Event>> Battle Evome In Tsukuba - Pt.1

While Mike was down in Tokyo covering the JCCA New Year Meeting yesterday, I headed up to a frozen Tsukuba Circuit to catch what has probably become the most competitive amateur time attack soukoukai in Japan. I am of course talking about Battle Evome, an event that initially started out as a Lancer Evo only gathering but has now matured to include a wide variety of cars. This is where Under Suzuki has made his name in and yesterday, after a few small modifications to his Scorch Racing S15, he managed to finally break his personal record, lapping Tsukuba in 54'936, an impressive result to say the least.

The paddock at Battle Evome days is always filled with interesting cars…

…but you have to be quick if you want to catch the action as there are only four 30-min sessions. These events are held only in winter, two days in January and two in February, to make sure the best possible track temperatures are available. So with the air temperature hovering around the freezing point the engines perform at their best, while the winter sun warms up the track just enough for the sticky semi-slick tires everyone uses to reach the right temperatures.

The day always begins with a driver's meeting where the session layout is explained to participants. This is Satoh-san, the organizer of Battle Evome and owner/driver of the Varis/Garage HRS CyberEvo 5.

So with a little bit of time before the first session got under way I checked out all of the cars that came to the event like this pair of Nissans.

Interesting color choice for this Evo 6!

Horikoshi-san of Exceed Moat was putting the final touches to his S14. The car has just been fitted with an all-new, purposely built engine, which replaced the unit he was using up until last year, which he bought cheaply from Yahoo Auctions without even knowing what had been done to the internals!

Along with the engine the car is now running a Hollinger sequential transmission so there is a potential for great times once everything is set up properly. It was only the car's second outing since the new motor and Horikoshi-san managed the second-fastest time of the day, a 56'870.

Check out the new overfenders the M-Technic Evo 9 RS was fitted with. Certainly a mean looking car!

Suzuki-san busy at work doing last minute checks on his S15. I don't know how he can keep concentrated at these events, on top of the Video Option crew and Option magazine photographers constantly following him around, half of the paddock is usually curiously swarming around his car.

After seeking some advice from master aerodynamicist Andrew Brilliant, Suzuki-san has carried out some modifications to certain areas of the car like cleaning up the extremities of the front splitter and the most noticeable part of all, the carbon hood. Suzuki built the hood himself, first shaping each louver out of aluminum over a stock hood and then using that as a mold. You can check out the process on his blog.

The brakes have been upgraded with all-new Brembo 4-pot racing calipers up front, along with Garland 2-piece slotted rotors. At the rear Suzuki uses the new 295-wide Yokohama A050 tires, a size that was especially made to cater to time attack cars.