Jap Show 22-06-08

This weekend I attended Jap Show at Santa Pod raceway. It was the usual kind of deal; Hard parking with show cars to drool over and racers on the strip looking to shave 10ths off for bragging rights.

The weather was dry and sunny but what the pictures don’t show is the gale force winds that were blowing all day! Still, better than rain!

CPL Racing EP civic running a boosted K20.

Got Screamer Pipes?

This FD had blown its diff all over the tarmac and the owners were not wasting any time getting it back out there. Check out that exhaust. No silencers plus Rotary goodness adds up to make one of the best sounds ever!

Laurel Skid car was one of my favourite cars of the day. Inside was red velour with a bucket seat for the driver. Pure class.

The UK does do JDM!

I couldn’t get enough of this RE-Amemiya FD. Wide bodied and packing serious brakes. I can imagine under the hood it’s not short of the power to exploit those rotors either.

HKS S15. This car still rules today.

The famous Jet car did its thing running in the 6’s and blowing eardrums. In fact it actually cracked two of the windows in the observation bridge!

This 1300cc Tarmac spec Micra looked like is would deliver the goods on the Touge as well as the track. Stripped to the max and running what look like S14 brakes. K11’s rule, so much potential.

Super smooth EK was dripping with euro touches like the shaved handles, Brock rims and stretched tyres.

A few more from the Paddock

I always enjoy shows at the Pod and I can highly recommend the pizza!

Project KP30: Engine-ering

The engine in my KP was getting a little smokey so before I blew it up or it got any worse I planned to take it out for a rebuild. Bits are a pain to get hold of and even Toyota were leaving me with little option other than to scan ebay or keep an eye out on the forums for pistons and rings. I really didn’t want the car off the road for the summer and as fate would have it I didn’t need to.

By pure chance I came across another 5K engine on Ebay that was fresh from a rebuild only 400 miles ago. The motor was supposed to be fitted with a  hot head and a fruity cam which was exactly what I was after. I pulled a few strings with the owner (who I knew from buying other bits before) and I was collecting the engine the very next day.

First job was to drag out ol’ smokey

With that done, I stripped the new engine to verify it was everything it was supposed to be. luckily it was! shells, head everything like new!

Check out the port work on the head, not even a valve guide in sight!

Like all 5K engines it was running hydraulic lifters (my other engine had been converted to solids) which is good for not messing around trying to set tappets on a hot engine, but bad for anything over about 6500rpm.

The sump had also been baffeled which was a plus especially with the engine uprighted.

The new motor came with a lightened flywheel (on the right) tipping the scales at 6.2kg’s which was another plus, but I decided to run with the Flywheel from my old engine (on the left) as it is a feather weight 4kg’s dead.

Test fitted my manifolds and carbs then dropped it into the KP.

New motor in filling the gap between my struts

First impressions – it’s a lot quieter than my old engine which is most likely down to the tappets. It’s not as fast either, from driving it I would say it is running something like a 260 cam. Still it’s a nice engine with plenty of poke and will keep me on the road for the summer while I rebuild my fast engine so it’s even faster!

Picture This

Just some cool stuff I have seen recently on the net. Plus reading is hard work, looking at pics of cool cars is much more relaxing.

More TRA-Kyoto Rocket Bunny Madness

Well, I couldn’t leave you hanging with one pic could I?…….

The low down

Apologies for the lack of updates; I have been working loads of overtime at work and fitting a new motor into the KP (update soon!). I have also had my hard drive die and it was full of all my car-show pics. I am trying to get it all back as we speak.

In the mean time sit back relax and check out Rocket Bunny.

Japanese Tuning Show (EDC & Time Attack Rd. 3) 01-06-08

Today was the second JTS show held at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire. The show it’s self is pretty small, with one area for club cars and one are for trade stands. The main focus of the day, of course, was Round 3 of the Time Attack series and the European Drift Championship.

There was a huge amount of hype surrounding this round of the EDC with it being the debut for Phil Morriston’s Driftworks 2JZ S15 and the entry of Team Orange’s Nobushige Kumakubo and Kazuhiro Tanak in their RWD Impreza’s.

Despite technical difficulties Kumakubo made it our for his battle with Phil who he had drawn first in qualifying.

It was a great battle to watch; Phil’s s15 is a total smoke machine and looked really planted and stable even when pulling big angles. It was Kumakubo who moved to the final 8 though, as Phil got a wheel on the grass.

Some of the other Drifting action

Check out the full gallery HERE