Within Japan’s small group of elite tuners, there lies a select few who continuously take it among themselves to set the bar higher; taking their chosen projects and transforming them into something more akin to a factory backed race program. The team at M’s Machine Works, led by Takayuki Mizumoto, are a shining example of this, and exactly why they were chosen to be featured in 80R Volume 3.
It’s always enjoyable when we get to see a variety of car makes at race events across Japan. And while it’s true that domestic built cars dominate the circuits of the island, every once in awhile we’re treated with some love from Europe. Among them, it could be argued that none are more iconic than the cars from RWB.
Sekinei caught this Porsche 987 in the paddock waiting for the rain to cease. The 997 GT3 front end, and plethora of aero parts give this Cayman a wildly unique look.
Watching the beginning of the race unfold through my camera lens served as a great way to get me even more pumped up for my first outing on track. I spent a good hour running back and forth between shooting in the paddock and watching lap times drop on the garage monitor as the drivers began warming up to the conditions.
Two weeks ago I made the not-so bad flight (I was lucky enough to snag a first class seat, so I slept the entire way) across the Pacific to Japan. I would once again be driving with the RWB team in the Idlers 12 hour Enduro at Twin Ring Motegi. This would be my second, non-consecutive, time both driving and photographing the event. It had been 5 months since I was last in Japan covering Evome, and in all honesty I wouldn’t have been back until Winter if it wasn’t for this event. The relationship that RWB has with Idlers and the people involved in both organizations are the key reason behind this event being so fun, not to mention well organized. Aside from driving Porsche’s around Motegi (not sure I need any other reason), seeing the international involvement is reason enough to go. Reuniting with people from all across the globe, and putting faces to names, is what makes this event so special to me.
With my small involvement in this industry, and the often times overwhelming amount of events in the area, I’m sometimes faced with conflicting events (ie. HKS Premium Day and Evome being on the same day) . This is usually not a concern because my interests happen to fall into a smaller niche of the whole of automotive lifestyle; such was the case for me this weekend. Formula D took place in Long Beach this weekend, as well as the accompanying car show downtown. Earlier in the week however, my friend and employee of GMG Racing, Dom, invited me to hang out with the team for the sprint race at Auto Club Speedway. Needless to say, I did not attend Formula D.
I was browsing through some older photos on my hard-drives this evening and came across these shots of Masaki-san’s, and Ono-san’s Porsches one night – since it’s Thursday, and the appropriate thing to do these day’s on a Thursday is to throw things back, I decided to post them up. There were a few of us that had gone out to Tatsumi to say hi to some friends and we ended up meeting them out there. Yoko was there as well which was a nice surprise. These photos were actually already processed, for some reason I never uploaded them. Really trying to find time to drive in Idlers again this year, and seeing some of these cars gives me some motivation. Click past the break to check them out.
This bright (Mexico/Riviera?) blue Porsche caught my eye the other night, I think mainly because of the color, but also I’ve always liked the way 993’s look with GT2 aero. The color […]
Super Now; an eccentric parts company located in Saitama that focuses mainly on the RX7 and rotary components, but dabbles in many other platforms. To the average enthusiast, probably not the most familiar […]
Asami and I were walking about Kamakura this weekend when we spotted this beauty idling down the street. Perhaps a 1976 Carrera RS in iconic Gulf Racing livery. The entire atmosphere […]
Photos: Satsuei Seki / Processing: Sean / Words: Sean “Attack Meeting GLOW de Fever And Option 2 KAJI ‘S B-Day x Smily Shot & NDF At Doitsu Mura” Let’s just jump right into […]
Photos: Satsuei Seki / Processing: Sean / Words: Sean / Satsuei Seki “Attack Meeting GLOW de Fever And Option 2 KAJI ‘S B-Day x Smily Shot & NDF At Doitsu Mura” The calm […]
Last weekend marked the date for RWB’s annual meet in Tokyo. Roppongi Hills; an urban district in Minato known for it’s upper class quality of life played host to the event. The meet was […]
Head over to the wallpaper section to get this week’s hi-res featuring the RWB Porsche ‘Phoenix’. This car has such presence that it looks like if it wasn’t strapped down, it would literally power itself […]
Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. It feels like I was away for quite a long time; sorry for the lack of updates. I’ll pick up from the break with the last […]
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been away for a bit; I’ll have the final post on the NDF Winter Cafe up tomorrow, plus […]
Well, I suppose I’ll just dive into the second part of the NDF Winter Cafe; my apologies on the wait, work has been pretty busy since I returned (If you missed it, check out […]
This photo has been circulating around quite a bit lately (many thanks) and there have been a few requests for a hi-res version; who am I to refuse. Head on over to the Wallpaper […]
As the sun rose over the grandstands of Twin Ring Motegi, I knew that the time to start the endurance was getting close. Not yet tired, despite being up a solid 24 hours at this […]
When I left off, Alex and I had just taken off from RWB in the 964 Rough Soul; but it wasn’t long before we were stopped on the side of the road with engine trouble. […]
This series of posts may be lengthy to read, and pretty much all about my experience driving in Idlers. It’s really not something you see too often on this site, as it is not […]
Showing up early to RWB has its perks. Caught the beautiful blue ‘muier bonita’ 964 parked around the corner of RWB last week.
Snapped this real quick on our way back to Chiba from Motegi. We had been up for about 2 days straight and were in need of some energy to get us back to RWB. Although […]
Lineup of the Porsche Cup Challenge cars at Fuji Speedway. This series runs as a support race to Super GT on the Fuji dates and usually supplies some great action on circuit.
One night in Yokohama, my friend and I went out to dinner to a restaurant in LaLa Port; a giant shopping center near Kamoi station. If you remember my last post about Advance, you’ll […]
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting a shop that I have had on my list for quite some time; Advance Flatout. I’ve known about this shop and it’s involvement in […]
…and as the rain began to fall ever harder, the Super GT cars charged on; fueled by the calm determination only those behind the wheel know. We pick up on the continuing coverage mid […]
After my well deserved break after the Super GT practice session, it wasn’t long before the final race of the season got underway. In typical Japanese fashion, as soon as the flag dropped, so did […]
A few weeks ago Super GT held the final official test day for the 2012 season. The venue; Twin Ring Motegi. While the majority of the teams set out to gather data for the upcoming […]
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Well, it’s about that time to start wrapping up the show coverage. I was planning on posting the third and final round of coverage this weekend, but ended up working, as well as temporarily acquiring a vinyl cutter. The latter occurrence took up the majority of my Monday so I wasn’t able to work on getting the post up. Oh well, I have some time tonight and will do just that. We pick up mid-afternoon when the show was really getting busy. The turnout was really, really good for it being the first East coast show that Weksos has put on. I was very happy for everyone involved at the success of the day. I don’t really have much else to say in this post that hasn’t already been stated. In this post we’ll take a closer look at some of the nice Hondas at the show, as well as a look at the roll-out. Again, you’ll be able to see the insane amount of variety that these Wekfest shows provide. Just click past the break and enjoy the rest of the shots.
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It’s 2 am on Saturday morning, I don’t have work tomorrow (edit – I DO have work today), and I’m stacked up on caffeine; I may as well get started on posting the second round of Wekfest East. Yuta’s civic was having some work done at a shop in Upland this past week, and this evening we drove up there to pick it up. While in the area, we decided to meet Kodi Chan at Maxim off the 60 in Rowland Heights. I don’t get to see Kodi that often so it was nice that it worked out that way. I ended up drinking way too much coffee though, and as a result am writing this right now. I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow…err..today, and read this and it probably won’t make any sense to me. I just thought for some reason you should know why this post will be comprehensively poorly written. Right. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the New Jersey convention center to check out more of the cars at Wekfest. In this post, I’ll wrap up what I have left of the roll-in and get started on showing the masses of cars that were in attendance. I gotta say, as I look back on each car as I edit them, I’m finding more and more cool things I didn’t notice initially. I’ll point some of the things out as I go. Also, you can once again see the thought that went into the variety of cars showing. If you’re not familiar with the tour, not just anyone can come show. The Weksos staff hand pick out of hundreds, and sometimes thousands of applicants to ensure a great show. For now, click past the break to see part 2 of the coverage.
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Up until Friday I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to attend Wekfest LA. Requesting days off isn’t as easy as it used to be with my new position. Somehow, last minute, I managed to get my shift covered; so what did I do? That’s right – I went to Las Vegas. Good idea right? I hopped on a flight out of LAX Saturday afternoon, chilled on the Strip for 10 hours, and made my way back to Long Beach in time to shoot Wekfest. Well, it turns out it wasn’t such a good idea. I ended up losing way more than I intended, got no sleep, and smelled like cigarettes all day. I gotta say though, Wekfest more than made up for it. On top of that, it was probably the most beautiful day in Long Beach this year. Unbelievable cars, good food, music, friends and great weather; can’t ask for much more. I’ll do my best to try and walk you through the show a little before I go ballistic with the pics. Click past the break for more.
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Race day – it truly is special. As the purpose built machines line the grid, the quiet idling of their hungry engines a deceiving tone. Just minutes before the red lights go out; the exhaust notes scream held back only by the bouncing rev limiter of the launch control. The paddock thick with anxiety. The rivalry, the tension, the noise and drama. As the green flags drop the machinery comes to life, and a torrent of power is unleashed across the asphalt. Exciting right!? But there is a lot that goes into getting everyone into position on time. Our friends at JDM Clips got some great behind the scene shots in and around the Pit area of the first Super GT round at Fuji Speedway. Click past the break to check it out!
1680x . 1280x .
. Caught this clean 911 cruising down the main drag when I got off the Enoden at 鎌倉高校前駅 (Kamakurakōkōmae Station). You can usually see some pretty nice cars driving along this road because of the […]
