Mobara Circuit

After a busy weekend in Japan (VeilSide and Nikko) I just kept on going with a visit to Mobara Circuit in the Chiba prefecture where a drift practice day was taking place

Despite being a Monday there were around 50 cars there,the most common cars were Toyota 4 door's (Chasers,Mark II's and Crestas) with almost every other car you would expect at a drift day there too,although surprisingly not 1 Toyota AE86 in sight. Also there were 2 D1 drivers along with their cars. For once I was the total outsider and the only westerner there

The track layout is flowing with both fast and slow corners and a very long sweeping bend onto the start/finish straight. There are also 'shortcuts' on certain bends,so if someone spins ahead,you can avoid the bend completely

Interesting A31 Cefiro with C33 Laurel front

D1GP driver Youichi Imamura was there practicing with the ORC/Top Secret Fairlady Z Z33 (or 350Z) This is a new car with a twin turbocharged VQ35DE (+TT) 3.5litre V6 engine


Not that smokey but very very fast!

Also there was Kuniaki Takahashi in the Kunnyz/Do-Luck/Goodyear Toyota JZX100 Chaser, powered by a 600bhp 2JZ-GTE engine from a Mk4 Supra, 1 of my favourite D1 cars

While Imamura was concentrating on setup,doing a few laps then coming into the pits to discuss the car with the Top Secret mechanics,Kunny was just making as much smoke as possible!! Unfortunatley for me I was shooting ito the sun for this shot so its not as good as Id like!

The scream off the 2JZ has to be heard to be fully appreciated!!

About 20 seconds after I took the previous photo!

As always, practice makes perfect


Time to go home,the shrink wrapped wheels are so you dont get bits of rubber strewn around the boot area,no point in getting bits of tyre in the shopping now is it!!