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Posted
Mar 19 2010, 01:03 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 34 comment(s)
The 5 series E39 is a pretty common car and it can seem a bit dull in its standard form. But with a few carefully selected parts you can really make this car stand out. This particular car belongs to Pavel, who has owned the car for almost a year and has already driven it 70,000 miles. The car sits about 5" from the ground thanks to custom coilovers, so I'm pretty sure it loves to eat roadside reflectors for breakfast. We have seen multiple examples in which the wheels can make or break...
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Posted
Mar 16 2010, 07:20 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 27 comment(s)
I'm spending this week driving around Tokyo in a brand new Fiat 500 Abarth esseesse. I haven't had a chance to drive it much but I'm already getting used to its tiny dimensions and massive fun factor. It reminded me of the great cars that have worn the Abarth badge in the past and I had to post some pictures of this 131, my favorite of them all. I spotted this very rare example quite a while back at Super Autobacs, parked up like it was any regular car! The Bertone designed 131 Abarth...
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Posted
Mar 15 2010, 03:21 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 24 comment(s)
When Audi released the second generation TT a few years ago, the car's styling won over many who weren't sold on the first generation car.
With just a drop and a set of wheels, the new TT could be transformed into something special, and that's just what Christophe Waterplas of Belgium has done with his '07 TT 2.0 turbo....
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Posted
Mar 12 2010, 04:09 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 20 comment(s)
A Speedhunters reader by the name of Kevin sent us an email sharing a radical BMW build he found. Based here in the US, this 1988 M5 is one of the most thorough privateer track cars I've ever seen....
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Posted
Mar 12 2010, 11:02 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
As I walked through the pits at the March Meet last weekend passing drag cars of all shapes and sizes, I spotted an absolute monster of a vehicle.
Was that an old school ambulance? Indeed it was. From the time when they were made from fullsize passenger cars and not from vans.
And it wasn't just any old ambulance, but one of the fastest in the world.
Meet Nurse Ratchet....
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Posted
Mar 05 2010, 04:34 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 12 comment(s)
This R35 has undergone minimal modifications but has maximum presence. The car looks almost stock, but those small touches like the Hasemi carbon frontlip and and sideskirt (can I call it that?) make it stand out. After seeing this car I feel that a nice drop can make any car look good. The drop has been achieved with a Esprit Quantum coil over set. It's cool to see that the owner still maintained the original wheels, although he did use spacers to push the wheels out a bit more. Recognize the...
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Posted
Feb 25 2010, 07:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 32 comment(s)
I'm not quite sure why, but I felt strangely drawn to this KP6 Toyota Starlet during the recent Omega Oil track day in Tsukuba. How can you not like its 70s/80s old-school feel, enhanced with body modifications that include massive N2-like overfenders and a set of vintage wheels. The interior was kept pretty simple to start off with so the owner obviously didn't feel the need to go crazy and remove too much trim... ...the stock dash and instrument binnacle remaining, but sporting a custom...
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Posted
Feb 25 2010, 10:45 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 35 comment(s)
When I recently found out that the owner of this dedicated track S15 Silvia manages to lap Tsukuba in 55-sec I knew I had to dedicate a small post to this incredible car. Suzuki-san, the owner, had his time attack project built by Scorch Racing and Ennepetal with a goal of achieving the fastest possible amateur time around the small Ibaraki-ken circuit. For a privateer to achieve times dedicated tuning shops employing professional drivers would boast about, is simply mind-boggling. And the base of...
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Posted
Feb 17 2010, 10:36 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 18 comment(s)
Last year at the SEMA show, the Ring Brothers debuted their latest project - a '64 Ford Fairlane two-door sedan known as the Afterburner. The car would end up winning Ford's "Best of Show" award at SEMA, and every time I walked by, the Fairlane was literally swarmed with people.
So much for getting any usable photos...
So when I spotted the car at the Grand National Roadster Show sitting in the open, I figured I'd shoot a few pictures to make up for the lack of of this car in our SEMA coverage....
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Posted
Feb 16 2010, 11:33 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 27 comment(s)
I keep seeing these gorgeous cars pop up on blogs and forums proving the VW community is very much alive! A favorite is this burgundy red Mk3 owned by John Redfearn from the UK. This car showed up again when I got the latest fix of Performance VW . So I set off collecting some pictures from the web to create this spotlight. The car is obviously a Golf Mk3, but to the untrained eye it's hard to see all the modifications. It starts with the Vento front or Jetta as it is called in the states I believe...
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Posted
Feb 16 2010, 02:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 24 comment(s)
Not sure if this has ever been done before but for this Car Spotlight from the recent Battle Evome event at Tsukuba I'd like to focus on two cars, the Exceed Moat 08A & 07B S14s. These impressively fast Silvias are owned by the Horikoshi brothers that for years have been competing in amateur time attack events, slowly building up their cars and honing their skills resulting in some seriously impressive times. This is the 07B, driven by Hiro, and has so far managed a best time of 57"747...
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Posted
Feb 11 2010, 10:43 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 22 comment(s)
I remember when I was a kid I would go to the local hobby shop looking for plastic model kits to blow my allowance on. Although I loved cars, I also had a thing for airplanes and it was a hard choice to pick between say, a P51 Mustang kit or a 1/24 scale hot rod. When I saw this car at the Grand National Roadster Show, it brought back fond memories of both plastic airplanes and the hot rods.
Say hello to the Platinum Bomb....
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Posted
Feb 10 2010, 01:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 65 comment(s)
Feel free to start salivating! That is what I did when I first laid eyes on this Wood Village S30 at the recent Tsukuba Battle Evome time attack event. Even if I do tend to prefer the more sedate look for such vintage rides there is no arguing at the style this Fairlady Z oozes. The race look is achieved tastefully with s few choice parts... ...like the massively blistered fenders, that barely contain the aggressive offset of the semi-slick shod SSRs. I never actually got to see it it run, as the...
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Posted
Feb 07 2010, 06:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 16 comment(s)
After checking out the GT-R from Flatwell everyone was talking about at the HKS Premium Day, I think it would be a pity of we didn't take a look at this equally impressive BNR34 built by Koizumi-san at Auto Gallery Yokohama. Looks wise this particular car is far simpler, fitted with only a few choice Nismo parts like the side and rear skirts as well as the rear overfender strips . But it's under the hood that things get very interesting. To any GTR- otaku out there, this set-up would be instantly...
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Posted
Feb 05 2010, 11:45 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 37 comment(s)
Among all the highly tuned Skyline GT-Rs at the HKS Premium Day there were a few that really stood out, one of them being this black BNR34 from Osaka-based tuning garage Flatwell . With lots of experience building time attack machines it's not surprising this latest creation of theirs looks so damn hot! The owner of the car, yes this is a privately owned street-driven car, has kept all of the exterior modification functional starting with that massive bi-wing carbon spoiler. Up front the C-West...
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Posted
Feb 04 2010, 11:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 29 comment(s)
Uniqueness is sometimes the cause for confusion, and this particular car being built by Auto Bahn out in Ibaraki-ken is the perfect example. I spotted it inside their workshop the other month when I stopped over to check another of their cars out. I thought it looked pretty cool with that nice carbon front diffuser and canards on each side of the bumper. Covering tons of grassroots drift events throughout the year means I have cultivated quite the attraction towards older JDM rides like the JZZ20...
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Posted
Jan 18 2010, 12:52 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 12 comment(s)
It's not too often that we post cars from Ebay here, but I'm going to make an exception. The other day my dad and I were checking out some of the old station wagons up for sale on the site when we came across this '65 Plymouth Belvedere Wagon gasser.
The moment I saw the car, I knew I had to share it here.
A gasser station wagon? It's hard to get any more maverick or misfit than that!...
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Posted
Jan 13 2010, 03:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 29 comment(s)
After spending some time in Ebisu circuit the other day shooting some drift cars I realized the lack of drift events in this "off-season" is getting to me. I always complain I cover too much drifting during the year but I'm experiencing some rubber-smoke withdrawal symptoms. So I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the other GX71 I spotted a Nikko at the end of November. This old-school Chaser was parked next to the Cresta in the paddock and simply looked sensational slammed...
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Posted
Jan 13 2010, 12:45 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 32 comment(s)
The Volkswagen Beetle is anything but a misfit or maverick. In fact. it's more automotive phenomenon than automotive misfit. This particular Beetle though, is built and driven in a way that makes it as unique as any car out there. We're talking high horsepower, dialed-in suspension, wide wheels, and an overall vibe you'd expect from a Porsche 911 and not from an aircooled Beetle....
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Posted
Jan 11 2010, 10:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 43 comment(s)
I was up in freezing Fukushima-ken yesterday, more specifically Ebisu Circuit, to shoot a few nice cars for all of you avid Speedhunters.com readers. Since I still feel rather let down by the fact that there was no real big S-chassis event at the beginning of this month, I thought I'd make up the lack of interesting Silvia's from Japan by bringing you a few shots of a rather special machine. As the sun plunged below the horizon I was blessed with a few minutes of pretty much perfect light...
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