MX5 – Gripshiftslide

Japan Day 2 :: Daikoku Futo PA

Grant — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 09:32:31 +0000

After 36 hours in Japan we finally hit up some car action at none other than Daikoku Futo PA! This tiny car park in the middle of a man made island in the Yokohama harbor is a thing of legend. If you’re into Japanese cars chances are you’ve seen more than a few photos from this location. Here car owners from different walks of life all gather and soak up the experience that is Daikoku Futo any night of the week and during the day on weekends.

Staying in Yokohama meant the parking area was just 15 minutes from our hotel. So hurried back after dinner and set off on our adventure.

The very first sight we were greeted by as we drove down the long spiraling off ramp into the parking area. This ‘Tron’ looking BMW convertible that had light glowing from everywhere. We parked up and ran around like kids in a candy store.

I can’t explain the ‘fizzy’ feeling you get standing in this spot at night… The cars, the orange light and the sound of engines revving is just unlike any car meet at home. The scale of the freeway ramps that circle you create this theater filled with the sounds of cars entering and leaving the car park. It really is just massive!!

The amount of cars even on a quiet night like this was staggering, cars were coming and going all the time. It was impossible to keep up when shooting on a tripod.

These three where all friends.

We loved this bumper-less Crown. It was also refreshing to see a modified Crown after the sea of Japanese Taxi’s getting around Tokyo!

The wheels were on the smaller side for a car of this size bit it still looked great all together.

Our second night in Japan and we were already treated to the sight of a Hako Skyline.

It was beautiful!!

This matte green air-cooled Porsche was a very cool sight amongst all the domestic cars.

There was a small army of MX-5’s out in force.

I’ve only ever seen one or two cool looking MX-5’s together at home so it was awesome to see more than 5 at the same place.

This little dark green one was rocking some wide wheels on the rear. Photos don’t do it justice!

Our favorite MX-5 had to be this BN Sports kitted black number. The level of dish was high with this one!

There was a few Honda’s out and about too.

This little blue EG Civic was sitting stupidly low, it looked awesome from every angle.

The greatest Civic Type R in our eyes… The EK9. These things are just pure awesome!

Another Type R on the same TE 37 wheels.

Over in the corner some local bosozoku bikers were meeting and revving their bikes. When I got closer I realised they were playing songs. They had each made up their own song and began reciting them one after another simply using their engines.

This was one of the coolest aspects of the parking area, getting up close to these amazing machines/people I’ve heard so much about.

Old Suzuki’s and Honda’s seemed the bikes of choice and they all had their own personal touches.

Our personal favorite of the entire night had to be Kazuki’s flawless 86.

The subtle red glitter in the paintwork was beautiful. We were digging the mismatched wheels. Work Equips up front.

TE37V in the rear.

This is seriously one very cool street driven hachiroku!!

Not to far away we found some very nice looking Infiniti’s.

This FX was dropped on it’s airbag suspension while it was parked and had heaps of top end audio gear inside. The roof racks had a very cool flower wrap on them too.

The G-Series sedan was sitting low on a set of 3SDM 0.08 wheels.

These wheels looked the business gleaming away under the street lights.

As it turns out the Toyota Prius is one of the most modified cars in Japan, seriously every second one we saw had blacked out taillights, wheels and an exhaust. This one was a little bit different and certainly had a bigger budget then most sitting pretty atop a set of fifteen52 Tarmac wheels. This thing looked killer.

From big budget to low budget this ‘diy’ Legacy wagon would look at home at most grass root race events. The matte black paint and custom front splitter design along with the rear wing made for a menacing looking street car.

One of the few Supra’s we saw, this was definitely the more wild looking of the bunch. Check out the rear diffuser setup!!

The car park fell quiet for a short time, the silence was quickly interrupted by the unique burble of this Porsche arriving. The sound stuck out like a chip packet being opened in a church.

One for the rotary fans. This spotless white FD RX-7 was certainly worthy of a few photos.

The body kit seemed like a simple lip kit at first but became all the more extreme when you got closer. The rear diffuser alone was a work of carbon art!

A late and brief attendee was this Evo wagon, such a shame we don’t see more of these in Australia. I’ve only ever seen one in real life before this.

This Scion XB was pushing the camber out on the rear wheels, lots of character here. mismatched panels, rusted bonnet and stone chips galore. This was cool!

This tiny Suzuki Alto was just tucking these 14″ mesh wheels in the rear.

It had some patched up fender damage on the front from running so low around Tokyo’s streets.

Later in the evening another cool 86 arrived, this time a coupe!!

In the infamous two tonne black & white combination and on a set of Watanabe wheels… Perfect!

It doesn’t get much cooler than this, sitting behind an idling Toyota Sprinter in Yokohama.

There was truck loads of Toyota’s by this point. Check out the crazy fitment on this Crown.

This Chaser was in pristine condition and funnily enough had the loudest sub woofer I’ve heard on the street. It was ridiculous!!

It had a nice amount of dish too!

One of the toughest looking cars of the night had to be this black Nissan Cima.

The big chunky wheels set it off perfectly.

It’s hard to describe this car without using the word “gangster”…

Even more Toyota Crowns!! They’re literally everywhere here! We were about ready to call it a night before the police did it for us After a few too many cars got a bit loose when leaving the car park.

Then this arrived… The hero car of the night. a sky blue liberty Walk R35 GT-R.

The huge over fenders of the rocket bunny kit perfectly covered the massive rear wheels.

This thing was big!!

Seeing a car like this here in Japan was really a special moment for me, I stood still just enjoying it not even touching my camera for a few minutes before I felt the pain in my feet that comes from a 15 hour day of walking none stop.
So that was that we called it a night and headed back to our hotel.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Drift Attack :: GSS Show N' Shine

Grant — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:16:31 +0000

A few months ago we received a call from Yoshi (Vicdrift president) asking if we wanted to run a show and shine event to coincide with the Drift Attack event, needles to say we jumped at the opportunity!
We invited 100 car lovers from Victoria to show off their pride and joy at Calder Park in September…

We also invited the De Croft boys along to set up a store with us, they just happened to bring Mark’s sexy R31 Skyline along too.
Now sitting pretty on some freshly rebuilt Panasport G7 wheels!

We were absolutely astonished with the amount of interest we received when we first put up a flyer advertising the event on our FB page, one of the very first cars to enter was Geoff’s very rare Z31 300ZX.
The car was ridiculously clean and did not show it’s age one bit!

We also received a couple of group entries this group however stole the sow, Justin Lim and his friends dropped some jaws as they rolled in through the crowd, with every single car sporting some serious fitment with some killer wheel choices on some very clean rides!

From a perfect DC5 Integra to a little humble and clean AE86 down the end this group had it all!

Work Sp1’s work on nearly every car, so when you throw together a bright yellow S15 and a set of Sp1’s in black to create some killer contrast you can expect to turn some heads!

Continuing on with the black and yellow theme (must resist the urge to quote the Wiz Khalifa song!)…

…This Honda S2000 concrete’s the idea that a clean car with good wheel setup/choice will always be a favorite anywhere you go, except an Autosalon show maybe.

Something you just don’t see, ever!
A tastefully modified Proton, there’s still hope for these misunderstood hatches yet!

Spotted a Kebabhunters sticker too!

Melbourne seems to have been hiding some wicked Mazda MX5’s it seems… with not one, two but three stellar little roadster that came out to play for the weekend.

All varying from look to look but small wide wheels being the common theme here, check out those canards!

Here’s to some of the most extreme over fenders we’ve ever seen!!

John’s S13 now slammed, looking the goods!

Here’s an Evo that has been down the east coast, starting in Sydney with previous owner Hassan Aly of hookitup.co fame.
Now the Evo 9 is home with new owner Baris here in Melbourne.

As well as the GSS car show there was plenty more off track entertainment thanks to the guys at WOT hobbies, running a full blown RC drift comp over the weekend.

These guys did not mess about with a competition and field of cars to rival the actual Drift Attack event!

We stopped in awe of the quality cars these guys had put together, the craftsmanship that goes into some of these RC shells is berzerk!

Back to our car park we also had a Mitsubishi wagon and a sedan Galant come along, we’ve spotted this sedan at a JDMST meet before and fell in love with the carbon spotlight covers with built in air dams on the front bar.

Very humbled to see one of our latest stickers on the windscreen, these new purple GSS stickers will be hitting the online store later this week.

There was also a handful of Nissan GT-R’s floating around, this pair of grey R32’s would have been a trio but one unlucky entry actually blew a turbo on the way to the event!

While standing at the gate letting the entrants through I was approached by a few people wanting to sneak in, not wanting to disappoint I said yes to the owner of this left hand drive legit Yenko Camaro!!

These things are one of the most sort after Camaro’s of all time, to top that off it had one of the lumpiest cams I’ve ever heard!!

The most effort of all goes to Freddy from Topstage Composites for bringing four cars in total, two of which were full blown track cars and needed to be trailerd to the show.

Also included was his immaculate 240Z running an original engine with individual throttle bodies along with a heap of other goodies!

These track cars were the real deal too, this RX-7 recently competed in the World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney!

Colour coded Huffy Slider next to the Honda ‘Hong Kong Taxi’ Jazz.

Justin’s DC2 Integra looking as good as ever, still on his ‘L’ plates too!

One of the coolest Sunny trucks going around!

Steve’s tiny Datsun pickup had heaps of cool additions since last time we saw it like the venetian blinds and the very tough rising sun stitched into the the tray cover!

A lot of people we’re very excited to get up and close with this Honda NSX, you don’t seem to see them at all let alone at a car show/meet.
We were very chuffed to have one on show.

Harley’s striking Mark II Chaser is one of our favorites in the country, word on the street he is selling the wheels and we can’t wait to see what he puts in their place!

All round streeter and recently track slider Chris’s S14 has gone back in time since we’ve known it, changing from a series two front (Kouki) to the older ’rounder’ series one front end (Zenki).
We were shocked at first but have grown to love it, it’s still just as photogenic as ever too!
Now we would love to give out prizes to everyone just to say thanks for being part of it, but we can’t so here are our three winners we picked and chose categories to not discriminate against all the incredible cars that came out to be part of our very first event…

Nick and his Datsun 1200 won the distance award with about four hours between him and Calder park so we really wanted to thank him for making the effort.

Evan his R33 GT-R from R Power Motorsports took out the last man standing being the very one to leave… even after us!!

Justin and his friends grabbed the best group with a staggering 10 cars with each one as flawless as the next, way to go guys!!
But we really do mean it when we say a very big warm thank you to each and everyone of you who took the time out to come and support us at our first event, we have plenty more planned and hope to give something back to the community with regular planned meets and a something exciting planned for this December too!
So from Grant and myself, thanks for reading!
– Gwyn.

Random Snap :: MX5 = Unicorn Love?

Grant — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:26:50 +0000

Walking around the car park at a recent practice day at Winton, I found this sticker on a little MX5… Needless to say, I was lost for words. What did it mean?!!

Stickers aside, it was one clean car. A perfect example of what I think is quickly becoming a modern day classic.
Thanks for reading.
-Gwyn.