As the day wore on, and my duties track-side came to a close, I was afforded more time to spend wandering around the sea of RX-7’s on the other side of the grandstands.
By this time the majority of attendees had arrived and the event area of Fuji was packed to capacity with rotaries of all different types. The shear variety alone was enough to keep my interests piqued for the rest of the afternoon into the evening. The weather was holding steady and with no rain, I was free to roam the grounds and search for some of the best builds at the meeting.
This FD garnered a lot of attention on our Instagram page – the slightly subdued Maziora paint was a great fit for the aggressive lines of the TCP Magic kit and the classic bronze of the TE37 Sagas. The raw, solid center-mounted wing stands were a nice touch as well. This was among my favorite FD’s at the meeting.
Another favorite of mine, albeit because this is my favorite widebody kit for the FD, was this freshly painted, silver RX-7 wearing FEED’s new GT3 kit with optional front add-ons. This is such a great example of how you can transform a 25 year old car into something that looks like it could have been developed last year. The GT3 is a great mix of street and track, and although very wide, wouldn’t be out of place parked in let’s say, a grocery store. There was one very, very large issue I had with this particular car though – and that was the ride height.
When I’m looking at cars built by people I don’t know, I try to always have the mindset of ‘to each his own’. I’m sure the owner has a reason for keeping the height at near stock levels, or maybe he just hasn’t gotten around to that portion of the build yet. Maybe his street has a lot of large potholes that are unavoidable.
Whatever the case, that’s fine, but look – I lowered it in Photoshop and it’s much better.
The RE X-Response 7 – I meant to go back and get more shots of this from the front, because I really like the front end, but time somehow slipped away and my memory is awful. This build in its entirety is really cool. Amemiya actually relocated the engine lower and further back to better distribute the weight of the 500hp 13B. I’m sure you can look it up online, but the front end reminds me of a prototype car. Which is cool to point out because you can’t see it at all in this photo…
A couple different, updated takes on the Super GReddy kit were there like this guy with the Voltex swan neck.
This cool FD is a customer of Hara’s at CSG and participates in the Brig Hillclimb Challenge series at Ontake Mountain – the one that exploded back in 2014. He was also rocking one of our Takahashi tribute decals. I saw a lot of these throughout the day and it just made me feel super good about how well remembered that guy is gonna be for some time…
Young boy and One’s apprentice Kazuki Sato was there with his ever-evolving FD build. I like that he’s getting more aggressive in his exterior mods, and I think that once this is all painted and done it’ll be looking really nice. He tracks it regularly and if he stays on the path he is now, he will almost definitely be among the fastest of the next generation of Japanese time attack drivers.
Keep an eye on him.
The Pandem RX-8, coincidentally in attendance without a rotary engine.
I’m not the biggest advocate of this style, but I really like this thing.
The AS Auto demo car looking good on bronze RE30s with subtle aero touches of carbon kevlar.
There was certainly no shortage of TCP Magic kitted FD’s at Fuji that day. I feel like it’s slowly taking over RE as the kit of choice, although that’ll probably never be true, they are certainly making a dent in the power house of RX7s.
I was drawn to this beautiful example of a FD mainly because of what it didn’t have; no aftermarket mirrors, no GT wing. Just a mildly aggressive touch to the front end, great ride height and great wheels.
Back at the drift course, a couple of cars were heading out for the grip exhibition.
Super cool car! Not even sure what any of this is, but I like it.
The newest Moccomans car was getting down during the drift comp, here are some photos after that because when it was happening I wasn’t anywhere near here. Looks really good.
A car that I had no idea would be present due to how far away he lives, but was super stoked to see was the BE Craft FD. I have been following him on Twitter for years and have seen his car in a bunch of different phases.
Looks like the front was raised a little bit for the drive out here because it’s usually very low.
Reppin’ the Attack x Maze Sea Circuit decal from the coastal town of Niigata.
Proper diffuser height.
What a great looking car.
The drift competition was pretty popular among the locals. This Hurricane inspired look was pretty cool.
I hadn’t seen this car since 2014 at the GLOW Attack Meeting in Doitsumura. I have to say, overall, it’s looking much more ‘updated’ so to speak since then. The red accents, new ride height and wheel choice round out the car well. I wonder if the same person owns it (*EDIT* Yes, Yusuke still owns the car!). Considering that it’s been over 10 years since it was built, it’s surviving rather well.
The RE30 looks so good on FD’s.
Still has the original team decal on the dash!
And the splitter! Stoked! Quality products haha
The best FC of the event, hands down. I was really hoping to see more well done FC’s (was especially looking forward to seeing Ito-san, but he couldn’t make it), but being able to see this car was very cool.
The mag blue ZE40s against the white paint look so good, especially with the chromed out rear window.
Pan Speed fender kit is among the best option for this chassis.
The lines are both fluid and unique to the older car.
Built with the help of RS Pantera, I can’t help but imagin this car is most likely a 3-rotor.
It was towards the end of the show though and I wasn’t able to locate the owner.
Closing out the second round of coverage I wanted to sort of highlight this car. Not content with sitting idly by in the Attack off-season, awhile ago Yasuhiro Ando undertook the project of building a second RX7 specifically to drift in. The finished build was unveiled at the Rotary Spirit meeting.
I don’t know how he does it, but he now owns two of the greatest looking, purpose built FD’s in Japan – and he drives both of them at the limit.
A complete Wisefab front lock angle kit ensures that he gets the most degrees out of the front steering without sacrificing durability when he slams the tie-rods. The Wisefab knuckles and arms are much stronger and are built to take the abuse that comes along with drifting.
A scoot built 13B provides more than enough power on track. The shakedown went well, but Ando was experiencing cooling issues – not sure what the cause was, but it was pretty warm out.
The RE Amemiya D1 wide-body kit is the perfect match to the RE GT kit he has on his Attack car. Would be awesome to visit the shop one day and photograph them side by side.
An idea of how much steering angle it has – not even sure this was full lock.
Stoked to see him out getting sideways – sort of makes me want to go drifting too. Hope you enjoyed the photos, I’ll do my best to edit more this week, but probably not as most of my time is going towards getting a draft of the new book ready.
Cheers.
“There was one very, very large issue I had with this particular car though – and that was the ride height.”
It’s kinda funny that you say that. Because, as an engineer, I look for the proper ride height, because that tells me that somebody prizes performance over looks. When you ‘slam’ your car you have to compromise with higher spring rates, and inevitably that reduces traction. If you truly care about going fast, you are going to prize traction above all things.
“It’s traction that makes your car go round.”
Who said low cars don’t have traction? Also whats the point of going fast if your car looks bad?
Sean, the silver FD as well as the green one both have the RE Amemiya Super Greddy 04 body kit. If that’s what you were unaware of?