Tsukuba Meet Hosted by Amuse

The first event I covered this year was the Time Attack Special held by Powerhouse Amuse back in January. If you remember, it was quite a great time and I knew I had to get back for another Amuse-hosted event. While I missed the 2nd event of the year, I had my calendar set for February 28th, the day of the third Amuse Tsukuba event of the year.

I was expecting to see some great tuner cars and I as I walked into the paddock area my expectations were exceeded right away. The pits were full of many well known tuner cars as well as privateer entries.

The top ranked VARIS MKsport Cyber Evo 5 was at the track for a full day of running.

J's Racing brought their K-series-powered Fit all the way from Osaka.

The famous Sun Auto/Unlimited Works Cyber Evo was also brought out to do battle. As expected,Tarzan Yamada would be in the cockpit.

Of course an Amuse event wouldn't be complete with out Tanabe-san himself. He was again behind the wheel of the Phantom R35 GT-R trying to best the 59.970 lap time that it ran back in January. The car had also been outfitted with a new set of front canards for improved airflow.

This one caught me by surprise. Koyama-san and the crew from JUN Auto were out to do some shakedown laps in the JUN Evo X. Nobuteru Taniguchi would pilot the car and give his valuable feedback to the JUN mechanics.

The fellas from Hosaka Tuning Factory were representing with a whole squad of tuned GTR's.

These N2 AE86's were two of several out at the track.

Garage Mak's S15 time attack car.

The Knight Sports FD that was shown at Tokyo Auto Salon.

As the cars took to the track for the morning sessions the weather was cool and dry with frequent wind gusts, not the best conditions but nothing terrible.

Here is brief run down of how the day went.

Tarzan was ripping it up all day long in the Cyber Evo, Video Option even sent a crew out to document it.

As you might expect, the Cyber Evo was the fastest car at the track. At the end of the day Tarzan was able to pilot the car to best lap time of 54.756. This is not far off from the car's all time best. It will be interesting to see if they can catch the M-Speed GT-R later this year. If you have not had the chance of seeing this car in action in the United States or Japan you are missing out on something special.

Second fastest was the simple-looking KEIYO BNR32. This car just BARLEY missed breaking the 56 second barrier. Best lap was a 57.097.

Next was the other Cyber Evo. Although it wasn't running its fastest, a lap time of 57.433 was good for third overall.

"Under" Suzuki was back with his redesigned front air splitter. This car is really coming along now. It had a best time of 58.921.

My favorite Super Now FC was out again. Best lap was 59.122.

The Garage Mak S15 ran a best lap of 59.342.

Now, the car most of you are probably interested in, the Amuse Phantom R35.

Although many adjustments were made, for most of the day the car's lap times hung just over the one minute mark.

Finally, at the end of the event the canards were removed and Mr. Tanabe was able to turn a best lap of 59.916. The time was good enough to just barely beat the lap time the car ran at the last Amuse event at the end of January.

I'm sure Tanabe-san and co. will be able to extract even more from this set up with the data they got today. Looks like its going to be a battle between Amuse and Mine's from here on out.

Unfortunately the lap times for JUN Evo X were not printed. It did look like it was running well though.

Different settings were being tested all day long.

This Nismo Fairlady 380 RS belongs to Pro Stock Racing. I talked to a rep for AME Wheels and he told me that the team was testing the new AME Tracer wheel against the competition by getting feedback from a Super GT Driver. Track-testing a wheel? Not something I was used to in America. It is awesome to see so much effort being put into the performance of a wheel. Great products are derived from passion like this.

Hosaka TF BNR34.

The Hosaka R33 GTR was running in the 1:01 range.

The ITB-fed K-series powered the J's Racing Fit to a best lap of 1:00.459.

Of course the sound of the throttles was awesome as well.

I loved this privateer AE86 Levin. Perfect wheel choice and fitment.

The narrow track and tall height of this kei car turned a typical spin into a slow-speed roll over. Luckily no one was hurt and the car did not appear to be seriously damaged.

Lastly, one more shot of Tarzan pulling out of the first hairpin, fighting for traction all the way. This is why I love time attack.

Check out the full gallery of 300+ photos right here. There is a ton of other cool stuff that I did not have the room to post here.

I am already pumped for the next event. Powerhouse Amuse really knows how to throw a great track meeting.

Comments

[Diyman25]

I really love your blog. Special you cover a lot of Track day. or time attack in japan, not too many people did. Even a locoal did not have this much coverage like you do, I also like the all the old school classic car auction too. I am big fan of Auto work magazine. Any way. Nice work !!.

I am also a Track whore
check out my youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/diyman25

[Nikolay]

Man! You making a great work! I really like your work! all your pix you show us are GREAT! THANK YOU!

[Ben]

I'm ready to quit this Bulletproof Automotive thing and just hang out with you in Japan...in all serious though, you are the man!

[Josh / F/M Tuning]

Absolutely amazing pictures!!! I love the events you cover!

[Jeff]

I'm utterly speechless right now. Exquisite work!

[topsecretjpn]

ahhhhh I've a heart attack... Really Amazing !

[P]

The "R35" is very good, but I don't like the new "skyline".

[Ilya]

This set is the best one so far and is absolutely marvelous! I really appreciate all of your hard work and dedication, keep it up!