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Posted
Feb 07 2012, 08:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 13 comment(s)
Time for some more Battle Evome action from Tsukuba now with this final look at the event I attended the other weekend. You can think of this as a kind of preview of what's to come, as I will be meeting up with all these guys once again at the end of this month for the final session of the year. You can expect Under Suzuki and Horikoshi-san to push their cars even more, fine tuning engine settings and aero details to shave off as much time as possible from their already blisteringly fast laps...
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Posted
Feb 03 2012, 05:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 20 comment(s)
Let's head back to Tsukuba for Part two of the Battle Evome soukoukai, for yet more time attack goodness, of the amateur variety. There is something so addictive about chasing lap times, for both those that do it as a hobby as well as for those that just like to drop by and spectate. The whole technical aspect of the cars will satisfy even the biggest nerds out there and I am admittedly one of those. There is a lot to learn... ...by walking around and checking out what each owner/driver has done...
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Posted
Jan 29 2012, 05:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 22 comment(s)
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...
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Posted
Jan 11 2012, 01:00 PM
by
Charles Kha
with 36 comment(s)
Despite winning back to back WTAC crowns, the Cyber Evo was retired from time attack competition. Here is its replacement: the Cyber GT-R. With Tokyo Auto Salon only a few days away, this teaser photo of the new project popped up on their blog . We'll try to find out more at TAS, so stay tuned. - Charles Kha Thanks to Ian Baker for the tip!
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Posted
Dec 29 2011, 01:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 17 comment(s)
There were a total of 71 cars present at the Tsukuba Super Battle this year, so you can imagine what kind of pace an event like this can have. With the rain kind of ruining things in the morning it was a scramble for most entrants to get at least one chance at a decent fast lap attempt. Here is how the day unfolded. Along with the Pan Speed FDs that we saw in the previous post Komoriya-san never forgets to bring his mighty RX-8 out for a test. And that is a very good thing as it managed to lap in...
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Posted
Dec 27 2011, 11:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 27 comment(s)
Before I get to some action from the Super Battle that was held a few weeks back in Tsukuba let's take a look at the cars that showed up to the event. There has been a noticeable drop in full-on Open Class vehicles over the last few years, tuning shops preferring to concentrate on street cars to keep a more tangible link to customers and their cars. Shops like Car Station Marché who showed up with their GDB demo car running an HKS GTII turbocharger upgrade. Despite the not so perfect surface...
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Posted
Dec 22 2011, 07:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 41 comment(s)
I say it every year, but for me there is nothing more exciting on the Japanese event calendar than the Tsukuba Super Battle (TSB). For over two decades now this has been the place to come at to prove what your car, shop and driver are capable of. This is where tuning gets pushed to extremes, where function takes precedence over looks and pretty much everything else. So you can imagine how disappointed I was when I arrived at a very wet and cold Tsukuba circuit the morning of the event. The weather...
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Posted
Dec 12 2011, 05:05 PM
by
Charles Kha
with 232 comment(s)
After an absence last year, the Time Attack Car of the Year category returns to the Speedhunters Awards. Over the past 12 months we've seen some incredible builds take shape as newcomers to the sport challenge the old guard. Our finalists for this award come from all corners of the world, and it's up to you to vote on which one is the pick of the bunch....
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Posted
Nov 14 2011, 04:30 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 6 comment(s)
Hot on the heels of Larry's desktops from GTA in Sonoma, I thought I'd add a couple more high res Time Attack photos from Buttonwillow....
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Posted
Nov 11 2011, 05:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 18 comment(s)
Let's go ahead now and take a second look at Wednesday's action from the Super Lap Battle event at Buttonwillow. As I said in the first post, there's nothing quite like a Time Attack event to cleanse oneself after a week at SEMA....
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Posted
Nov 10 2011, 04:00 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 23 comment(s)
No sooner had I wrapped up my coverage from the SEMA Show when it was time to load up the camera gear and hit the road once more yesterday morning. This time the destination would be another early November tradition for us - the Super Lap Battle Finals at Buttonwillow Raceway....
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Posted
Sep 14 2011, 04:00 AM
by
Charles Kha
with 16 comment(s)
"It started as a stock street car, but once I got the racing needle in my arm the rest was history." That's a sentiment that many people around the world would have heard before. For Sydney coffee shop owner Nik Kalis, his addiction wasn't to brewed caffeine, but for time attack racing. And to ensure he could get his racing fix regularly, he decided to transform his daily driver into a street registered TA monster. The black EVO IX that you see here is, believe it or not, still...
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Posted
Aug 25 2011, 03:02 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 26 comment(s)
Perspective can often make even the most familiar of things look completely different. Traveling often has this effect on people; we might see similar things in other countries and in other cultures but there are always subtle differences that make them seem almost alien. Take the RPS13 you see here. It might be based on a car that I've become extremely familiar with in Japan over the past decade, having shot a variety that were built for different disciplines. But the moment I saw this example...
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Posted
Aug 18 2011, 11:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 9 comment(s)
It would have been sacrilegious to have concluded our coverage of the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge without releasing a few desktops. We have put together a nice selection from us all... ...and as you should know by now you will have to head to the Desktops section to download your favorite ones. There you will find shots of our favorite Time Attack cars as well as a few images of Kiwi drifter Mad Mike, along with his insane sounding Mad Bull FD3S! At events like these it's easy to focus too...
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Posted
Aug 14 2011, 07:05 PM
by
Matt Malcolm
with 11 comment(s)
The Tectaloy International Drift Challenge took place at the 2011 WTAC in Sydney, setting the stage for what was always going to be an epic showdown. You see, a healthy rivalry has existed between Australia and New Zealand for a long, long time. And although we are neighbours in many aspects; on the sporting fields and racetracks - we are anything but! Considering this was the first year the IDC was held in conjunction with WTAC, things can only get bigger and better in future years. After the previous...
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Posted
Aug 12 2011, 02:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 19 comment(s)
The last session of the Pro Class is where it all happens. After two days of slowly but surely edging well into uncharted territory at Eastern Creek, the final afternoon outing is where all is won or lost and where teams are prepared to sacrifice their cars in the pursuit of that record braking lap. So with boost turned up to the max and ECUs running their most extreme ignition and fueling maps, teams and drivers were ready to unleash all. After David Empringham in the Sierra Sierra Evo set the fastest...
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Posted
Aug 11 2011, 01:12 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 30 comment(s)
It's no wonder people have began calling this the event of the year. If you are into tuned-beyond-belief street cars, battling it out for the fastest lap there is pretty much nothing that can touch the World Time Attack Challenge . Japan, Australia and the US each have their own dedicated group of blisteringly fast time attack cars, but nobody has ever seen them all against each other, not until last year when Ian Baker from Hi Octane Racing decided to put this impressive event together. And...
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Posted
Aug 04 2011, 11:00 PM
by
Casey Dhnaram
with 9 comment(s)
The Speedhunters team is busy shooting on track, but here's a selection of photos from our latest card dump. The Garage Revolution / Hankook RX-7 is proving extremely competitive and is just three hundredths of a second behind Tarzan's record breaking run from last year. Last years winner, Tarzan Yamada piloting the Cyber EVO has not been out as much as the other Pro Class teams, but without a doubt will make up for their lost time. Since yesterday's practice Sasaki-san has looked very...
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Posted
Aug 04 2011, 08:00 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 29 comment(s)
We are now well into our Australian adventure and as I sit here in the press room at Eastern Creek I can't help but look back at all that Charles, Casey, Matt and I have covered over the last few days. Since landing in Sydney at the crack of dawn on Monday morning we haven't wasted one minute, in true Speedhunters fashion. We will have some pretty unique and impressive cars to show you in upcoming weeks, but for now I think it will be fun to focus on the behind the scenes stuff that goes...
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Posted
Aug 04 2011, 07:02 PM
by
Charles Kha
with 10 comment(s)
Eastern Creek is buzzing with action, both on and off the track. Just a few minutes ago, the Sierra Sierra team were elbow deep working on their Evo. The ring and pinion in the diff chipped, so the team were busy stripping down the front-end. After the panels were removed, the crane was brought in to hoist the motor out. It was surprising to see how quickly the SSE team are able to have the motor out. It wasn't long before the diff was put onto the surgery table... ...Without even breaking a...
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