanks a lot Richard!

On another note, I came across some brilliant photos from the Night Fight  drift event from the Teesside Autodrome in the UK. The event featured the top drifters from the UK against those from Ireland. It's hard not be jealous of the UK (and Aussie) fellas for having access to so many great Japanese cars that are not (legally) available in the states.

Head on over to the Drift Works forums to see the rest of Paddy McGrath's wonderful pictures.

Coverage: Japanese Classic Car Show 2007

In 2005, a group of Southern California car enthusiasts put together the first ever Japanese Classic Car Show. It was one of the first events of it's kind in the United States, gathering vintage Japanese car owners and fans from all over the area. After hearing about the past shows, I knew I had to make in the trip down to Long Beach this year. For 2007 the show was bigger and better than ever. Die hard old school Japanese car nuts came from all over the western US and even from Japan to take part. There were over 300 cars packed into the Queen Mary's event park.

This year's show marked two milestones for the Japanese Auto Industry with Mazda celebrating the 40th anniversary of the rotary engine, and Toyota celebrating 50 years in the US. Mazda brought out a number of fully restored machines including the ultra-rare first generation Cosmo, and several race cars.

The early Cosmo is a beautiful car and when looking at one you can see the influence of the early Ford Thunderbird.  I was amazed at the turn out of vintage Mazda enthusiasts, as they are usually behind Nissan and Toyota in popularity. One of my personal favorites was an RX4 wagon modified an FC3S Turbo II engine, FD RX7 wheels, and factory RX8 seats.

There was also what appeared to be the largest gathering of vintage Skyline models in the United States.

There were stock and modified examples of both the C10 and C110 models, with the most extreme being a stock-appearing C110 with an RB26 under the hood.

This silver hakosuka looked amazing.

This Ken and Mary racer was a real attention-getter.

As expected, there were massive numbers of Nissans in attendance, including dozens of 510's/Bluebirds and early Z's.

This was one of several 510 Bluebird coupes at the show.

The Shinzo Auto Service G-Nose S30Z has perfect stance, the color looks great as well.

Here's one that's not too common, a shakotan Nissan Laurel SGX Hardtop.

I was surprised to see several well-done examples of B110 Datsun 1200's/Nissan Sunny's. This one is powered by a CA18DET.

The Toyota guys had a strong showing as usual, with numbers of Corollas, Celicas, Starlets, Crowns, and many others.

Early model Celica with handsome, unobtrusive bumpers.

While they may be "late models" as far as the JCCS goes, AE86's are now nearly 25 years old.

Toyota brought out this 2000GT as part of its 50th birthday display.

While not as big as the Nissan, Toyota, and Mazda showings. The other Japanese automakers were represented as well.

Look at the front camber on this Starion race car.

This carbon-bodied Honda Z600 is powered by a Hayabusa engine..

I can't imagine what it's like to drive this thing.

Yokomo had a radio control car race track set up, and there were a few different RC cars drifting with highly detailed early Skyline and Z bodies.  They even had scale Watanabe wheels. Pretty cool.

This just barely scratches the surface of what the 2007 JCCS was like.It's amazing to see how much the show has grown in a short time, while walking around I saw the crew of Speed Channel's Car Crazy TV Show, and Inada Daijiro of Option magazine/D1. You can take a look at the nearly 200 photos I took here . That's about all I can say right now, I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking. If you haven't yet experienced the JCCS, I suggest you make plans to be in Long Beach next fall, you won't regret it.

The Other Tsukuba

Just about anyone who is familiar with the automotive scene in Japan has heard Tsukuba Circuit. Located in suburban Ibaraki Prefecture a couple hours north of Tokyo, the circuit is the proving ground for Japan's tuners as well as the site of numerous  Best Motoring tests. Ibaraki prefecture is my Japanese "home town" of sorts. It is where my wife is from and where I will be settling at the end of this year. As you can see in the photo I took above, the biggest landmark in southern Ibaraki is Mt. Tsukuba, or Tsukuba-san as the locals call it. Tsukuba-san's touge is well known among area motorheads, drawing bikes and cars from all over the area. In the final episodes of Initial D 4th Stage, the S2000 and R34GTR races take place on this touge and it is a course in the most recent version of the arcade game.

Next year I will bring you guys more photos and other stuff from Tsukuba's touge . For now I found this older video that shows some crazy tandem drifting on Mt. Tsukuba's twisting roads. The picture quality isn't that great, but it's a good video nonetheless.

10th Annual All Odds Nationals in Odaiba etc.

In Japan, this past Sunday was quite rainy and wet as anyone who watched the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix saw. Of course that was not the only interesting event in Japan over the weekend. While the world's top level of motorsport drew thousands of fans to Fuji Speedway, a group of hardcore Japanese classic car and hot rod enthusiasts gathered at Odaiba in Tokyo for the 10th Annual Mooneyes All Odds Nationals. The event is similar to the Street Car Nationals which is held at the same location every spring. The show had a special section for the cars of Prince (Nissan) as seen in the photo above. My friend Shigeki braved the elements to take some nice photos so I thought I would share a few. To say these enthusiasts are dedicated would be an understatement, as they drove their classic machines for miles through Tokyo's busy highways in the pouring rain.

I liked this 510 Bluebird Van/Wagon done in a traditional American custom style. The ultra low stance and polished wheels look great, and the shaved door handles set it off.

Wide SSR Formula Mesh wheels look great on this 110 Sunny Truck as does the bonnet.

Lastly, check out this C10 Skyline van. Japan's classic car events are filled with two door and four door C10s, but it's quite rare to see the wagon version. I should be able to check out this event for myself next year, but until then thanks to Shigeki for coming through with the pictures.

Meanwhile, back here in the states the 3rd annual Japanese Classic Car Show will be held this weekend in Long Beach at the Queen Mary. I've always wanted to make it to this event and this year I will finally be able to. I'll be leaving Friday and returning on Saturday evening, so look for event coverage soon after. They are expecting over 300 cars so I will make sure my memory cards have plenty of space.