TYPE-R FINAL BATTLE: Hot Version #106 at Maze Circuit, Part I

August 16, 2010 11:07 pm Published by

This is a shiny and new FD2 Civic Type-R. I was given the job of driving it from the Hot Version production offices in Tokyo to the crew’s hotel all the way over in Niigata for the latest video shoot.

The things we do.

This particular Civic was a media rental car from Honda itself. Not that many rental cars come with a brand-new set of Potenzas though.

Despite the fairly linear expressway trip to Maze Circuit, the on-ramps from the parking areas were a lot of fun, and the sound of the engine more than made up for the Type-R-spec lack of stereo system. The tyres needed some proper scrubbing-in before the car hit the track the next day, right?

Dear Honda Japan,

I know that domestic cars require a maximum speed cut at 180km/h, but your cut is too harsh. Please make it softer, because it felt like something broke.

After a 300km drive from Tokyo, over the mountains and all the way to the other side of the country, the Civic needed a bit of fuel and a wash for the next day.

As I was filling up, the RGO guys pulled up with their EK9.

Then, I saw the Seeker DC2 in the parking lot of the hotel.

Since the DVD was a Type-R special, they brought in this privately-owned first-gen NSX-R.

This is Morioka-san, a freelance mechanic who used to work on touring cars back in the JGTC days. Here, he’s bleeding the brake fluid and doing some safety checks on the car.

Once I was finally able to check into my room, I almost considered sneaking a little drive in the NSX before dinner, but I probably would have had the police called on me.

Instead, I walked about ten minutes down the road to the Gallery workshop to have a quick look at it, since I had never been there before.

Whoever it was working inside was kind of rude and tried to ignore me as best he could even though he saw me there, so I thought “stuff it” and left.

The next morning at Maze Circuit, and it looked to be a hot and sweaty day ahead.

After lining up the convenience store food for the cast and crew, we decided to put most of it back in cooler boxes, since anything with meat, seafood or mayonnaise in it (which covers a large proportion of convenience store food) would have sooned turned into a warm nasty mess, and a driver barfing into their helmet doesn’t make for very good video.

More from this day in the next post!

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This post was written by Alexi

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