My interest in cars and all that has spawned from them, be it motorsport, the tuning scene or car culture in general has always come from a basic fascination with the mechanical side of it all. The car and all its components, the engines especially, is what really does it for me. I also think of myself as a bit of a purist on many levels, especially so when it comes to modifying cars; so in theory I should pretty much hate drag racing. But I don’t, I really love the bloody sport. Seeing shops push well-known engines to their extremes is what it’s all about, it’s what the tuning industry should be based around because in the last decade or so it has all lost focus. Granted times are changing but away from the mainstream, it was extremely refreshing to see a bunch of car nuts up in Sendai Hi-land the other month run their drag cars on the strip, pushed by that need to always better their times.
I really felt in the right place, where despite doing things on a far wilder and more extreme level, everything is based around a car’s true performance not style or looks judged by ever-changing fashion. I think this is as pure as the JDM tuning scene gets and I loved every second of it, especially being able to see cars I had never even heard of like this Yashiro Engineering built SA22 RX-7…
…running a naturally aspirated 20B!
Rotaries have always been pretty popular in the Japanese drag racing scene and I did stumble on some cool entries like this Protect FC3S.
Here is the owner checking over the data from his last run.
If someone asked me what the most surprising car at the event was, well the answer wouldn’t be the Esprit 240SX, but rather this TOC Bodyworks Corolla wagon.
This full tubular frame car was built in collaboration with 0-4 Factory and is powered by a 450 HP, turbocharged and nitrous oxide injected 4AG. Crazy or what?
Ever wondered what it takes to make a non-pipe-frame RPS13 shoot down the quarter mile in 8.7 sec?
An engine bay like this of course. I love attention to detail and this 2.2L stroked SR20 had been given lots of it. It’s not every day you see RB26-sized turbos like this T04Z bolted on to 4-cylinder motors!
Being a practice and set up day everyone was extremely busy. There are lots of things that continuously need to be checked, adjusted and at times repaired.
As we saw yesterday the Sonic Boon JZX100 suffered a mechanical failure on its second run and shortly after destroying either the diff or transmission it was towed back to the pits.
With most teams bringing a lot of spare parts…
…the checks began immediately, first obviously ruling out any potential damage to the highly tuned 2JZ.
After close to a decade of seeing S-chassis built for drift and sometimes time attack, it was rather refreshing to see so many present in Hi-land, like this S13, a private entry capable of 8-second passes…
…as well as this JUN Silvia we saw doing a nice burnout in yesterday’s post.
But like you have probably gathered by now it’s the Skyline that really does it for me and while the wild pro cars are incredible in every way, bright paint schemes and all…
…cars in the street class have this kind of realistic aura about them…
…even when packing N1-based 1000 HP engines. The ignition coils had been pulled on this T51R boosted beast for a quick spark plug check and maybe change.
The Garage Ito ER33 Type-M is probably one of the most recent builds in the JDDA and because of this hasn’t fully proven its potential quite yet. Still, it is well into the 9-seconds now…
…with more to come in 2013.
Nothing to do with the actual drag event but there are always interesting cars parked in the paddock like this JZS161 Aristo running on purple anodized wheels!
I was impressed to see the Garage Rise Up RPS13 earlier in the day nail a few perfect launches, shooting down the strip like a bullet. Obviously a lot of that is down to the driver…
…but I was curious to see what it was running under the hood too.
Big blower, check!
I really do hope I will get a chance to cover more JDDA events next year. This day at Hi-land was quite the eye opener, first of all to see that the Japanese drag scene, albeit small, is still very much active with plenty of awesome cars participating. So despite what the mainstream wants us to believe, drag racing is far from dead in Japan, and I take my hat off to all the enthusiasts and shops that despite the obvious difficulties continue to pursue their passion…a quarter mile at a time.
-Dino Dalle Carbonare
Photo By Dino Dalle Carbonare
Photo By Dino Dalle Carbonare
Photo By Dino Dalle Carbonare
Photo By Dino Dalle Carbonare