SMALLER IS BETTER: Mature’s new RC track opening

July 30, 2009 10:58 pm Published by

A while ago, I received an email from Yoshibumi-san of the Mature panel shop in Utsunomiya, asking if I’d like to come along to the opening of his new remote-control drifting track.

“Your what?” I thought.

Turns out that he had decided to build a dedicated RC drift course in the top level of his workshop to give local drifters a place to hang out together and drift on a smaller scale when they weren’t at the track. I wasn’t able to make it on the weekend during the opening, but I was in the area on Friday, so decided to drop in and have a look.

Out in front of the shop was this JZX100 that belongs to the owner of Technical Garage Sudou. Yoshibumi-san not only did the awesome fade on the paint, but designed the bodykit too! Mature kits aren’t all that well known yet, but they make ones for quite a few vehicles, including Yoshibumi-san’s favourite Imprezas.

If you’re wondering about the flowers, it’s customary when a business in Japan undergoes a grand opening or expansion that other businesses related to that one, or even ones in the same field, send flowers with large name tags to congratulate them.

Here’s what the track looks like! It was laid out to be a copy of Ebisu Circuit’s Minami course.

Along the side of the room are fifteen “pit” area tables with their own lighting and power sources. This shell was done up as a copy of the Mature drift WRX.

Just like the real thing. The room is also equipped with big LCD TVs and air-conditioning. On that day, a snowboarding video was playing “because it’s too hot outside, and this has a cooling effect” they said with a laugh.

Here’s the best part. All you can drink coffee, tea and soft drinks! Of course, you need to pay to get in, but the rates are pretty good for what you get. Since Nikko Circuit is only about fifteen minutes away and the “Mature Premium Circuit” is open until pretty late at night, I might have to get an RC car and head over there after circuit days at Nikko to kill some time while the evening traffic dies down for the trip back to Tokyo!

Let’s have one more look at that JZX100. Nineteens on the back, thank you very much.

Here’s Yoshibumi-san with the article I wrote about their two-door GC Impreza with Mature’s GD nose conversion kit, shot by Mark Pakula. You can read it in the latest issue of Auto Salon Magazine.

Tags: ,

Categorised in:

This post was written by Alexi

16 Comments

  • Ben Comana says:

    What a killer place, I would definitely chill there.

  • Ildar says:

    Awesome jzx100! I like it!

  • Luke says:

    Very cool, dont buy a Yokomo Alexi they will smash to bits really easy if your learning and crashing etc.
    Tamiya or whatever they are called do the job just aswell but are much stronger and much cheaper, lock the diffs and away you.

  • Robin says:

    Hello!
    First of all, I just wanna say I love this site! I’m checking it out every day and has the RSS-feed 😀

    Second, I’m into RC-drifting aswell, and i really like the layout of this course, bet it feels nice! (You can check the website where me and my friends hang out)

    Greetings, Robin Senninge, Sweden.

  • s0apgun says:

    yeah that jzx is money

  • josh young says:

    badass!!!!

  • Fury-S12 says:

    you gotta love japans obsession with miniaturizing everything they do regular drift better then anywhere in the world and now every second tuning shop has a deck out rc drift track in the attic JFTW 😛

  • azrain says:

    oooo damn,the 100 look awsome hehe

  • BOXCAR says:

    Wow, that 100 is great. Any solid links for Mature kits?

  • ShimJim says:

    thats a mad r/c track, if only workshops here is aus would do the same thing,
    i’ve got a yokomo r/c great for killing time when the real car is broken 🙂

  • andylaurel says:

    Let me know when you go and I’l come up with my thing.

  • Kenji-JZX90 says:

    Amazing look on the JZx100.

    I’d love a Mature kit on my JZX90. Where can I view and buy the kit??

  • SRS BZNS says:

    Does anyone know if mature has a website or if they make JZZ30 kits

  • Absolution says:

    Here you guys go.

    http://www.mature-jp.com/

    lol, I was looking for it too.

  • Brian says:

    Hey Alexi, I have tried out Yokomos and they are nice. Right now I have a Tamiya TB-03(awesome kit) with a R34 z-tune body and I got an r33 body for it too, I like it a lot! Just get anything 4WD ( unlike in a real car, 4wd is better in rc due to all the power and 2 wheels can’t handle it as well.)and shaft driven, they have better response than a belt driven car and you don’t need to mess with them as much. Do you know what the guys are using at the track?

  • daba says:

    wow. thinking about building one in ma country cos its kinda new here. can u help out with designs