HYPER MEETING 2009 PART II: Parking lot and paddock

April 14, 2009 3:27 am Published by

As is usual for an event like this, the parking lot can be almost as interesting as the main attraction.

These guys were a crew of red-only Lancer Evo owners. They thought it was pretty funny that foreigners were taking an interest in their cars, especially considering there were hundreds of other cars parked nearby that looked exactly the same.

They were keen to show off their club shirts, but the leader (in the middle) thought that they needed more…

…so he dragged his friend, who had been asleep only a few moments before, out of the door of his car.

That’s better. Thanks guys!

Speaking of parking lots, cars like this endurance racing Impreza only really come alive when they’re on the track…

…but sticking a race queen in front of them makes a stationary example forgivable.

Or, you could just forget about the car.

Mr Yoshbumi from Mature said he had to quit drifting to raise his kids. Now that they’re old enough to start driving as well, he’s going to start up again soon in his this facelifted two-door Impreza.

Rally spares, anyone?

There must be some sort of colour and design magic formula hidden in the Gulf scheme since it looks good regardless of what car it’s painted on.

Extreme aero…

…for extreme power.

The caution tape sort of ruins this shot, but the dry carbon front end on this Lancer wagon still looked great.

There was a lot of Suzuki Swift action going on, but I didn’t manage to catch a whole lot of it.

But, but, but, sliding sideways on a racetrack is slow!

Shut up, Toshi Arai can do whatever he likes…

…like looking out the passenger’s window on a zero-counter four-wheel drift.

Sharpen your pencils! Time for Corner Entry 101.

First we have grip, then rally…

…and drift.

It’s always funny to see stuff that would normally be found in a car show in other countries just sitting alone in a parking lot in Japan.

I had to leave the Hyper Meeting early, so no lap time results unfortunately.

The reason I had to leave early? More about that later this week.

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This post was written by Alexi

9 Comments

  • zhenkin says:

    Red Evo in row..EPIC!
    Wow..SuperGT Cusco scooby at the scene too, but they have quit SuperGT 🙁
    Alexi, anymore engine compartment photos?

  • I keep dreaming about building an enduro/rally Impreza. A Grand Touring Rally if you will…

  • DAN-XIII says:

    wow man so many good pictures in here.

  • cbleslie says:

    So many red cars. I would hate to come back an hour later, and have my car be driven off by some other person by mistake.

  • Henry says:

    That actually was the first Gulf livery car I did not like… I did like that shot of Kumakubo though!

  • BlueSlug says:

    i’m really digging that GC8 in the field! so very much what i would like to have, subtlety and wildness at the same time. werd.

  • Fury-S12 says:

    ditto on the gc8 in the paddock sexi as, you comment was spot on wo alexi that wouls be a show pony in aus probably get trailed everywhere lol

    i would be interested to see if that “extreme aero” kit actually made a downforce difference in a wind tunnel

    that Yoshbumi proves how old drifting really is , old enough for him to give it up to have kids wait 16 or so years and start getting back into it most people on here wouldnt have had a clue wat drifting was 16 years ago

  • Simon says:

    How good does that GC8 look!

    Does anyone know why the blue team arai STi was a left hand drive model?

  • Alexi says:

    @zhenkin
    What you see is what you get.

    Also, one of the guys from the red Lanevo club found me on Mixi (Japanese Facebook) and said “Thanks for cluttering up your website with our pictures!” Heheh.