Well, We made it home. The new face lift FD should be
in dealers yards in Japan about now, I wonder if they will sell a lot of
them? I went to a dealer and got the free promo video, it's really worth
watching even though it’s in Japanese!
.....
They have an amazing workshop... and show room…
We met the Boss. His nick name is Smoky (because he does
burnouts whenever possible).
He is a very nice guy and didn't mind if we came to the
show with the team to "Help set-up their stand". (Ronnie went out driving
on Friday night with some of Smoky’s friends in their GTR's. He had a ride
at 299 km/h on the highway through the traffic.
Ronnie made him run again, because they didn't crack
300, they did 302 km/h!)
It took about 3 hours for them to get their act together
and everyone just stood around waiting for Smoke's Cue, to "move out!".
When he was happy that the 6000 hp worth of cars were
ready to go, we went!
It took about 20 min to get to the show (Makuhari Messe)
by car and we had to ride in the van :( . Apparently they only drive at
300 km/h after 1 am.
The show venue is as Dave put it, is " Ma ma ma ma maaaaaassive".
400 cars and "101 car companions" (lightly clad girls).
HKS had a new turbo and manifold set-up. Can't remember
the specs but it looked cool.
All their drag cars were there, (and so was Mr.
Kobayashi).
And a big picture of the Dead guy, can't remember his
name, drove the front wheel drive celica to a 9.8(?) 1/4 mile.
He died, as the story goes, when the "Top Fuel" Honda
broke a drive shaft at 309 km/h.
There is a video but it wont be shown as it is too "terrible"
(I bet it will be on one of those US "what a way to go!" shows). There
was nothing left of him or the car. I was told it was the mid engine civic
but that could be wrong.
He was an editor from Option magazine.
From now on, only professional drivers are allowed to
drive the cars on the high speed ring, (Like that dickhead Dai that
drove the GTR at the drags in California and Stalled it 5 times!!!).
Amamiya had his usual flock of customers cars.
RMagic, totally into drag racing "1/4 Miles avenue". 5 cars, all very well presented, Probably the best RX stand at this years show.
Mazdaspeed had a "new RX7" at one end of the show and a "new RX7" "A-Spec" with all their goods fitted.
These are some of the parts they were pushing:
Knightsports, curiously absent, (I’m not surprised as
it cost Top secret about $90,000 for their little spot), apart from the
"white car" shod in 20" wheels on a someone's tire stand.
I took Dave to Knightsports "tuning shop" the next week..
I used to live down the road from them, when I lived in Kawasaki.
They were busy and had about 10 FD’s around the place. Two cars were being worked on while we were there.
. Turbonetics single turbo and delta race gate (wast gate) + blowoff valve, front split radiator and intercooler. The car originally had a 6 speed sequential box but as it is used as a demo for their products it was removed and a stock box was put in so they could drive in the traffic.
Race FD’s at the show:
Yellow Bomex (Amamiya)FD 300gt.
Matsumoto kyoshi. yellow Bomex FD
Ampm sponsored white FD
FAM speed black FD.
Panspeed yellow car.
Other less notable cars.
2 x F40.
1 x GT1 Porsche
100's GTR's
100's 200 sx.
a bunch of STI WRX's
a few evo's
a van with 255 22" wheels!
lots of mx5s'
and a couple of GTO mitsubishi's