Tag Archive: Nikko Circuit

KING OF VEE: Mitsumori-san at the 2010 V1GP

By in 20-12-2010 9:21 pm

2010 V1GPの優勝三森さん、おめでとうございます！かっこいい！素敵！ナイス！

Congratulations to Spirant’s Mitsumori-san for winning the 2010 V1GP!

The V1GP is a Toyota-only event, run by Ito Auto’s Manki Ito. The “V” stands for “Tourer V”, but that’s not going to stop anyone in a car that was originally lower-spec from competing as long as their skills are up to it. I’ll have more pics from this event up a bit later. Even though he’s been doing pretty well behind the wheel recently, Mitsumori-san has put the Chaser up for sale as he already has plans for a new JZA80 Supra drifter. I guess he likes a challenge!

Since the internet can do videos as well as photos, here’s Mitsumori-san’s full-course run in the finals. I bought a little HD video camera back when I climbed Mt Fuji and I’ve been using it here and there since then. Sorry for the hand-held shakiness and blurriness! Noriyaro has been a photography site up until now, but a little bit of extra audiovisual content can’t hurt now, can it? After this particular event, I sat down and worked out a better way to shoot video smoothly and as take photos at the same time. Wait and see.


Noriyaro Youtube channel

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ITO AUTO SOUKOUKAI: Where I’d rather be

By in 11-01-2010 6:26 pm

I would have liked to drive at the Ito Auto event at Nikko Circuit today, but the closest I came to that was seeing it on the Nikko Circuit webcam. I’ll have to make the February event then. Look at all those Toyotas!

As for my car’s problem, as far as I can figure out, it seems that the third coil pack is dead. On a VVT-i 1JZ, that means that two plugs stop firing, so it sounds more like a ported rotary now than a 1J. New parts are on the way, as are some hotter platinum plugs, which I’ll probably use to drive the car around in low-speed traffic to prevent the carbon fouling problem I’ve been having recently. I’ll save the more expensive cold NGK iridium race plugs for the track.

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SHINO KOUBA SOUKOUKAI 2009: Nikko Circuit, Part I

By in 09-01-2010 8:52 pm

Once again, it seems like every other day I’m at Nikko Circuit. Before the Tochigi Baka Matsuri though, it was a Shino Kouba workshop practice day.

After heavily crashing her last AE86, Shino has moved all the suspension bits and pieces into this new black Levin while the old engine gets sent off to be refreshed a bit. It might look nice, but it’s pretty rough underneath. The pink pinstriping, done by female painter Kana-chan, helps a bit though!

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TOCHIGI BAKA MATSURI 2010: Just a few pics this time

By in 04-01-2010 3:20 am

Tochigi Idiot Festival! Sounds like the perfect name for an event like this. I was all set to enter this year’s Tochigi Baka Matsuri, but my car is currently not in the best of states. Ever heard a 1JZ idle like a ported rotary? More on that later. As a result, I had to travel up to Nikko by public transport, which didn’t take too long, but didn’t exactly motivate me to get out of bed too early. That means that I didn’t arrive until fairly late, so I only took a few pics at the end of the event.

If you haven’t already seen them, make sure you have a look at the part one and part two articles of last year’s event, since they contain a lot more photos and give a much better idea of the event.

Here’s Watanabe-san from Tommy Factory doing his best bosozoku hakonori (window riding).

ＴＯＭＭＹ　ＦＡＣＴＯＲＹの渡辺さんの箱乗りだ！ヘッドライトのＬＥＤはかっこいいっぜ！

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TIME FOR SOME JZX100 ACTION: Andy Gray’s pics

By in 09-12-2009 4:51 am

I really like taking photos, but I like drifting too. The one thing that’s pretty much impossible to do though, is combine them both and take a decent panning shot of yourself while you’re drifting.

A whole lot of static photos of the Mark II would be kind of boring, so Andy from Powervehicles recently supplied me with some pics that he took on Ebisu’s Nishi Course and at Nikko Circuit.

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