D1 GRAND PRIX 2009: Round 1, Ebisu Circuit, Preview

March 29, 2009 12:28 am Published by

Here’s some preview pics from today’s practice and qualifying at Ebisu Circuit.

This is what Toshiki Yoshioka’s old red AE86 looks like now. Handpainted skulls and stencils on flat black, and being driven by Tetsuya Hibino.

The RE Amemiya RX-7, Blitz ER34 and last year’s champion Daigo Saito’s JZX100 Mark II still look the same as last year, but have changed their sponsor stickers a bit.

Nomuken is now sponsored by…Norton! Insert crash prevention joke here.

Daigo Saito’s new sponsor is actually pretty cool. Weekly Comic Bunch is, kind of obviously, a weekly comic book compilation.

The best part is the full-door vinyl graphic of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star.

His Mustang is still pretty much standard.

The RE Amemiya Mutiara Motors sponsorship colour scheme matches the Super GT car.

Shinji Minowa drove this JZX90 and just barely scraped through to the second qualifying round tomorrow.

Robby Nishida drove this Supra (that belongs to Daigo Saito) but didn’t manage to make it through.

This will make AE86 people sort of happy. Kouichi Yamashita is back, and qualified for tomorrow driving the Weld JZX100.

Max Orido’s Aristo looks pretty neat these days.

It even looks neat with a big foam block on it.

Kumakubo had a bit of trouble in the morning…

…but by the afternoon, was doing stuff like this.

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This post was written by Alexi

25 Comments

  • zhenkin says:

    Good preview Alexi! so excited for the 1st round of D1GP..since there are a few new drift machines..
    Looking forward to your further coverage..good job! >_<

  • BillyFIVE says:

    Blimey! some weird and wonderful developments. I’m liking the Yoshioka/Hibino AE86. It’s a nicely placed middle finger at all the cartoon style cars that look like kids toys.

  • zamildrift says:

    Holy shiat, this year’s D1 look super interesting with all those new livery and cars! Seems like there are alot of JZ (JZA, JZX, JZS) chassis this time which is cool.

    And yes Hibino’s Hachiroku is super hot!

  • fejjan says:

    Thx! Some pics there! Love Orido’s car, massive 😀

  • ben says:

    Great stuff…. cant wait.

  • josh youg says:

    interesting to see some new sponsors, outside the car industry, has D1 actually allowed ouside media coverage to entice thse sponsors? or have the drivers just been working really hard at this???

  • Chris ER34 says:

    Thanks for all the pics Alexi great stuff!

  • Ken says:

    Was Ueo there at all? He said he would be back in a AE86 for 2009….

  • MR 1JZ says:

    I thought D1 was dead?

    lol

  • Fury-S12 says:

    for al the bad things said about the judging and the desperation of the d1 to get entrants its still an awesome spectacle specially ebisu cant wait for some battle footage option or otherwise 😉

  • DAN-XIII says:

    haha wow man great post!
    so much win on this page,

    i sound like a kid but daigo saito’s new vinyl is so epic!

  • BlueSlug says:

    Blitz is a million times cooler than Norton, Nomuken should switch back lol

  • Leo says:

    I used to really like D1.
    But now with all those non-car related sponsor’s, it’s turning into Nascar…

  • Warren says:

    Its been few years that theres sponsors outside the car industry in D1, the Move S15 (Move is produced by Avex), My Brans and so on.

  • Matt says:

    Alexi, is this just another car/fillin for Hibino, or is this his main D1 car now ?

  • Shane says:

    D1 this year should be great! where’s all the S13’s?

  • James says:

    Hopefully Hibino can keep the 86 off the wall. Love Yoshioka but that cars been traumatized! These shots are amazing.

  • anth says:

    i love that comic book vinyl!

  • garage_86 says:

    yes back to 4ag ! for Hibino

    45k for that car, but at least it went to the right person!
    Ill always felt that was a g-y ass move going to sr..
    flat black trueno looks dope but make it more gnar Hibino style than what it is now

  • Henry says:

    Great post! About non-car related sponsors: cars competing at this level require money (lots) to build and maintain over a season and what team is going to turn down a sponsor?! (ok, I would turn down a weapons manufacturer…) It seems like funding a team is often an issue and getting creative finding sponsors might be the way to go for some teams. That Norton graphic looks absolutely terrible though on his car…it just looks like an afterthought, not creative in the slightest…

  • LaT1NaSo says:

    Great pics and coverage!

  • MeZ says:

    Man loving the weld chaser

  • hi ppl, if any of u guys know, where can i get a decal set like on these cars??? wicked sick stuff!

  • eddie (^_^) says:

    no nomuken !!!
    what happen to ur Blitz sticker ???
    i like tht sticker…using norton stickers is nt just like u…

  • d1 4 life says:

    hey.holland here.nice pics.i love the skyline.keep it up.