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Posted
Mar 14 2010, 03:00 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 30 comment(s)
Did any of you watch the F1 race today? I'm a bit irritated to be honest, as I think the new "no refueling" rules have really spoiled the show and made F1 even more processional than it already was. Ergh DISAPOINTED!!!... Anyway moving on, I wanted to share some photos with you that I took a few weeks back in the UK. All of you now know that the Top Secret Drag R II Skyline R33 is alive and well in the UK with its current caretakers: G Man and the Skyline specialist shop: TR Racing...
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Posted
Mar 05 2010, 08:57 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 31 comment(s)
I hope you guys enjoyed Skyline Week on Speedhunters and found it to be a somewhat eye opening experience. I had a sense that the Skyline community was a global massive, but seeing all of the reader's rides submissions has deepened my understanding of this international scene. One key cultural flashpoint for all things GT-R related is the UK -someone once told me there are now more GT-Rs in the UK than in Japan itself! It's a statement which very much could be true given the strength of this...
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Posted
Mar 05 2010, 06:06 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 8 comment(s)
... and what do you get? 205 mph... We'll talk more about this car in a little bit, but first I want you to watch this video.
back in a bit...
:Rod
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Posted
Mar 04 2010, 04:34 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 24 comment(s)
I thought I'd show you guys another cool BNR34 which after the Garage Ito/ProStock time attack monster proves just how versatile the Skyline GT-R can be. As the name suggests, this is a complete Top Secret project, a car that one of my friends here in Tokyo had built with a specific set of goals in mind. It didn't need to be the fastest R34 out there, nor the most extreme looking, it just had to be the kind of supercar that you wouldn't think twice about using on a daily basis. Every...
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Posted
Nov 12 2009, 12:00 PM
by
Linhbergh Nguyen
with 86 comment(s)
From the moment, I pulled up to the Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport in a Z11 Nissan Cube and met Rod Chong in a stripped Jacket followed by a ‘dude-awesome-rice’ comment by Linhbergh, I knew an adventure had begun. I grew up in London and moved to Houston nine years ago. For the past 4 years, my wife Deneice and I have owned a Japanese Arcade here called Planet Zero Anime Center; a place where video games, cars, anime and Japanese pop culture come together. I love what I...
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Posted
Aug 31 2009, 09:00 AM
by
Rod Chong
with 22 comment(s)
Few tuners can rival Top Secret’s global popularity. For over a decade, Smoky Nagata and the Top Secret team have rewritten the book on modified car culture by constantly developing cars that are ground-breaking, innovative and inspiring. Indeed, many of the spectators who flood into the annual Tokyo Auto Salon dash straight to Top Secret’s stand to see what insane demo car they’ve come up with this time. While Top Secret’s cars are often synonymous with gold paintwork and...
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Posted
Aug 28 2009, 04:30 PM
by
Rod Chong
with 36 comment(s)
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Kazuhiko “Smoky” Nagata for many years now. Nagata-san is of course the founder of the legendary tuning shop, Top Secret. Going beyond that, he is also a bit of a worldwide motorsports celebrity, in fact he is a rather unique example of a motorsports star. Not many people can claim celebrity driver status while having no professional motorsports affiliation as a driver. To understand the mysterious Nagata-san it may be a bit easier after some background....
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Posted
Aug 27 2009, 09:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 36 comment(s)
At the beginning of this month I picked a very special Skyline GT-R to feature for the current Speed theme we are having here on Speedhunters. When Gio, the owner, commissioned Top Secret with creating his ultimate GT-R, speed and monster power were at the top of his agenda. He had envisioned the car as a daily driver with which he could cruise around town in or just as easily take to the drag strip or the wangan , and demolish the opposition. However after several years of cohabitation, Gio was...
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Posted
Aug 19 2009, 11:30 PM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 26 comment(s)
Sticking the "GT-R" badge on a car that is not an authentic GT-R will earn you nothing but disrespect. It's just something you don't do, unless your name happens to be Nagata-san! Back in 2005, tired of waiting for Nissan to come up with a replacement for the discontinued R34 GT-R, Smoky from Top Secret took things into his own hands and decided to build his own new-generation GT-R. Between 2002 and 2007 Japanese magazines like Best Car and Holiday Auto were coming up with futuristic...
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Posted
Aug 19 2009, 11:30 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 8 comment(s)
Wondering what Nagata-san's V12 Supra looks and sounds like on the move? Check out this movie of it blasting down the wangan and Aqua Line with the legendary Chiba-kun from Option Video in the passenger seat!
-Dino Dalle Carbonare
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Posted
Aug 19 2009, 10:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 33 comment(s)
It just never ends, does it? Just when you begin to think that over the years every conceivable engine swap and configuration has been attempted, Nagata-san at Top Secret comes along and stuns everyone. This is precisely what he did two years ago, building possibly the craziest Supra ever created. Behold the Top Secret V12 JZA80. I'm pretty sure the reason Nagata-san decided to create this car was out of shear boredom. Back in 2006, months before the V12 Supra made its debut at the Tokyo Auto...
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Posted
Aug 04 2009, 10:50 AM
by
Andy Blackmore
with 1 comment(s)
Sorry for the slight delay with this months calendar. It was worth the wait! This month, we bring you the Top Secret Toyota Supra V12 which achieved a top speed of 222mph at tje Nardo High speed test track last year.
The Calendar is available in our desktop section as a standard (1600) size or the widescreen (1900) format.
More on this car later this month as part of our Speed Features
-Andy...
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Posted
Aug 02 2009, 11:29 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 8 comment(s)
After seeing the BNR34 Competizione-R in action on the Wangan, I thought it would be cool to see Nagata-san himself blasting down the Aqualine at 328 km/h with his 1200 PS BCNR33. Watch him pull a proper drag launch in the middle of tunnel as Fly from Max Power snaps away with his camera. Legendary video!
(don't try this at home kiddies!)
-Dino Dalle Carbonare
Special August Speed Features
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Posted
Aug 02 2009, 09:00 AM
by
Dino Dalle Carbonare
with 27 comment(s)
What better way to dive into this month's Speed theme than with a look into one of the most powerful street cars I've had the pleasure of shooting. The owner, Gio, entrusted his Bayside Blue R34 Skyline GT-R to one of the most respected "Wangan-shops" in Japan. The idea was to create a highly powerful street car capable of 200+ mph speeds and 10 second passes at the drag strip, something that would require the expertise of one man. Known to most as "Smokey" due to his...
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Posted
Feb 09 2009, 01:32 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 26 comment(s)
Top Secret has always been known for building some outrageous cars, especially their JZA80 Supras. Their most well known Supra is probably their 3S-GTE powered GT300 Supra in which Kazuhiko Nagata got arrested in the UK (more on that later). But in 2007, ‘Smokey' as he is affectionately known for obvious reasons, came up with something rather special. The car had been in development right after the 2006 Tokyo Auto Salon and the plan was to unveil it at the 2007 edition. The idea was to...
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Posted
Oct 15 2008, 08:35 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 18 comment(s)
Ben Schaffer from The Real JDM had some interesting posts regarding rear mounted radiators. I have featured a few cars with the same setup. Ben posted a few pictures of the Top Secret build V12 Supra. This car also has a rear mounted radiator but instead of removing all the interior parts, this car still has all the luxuries. ‘Smokey' Nagata made a real effort to build a car that is still drivable on a daily basis and looks good doing so. This car really pushes the boundaries on many levels...
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Posted
Aug 27 2008, 11:16 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 24 comment(s)
I noticed we didn't had a lot of Toyota Supra's on Speedhunters. It's not that we don't like the car, but its hard to find a really nice example. I think I have found one. The car has some nice features like the Top Secret carbon diffuser and the red color coded rims. Not sure on the make of the wheels but I'm sure you guys can help me out. I haven't seen a lot of white Supra's but this one pulls it off very nicely. It also works very well with the red wheels. -Jeroen...
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Posted
Jul 17 2008, 04:13 PM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 39 comment(s)
If you check out my profile you'll see that I now own Ken Nomura's Blitz built Skyline ER34. Whereas my car was built to promote the D1 Street Legal Series, this S15 was built as a back up car for the D1GP 2004 season. It was the last season that Ryuji Miki competed in a S15 even after he won the that year's D1GP championship. For the 2005 season, the S15 was replaced by a Nissan Z33 with a RB26 transplant that debuted at the Irwindale Speedwayseason opener in California..
Unfortunately the new Z33 never got to the same level as the S15 with Ryuji Miki behind the wheel; he had a very poor season with it and eventually lost his ride with the team....
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