By Alexi in
17-12-2008 12:30 am

Apparently, some faulty in-car navigation wiring was to blame.
One little idiosyncracy about Japanese fire extinguishers is that they have pink chemical powder instead of white, which can’t help but remind me of strawberry sherbet.
By Alexi in
15-12-2008 12:30 am

1: Buy, paint and fit a subtle bodykit.
2: Buy some wheels that fit the guards. Not stick out, not sink in. Fit.
3: Lower the car until the wheel arch covers at least 25% of the sidewall.
By Alexi in
09-12-2008 12:30 am

Spotted at Fuji Speedway, this GT-R was is one of a limited run released back in 1996 in honor of the widebody, RB26DETT-powered Nismo cars than ran in Le Mans. Available only in Competition Blue, these Skylines came with factory intakes on the front bar, a carbon rear spoiler and a nice little sticker on the c-pillar, among other things.
By Alexi in
06-12-2008 12:30 am
Remember this post about the Fairlady rollover at Ebisu? I posted up the videos on Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, and the happy chap seen crawling out of the car found it and wrote a comment.
Here’s what he had to say, translated into English as best as I could.
Oh~OK Japanese killer Z!!
my name is crazy86shidancho!
(*^・ェ・)ノ゛p(~へ~;)q?
I was in the passenger seat of that Z.
(*^-ェ-)y-~~
Maaan, I thought I was going to die!
Mr Alexi
nice camera shot
thank you!! OK
And now…
Japanese MURDeR Z!!!
(*^・ェ・)OK
Sushi yoroshiku
p(~へ~; What the hell am I talking about…
Sounds like the kind of guy who’d laugh as a car rolled over while he was in it.
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By Alexi in
05-12-2008 12:30 am

Bubble shifters, dildo knobs, call them what you will, these unusual shift knobs from Japan are one of those souvenirs that everyone who visits a Super Autobacs on their compulsory trip to Japan ends up buying. To find the most awesome of models though, you really need to visit a truck parts shop.
In case you were wondering, the traditional name for them is “suichuuka”.
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By Alexi in
02-12-2008 12:30 am
You just know that at some point, the owner of this Starlet looked at his car, then looked at this Nissan Vanette truck and had a great idea.

By Alexi in
20-11-2008 10:55 pm
I know, but that was before I bought a car.
A black R32 GTS-t with GT-R-replica nose now sits in my tiny parking space here in Japan.
As many of you would know, the first week or so of owning a new car (by which I mean old and slightly modified car that has been sitting in a dealer’s yard for nine months) is filled with enjoyable things like changing various fluids on a cold concrete floor, wondering why certain important instruments like the fuel gauge don’t work (at least the warning light does), finding rounded nuts left by the previous owner and fumbling to find the interior doorhandle at night.
All of this is shortly to be followed by the Ebisu Autumn Drift Matsuri this weekend, in the predicted minus two degree wind chill temperatures at night (28 degrees for our American friends) and drizzle/snow.
Things should be back to normal on Tuesday.
That, or they could get weirder.
By Alexi 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.
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