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.
About a week after arriving in Japan, I received a message from my good friend Tsubaki. Since I photographed his S15 for Import Tuner back in 2014, we’ve always made sure to stay in touch as the years pass.
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.
In the realm of time attack racing in Japan, when one mentions the Silvia S15, our mind wanders automatically to Under Suzuki and his quest for a sub 50 lap time at Tsukuba. However, with the growing determination of Toru Inose’s campaign, that mindset has slowly been shifting.
I’ve grown so accustomed to attending Attack events that highlight fully built race cars, that I often forget how much fun a street car that’s prepped for circuit racing can be. This type of compromise is so prominent in both Japan and the US, as in most cases it’s not practical for the majority to own a dedicated race car. I’ve recently acquired another Honda to build in this fashion, and it’s safe to say I’ve been on the lookout for street driven track cars. I happened across this S15 at Fuji last weekend and was pretty taken by it, so I thought I’d post a few photos.
I had the real pleasure of shooting Ame’s car underneath the Yokohama Bay Bridge back in 2014 before the Winter Cafe. Back then we had talked a bit online, but that was the first time I met him in person, and being a bit humbled at the time, wasn’t really up to asking many questions. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to stay in touch, and continue our friendship from a distance. The car has also undergone some fairly dramatic changes, so when I visited Nagano at the end of last year, I jumped at the chance to photograph the car again in it’s evolved state. This time, I had the intentions of re-writing an article not just about the car, but about the owner as well.
No-Mark may not be a household name in the Japanese tuning industry, but they’ve been around long enough to hold their own against some of the best. Native to the Western area of Japan, it’s not uncommon to catch Maeda Yukio and his white S15 around tracks like Takasu Circuit, Suzuka CIrcuit, and Central Circuit every so often. The Silvia, a decade long build, has slowly grown from a lightly tuned street car, to a street car that pushes the boundary between comfort and performance.
Friends Racing and their re-purposed drift Silvia have made quite the comeback over the past year or so. Making the transformation from the GReddy backed D1 Grand Prix competitor, to a record chasing time attack build was no easy task for the small Tochigi-based outfit. It took the company a few years to get the car to where it’s at now; a journey that is paying off in blindingly fast lap times.
Finding originality among the masses these days seems almost like a lost cause; difficult to say the least. It seems we’ve fallen into an echo-chamber, driven by internet popularity, that promotes the trendy favorable over imagination. Very few choose to forge their own path of innovation and ingenuity, and it’s left us with more ‘inspired by’ designs than one should have to endure. This sheep-like quality is absent in Mr. Jun Tanaka, however, and the S15 that he’s created is unlike any other.
Really nice S14 that was lapping around TC2000. The interior was very clean and had a very well constructed roll cage with gusseted B-pillars. The owner was lapping in the low 1’01.xx range throughout the morning.
Every once in awhile I’ll come across some new faces at Tsukuba that really catch my attention. In most cases though, just because they’re new to me, doesn’t mean that they’re new to the circuit. The Garage PEAX Silvia is one such example and the it’s high 59 second lap times at Tsukuba proves this fact. Taking a little bit deeper look into the build reveals a car, and an owner, who have been gradually making changes to achieve the goal of a sub-minute lap time at TC2000.
Car Modify Wonder had several cars on hand to introduce their somewhat new lineup of Glare aero parts, and as usual, they did not disappoint. It’s refreshing to see a truly unique and creative offering, especially for older chassis’. It’s a stark contrast from what we’ve recently been used to seeing; which is more or less a cookie cutter approach to exterior styling (I don’t need to say anymore than that for you to catch my drift). Check out the shots below and let me know what you think.
The diversity of Idlers events is comparable to few other races. Just one glance at the entry list reveals everything from old Citroen’s and Alfa’s to Honda’s, Toyota’s and of course plenty of Porsche’s. Each entrant is interesting to check out as they compete in all levels of tuning, but none stood out to me more than this Silvia from Garage Infinity.
To say that this Silvia has come a long way in the past few months would be an understatement. It’s not all too often we know the background behind a specific car build in Japan, partially because it is not commonplace to make it known to the world what the builders are doing in real time (i.e. build threads or frequent outlets for updates). So it would probably be a surprise to most that not too long ago this car used to be a gloss white, stock-bodied Silvia until it was involved in an unfortunate accident, leaving it in need of some intense repair.
There’s something to be said about those who go against the grain. Those who have a need to create the outlandish, to disregard outside opinion, and to construct their true vision. They are the ones who will be remembered long after they’re gone, and the ones whose ideas will eventually be cherished. Go Nakamura is one such person, and he happens to be the owner of G-Corporation – and what you see before you is, in fact, his dream Silvia.
I think, for the sake of variety, that I’m going to switch gears a bit this week. While there is much more time attack coverage to share with you (not sure that I’ll ever have a shortage of that), I do have quite a bit of files in the NDF archive that have been collecting dust. Case in point, earlier this winter I visited Go-san at G-Corporation in Chiba and in his somewhat large driveway sat this beautiful red Silvia.
No stranger to magazine interiors, Hiroshi Amemiya’s S15 has been the center of attention for many publications throughout the past year or so including Super Street, Hyper Rev, Option2 (twice!). In fact, Enkei […]
Toshitake’s S15 in the underground lot of Osanbashi Pier for the Option2 farewell meet.
As you may or may not know, I work in the airline industry; and in my position I travel quite frequently. Over the years I’ve come to not only enjoy flight in itself, but […]
The Landmark Tower in Sakuragicho, since it’s completion in July of 1993, has always been a favorite building of mine. The area around the tower has since developed immensely, and it’s turned into quite […]
One bonus of setting out to shoot a car for a magazine is that you’ll always end up with ancillary shots not used in the feature. I was organizing some of my files tonight […]
Our partners over at Garage Mak put on a very impressive display at Motor Games last weekend at Fuji. Amemiya’s S15 looked particularly great on the new Enkei RS05RR. その後、程なくして、Formura Driftの写真。午前の予選が終わり、Offset Kingの会場へBakkyさんにあって、彼のS15の写真をパチリ。相変わらずかっこいいです。そこで […]
Very aggressive looking Zenki S14 in the lot of Fuji. On it’s out lap it spun going into turn 2, but managed a lap under the 2 minute mark at the end of the […]
Cruised around Daikoku Friday night to find the typical mix of cars and people hanging out. Matt and I slept in Sekinei’s van for like an hour before getting up to walk around; […]
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 […]
Awhile back one weekend night I had went to Odaiba to hang out with Asami and her friends. We had gone to the Tokyo Trick Art Museum which is a place that […]
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, there is no way you haven’t come across these two S15’s at one point or another. Garage Mak, a name whose aero designs […]
I first saw this car when my friend Teddy posted a few pictures of it in our Facebook group page. I inquired about it pretty quickly and he mentioned it was a friend of […]
Wow. Such Drift. Just kidding; I’ll do my best to maintain decent grammar. Sekinei attended the Lowbrain drift event last weekend, mainly to drive in it, but he also was able to snap a […]
Voiture-502 Custom and Service Silvia at the Minkara Meeting. One of the two Silvias the shop brought out to show. Looking great with a lowdown style on SSR Longchamps. Very strong Minkara flavor. […]
The Drift Muscle competitor Motor Garage Jun Silvia doing a few grip laps a few weekends ago at Skyline Owner’s Battle.
Sekinei went out to Mobara Twin Circuit this past weekend to get some drift coverage at the Sunday meeting. We’ll have some more shots up soon, until then enjoy this one shot of S15 […]
This handsome looking 14.3 made an appearance at Fuji Speedway during the hellaflush show not too long ago. It’s not too often you see 14.3 executed so well. Very enjoyable. […]
A couple shots of Shintaro’s S15 Silvia at Tsukuba. Looks like the front splitter makes a nice coffee holder. Unfortunately, Shintaro didn’t get enough time on track to set a hot lap at […]
This weekend Sekinei took to the circuit to participate in the Bridgestone sponsored タイヤ館 event in Honjo. Among the runners at the track, this Silvia stood out the most with it’s attack styling and aero. […]
One shot of the Brio S13 time attack coupe before Okamura takes it out for some heat around Tsukuba.
Out of all the times I’ve come to Japan, very rarely does it ever snow. I think, of the 6 years I’ve been traveling here, I’ve only encountered snow once or twice, and it’s never […]
This year’s Tokyo Auto Salon has left an impression on us all; how the Japanese tuning and show makings are consistently ahead of every one else never ceases to amaze me. Hundreds of 86’s…err, I […]
