Friday 13 February 2009

Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 Part 1

Well with the global car market currently in freefall, its good to see that tuning is still very much alive. Instead of long drawn out paragraphs Im going to let the pictures do the talking... This is only a tiny oveview of what you can see as TAS

Drifting is still big in Japan and one of the 1st cars you saw on walking in the door was Daigo Saitos 2008 D1GP Championship winning Toyota Mark II...

...along with his 2009 D1GP car, a Ford Mustang, will it be as competitive or as consistant as the Toyota? A supercharger should keep the power up anyway

Another all new D1 car and another import - Takahiro Uenos T&E / TP Checker BMW335i, Id been following the build of this car on Uenos blog, an amazing build but Im not madly impressed with the colour, looks a bit too WTCC for my liking, but as anyone in motorsport will tell you, keeping the sponsors happy is vital

But under the (carbon unsurprisingly) bonnet lies a Toyota 2JZ engine with a HKS T51R turbo, good for 650bhp. Many people have said Uenos driving was held back by the big heavy Soarer he used to drive, lets see how he does in the slightly more lightweight BMW...

Apart from import mania, the return of A'Pexi was big news. With HKS and Trust/Greddy giving the show a miss, A'Pexi picked a good time to relaunch themselves onto the market. A good sign considering the company were rumoured to be on the verge of closing a few years ago and are now back, stronger than ever

Moving on...... (its DAD-Co's crystal clad Mercedes SL, worth $1million)

Evil graphics on J's Racing Honda S2000, a week after AutoSalon I visited J's so a few more photos of this car will be seen

Any Best Motoring DVD fans will know this car, MCR R34 GTR. With the overload of R35's there were not many older GTR's to be seen

The bodykit designs are getting worse it would seem, with this URAS R34 GTT

Or are they? Origin Labs OneVia

Wasnt just new stuff either, this immaculate C110 Kenmari Skyline drew many glances

As did Impulses spotless AE86. Subtle carbon, every nut and bolt replaced, toomuch to mention

Zele 370Z, not many 370Z's at the show but this was probably the best 1 there

Rauh-Welt 's Porsche 930. A lot been done to this 1 as it is the boss's own car ie the testbed. Personally I feel Porsche tuners like RuF, Gemballa,Cargraphic and Techarts stuff is overlooked unfairly in favour of Rauh-Welt. Maybe if Rauh Welt were not Japanese....

Sticking with the Porsche theme, RE-Amemiya had this Porsche nosed Rx-7

and this High Speed Lotus Exige themed example which won car of the show for RE-Amemiya for the second year in a row

TM-Squares pair of Suzuki Swift Sportd, I adore these cars

D1GP demo outside

R35 GTR on the Nismo stand, where the stupidly overpriced R35 V-Spec was announced

And finally for now, my personal car of the show, Mugen NSX RR-Concept

Wednesday 11 February 2009

New Year,new adventures

Yet another trip to Japan, heres what to expect over the next short while....




More to come

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Time Attack Round 6 - The Final

Seems I never have the time to update this blog, even though Im always promising I will!!

The final of Time Attack 2008 took place at Snetterton circuit

A morning fog held up proceedings for 2 hours so 1 less session and a lot less photos taken, oh well at least it wasnt raining

Pro Class

Well someone had to win and today for the 4th time in the season and sealing the 2008 Time Attack championship was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza 'Gobstopper' with an amazing 1.09.8 - 2 seconds faster than the BTCC lap record

2nd was Steve Gugliemi in the Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise 'Batmobile' with 1.10.4

An extremely committed drive from Jamie Stanley in the RC Developments Evo 6 getting 3rd with a 1.12.2. Not long after this event, RC Developments ceased trading

Simon Norris in the Norris Designs Evo 9GT was 4th with 1.14.2

Fifth was former BTCC driver James Kaye in the Auto Ergonomics Evo 8 with 1.14.4

Club Class
2007 Club Champion Kev Atkins in the MA Developments Evo 6 had his first win of the year with a 1.14.7

Second was Andy Forrest in the Lateral Perfomance Impreza with a 1.15.8

Third was Sam Kerr in the Performance Subaru Impreza with a 1.16.0

Fourth was Craig Winstaley in his Chevy V8 power Mazda RX7, with 1.16.5 which was also the top normally aspirated time



So a rather comprehensive overall win for the Roger Clark team, 4 wins, and 2 podiums, the team have raised the bar in both terms of performance and car preparation, and it will be interesting to see if anyone can equal or better their results in 2009

Saturday 1 November 2008

Saturday 27 September 2008

Crash......

It was going to happen sooner or later and it did at EDC Round 5 at Silverstone :( Thankfully there were no injuries

Time Attack 2008 Round 5 - Brands Hatch

Back to probably my favourite circuit of 2007 - Brands Hatch in Kent for Round 5 of Time Attack. Perfect weather made for perfect conditions

Club Class
Its that man again! Kev Horsley in the Scoobyclinic supported Impreza secured the forced induction championship with his 5th sucessive win out of 5 rounds, an impressive acheivement! His 52.24 lap was good considering the car was on borrowed time, expecting his engine to blow

Jeff Mileham in the quiet but quick TVR Tuscan took the normally aspirated class with a 54.06 lap 54.061

Gordon Wright trued his 'weekend driver' C5 Corvette instead of the GTS Skyline he normally uses, it looked sweet ontrack

Barrie Rycroft in the DCY Evo 7 took 2nd in club forced induction with 52.53

You will never keep the GTR's away from Time Attack!

Sam Kerr and the Performance Subaru Impreza took 3rd place in club forced induction with a time of 53.03

Pro Class

Taking its first win of the 2008 season was the Impreza of Zen Performance, driven by Phil Glew, running on biofuel, beating its 2007 time and also the BTCC lap record with a 48.90 lap

Second place was the Elise 'Batmobile' of Gugliemi Motorsport, driven by Steve Gugliemi with a 49.25 second lap

All the way down in third place was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Subaru Impreza with a 49.81 lap. Olly more or less has the 2008 championship in the bag

The RSE Motorsport Evo 7 driven by Chris Ward was the second fastest in the morning warmup but sadly retired after it, a shame as the car was quick until its retirement

Bob Parker in the GBH Motorsport Nissan S14.5 has been improving the entire season with a true 'never say die' approach to Time Attack

Crazy Jamie Stanley brought more red mist behind the wheel of the orange RC Developments Evo who got 5th with a 52.008...
but for once was outclassed by Clive Seddon in the yellow RC car who got 4th with 51.76, here seen overtaking Ron Kiddel in the RK Tuning R32 GTR, who got 6th with 53.34

The final will be at Snetterton as part of the Modified Live! show on October 12th