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7,589
Posted
Mar 06 2011, 09:22 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 21 comment(s)
To say that the return of the GT-R to Japan's premier motorsport category was a major event would be a huge understatement. Despite earning massive success with its Fairlady Z in the years 2004 - 2007 (two titles plus two second places in the Teams' championship, plus one Driver's title), the anticipation surrounding the arrival of Nissan's latest weapon, the R35 GT-R was palpable. Before the season even got underway, the buzz about the car was like nothing before it. At the pre-season...
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Posted
Mar 04 2011, 05:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 11 comment(s)
As part of Skyline week, it seems only appropriate to include images from the R34 GT-R's final season in the JGTC (All-Japan Grand Touring Championship), 2003. After taking the title in its debut season in 1999, the R34 later came up against stiff competition from the likes of the Toyota Supra and Honda NSX. After a disappointing 2002 where the Skyline GT-R recorded no victories, for 2003 a concerted effort was in place to reverse the fortunes of the crowd-favourite. In addition to major development...
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7,589
Posted
Feb 28 2011, 10:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 4 comment(s)
At this year's Razzle Dazzle, it wasn't only the amazing American cars from yesteryear that caught my eye, but the details and style cues that made many of them such automotive and design icons. A good case in point is the Indian Head hood ornament above - something no manufacturer would even dream about these days... In deference to what was once one of the States' biggest names in cars (and of course consigned to the history books in 2010), this aged Pontiac trunk lid captured the essence...
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Posted
Feb 28 2011, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 7 comment(s)
Razzle Dazzle did exactly that, and on so many levels. From lowriders to street rods, chopped and channelled customs to rat rods - you name it, every interpretation of the art was represented. The car above was the coolest of the old style chop jobs I saw. I'm guessing it's a '49 or thereabouts Ford, but there was little reference on the original vehicle to go on. And check out the flat glass in the windshield! Rather easier to identify was this late sixties Coupe de Ville - in fact,...
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7,589
Posted
Feb 27 2011, 02:31 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 21 comment(s)
This year's Razzle Dazzle was the 11th running of the steadily growing and very popular event in Yokohama's Honmoku area, conveniently located just a stone's throw from the Mooneyes shop and cafe. '40 Ford above just superb. Organized by the Chop Sticks Car Club, what appears to be a fairly casual event that takes place in a public parking lot, the breadth of cars taking part is simply amazing. Above, detail of one of many '32 roadsters that made the trip. While it is mainly a...
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Posted
Feb 10 2011, 07:50 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 20 comment(s)
Welcome to part two of my coverage of last weekend's New Year Meeting. Some cars just never go out of fashion, like each one of the three above. The Mazda Cosmo Sports represents one of the coolest Japanese designs ever IMO. Despite the modern wheels, I just cannot get enough of this car. This year the show was bigger in every respect, including more active displays like the one above. A well-weathered 911 tintoy. Probably worth a fortune - even in that state! The sheer variety of things on offer...
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7,589
Posted
Feb 09 2011, 04:41 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 21 comment(s)
Coming over from the parking lot (previous post) I already knew this year's event was something huge. While I don't remember how many cars there were last year, I'd guess there were twice as many this time. Honda was the celebrated marque, but the number of Nissans and Toyotas far outnumbered that brand. For me, the coolest car by far was this S311 Silvia. To all the S13, S14 and S15 lovers out there, this is the origin of those icons, an absolutely stunning machine. It sounded raspy...
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Posted
Feb 07 2011, 07:05 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 30 comment(s)
When I headed to this year's New Year Meeting in Odaiba, I promised myself one thing; to spend some time in the visitors' parking lot first. I'd always known it to be a bit of a treasure trove (looking down greedily every year as I exited the train), and when I finally devoted some time to look around, I found it filled with interesting stuff. This place is a show in itself! Above, design perfection. One of the world's perfect cars - there are only a few... Naturally, the majority...
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7,589
Posted
Jan 31 2011, 11:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 13 comment(s)
Fellow Speedhunters, I thought I'd take the opportunity to combine this month's 'Behind the Scenes' theme with the dawn of a new era for one of Britain's, nay, the world's most highly-respected preparation companies, Prodrive. This visit was a little while ago, after SUBARU's departure from the WRC and while the Aston Martin N24 Vantage programme was in its infancy. It was a day I will not soon forget. Responsible for making Subaru a household name by taking the formerly...
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Posted
Dec 31 2010, 05:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 8 comment(s)
Time for Photos Of The Year already - 2010 has gone by like a flash! While all the noise in this season's SUPER GT was about Honda's new-for-2010 HSV-010GT, the car that showed the greatest consistency all year long was the Team LeMans LEXUS SC430. With equal finesse, the Quintarelli/Matsuda pairing in the CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R brought them the win in Sepang on the way to fifth in the championship. Sportsland SUGO is a compact and hilly circuit, with lots of challenges for the drivers. Rookie...
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7,589
Posted
Dec 25 2010, 07:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 10 comment(s)
As a city, Tokyo never fails to impress with its endless array of interesting and unexpected places. In the world of hand-made 1/43rd scale models, Make Up Co., Ltd. has got to be Ground Zero. Despite the somewhat incongruous name ('make up' in this case refers to kits that can be built or 'made up'), the quality and range of cars here is truly astounding. The price on that 1/43rd scale diorama of the Ferrari 158 above, is about USD$2,900. Located on the ground floor of an unassuming...
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Posted
Dec 24 2010, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 19 comment(s)
The late autumn/early winter period in Japan is chock-full of motoring events of all kinds. The Super Car Rally Challenge, in its fourth running in 2010, is a pet event for SUPER GT's Team Taisan owner Ricky Chiba, who entered no fewer than sixteen of the 48 cars taking part. The SCRC is a one-day event covering 180 kms that starts and ends in Kawasaki's famous Cine Citta area. This year's running featured a wide variety of road-going surprises that included a rather famous car on the...
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7,589
Posted
Dec 22 2010, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 26 comment(s)
It seems a little hard to believe that an institution in Japanese endurance racing has finally come to an end. The eponymous RX-7 as campaigned by Isami Amemiya's RE: Amemiya Racing outfit recently ran its swansong event, the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup. The team will be back in 2011, though with a different (as yet unannounced) machine - expected to be an RX-8. The RE: Amemiya-developed Mazda RX-7 first appeared in the JGTC (All-Japan Grand Touring car Championship) in 1995 and quickly became...
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Posted
Dec 20 2010, 10:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 29 comment(s)
The Japan launch of Aston Martin's groundbreaking One-77 was a strictly private affair, open only to a select few established members of the marque's customer base, and took place in rather unique surroundings... Tokyo plays host to a lot of different entertainment genres, and like other cities of its stature (New York, London, Paris) Japan's capital has its own purpose-built Cirque du Soleil theatre, erected purely for the world-renowned troupe's many different awe-inspiring performances...
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7,589
Posted
Nov 26 2010, 04:00 PM
by
Len Clarke
with 8 comment(s)
Fellow Speedhunters, after many requests from the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup posts I've uploaded eight desktop images, mostly of the Minor Touring Car Race, but with a couple of Super GT images as well. They're all available in both standard and wide format. You can download them by going to the Desktops section . Enjoy! This one of the pole-sitting Hirota B110 Sunny was a thrill to shoot. Or how about the KP61 Starlet - one of only a handful of non-Sunnys from the 24-car field. I had...
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Posted
Nov 25 2010, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 6 comment(s)
Sunday of the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup weekend was highlighted with the second pair of 22-lap single-class SUPER GT events, the crowds out in full force on the last of the three jam-packed days of motorsport action. The GT500 entrants got off the line with the #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R of Tsugio Matsuda on pole, though it was a position he wouldn't hold onto for long... Daisuke Ito in the #6 ENEOS SC430 had started in 2nd place, but pounced into the top spot just moments after the starting...
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7,589
Posted
Nov 24 2010, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 8 comment(s)
The main feature of the JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup was the pair of races for both the GT500 and GT300 classes of SUPER GT. Launching from standing starts (as opposed to the regular rolling getaways), there was a whole new dynamic to what were single-driver sprints. Each driver would pilot the car for one 22-lap race, with no refuelling or driver switches allowed. For the first of the GT500 races (above), Richard Lyons took a commanding pole position, and never once relinquished the lead on his...
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Posted
Nov 23 2010, 09:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 34 comment(s)
The JAF GRAND PRIX Fuji Sprint Cup was a heck of a busy three days, with SUPER GT and Formula Nippon sharing the same bill for the first time ever. And while that was all pretty spectacular, one of the weekend's support races really caught my eye, the Minor Touring Car Race, featuring raspy old gems from the seventies and early eighties, such as this immensely cool Nissan B310 above. It wasn't just B310s though, as there was also a brace of B110s, the first iteration of Nissan's famous...
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7,589
Posted
Nov 13 2010, 08:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 12 comment(s)
Following on in the spirit of this month's theme at Speedhunters, the plethora of vans at the Autech Owners' Meeting was pretty impressive. Made up almost entirely of Nissan's Elgrand model, there were a few Serena and Rider examples as well. The mark above the Nissan logo, a chrysanthemum, is that of the Japanese government and the Imperial Household. It's also got a sort of 'Japanese Power' connotation. The Venardi wheels on this Elgrand were the most radical of any on display...
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Posted
Nov 12 2010, 11:00 AM
by
Len Clarke
with 13 comment(s)
The Autech Owners' Meeting, an annual gathering of enthusiasts for the Nissan group brand, was held in the beachside town of Oiso. It brought fans from all over Japan, driving some very interesting and rarely seen variants of famous Nissan models. The image of the R33 above, for example, is actually a four-door GT-R, something available only through Autech. This was the first thing I saw as I approached the meet: a gaggle of 'Autech Version' Stagea 260RS - perfect for this month's...
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