Tag: Silvia

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Encounter: Track Ready C-West Silvia S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Feature: A Test of Time – Hiroshi Amemiya’s Garage Mak S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: No-Mark Time Attack S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: Friends Power Silvia S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Feature: The Semblance of GT – Jun Tanaka’s Silvia S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: Quality over Quantity – Garage Peaks S13

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Interview: Tomohiko ‘Under’ Suzuki – Japan’s S15 Meister

Years ago when Suzuki paired up with Takemura of Scorch Racing, I can’t imagine either of them knowing just how far they’d push the envelope of time attack; not only in Japan, but worldwide.  From making somewhat crude body panels himself in the small garage, to employing the knowledge of Andrew Brilliant, the famous aerodynamicist; things sure have changed in the past few years.  One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is Suzuki’s drive to win and his dedication to the progression of his S15.
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Automotive by Sean
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Close-Up: カーモディファイワンダー & ヒマワリ TAS

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: Garage Infinity Metal-Model Silvia

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: The Advance of Yagihashi’s S15

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Feature: Style Spectrum – The G-Corporation Dream S15

 

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.

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: Late Night Flash at G-Corp

 

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.

 

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Automotive by Sean
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Encounter: ガレージマック! – Motor Games Fuji

    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 […]