Autosport International 2010 - Part 2

Part 2 of Autosport and we arrive in easily the highlight for many of the show - the Live Action Arena. 1 entire hall is transformed into an indoor racetrack for racing and demonstration runs, so tight racing and very noisy! The Fiesta racing was the 1st racing demo out

Followed by the European Drift Championship drifters - Mark Luney, Paul Conlan and Pete Barber

and some close dirtbike racing

Then 5th Gear presenters Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler Henderson doing some semi drifting - Tiff struggled to do competitive drifting way back in 2006 so he might be better next time he fancies a proper go - or not, particularly when he claimed not to be able to turn the traction control off on the Jaguar he is seen driving above.... Vicki was a bit better in her Porsche though!

Then we have the Autograss specials - purpose built chassis, usually motorcycle engine powered so a very high power to weight ratio - so wheelies and the ability to drift almost the entire arena easier than the drift cars almost, although I think the wheelies were more for show, still good to see though!

And close racing, Id love to see these on their natural surface - grass and mud

The Formula Palmer Audi single seaters were good too, plenty of flames, although this,again, might have been done for the show with the cars adjusted to overfuel slightly, but looked good in the dark!

The cars were being driven by the finalists of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award

Pat (on the right, Fiesta) and Liam (on the left,Citroen C4) Doran about to do a rallycross demo - but given these cars are ideal for the slippery surface of the arena (4wd and 600bhp) the show they put on was a little tame compared to what Ive seen them do before, but then again with 17 shows to do over the 4 days of the show and practice sessions, you have to make the cars last

F1 stockcars - big, heavy, fast - and loud with their unsilenced Chevy V8's - always a favourite of mine - you dont just hear them, you feel them

Being RWD with low grip meant they too, were easy to drift around the arena and are full contact racing, so bumping,nudging and pushing is allowed

An original (not a replica) Lancia Stratos, sounded lovely with its raspy Ferrari V6

An original Audi Sport Quattro - driven here by none other than Stig Blomqvist - the original Stig!

And to end, figure of 8 banger racing, the previously made comment regarding 17 shows applies here too, Id say the last show on Sunday was entertaining!

Part 3 soon

Meanwhile in Japan......

Some friends are on TV showing some typical Americans what drifting is - Go Shino!!

Tsukuba Circuit

One of my last Japan post before the next trip, whenever it will be and a return to Tsukuba Circuit for a small time attack event, quite a busy one too. Tsukuba is quite poor for places to shoot from so this set is similar to the last time I was here. Cheers to Mike Garrett of Auto-Otaku for the lift and hanging with us for the day

This very tidy Nismo kitted 350Z was zooming around

And a nice FD2 Honda Civic type R

Nice Suzuki Swift Sport, I love these

And a very cool and fast....

Honda Fit (aka Jazz) with a J's Racing bodykit, and Id say a few J's bits underneath too

Only in Japan would you find a Ford Ka running on RS watanabe wheels and at a trackday too...

You cant escape, AE86's are still everywhere

And much rarer stuff like this Z31 300ZX

Most R35's I have seen so far have been parked up, or being wafted gently around - but not this 1, the first time Ive seen a R35 get some proper right foot action, and this 1 had a rear wing, different wheels, a Cobb accessport ECU and a centre exit exhaust among other things

Needless to say it tore up the track, overtaking everything and proved to me that the GTR is a fast car, and one that is even faster with some tuning applied

Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 Part 3

Time to wrap up Tokyo Auto Salon with some randoms...

A B310 Nissan Sunny, I remember these on the road as a kid, but until recently I didnt know they were a popular racing car in Japan

An Aston Martin/Maserati influenced Nissan 350Z. With the R35 and 370Z, the old 350Z was a bit overlooked at this years show

A Mazda Biante van, shame vans have not really caught on outside of Japan

Its not Japan without Engrish

Nice parts on display, these are HKS Kansai parts. I could easily post thousands of part photos, its what Autosalon is all about

Under the bonnet of Power Enterprises twincharged R35, with 2 superchargers supplementing the turbos. This car won the modified car of the show award

The Calsonic Super GT R35

and a very pleasant surprise just outside my hotel in Yokohama after the last day, a Hakasuka Skyline GTR, not sure if it was genuine but it sounded great as it pulled away.

Thats it for this years Autosalon coverage, but more from Japan to come

Sunline Auto

Its rarely a dull day in Japan. Onto the Shinkansen and further west to Okayama to see Sunline Racing. We had 1st met them at TAS and before we had left Ireland, I had been in contact regarding a visit. Now its time!! I met Piers from the GTR register and he was kind enough to give us a lift there aswell as acting as translator. The 1st thing you see when arriving is their new R35 GTR parked alongside 1 of several Fairlady (350)z's.

Which allows a comparison between the 2, the Z looks tiny beside it.


The latest evolution of their S15, now with a sequential gearbox among other things

The Suzuki Swift GTi from TAS. I really like this car, Sunline make a lot of both styling and performance parts for them. I may consider buying 1 some day and tune it a bit like this, maybe using all of Sunlines parts also


Apparantley its rare for Sato San, the owner of Sunline to speak to or even acknowledge visitors, being the workoholic that he is but he took 20 mins of his time to talk with myself and Chris about the new R35 GTR and the tuning scene in general. He has a good philosophy,and an amazing attention to detail - always offer the best available and dont cut corners as failures will occur aswell as creating a bad image. If it means paying for a good quality part so be it. Whats the point of saving €200 when it will cost €2000 to fix what your cost cutting caused....

Quality is important too, take the 350Z to the left, the TAS demo car...

The front bumper is a prototype, made to Sunlines design by C-West. The fit was amazing, like a glove, almost a factory fit, but Sato san was not happy with it and wanted it better again. I was amazed and he was too , maybe if he saw Irish roads he might know why!

Regarding the R35 GTR, he feels that Nissan have deliberatley made it harder to modify compared to the R32/33/34 GTR's or 350Z, but given time most tuners will highly modify them. His main job for the day we visited on was to create a titanium exhaust system for the R35, his handmade design will be used as a master copy for the production versions


Piers own car - a R34 GTR with a full carbon widebody conversion! Amazing. This is probably the best known of Sunlines cars outside of Japan. It was also used as a CWest demo car as the bodykit was made by them, again designed by Sunline

It is currently fitted with a N1 version of the RB26 engine with a big Trust T88 turbo, along with a Hollinger sequential gearbox, good for around 750bhp, aswell as many of Sunlines own custom parts, far too many to mention. It is primarily a trackcar but Piers does take it out on the road from time to time

Even their Hino double deck transporter is kept in immaculate condition. 31 is Satos lucky number, as nearly all his cars and the transporter have '31' in their reg somewhere

Thanks to Taiyo Sato and Piers Dowding for their help and hospitality

TRIAL

Most tuning companies in Japan are a little bigger than ones you would find in the UK and Ireland but there are a few which are huge and the biggest in Japan is TRIAL in Osaka. Think of a premises the size of a large main dealer except its purely for tuning and modifying cars and your getting close. After a quick meeting with the company founder/director Makihara san, then being smitten with cheif racequeen Chihiro it was time to take it all in, and there was a lot

Heres a shot of a small part of the car park, most of these are customers cars. I love the palm trees

10 work bays, an inhouse engine dyno, a set of rollers and a dynapack, almost everything is done inhouse, all thats missing is a circuit. Not to mention the massive showroom

Im standing just inside the doors here and the 1st thing you see is this smart NSX, also for sale, bit too much for me at the moment!

Also you can see some of the extensive parts displays in the background


Most tuners/garages probably have just a small kettle or its a case of go to the shops for refreshment, but TRIAL have their own bar, and thanks to me and Chris, theres some proper Irish whiskey behind the bar now too!!

In the corner of the showroom, 1 of TRIAL's original R32 GTR's is on display

While outside their PS13 Silvia track car and a R34 GTR for sale can be found

Aswell as some of the latest TRIAL demo/development cars, a FD2 Honda Civic Type R and a MY2008 Subaru Impreza STi

A 350Z convertable on the ramps getting alignment work done

TRIAL will tune any car, from a Suzuki Kei car to a R34 GTR

or 2......

Getting ready to lock up for the evening, or maybe a spot of racing around the kanjo highway.......

Extra special thanks to Yuichi Ikegami and Keisuke san for their help and hospitality, not to mention Chris for his amazing organising skills