Tag: Toyota

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Feature: Renewed Ambition – Sakamoto Engineering 86

We’ve all experienced the ebb and flow of motivation; the slow, but seemingly  permanent, oscillation of decline and growth in development.  Albeit difficult to admit it for the majority of us, as time passes, our incentives naturally change.  That is, until we come across a new catalyst that stokes the tides in the favor of progress.  Such was the case with Hiroki Sakamoto.

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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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Feature: The 86 Progression – Keiichi Tsuchiya

One of the more anticipated cars of this year’s WTAC among fans and builders alike, had to be Beau Yates’ revamped AE86.  With Mark Bissett leading the team, the car was built at Hypertune in Sydney, and has been entirely stripped of it’s former drift specification and rebuilt as a time attack car fit for a king; and by king, I mean none other than Keiichi Tsuchiya.  Keiichi was slated to drive the car in Open Class this year at Sydney Motorsports Park.

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Encounter: Kishimoto Racing Division – CBY AE86

Among the top N/A competitors in the Japanese time attack scene, exist a niche group of AE86 drivers.  Serving as the FR rival of the Honda Civic’s in the paddock, the competition provided by the Toyota pack always manages to provide a subset of antagonism at any given event.  Sato Shinetsu and his CBY equipped Trueno did just that at this year’s 10th anniversary Attack Championship at Tsukuba.

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Encounter: Material Auto Factory Supra

During the Option Fuji Superlap, the Supra meisters from the Tokyo based Material Auto Factory had the most prominent display of JZA80’s in attendance.  Some were competing in the main event, others competed in the Hiper Challenge, and some were on display at their booth.  I had highlighted Tatsuo’s Supra in our previous coverage, and a viewer had spotted another of their cars in the background that had piqued their interest.

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Feature: HKS TRB-03 – The Tsukuba Maverick

There’s no doubt that, in Japanese motor sport, one name stands out among the rest.  In almost everything they do, they need to be on top.  The fastest, the most advanced.  HKS will stop at nothing to collect these titles, and the TRB-03 has become their newest vessel to achieve them.  The company has enveloped it’s priority in the project with the goal of being nothing less than the fastest around Tsukuba’s TC2000.  It was even re-branded as the ‘Tsukuba Record Breaker’, from it’s original designation as the GTS800; a tip of the hat to it’s capped power level (which is debatable…).  The car has been through extensive testing over the past year, and last weekend at HKS Day, I was able to finally get a closer look at it.

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Encounter: Midship Runabout – Masahide Fukushima’s TPS Tuned MR-S

I guess since we’re on the topic of mid-engined roadsters (although technically only the Elise, not the Exige,  was roadster), rarely seen in the Japanese Attack arena, now would be a good time to post up some shots of this MR-S.  Owned by Masahide-san, and tuned by the foremost MR-S tuners in Japan, Techno PRO Spirit, this is one of the only of it’s type in the Attack lineup.  It’s aggressive exterior is backed up by some pretty formidable times at TC2000; a 59.4 to be specific.

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Feature: Soaring Progression – AutoBahn’s Carbon JZZ30

Without a doubt the most interesting thing for me, in following Japanese Time Attack so closely, is getting to see the progression of builds over an extended period of time.  We all know that building a race car isn’t a quick task, and for most people at the grassroots level it’s a trial and error procedure; you find out what works and what doesn’t from your initial base, and head back to the drawing board after each event.  Everyone has their own method of going about this, but the common goal for everyone, however, is to go faster.

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Encounter: チームT.F.Rスープラ

Senkichi has modified his JZA80 specifically to handle the variety of turns at Tsukuba.  Each modification that he chose was specifically tailored for TC2000.  The engine’s drive-train has been upgraded and the bottom end built to handle the extra boost from the T78 turbine.  Transmission gearing has been modified to put the car in the exact power range needed for each turn.  Check out the results below.

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Close-Up: 2016 APR Toyota Prius GT300

Among the various Super GT cars on display, APR was one to unveil their 2016 GT300 take on the new Prius.  We got a close look at the previous model a few years back at Fuji Speedway; however, since Toyota has released a newly remodeled production version of the hybrid chassis, it was time for it’s older counterpart to be retired.  Unlike the previous model, which utilized a mid-engine setup (as it was built to the somewhat controversial JAF GT300 rulebook), the 2016 will be using the now mandated front-engine setup, as this is the factory engine layout of the Prius.