RX7 – Gripshiftslide

Fun2Drive :: Not So Mellow Yellow

Grant — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 12:02:54 +0000

With another trip to the automotive mecca that is Japan we of course visited our friends at Fun2Drive again. This time I was dying to get behind the wheel of a bright yellow RX7 that was still burnt into my retinas from our previous trip.

After a short drive out of Tokyo we returned to our ‘Home away from home’ Hakone. A picturesque town sprawled across the mountain tops. With stunning views of Mt Fuji it’s also home to an amazing little rental shop called Fun2Drive (More here). After catching up with Chikara and Yoshi we got right into business and I was given the keys to our first rental car, a gorgeous Mazda FD3S RX7.

As I was holding the keys Yoshi told me that this exact car was responsible for taking out a guard rail just 2 months ago. At that moment the skies opened up and it began to rain. Feeling the pressure of keeping this now straight car in the same condition as I had picked it up in I decided to take it easy that morning.

At the turn of the key I found the smooth and deep exhaust note incredibly soothing. This was my very first time driving a car powered by the wizardry commonly known as a rotary engine.
I didn’t really know what to expect but I instantly noticed the car seemed aggressive throughout the entire rev range and very happy on power.

There was a touch of turbo lag when pressing the accelerator, only for a second and then the power came on strong and pushed the car along leaving a very obvious grin across my face at every press of the throttle. The sound and feeling of the car even when stationary was extraordinary. I definitely had a new found appreciation for the Wankel engine.

That’s where my love affair stopped. After the initial excitement of the power delivery and noise the engine made had worn off I found myself focusing on the claustrophobic interior that seemed to carry on and make as much noise as the engine itself with every rattle and pop.

There were also less pedantic problems too like the suspension/tyre combination on the car that made it feel like a wet sponge. It was incredibly hard to get any direct feedback from the road. Visually it was also impossible to get a sense of where the tyres were under the front guards.

Weeks after my trip I was telling friends about my time with the RX7 many of whom are avid Mazda/Rotary enthusiasts. The look on their faces trying to comprehend that I just didn’t enjoy the feeling of the car around corners and that it felt slightly ‘detached’ from the road left them questioning their friendship with me. Understandably I had high hopes for the buzzing rotary but simply couldn’t get past the interior swallowing me whole or the loose feeling from the tyres.

Ultimately I’m sure with more time, the right suspension and tyres this would be an amazing car to drive. I am also sure that if I wasn’t constantly scared of all the guard rails jumping out at me I would have relaxed and enjoyed more of the corners around Hakone’s beautiful twisting mountain roads.

What I did enjoy about the car was its looks, it was jaw dropping from every angle. Yellow is easily one of the most striking colours on the smooth lines of the body, the nostalgic feeling I get with pop up headlights is just as strong with this car as any other 90’s performance car I’ve driven as well.
So there I was standing looking at the car under the trees and feeling very shallow. I had more fun looking at it than I did driving it.

I kept thinking is it me? Is there something wrong with me?! Why couldn’t I find the fizzy feeling James May is always fluffing on about with all the cars he’s been driving over the years?

Once I got out of the mountains and found wider roads I started to worry less about falling into a gutter and began enjoying myself more and more. I still found the response from the tyres an issue but as I was taking it easy on the wet roads it wasn’t too noticeable.

This was the first time I’ve not felt a spark behind the wheel of a sports car and it had nothing to do with a lack of power. Even driving the notoriously under powered Toyota 86 I felt more excitement from being able to drive that on the limit of the red line and even the road itself. The RX7 had me nervous and reserved the whole time.

I would jump at the opportunity to drive a modified RX7 just to get a sense of comparison to the stock as a rock version that I drove here in Japan. It felt like I was eating an unseasoned meal that just needed a pinch of salt.

With the last few minutes of daylight quickly fading I decided to soak in as much of the beautiful exterior as I could while dreading the last drive I had ahead of me in the pouring rain.

In summary my time with this RX7 was a bit like a first date with a stunningly beautiful girl with no conversational skills at all. Great to look at but no real substance to keep you interested.
I don’t think I’ll be calling again.
Thanks to the awesome guys behind Fun2Drive, we got to drive a lot more cars this time so keep your eyes out for even more features!
Thank you for reading,
– Gwyn.

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.

WTAC 2014 :: International Visitors

Grant — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:51:53 +0000

Like any music festival, big name acts bring the fans in droves, especially international super stars. The World Time Attack Challenge is no different and when it comes to international guests, they’ve got you covered.
It’s no easy task to convince a race team to invest a large amount of money to send a car on a boat half way across the globe along with a small army of mechanics to go head to head with a bunch of locals who don’t want lose on their home turf.
Year after year, Ian and the team behind WTAC manage to top themselves and 2014 was the biggest field of overseas talent we’ve seen yet!

First up team America had two entries. Andrew Brilliant has now decided to keep his time attack Eclipse within Australia (originally from the USA). Having the car based here and help from GT Auto Garage his campaign for 2014 was his strongest yet.

Having won both 2009 & 2010 Super Lap Battle Limited FF titles Andrew is certainly no amateur! With the dream of being the fastest FF car at WTAC Andrew had his work cut out thanks to a little mouse that could…
Andrew’s biggest rival is none other than the QLD based Mighty Mouse CRX. With a time of 1:31.8430 the little Honda was still at much faster pace than the Eclipse this year. Not to take away from AMB Aero USA’s efforts as Andrew and the team managed to shave off a staggering 5 seconds from their previous year!!

The car has undergone many changes since 2013 but the biggest change this year has been a new Haltech ECU and Jack LeBrocq behind the wheel. The team finished with 1:35.7200 around Sydney Motorsport Park.

The second entry for Team USA, ARK Design R32 Skyline and some say this car is cursed. Two years ago at it’s first WTAC, the car was accidentally shipped to China missing the competition completely. The team took a year off, rebuilt the car from the ground up and set course for Sydney once again. This time the arrived with plenty of time to add finishing touches in prepping the car…

This is where it all began to fall apart for the ARK Design team with multiple mechanical failures and then serious issues with the ECU. It was all over for the team even before the first day of competition… The R32 limped around the track for two sessions but did not manage a timed lap. We’re hoping this just makes Team USA push harder for 2015, as we haven’t seen two teams really go head to head for the fastest lap since Sierra Sierra vs Cyber Evo in 2011.

Now from the motherland, the biggest heavy hitters in WTAC history. HKS and Top Secret, two of Japans largest tuning names brought the fight in the form of two wild R35 Nissan GTR’s

The HKS GTR piloted by Nob Taniguchi really was one of the stand outs of the entire event. With ‘out of this world’ looks, the green headlights remind us of an angry alien/insect.

HKS’ direct competitor in the GTR shoot out, Tarzan Yamada in the Top Secret R35. We found ourselves pinching our arms while gazing at these legendary machines.

These were real hero cars and nothing was more exciting than watching these two giants battle it out in the fading light on Saturday.

Once the sun dipped out of sight, these guys really started pushing hard. HKS took the win nearly a full second in front with a time of just 1:30.8380!!

Tarzan certainly gave it all he could in the Top Secret GTR finishing on 1:31.7250. You can’t say he didn’t try.

Another entry from Japan and no stranger to WTAC, the Top Fuel S2000 was back again for another shot at glory. Nob Tanaguchi was also driving the S2000 for a second year, with plenty of seat time between this car and the HKS GTR Nob was certainly dealt with plenty of track time to get things right.

Pro class is where all the time attack monsters reside, Top Fuel has dealt with pressure like this before yet with the most competitive field ever seen at the world time attack challenge this would not be an easy task for Nob.
This year Top Fuel was sporting a new aero package designed by Voltex Racing to help win the fight. But was it enough?

They were faster this year but the team missed out on a podium finish by just over a second. Over the last 3 years they have continually improved in time and in speed. Sadly the rest of the competitors have also improved! The car did suffer a few issues over the weekend and we have to wonder if the car had more to give. Looks like we will have to wait for next year.

Nob locked the s2000 in 4th place with a respectable time of just 1:26.8700.

With a name like Kyushu-Danji, you can only guess that this team is also from Japan! The immaculate BNR34 Skyline GT-R snapped necks for all that dared to lay eyes on this albino Godzilla.

Hot off the heels from fast time around Tsukuba Circuit, Kyushu-Danji was here to set records! With a car that just screams race ready and a driving style that resembles Nigel Manson!

Driver Miyata Sumihiko pushed the r34 to its limits setting a time of 1:31.6856 taking 3rd in his class.

Another return entry, the beautiful RE Amemiya RX7. The ex-autosalon demo car turned serious time attack competitor has quickly become a crowd favorite.

This year in the drivers seat was none other than Japanese racing legend Max Orido!!!

Max is considered racing royalty and featured in many tuning video’s since the 1990’s making him quite the celebrity amongst Japanese tuning enthusiasts.
Max planted his right foot and steered the RX7 to it’s fastest time yet at just 1:27.3410!!

If WTAC had a public face it would be this man, Suzuki Under has been competing for 4 years now and has become the absolute crowd favorite and under dog of the event.

Committed is one way to describe Under Suzuki, we have watched his personal creation the “Scorch Racing” S15 transform over the last 4 years with more carbon fibre and aero development than the united states air force.

While he has received a little help along the way Under is still predominantly a privateer entry in the event, no one wants the win more then Under.

This year he pushed harder than ever before and it wasn’t until the final dusk session when the track was at it’s coolest that he managed his best time ever… All with no headlights!!

Under finished 2nd with a blistering 1:24.8800!!! While over the moon with his win, he has said he will not rest until he is number one!! We cannot wait for 2015!

So when the main attractions are the fastest tuned cars in the world what do you do for entertainment between sessions?? Bring a piece of motoring history to the fans of course, the infamous Mazda 767B Le Mans car! The sound is like nothing else 4 rotors of ear shredding glory!!

To see a classic Le Mans car on track was incredible! It is great to know this isn’t just collecting dust in someones garage and still being used to bring joy to the world. The owner/driver was so excited to be sharing his prized possession with the fans, so much so that he was only meant to complete 3-5 laps but instead continued for almost 10!

From seeing this as a matchbox car in our childhood, to seeing it in reality, there are no words to explain how amazing this piece of machinery really is. Everywhere it went the crowd followed! This year Mazda was one of the major sponsors of WTAC 2014 so along with the 787B they also had a good collection of historical and influential Mazda’s both on and off the track.

If the sound of quad rotor wasn’t enough to keep you on the edge of your seat during lunch than some freestyle motorkhana driving from NZ based Alex Kelsey and his V6 powered Peugeot was sure to get the blood pumping.

This car is as custom built as they come. Starting out in a similar fashion to Nigel Petire’s drift ute. Alex’s Peugeot started out life in tiny garage.

The angry little Peugeot features a hand-built Renault Sport V6 engine and spits flames like no tomorrow. What is it with cars from New Zealand shooting flames?!
We would like to thank all our internationally guests for their continued support of our home grown series and again to the whole team behind the World Time Attack Challenge. The greatest event on the Calendar!!
Stay tuned for even more post WTAC goodness.
Until than, full results here.
Thanks for reading,
– Grant.

WTAC '13 :: Film Only

Grant — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:09:24 +0000

Hands down the World Time Attack Challenge is the biggest event on our radar, each and every year Ian Baker and the team step it up constantly raising the bar. We’ve been fortunate enough to follow the transition from the old Super Lap event days, into the world class spectacle it is now known and loved by, under the current name as the World Time Attack Challenge or ‘WTAC’ for short.
The first ever post on gripshiftslide.com was you guessed it, WTAC 2011! To say the event has held a special place in our hearts ever since, would be a massive understatement. We thought it would be a great tribute to create an entire post capturing the event on good old fashioned 35mm film. The charm of anything analogue is hard to deny, the hiss of a record, black & white movies and the grain and colour of a film camera.
We hope you enjoy our unique look at last years event and let us know if you would like to see more posts like this in the future by leaving a comment at the end of the post…

Once again we returned to Sydney Motorsport Park, having access a day early let’s us get up nice and close to the teams as they began final testing before attempting some ‘hot’ laps over the weekend.
It also helps not having any of the crowds around as WTAC is one of the only event’s that spectators can literally walk up to the pit bays see teams working around the clock preparing their car for each session.

The first day of racing last year will be one to remember, as bush fires threatened the nearby blue mountains thick smoke blocked out the sun.

The scene was a very uncomfortable one with reports that hundreds of homes were under danger and the eerie light from the smoke meant there were next to no shadows.

The soft light did make for some remarkable photos though as we spent most of the afternoon watching the drifters set up their pits. While WTAC is all about the remarkable machines pushing the limits of engineering and the laws of physics, at the same time it is arguably the highest profile drifting event in Australia, with many international guest taking part in the competition that takes place in the evening.

One of the biggest appearances last year was from local Melbourne lad, Nigel Petire and his extraordinary home built drift Ute. He made the trip with not one, but two cars!

The Ute was handcrafted in a garage barely bigger than the car itself, don’t believe us? Check out our feature of the build here.
This was the first public event for the Ute to not only be displayed to the public but also be driven on track!!

Nigel was grinning from ear to ear when he wasn’t losing his voice talking to the crowds about his stunning build. He was both nervous and overwhelmed from the excitement of driving his precious creation on track with other cars for the first time ever!

While the car itself doesn’t comply with current competition regulations, Nigel isn’t bothered as he built it for demonstration purposes and of course tyre shredding FUN!!
He brought along his tried and true 180SX for competition duties. So when he was behind the wheel of the Ute, he was just concentrating on getting to know his new friend.

After the first night of track demos in the Ute, something didn’t go to plan and of course that’s just cars for you! Due to the ultra light weight, yet super strong body, the transmission was not having a good time dealing with the punchy SR20 and very grippy tyres, ultimately giving up and retiring the Ute from track duties much earlier then expected.

You could tell it was not how Nigel envisioned his first weekend away with his new toy, he had contemplated getting busy and swapping parts over from the 180SX to get it going again. After the crushing blow the spirits were not high in the Petrie camp and Nigel pulled the pin and left the Ute to be a static display for the rest of the weekend. Since the WTAC he has traveled to New Zealand with Ute and enjoyed hassle free drift demos for all to see and Nigel is set to bring it back to this years WTAC event. We can’t wait!!

Speaking of NZ, Kiwi drifter Mad Mike was over here competing in the drift comp with his world famous “Madbul” Rx7.

The heart of the car is a quad rotor, which produces a very haunting and howling exhaust note that sounds like an F1 car possessed by a demon.

This fire spitting Rx7 has been seen the world over with trips to America, Europe and Australia 3 times now!! Mike sure has a lot of international events under his belt!

Another car that made the trip over from New Zealand was the PPRE RX4 featuring a massive 6 rotor!!! Yep 6!
Mad Mike was invited to pilot the crazy coupe around the full circuit, paying absolutely no attention to any sound restrictions, it broke necks and made ears bleed!

South Australian drifter and “Wunderkind” if you will, Jake Jones is one of the youngest Australian drivers competing on an international level.

His aggressive driving style has seen him go door to door with the worlds very best and scored him international drives in drift competitions in both Japan and China.

Jakes Onvia has even rubbed panels with Daigo Saito most recently at the Melbourne round of FD Asia, check out how he went against the current drift world champion here.

In between all the track action, there’s always plenty to see off the track. Each year the show and shine grows in size and the quality of cars is always impressive.

We’re suckers for old school cars and what better to fill up our roll of film then a pristine Sunny truck.

Remember when Corolla’s were cool! We loved this white duo, the KE30 was our pick of the two.

The Heasman steering girls were all smiles despite the blistering sun beating down against the concrete.

We said each year Ian and the team step it up – this year they had a half pipe with BMX demos all day long.

This sort of entertainment can easily go unnoticed at such a large motorsport event, I remember stopping and watching for a good 15 minutes. These guys had talent!!

One more standout from the crowded show was this striking bright yellow widebody RX7, the RE-super G bodykit is one of the wildest looking kits for the FD RX-7. So aggressive!!

This tubular framed beauty is very serious Nissan Stanza built for the sports sedan series and was part of the Turbo Legends segment were power houses of yesteryear get to prove they still have what it takes to put down a quick lap time.

Back near the pits we hunted around for some of the most impressive builds we could find. This RX8 looks to be a future competitor but for now it was just a static display. If you think the aero looked great the engine bay alone has had more money and time spent the some cars see for their entire build.

The Evolution Custom Industries Porsche was literally the black sheep of the field. One of the only European based cars it had a massive cult following going into the event.
The car is a work of art and seriously fast, the team didn’t get to show their best with a turbo failure ending their chances early.

We thought it would be nice to include this picture of Agges’ 180SX of Insane Drifters fame, some 8 months and many, many events after WTAC the mighty red 180SX finally had it’s last collision at an event here in Melbourne.
Drift cars receive quite a beating and when you’re as competitive as Agges it’s bound to happen sooner or later and sadly this 180SX won’t be seeing the track again.

Melbourne based workshop and tuning specialist Road Track Rally had been achieving great wins with their Evo X. Sadly the Evo lost control at high speeds and collided with a concrete wall.
The team has been busy repairing and will be back for 2014!

All eyes were on the reigning champion Nemo Racing Evo, this engineering marvel had taking the rule book and thrown it out the window and really forced the Australian and Japanese time attack community to go back to the drawing board of what’s possible.

What goes up must come down and in a strange turn of events the team behind this magnificent car crumbled during the weekend sending rumors flying. The car only managed a couple of ‘safe’ laps before being retired back to the pits without a chance to hold onto it’s winning trophy from the previous years WTAC.

With so many classes competing at WTAC you really get a great comparison for times against so many makes, models and platforms. How does a tuned FWD Mitsubishi Colt perform against an street trim Nissan GTR? You’ll find out at WTAC.

Many Japanese teams have started to really to take to series, this year saw some very big hitters from Japanese tuning culture attend.

Top Fuel returned their super agile S2000 to Sydney to once again take on the worlds best, the previous year the car was relatively untested and effectively “out of the box”.

However driver Nobuteru Taniguchi still found the car too challenging to achieve it’s goal, the car performed a lot better but we think Nob will be back to prove he and the car have what it takes.

The Esprit NSX was easily one of the most anticipated international cars this year and with Tarzan Yamada behind the wheel it was a hopeful podium finisher too, after a few hairy spins and a small engine fire the mighty NSX did not get it’s time to shine.

One of the most eye pleasing cars was the RE Amemiya Hurricane RX7, this car was originally built as an Autosalon demo car. This just proves that the Japanese do not do things half-arsed at all, this car is not just a show piece and can really strut it’s stuff in the Time Attack arena!

Back to Australia and the Queensland based Mighty Mouse CRX, This David vs Goliath honda was determined to hold onto it’s NA FWD record from the previous year, Rob and the team did just that. Now with pressure on for a third year the team has since converted the car to left hand drive for better weight distribution… Yep, they’re determined to win again in 2014.

A rare sight outside of the original Fast & The Furious movie here in Australia, The Mitsubishi Eclipse is not something we’re used to seeing racing let alone driving on the street. This FWD racer is owned by aero extraordinaire Andrew Brilliant.
The car originally raced in the America and had many victories under it’s hat, at one point it was the number 1 car out of 50 high powered RWD and AWD cars. A true testament to Andrew’s skills aerodynamic skills.

After three long days of racing the last cars rolled back into the pits, most came back under their own power, some returned to the pits on tow trucks. WTAC is not for the faint hearted and you have to be willing to put it all on the line to win.

After all the action stops the show is packed up and we begin counting down the days till next year, thankfully as we post this we’re less than two months away from the 2014 World Time Attack Challenge!
Don’t miss out on the biggest event on the calendar and book tickets, time off work and accommodation now!!
Check out all the details here www.worldtimeattack.com
We hope you’ve enjoyed this nostalgic glance at our favorite event, it took two rolls of film and nearly a year to get it developed but we love holding a real photo in our hands!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Sneaker Freaker :: The Big Kahuna

Grant — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 06:58:10 +0000

Melbourne once again lived up to its well known weather last weekend, with a glorious sunny Saturday followed by a Sunday that seemed to have a bored two year old flicking the weather switch every 5 minutes.
Those that braved the cold conditions were rewarded with one of the best street events in town.
Sneaker Freaker took control of Globe Shoes head office in Port Melbourne to host ‘The Big Kahuna’ event, a massive Sneaker swap meet with truck loads of Melbourne street culture thrown in for good measure.

Some of Melbourne’s usual suspects like Saint Side, Fuel magazine and of course yours truly came along to make the day one to remember.

Globe’s warehouse and loading dock were over run with Sneaker Freaks snapping up rare and discontinued shoes from dozens of vendors.

The event was heaven for our fury little friends who love to chew old sneakers, thankfully their owners kept them on their leads as some of the sneakers on offer were worth more than $3000!!!

Aside from shoes and street ware, there were also a heap of classic cars invited along by the team from Fuel Magazine.

There were tonnes of old school cruisers and even a rad kombi on display!

This 1950’s Chevrolet Corvette convertible was a thing of neck snapping beauty.

The crew from Saint Side had a huge display of custom low rider bikes, each and every single one had it’s own unique theme. We loved the Louis Vuitton version.

The amount of work that goes into these creations is absolutely mind blowing. This was one of the more aggressively styled bikes on show.

Gold, Candy and Chrome as far as the eye can see!

Back inside there was plenty of wheeling and dealing going on with so many rare items up for grabs – it was certainly a buyers market.

Hosting an event at Globe’s warehouse would be a sin without some skateboard action. On show were plenty of vintage skateboards from the early 90’s and beyond.

All the skate paraphernalia was scattered around the Globe half pipe. Yep, they have a private skate park on site! Lunch breaks wouldn’t be for eating if you worked here!

In the outside area we had invited some of Melbourne’s best street cars along and despite the not so amazing weather, we were blown away by the dedicated owners that braved the weather and the driveway!!

Karl’s tough as nails KE Corolla wagon was a crowd favourite, complete with a Unicorn hood ornament that bled real rainbows!!

Later we found out that rainbow blood was in fact some oil escaping from the mighty 4AGE from the trip over to the event.

Josh brought back his S14 from the last event at Calder. This thing is absolutely perfect and clean enough to eat off!

The wheel choice on this blue EG Civic was spot on! Rays TE37V’s fill out the guards perfectly on this little hot hatch.

Some of the 100MM crew came down to party, we cannot wait to see what the boys have up their sleeve for the 100MM car show.

Probably the best line up of Melbourne’s street cars we’ve seen, so much quality!!

Billy’s 86 is still jaw-droppingly beautiful and we can’t wait to get some alone time with it after WTAC.

Chris’s E30 is spotless, we were really digging the new air splitters on the bonnet too.

Another of Melbourne’s best E30’s came along. Alistairs’ equipped E30 was one of the winners from the last event held at Calder, so we just had to invite him along.

While the weather wasn’t on our side for the day, the public certainly was with huge numbers coming along to see what all this Sneaker fuss was about.
We cannot thank the team from Sneaker Freaker Magazine enough for inviting us along and allowing us to showcase some of the best cars in Melbourne.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
– Gwyn.