Time Attack 2009 Round 4 - Brands Hatch

It was off to Brands Hatch for Round 4 of Time Attack


And for the first time ever it was Steve Gugliemi in the Gugliemi Motorsport Lotus Elise taking the win with a 48.6 second lap

Second was Olly Clark in the Roger Clark Motorsport Impreza with 50.1

Third place to Chris Ward in the RSE Motorsport Evo 7 with 50.2

4th place for the best looking car on the grid, Robin Duxburys Evo 8 - 50.4


Still the fastest N/A car is Jeff Milehams TVR Tuscan with a 53.9, overtaking James Nicholls 5th overall Car Planet Racing Evo 6 - 50.8

A better result for Duncan Cowper in the F1 turbo Hayabusa powered Dax Rush - 52.06, 6th overall

John Stevensons Impreza - ClubPro 52.96

Ben James Rx7 makes its yearly return


Paul Hughes Buddy Club Dc5 - 54.2, Club FF N/A winner

Duncan Graham in the RaceDynamix Impreza now effectively has the club class title in the bag since the 'promotion' of Shane Smith to ClubPro, a move that not many are happy about including myself

Mark Pollards 6R4 on BBS LM's, tasty. Im not a 'wheel whore' but BBS LM's do it for me on almost any car

Julian Westwood in the first Evo X to compete in the series

But Zen Peformance ran out of luck with their Impreza suffering a fiery exit

The final is at Snetterton as part of the Modified Live show on October 11th

Mobara Circuit

After the excitement and hatred of Auto Salon it was off to Mobara Circuit in Chiba for a SR drift day, which meant mostly Silvias but a few other cars too

A 180SX 'Missile' drift car, I wonder is this the same 1 from the last time I was here?

T&E's S14 Silvia, the day before this had been on T&E's stand at AutoSalon. Not long before I took this picture Mr Ueno himself was asleep in the car, not allowing himself a day off after the madness leading up to Autosalon where he was a busy man

Japan boasts plenty of girl drifters and some of them are really good and would put many others to shame

This 1 was very aggressive in her C33 Laurel

but with a slightly unaggressive interior and helmet, are girls allowed gearknobs like that....

Too fast into the first bend and you get stung....

and off into the gravel

and then hide in shame behind the dust cloud

I love Japan

If you managed to move on from the previous pic there were a few non Nissans there too like this SR equipped Mazda RX-7

On the apex of the 1st corner

Then later a few reverse runs around the track

Including G-Corporations amazing 180SX

Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 Part 2

A new for 2009 feature was Import Auto Salon, for import cars, but mainly German and American

'Ed if you could have ONE car tomorrow what would it be?' Ive only 1 answer - BMW M5!

The new Dodge Challenger, even though this 1 had air suspension it was nice
A 1960's Chevy Camaro, with a blown V8, very tidy

A white Maybach Limo, girls in long white dresses, whats not to like

Very cool anime graphics on this Super GT BMW Z4

Not sure if bolt on arches work on the Golf GTi

Back to the Auto Salon....

Top Secret had NOTHING of note, same cars as last year with the exception of a Toyota Celsior, same parts as everyone else, maybe the pinch is starting to affect them. The V12 Supra still attracts the crowds though, even though they failed to crack the 400km/h barrier when the car was shipped to Nardo in Italy last year

Yet another D1GP S15

And another R35, this 1 is from Hasemi Sport, but with nice subtle mods
unlike the awful Branew bodykit design


The Looking Mazda RX-7 , very cool!

Classic Toyota 2000GT - with a RB26, actually it is a 240Z based replica

One of the better of the current crop of different D1 cars,Masayoshi Tokitas Goodyear/Bee*R Toyota Crown, packing a 2JZ transplant for over 650bhp

Amuse R35, one of the most powerful in Japan with over 650 bhp

Alongside some of the other most powerful R35's in Japan

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