Tag: Honda

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Feature: Excellence In Craft – Arvou Motor Sports Service

Growing up with his father, Akira, Yusaku Shibata was embraced with motor sport from the moment he arrived in this world.  His life would see him behind the wheel of numerous race cars throughout a number of series, and eventually coming full circle to own and operate the tuning shop his father founded in 1985; ARVOU Motor Sports Service.

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Video: Attack Tsukuba Championship 2021 – Paddock Walk and Highlights

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.

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Gallery: HKS Demo Cars – Super Lap Battle

Back in November I had attended Super Lap Battle at Buttonwillow, not to cover the event, but more or less just to hang out with friends and chat about racing.  It’s nice to reserve my local events for spectating and socializing rather than work, however there were a few cars in attendance I wanted to grab a couple photos of.

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Encounter: Shizuoka Residence – Advance NSX

It’s been a busy couple weeks for me between work, traveling (Google tells me I’ve been to 3 countries, 19 cities and 53 places in January alone), and preparing for next week’s pre-order shipments (yay!).  It hasn’t left me with much time to process photos from the first Attack event of the year at Suzuka Circuit.

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Feature: Amir Bentatou – The RS Future K20 NSX

There is no doubt that the shear excitement of driving a purpose-built race car on the edge is enough for any driver to justify the money and work that gets put into building it.  Although, surprisingly there are very few people that understand the actual amount of work that goes into building a race car; Amir Bentatou is not one of those people.

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Feature: Military Standard – Philip Robles Time Attack EG6

Without a doubt, Philip Robles has become a household name in the time attack scene around the Southwestern US. Having competed in a wide variety of sanctioned events throughout Arizona and California over the past several years, he has solidified his place among motor sport’s most dedicated drivers.

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Feature: Northern Exposure – The GNR Racing EK9

The evolution of time attack builds in Japan is, for me, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the sport.  The dedication of the teams and the drivers to improve performance each season typically results in a year over year change in the appearance of the cars.  Especially given the fact that most of the Attack competitors are ghosts on social media in comparison, it’s always a surprise to see what they unveil at the start of each season.

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Event: NDF Attack Challenge – March 10, 2019

If you happen to follow our Facebook or Instagram page, you may have noticed a few images promoting an upcoming event we’re headlining with the organizers of VTEC Club.  NDF Attack Challenge is our take on emulating a Japanese style of time attack that is not often found in the States.  Naturally, with the countries being almost polar opposites of one another (in both size, demographic, and culture), there are some very notable differences between the execution of the two; the most striking difference being that of classing.

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Encounter: Out Of The Blue – Yuma Koide’s EK9

It may be obvious to most people, but after surrounding myself with Japan’s fastest time attack cars, I often times need to remind myself that there are several cars not built to an extreme that are very noteworthy.  In fact, sometimes its the cars that are very tastefully modified that stand out the most; as is the case with Yuma Koide’s EK9.  While the bright blue exterior is quick to catch the eye of a passerby, it’s what you don’t see that keeps you staring.

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Feature: The Casual Race Car – NDF B20 Spec DC2

At some point in time, my friend Duane mentioned to a few of us that, barring interest, he was thinking of starting a spec-B20 class within the VTEC Club events.  As you can imagine, it was an idea that didn’t catch on too quick.  In fact, anybody we mentioned it to had a decent laugh at our expense.  B20’s, in their stock form, don’t have the greatest appeal in the realm of racing Hondas, so the idea that enough people would want to be involved to even warrant it’s own class was comical at best.  Boy, were they all wrong.

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Feature: Third Times A Charm – The JDM Yard EG6

Winning just one first place trophy, for any class, in the World Time Attack Challenge would be a lifetime achievement for most people.  Claiming two would be a way to show the world that it wasn’t a fluke.  However, taking that top podium spot three times would undoubtedly leave a mark on the time attack world that not many teams can achieve.  A true champion can prove that they have what it takes to keep winning;  evolving to meet new challenges.  That’s precisely what the guys at JDM Yard have done.

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Encounter: C.S. Polsche Tuned Accord Euro-R

I was looking through my hard-drives searching for a particular image I’m using for a project that I’ve been working on and came across a folder full of cars that I had meant to share a few months ago but, for a multitude of reasons, never got around to it.  One of the cars was an Accord Euro-R I happened upon at Fuji Speedway.  The owner mentioned that he was local to the Fuji area and has his car tuned at the Yamanashi-based shop C.S. Polsche.  I like seeing these street oriented builds at major circuits, so I took a few moments to look it over.

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Event: Endless Circuit Meeting – Fuji Speedway

Time Attack events typically take a back seat during the scorching hot, humid Summer months in Japan.  Track conditions are far from ideal for breaking course records, or setting personal bests, so for the most part the sport lies dormant.  Not to mention being strapped into a race car, covered head to toe in protective gear, with 100+ degree track temps isn’t fun no matter how into it you are.  Even still, while the frequency of events slows, and major shops take the time to rebuild their demo cars; the sport doesn’t completely become extinguished.  A fact proven by events like the Endless Circuit Meeting just last weekend at Fuji Speedway.  An event that allows both professional tuners and enthusiasts to get in some track time during the off-season.

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Close-Up: The Power of K – ASLAN EF9

I’d wager that ASLAN, the Osaka based Honda outfit, is one of the leading shops in the development of K-series Honda swaps in Japan.  Following in the footsteps of America, it didn’t take long for them to capitalize on the benefits of the next generation motor.  Having no adherence to a traditional form of tuning like some shops abide by, Tani-san’s approach to building cars becomes very unique to say the least; giving each a very specific, what I can only surmise as an ‘Osaka flavor’ to them.

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Encounter: Chasing Ghosts – The Kimidori S2000

There seems to be at least one privateer in every class of time attack that is always looming just behind the top teams record times.  They typically don’t have the resources afforded to them from owning a shop, and usually rely on the knowledge of a particular ‘support’ shop to assist them in getting their cars to where they want them.  Despite their disadvantage, they close the gap to the frontrunners of the sport, time and time again.  Yoshitaka Ishii and his bright green S2000 are a prime example of this.

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Feature: Title Fight – The ASM S2000

There are so many cool builds in the paddock of any given Attack event in Japan, that I often fail to acknowledge just how in-depth some of the builds are.  As the sport progresses, and the participants seek to go faster and faster, their machines eventually begin to become a reflection of their drive.  Putting budget aside, I’d have to say that the ASM Yokohama S2000 is one of the premiere examples of this idea.  This particular build, which ASM has been developing for over a decade, all but reached the peak of it’s very active life in the last weekend of February.