Tag: FT-86

Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.3

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I’m going to try and roll everything else I have left into a third and final, massive leftovers post of AutoCon 2012.  I can only imagine how cool it will be – especially since I’m kicking it off with this fantastic coupe on Panasport G7s.  As far as the timeline goes, it’s still pretty early in the day, and definitely still in the morning.  The show opened to the public at about 12 o’clock, and that’s just around the time I said that I’ve had enough.  I was fortunate to have a good jump on the show without too much foot traffic, so I really got a good look at the lot in it’s entirety before the gates opened.  The lot was so big though, that I think even if I hadn’t I’d still be able to get some good shots.  Recapping the show, I must say the entire roll-in process and media handling was a gigantic improvement over last year.  Thanks to the AutoCon staff for another good show and I look forward to seeing this event gain in popularity over the next few years.  Take a look past the break for a grip of pics that wrap up my coverage.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.2

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Man, I’ve been traveling a lot lately.  I think I’ve flown about 3,000 miles in the past 3 days.  Not normal, but I’ve been really busy at work recently.  That’s probably the main reason that my coverage is so slow to come out – which I apologize for.  I think just about all the other blogs have all but finished posting pics, but I’m lagging.  I suppose that’s one of the side effects of doing this all on my own; I don’t have as much time as most people (running an airline is quite time consuming -_-;).  With that said, let me quit wasting your time and let’s power through the rest of these photos.  I’ll be making one more post after this and I’ll try to get the all edited and ready for upload in the morning.  After 3 back to back 4am mornings, I have a feeling I’m going to be sleeping in tomorrow.  I’ll start off round 2 with a few shots of this familiar Kouki S14 on Mag Blue Nismo LMGT-4’s – super clean build.  Click past the break for more AutoCon 2012.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.1

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I’m sure by now between the roll in post, and other blogs, you’ve all gotten a taste of what AutoCon 2012 has to offer – so let’s just jump right into this.  I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of car shows in general, but the thing I like the most about these annual shows is the chance to see various cars transform from the previous year, as well as getting the opportunity to see totally new and fresh builds for the first time.  It’s also a great opportunity to meet people within the industry.  I always make it a point to introduce myself to a few new people during each show.  Not only to make new friends, but to get insight into new feature cars and stories; I can thank a lot of good material just from random introductions.  I can honestly say that it is easy to see the growth of NDF simply by the reaction of others when I drop the blog’s name.  I went from virtually no one knowing what Narita Dog Fight was and getting blank stares, to a good percentage of people who support it – and that’s cool to me.  Alright, enough reminiscing – click past the break to see part 1 of Auto Connection 2012 coverage.  It’s worth noting that I’ve been out of town all day, and will continue to be for the remainder of the week.  So if the coverage is slow to post, I apologize.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.4

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It’s almost been a week since Wekfest LA, and I’ve just about wrapped up all my coverage.  I’m going to try and squeeze everything I’ve got into this final post – so it’s going to be massive.  I went ballistic on this one so, by far, you’ll see the most diversity in cars throughout this post.  I’ve also included another slideshow gallery at the bottom for the masses.  Hope you see your car!  Also, if you want some special VIP only coverage of the show, check out our friends down under at Street-Cover.  I supplied them with a few shots to help spread the Wek love over in Australia.  You should probably check the site out anyway because it’s pretty rad.  Again, special thanks goes out to all those at Weksos Industries involved in organizing such a massive tour, as well as the city of Long Beach for being cooperative.  Let’s just jump right into the coverage.  You know the drill – click the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.3

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I’m running out of ways to start these posts, as usual, so I’ll just start off by saying…here is part 3 of NDF’s Wekfest LB (A) coverage.  I even had trouble coming up with that.  I think from now on, literally this second, for the rest of the show coverage, I will highlight a handful of shots and then post a slide gallery of some cookie cutter coverage of the show towards the bottom of the post.  There are really way too many cars to try and put them into this format.  This will allow you guys to see the show in a more timely manner as well.  As a side benefit, it will also allow me to concentrate my commentary on just a few memorable shots.  After previewing the new layout, I think you’ll like it as it allows you to briefly preview a lower sized picture, as opposed to loading an entire page worth of pictures.  Once you click a thumbnail, a slide feature will pop up allowing you to view each shot in the gallery in succession. Typically, towards the end of posts my comments turn from semi-informational to just blatant observations (e.g. here is a civic on Volks).  You’re probably reading that type of stuff and saying, “Well, no shit”.  I think I left off around early afternoon, just before the gates opened and the flood of show goers rushed the grounds.  I think it was right about this time I decided to break off from the guys I was hanging out with and start taking photos again.  Click past the break for continued coverage.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: Type One Toyota FT-86….?

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Yeah, that’s right – another FT-86 post.  So I posted on the NDF Facebook page a few weeks back picture of a FT-86 wheel with Spoon calipers attached.  Needless to say it baffled many people – including me when I saw it.  I still don’t have much information on the car, other than whoever owns it is affiliated with Spoon and Type One.  I’m pretty sure it’s not too difficult to fit certain brake systems onto other cars, as it can be universal in some regards; requiring little retro-fitting.  This may be the case, but it’s still wild to see a Spoon product on anything other than a Honda.  Right?  I first spotted this at Twin Ring behind the Spoon garage area at the 2nd round of Super Taikyu.  Click past the break for a few more encounters!

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Encounter: Advan Toyota FT-86


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One of the cool things about going to a race event in Japan, is all the other things that come along with it. Good food, merchandise and car part vendors, free goodies, concerts, and the paddock and pit areas. Super GT had it all and then some. In the vendor area of Fuji Speedway, Yokohama had a fairly large booth set up with a couple display cars. One of the cars was this red FT-86 sitting on a matte black set of Advan RG-D’s. I thought it was a really clean example of what the FT-86 can look like with the simplest of modifications. Click past the break for a full shot.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: TRD Tuned FT-86

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I wrote an initial draft up about 3 weeks ago for this close-up, but for some reason never got around to publishing it.  For that, I apologize, because this is one hell of a car.  One great day, at Tsukuba Circuit, an amazing event was held.  At this event, Toyota decided to show it’s variant of the FT-86.  Ever since the FT-86, BRZ, or FR-S has made it’s debut in it’s geographically appropriate location, the tuning world has been abuzz with excitement.  Now, with the Super GT BRZ, and the D1 FT-86, we’re all dying to see what’s next.  Well, it seems that TRD has our answer.  With the FT-86 being officially on sale in Japan for about half a month now, it’s unlikely we’ll see any personally owned ones tuned any time soon.  Toyota has done an excellent job in marketing their newest offering, and the TRD tuned FT-86 is the icing on the cake.  Click past the break to see more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Close-Up: Subaru BRZ Concept-STi

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So, I finally made the quick trip over to the LA Convention Center to attend the LA Auto Show.  While it’s always great to see each manufacturers take on the cutting edge of automotive engineering, I really came to see one car; the Subaru BRZ STi Concept.  Of all the automotive topics discussed recently, Toyota’s predecessor to the now iconic AE86 has been the hottest.  Will it be Toyota or Scion?  What is the actual model name?  Turbocharged or naturally aspirated?  Will it use Subaru’s flat Boxer engine?  For quite awhile, consumers and fans were left in the dark, but finally some light is being shed on the details.  Check out some more shots of Subaru’s new member of the STi family past the break.

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