On Friday, January 27th, on his second session on track, Yoshiki ‘Fire’ Ando broke the 50-second barrier at Tsukuba Circuit with a record 49.897 second lap time. A truly incredible moment for motorsport enthusiasts world wide and a massive breakthrough in Japanese time attack.
Earlier in the week, in a prior conversation with Hashimoto about a photoshoot, he mentioned that he was going to be at Tsukuba on Thursday morning assisting with Kiyotaka’s with his FD. Throughout the week, the TFR supported FD has been frequenting Tsukuba, testing various aero setups.
Yesterday afternoon I had a day scheduled to catch up on emails, editing, and writing. But when I woke up I had the urge to get out of the house. I messaged Kubo from Garage Work and asked if he was going to be at the shop that afternoon. He replied quickly and said please come; so, I did.
Early Sunday, January 15th we headed back to Tsukuba for the morning Zummy Racing Attack practice event at TC2000. Many of the cars that had made it out for Saturday afternoon stayed for this event as well to get the most out of the weekend.
In this video we head out to Tsukuba Circuit to photograph the DKM Challenge event in the morning, and the Zummy Racing event that was held just after in the early afternoon.
When I departed on my return trip to Japan this Summer, I did so with the goal of reconnecting with friends and colleagues after the two years of travel restrictions. For 5 straight weeks I travelled around the country by car, train, and plane, all with the simple objective of ‘catching up’.
At the beginning of my road trip to Mie Prefecture, I decided to make a detour down to the Izu Peninsula to visit my good friend Ando. Ando operates Auto Rescue Izu, a wrecker/tow service in Shizuoka. Over the past 2 years he had built a new shop to house and work on his personal cars.
Last week I made my way down to the Kansai Region of Japan for a few photoshoots I had lined up. Our first stop was at Esprit where I met our friend Sugikou-san. I wanted to photograph his Supra again for 80R because a lot of time has passed since our original shoot at Suzuka Circuit.
Last week we held a small get together at Autopolis International Racing Circuit in the Oita Prefecture of Kyushu. I had 3 photoshoots for 80R scheduled for this particular weekend trip down south, however a few could not make it last minute.
In this video we visit Skyline tuning masters Racing Factory Autobahn, deep in the countryside of Ibaraki. Kawai-san shows us some of the newer builds and I take a walk around the shop.
This past weekend I headed to Nagano to photograph my friend Tsubaki’s new S15 delivery. He had the car fixed and fitted with the new Garage Mak Type 6 front end. While I was there, we take a close look at Amemiya’s 1,000+hp S15 at the shop, and I also took some photographs of our friend Masato’s DIY S13.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the Attack Tsukuba Championship this year, personally, because of COVID travel restrictions. Lucky for us though, we can join my brother Sekinei as he wanders around the paddock checking out some of the cars competing at the event.
Attack Tsukuba is one of the most anticipated time attack events of the year in Japan. NDF was on hand to to provide a walk through of the paddock area, an overview of drivers and cars, as well as on track action during super lap at the famed TC2000 course at Tsukuba.
The day before the Attack Tsukuba Championship event at TC2000 (February 21, 2020), the organizer Zummy holds an event that allows competitors the ability to practice and get their cars set up properly for Attack. A lot of times the event is just as exciting as Attack and this year was no exception.
Take a walk through the paddock of Suzuka Circuit the day before, and the day of Attack Suzuka last weekend. There was an intimate amount of cars for this half day event, which ensured the heavy hitters had plenty of track time.
A walk through the paddock at Sugo Sportsland during the recent Attack event. Sugo usually hosts a smaller group of drivers due to it’s distance from Tokyo, but the ones that do attend are very serious. Check out our behind the scenes video of the action…and the downtime.
In the most recent post about my trip to Sugo I mentioned shooting a little video before I had the opportunity to photograph Escorts EVO 9 – well, here is that video!
While I was photographing a race at Fuji Speedway, I took some time to record a walk-through of the Seven’s Day event that was going on in the event paddock.
Friday morning a few other track hosts held open events for those entrants that wanted to do some testing the day before the Attack event on Saturday. Many of the top tier teams took advantage of the time, as did the overseas competitors. Since this day was a little more relaxed, I took some video around the paddock and pit.
Super GT released this cool promotional video a few weeks ago for the upcoming 2014 season. It highlights the two brand new cars that will be competing in the new year; the Lexus LF-CC, […]
. . With the start of the 2012 Formula 1 season in just a few days, I thought it would be appropriate to post up some related content. Words can’t describe how stoked I am […]
. . Last year, during one of my trips to Sakuragicho, I watched the sun set from the Landmark Tower observation deck. While I was waiting I decided to film some traffic. I was able […]
. [vimeo http://vimeo.com/35379380 w=640&h=400] . The 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon presented by eGarage.com. Automotive enthusiasts and storytellers. The automotive scene makes homes to many differently styles of tuning culture. Be it race cars, VIP cars, drift […]
. . Check out the ASM Yokohama S2000 tear through this hot lap at Tsukuba Circuit during last years Super Lap Battle. This car sounds unbelievable. They managed a best lap of 1’01’711 – quite […]
.
.
Driftworks‘ own Phil Morrison and James Robinson, along with some crazy dudes from Garage Portello, decided they would go video ballistic on the Japanese drift scene. The result? Outsiders; a hour and a half long, HD drift extravaganza. Check out the trailer, be amazed, and then click past the break for more info. If you enjoy drifting, Japan, or drifting in Japan in the slightest amount, you should buy this movie.
.
. . Subaru released this insanely awesome video yesterday in regards to it’s intentions on using the BRZ as a GT300 competitor in Super GT. This will quite possibly be the most bad ass contender […]
. . Found this dope video created by Scott Mitchell on Street-Cover. The Aussies are stepping it up every season – I love how drifting has exploded over there the past few years. Check out […]
. . New video up on JDM Clips of the Mugen tuned S2000. Here is a description of the video: Mugen giving everyone a test ride on their completely tuned S2000. The driver was […]
. The Japanese have marketing tactics that few people understand; maybe because products and trends move much faster than they do here in the States. Case in point – the CM you see above. I […]
. . Alexi is quite the character. Be sure to check out his spread in Drift Tengoku on foreign drift.
. . Here’s a quick video from JDM Clips of the Calsonic GT-R testing a new set of Bridgestone’s at SportsLand Sugo. Be sure to watch it in HD, and turn your speakers up! You […]
. . Alexi at Nori Yaro posted a link to this really old video that TwinTurboRS uploaded to You Tube recently. It’s basically an abnormally large group of Kanjo racers in EF hatches ripping through […]
. . Found this from a quick search on Vimeo; shot by InertiaMS. It’s a great video with some cool editing, and great clips. .
. . Told you I’d find it! Turn your speakers up and thank NihonCar for bringing us such a cool vid. The sound this car makes leaving the pits (@ 1min. 10sec.) is incredible. .
. Great! A vimeo video actually works on WordPress! I found this trolling around on Nori Yaro (I am pleased to see this site back up after a crash). You can actually see Alexi in […]
. Honda R&D’s secret gem has been revealed! A FR, GT-spec NSX with KERS! Check out this video of testing at Twin Ring. Read the video info for specs and backstory. Found @ JDM Clips.
. . Saw this posted at Nori Yaro and thought I’d share it here as well. Some really cool in-car drift footage of this coupe at Meihan. For shots of the Looking car, check these […]
.
I was watching Top Gear the other day and on their news segment they mentioned that the Nurburgring ‘production car’ lap record had been broken. Apparently this happened way back in June. I must have been in a coma or something because I never heard of the news (*edit – It was on June 29th, my girlfriends birthday. That explains it). I don’t understand how Pagani gets away with calling this a production car, although it’s what they market it as, but watch this in-car footage of driver Marc Basseng smashing this work of art around the circuit in an amazing 6 minutes 45 seconds. Be sure to turn your speakers up real loud. Click past the break for a cool little documentary about Pagani and their relationship with the Nurburgring.
. I was digging around my favorites on YouTube and I came across this video that was posted a few months ago. It has some great drifting action in the rain, a few good offs, […]
Newest Video Option preview featuring footage from Ebisu, and the random antics of the Option guys. .
