Enter the Neo

As the 80’s Japanese cars enter their mid 30’s, the people who brought you the Japanese Classic Car show, have done it again, with the Neo Classic Car show.  Bringing out the next generation of Japanese classics from the 80’s and 90’s.  I figured it would be cool to check 80’s cars with side markers and fuba antennas and 90’s cars decked out in ridiculous amount of stickers and colored vinyl interior.  But that wasn’t the case.

Rear Suspension RX7

Came across an interesting rear suspension setup on a 1st gen. Mazda RX7.  Looks really cool, I may try this when I get bored.

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R.I.P. Walt

Racer Walt Bohren passed away days ago, but I just found out.  Racing rotary cars in the 70's and 80's.  Including the Racing Beat/ Akai RX 7 (shown above) in the IMSA racing series.  He helped forge Mazdas racing program in America.  My condolences to family.

Rotor heads unite: Sevenstock 13

The annual gathering all things rotary at Mazda headquarters in Irvine, California.  Once again i'm here with no RX3 in hand.  Oh well maybe next time (yeah right).  As usual it's a pretty good show w/ lots of clean an interesting cars.

This always reminds me what i'm missing on my burger.

Here's an interesting concoction.  A hacked up Volkswagen with a shoe horned with a rotary engine.  Upon closer inspection, this people's car is converted from rear engine to front engine rear drive vehicle.  It looks to be a street legal vehicle also.  Who would sport such a thing?  I would with pride.
 Even saw a few Toyota corollas lurking around.

 

A rotary powered sleeper

And one who built these headers.

Gotta love TE37V

Ready to go home, oh man i was so tempted.

Weather was great that weekend, which made for a great show.
Click link for the rest of the pics

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Mazda Design

Looks more like a promo video rather than a commercial from Mazda. I actually enjoyed watching it. Though I wonder if RX7 fanboys think this will be next evolution of the "7". Just move on fellas.

Speaking of RX7, this weekend is Sevenstock.  Where RX7s and their illegitimate children, gather into one huge sausagefest. 

And yeah you'll probably see me there.

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The color purple

No I didn't watch the movie, but I did observe many things purple.


Subaru Legacy. At a glance I thought the driver looked like Jesus.


Mazda RX7. Looks like a pick up.


Nissan 240sx. Tough call, it could pass for pink.


Naoki's phone. He finally got paid and got himself a working blackberry.


Purple wheels, cute.

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They're back...

After a long hiatus from El Toro, Drift Day has returned. To bring hooliganism and mayhem into a controlled enviroment. Saw some old faces and a couple of new ones. I seem to socialize more than I drive. But i'd probably be done before noon if I constantly drove. But enough of that let's take look through my broke ass camera.

The brakes look brand new. Is this car even driven

Midnight cowboy anyone?

Famous drifter Taka A. takes no break to assist Drift Association. Even after a long heated battle at Formula D Long Beach the day before. This guy is iron man.

I feel like buying an icee when I look at this picture.

Can you find Waldo?

It was a wonderful day overall. Can't say much more than that.
For more information on the next event, please visit their site
For the rest of the photos visit here

Megalopolis Expressway Trial

Before Fast and Furious and Legend of Speed, there was Megalopolis Expressway Trial (shuto kousoku toraiaru), renamed Freeway Speedway for the U.S. consumer. A series of 5 movies based on the underground freeway racing scene in Japan. I seen the 5^th installment of the series about 15 years ago when a friend brought it over. I didn’t really know the name of it except that it had a number 5 on it. It didn’t have any subtitles and I didn’t have any fobby Japanese friends so I had no clue of what the story was about. I liked it cause it had modestly done up Japanese cars, my favorite was the FC3S RX7. I was also exposed to the not yet discovered driving style of drifting. Back then it was all about Hondas and drag racing.

For some reason I had stumbled upon it during my many random searches on Wikipedia. From there I found out that this # 5 had a sequel and prequels. And there were subtitles so I can understand what it was about. So next search led to ebay where I found and bought the whole set.

After watching it, I come to the conclusion that this is a really cheesy movie. Maybe along the lines of F & F, but I had never seen all the F & F movies. None of the movies have a connection to each other. But they had the same basic premise of street racing and Keiichi Tsuchiya giving them a lecture about how street racing is bad. In the end he belittles them at the track and shows them why he’s the king.

If you like the old R32 Skylines and JZA80 Supras, this movie could be for you. If you like to see the AE86 Corolla and other 80’s era cars, this movie could be for you. If you’re into 80’s fashion from Japan this is definitely for you. The only reason why I continued to watch is due to random 80’s cars that show up like the beloved AE86 and of course some of the drifting shots. The story itself is something you could just fast forward through. My personal favorite is still the 5^th one after all these years.

626 Drift Comp.

This weekend, I skipped Formula D Las Vegas to compete in 1^st 626 Drift competition. I had never been to a 626 event so I was curious how it operated with other events I’ve attended. Let’s just say their methods are on the unorthodox side. It was a fun event but a tad on the confusing side.

The V8 freaks out in force.

Jason and his rotary Corolla ripping it up. One kick ass setup.

John and his Spicy Orange chicken FC was the loudest of them all.

Jeff Jones makes his presence known.

Guys who like to tandem.

Overall, the event was very open and everyone was friendly. If you are interested in participating in their event visit their site.

Click here for the rest of the pics.