Tag Archive: Toyota

WALLPAPER WEDNESDAY: Nikko Circuit, Spirant JZX100, Taniguchi Rockstar Drift, Tex Modify S15 lockup

By in 31-12-2008 12:30 am

Start your New Year off with some fresh desktop candy.

Click on your size: 1920 x 1200 for 16:9 monitors and 1600 x 1200 for 4:3 monitors

Click on your size: 1920 x 1200 for 16:9 monitors and 1600 x 1200 for 4:3 monitors

Click on your size: 1920 x 1200 for 16:9 monitors and 1600 x 1200 for 4:3 monitors

Click on your size: 1920 x 1200 for 16:9 monitors and 1600 x 1200 for 4:3 monitors

6 Comments

YOU WISH: Garage SunRise

By in 18-12-2008 12:30 am


Tetsuya Hibino’s character on D1 videos might be one of a rude, slang-talking tough guy, but in reality he’s anything but hard to talk to. That is, if you can understand his rapidfire “ittara” Nagoya accent and can keep up with his dictionary-like knowlege of the Toyota AE86 and how to drift it.

(more…)

22 Comments

FEATURE: Youchi Hangai’s AE86 Trueno

By in 11-12-2008 12:30 am

Usually, mechanics spend so much time on other people’s cars, they have no time for their own. It’s amazing what results can come from a few minutes a day.

This particular Sprinter belongs to 35-year-old Yoichi Hangai, a mechanic working in the outskirts of Tokyo at the FNATZ workshop. He might technically have a job in Tokyo, but Yoichi has always lived in the eastern part of nearby Kanagawa prefecture, which is generally considered to be the slightly rougher cousin of the somewhat more refined Tokyo metropolis nearby. Running down alongside Tokyo Bay, it’s an industrial area with lots of long back streets and small mechanical workshops, where the tuners have a reputation for having some of the hardest worked street cars in Eastern Japan.

(more…)

14 Comments

IF MAD MAX DROVE A TOYOTA: Missile drifting

By in 13-11-2008 12:30 am

A “missile” car has a couple of definitions in Japan, depending in which context you’re talking. Usually it refers to a drift car that has been left close to standard externally, while still being heavily modified under the skin. Imagine the sort of thing a D1 driver would take up to the mountains for a bit of practice on weekends.

In the case of these cars however, it means that cost of tyres petrol, and entry fee for a track day combined should cost about as much as the car itself.

At this particular event at Nikko Circuit, four drivers showed up in missiles, and three of them were current D1 drivers, which meant the driving was sphincter-tigheningly close. The first two drivers here are Shinji Minowa in an R32 GTS-t, and this year’s D1GP Champion Daigo Saito in what is just barely recognisable as a JZX90 Mark II, running a very large turbo and 19-inch wheels and tyres left over from some of his slightly better looking JZX projects.

(more…)

7 Comments