Tweet

All you JDM EGO fiends looking for something new now have reason to celebrate.  Our buddy Jay has just dropped his popular dice valve stem caps in a “time attack” (black & red) color way.  These would go nicely if you are already rocking a set of TE37 time attacks but that’s the obvious route.  I’m sure some of you out there could think of other stylish ways to rock these dice so pick up a set from the JDM EGO store for only 21 bucks (plus shipping) and have at it!

Have you ever wanted to compete in time attack? Have you ever wanted to compete in time attack with a balls out insanely fast car built by one of the best tuners in Japan?  Do you have a spare $60k and some time on your hands? Then I suggest you hit up Evasive Motorsports right now because Garage HRS is selling their purpose built time attack Mitsubishi Evo VIII and they have enlisted Evasive Motorsports as a representative in case there is anyone state side who would like to purchase the car.  If you have the desire and the cash Evasive can take care of everything for you.  Including all the documentation and logistics.  Obviously once the car is here you wont be able to register it and it will have to be a track only deal but isn’t that what all time attack cars are like anyway?

Tweet

Over the weekend I was invited out to Willow Springs Raceway by Buddy Club for a private media track day.  Buddy Club brought out Yasushi Kikuchi (the driver who clicked off a 53.6 second lap at Tsukuba Circuit) to give esteemed media members ride alongs in their 50% carbon fiber bodied Nissan GT-R.  They also opened up the “streets of willow” track to us so we could do our best impressions of Kikuchi-san in our own cars.  Mitsubishi was nice enough to once again put me behind the wheel of an Evo X for the occasion.  This time around instead of an MR I got the good ol’ five speed GSR model.

The downside is that it was raining for pretty much the entire day which made for quite the slippery track.  Which made me extra glad that I was behind the wheel of an Evo X!  While FWD and RWD cars were struggling to find grip, I could do no wrong in the Evo!  Sure I slid around a few times but there was nothing that the Evo couldn’t save me from.  The car was literally braver than I was.  It welcomed the slippery surfaced off-camber turns of the infamous “omega corners” and asked for more.

This further solidifies my opinion that the Evo X in any trim, is worth the money.  It really is a great all-around car.  It has livability, nice features, looks, and performance that is more than enough for the street and just enough to have loads of fun on the track (wet or dry).

Unfortunately I couldn’t take a ton of pictures because of the rain (I have but a lowly rebel which isn’t weather sealed) but I did snap a few shots and some shots of my ride for the weekend.  Enjoy!

Tweet

If you follow Japanese motorsports then you know about the fabled Tsukuba Circuit.  Tsukuba is THE track when it comes to achieving time attack immortality.  I remember back in the day it was a big deal to tick off a time that was anywhere close to one minute.  Then the big task was trying to break the sub-minute mark.  The video below shows how far tuners have come in this task as the RX-7 below you is about to pull off a 53.6 second lap!  Pay close attention to the driver’s steering inputs.  He probably has room to shave another second off his time.  Its amazing!

Tweet

In this video hosted by your friend and mine John “Nads” Naderi the team behind the FXMD time attack Acura NSX makes a full-force attempt to be the first uni-body NSX to run a 9 second quarter mile.  Oh, did I mention they tried to do it with the NSX in full time attack aero and time attack tires?  How crazy is that?!  Who thinks of stuff like this?! What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on a bus?? OK, I digress.  Scroll down below and watch to see if the FXMD NSX successfully achieved their lofty goal or not. Also, big ups to Nads for the awesome production in this video!

Just in case you haven’t been keeping up with our boy Dai Yoshihara I thought I’d drop an update.  Thanks in part to GTChannel.com Dai has a 350Z roadster time attack car in his arsenal and has decided to try out some hot lapping in the drift off season.  He had his first outing in the car at Buttonwillow last weekend during the Super Lap Battle.  Since the car was fresh off a rebuild and setup the event was more of a shakedown for Dai than a competition but it seems like everything worked out well.  Hopefully this means we will see Dai expand his horizons a little more in 2010.

In this edition of Tech House & Speed Bill Woodtalks with Falken ace Tyler McQuarrie about possible ventures into other motorsports like the Rolex 24 hour race and rally racing.  It seems like McQ has some big things in the plan for 2010 but so far is being pretty tight lipped about it all.  I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to see what hes up to! 

This is 5 glorious minutes of a naturally apserated (individual throttle bodies) 4 Rotor RX-8 time attack car revving its god-like engine for a massive crowd at the 2009 Seven Stock event in Irvine California. Turn up your speakers!

They say that magazines are a dying medium so if you walk past a news stand and see something that catches your eyes you should get it before it isn’t there anymore.  Recently we had the honor of having RJ’s turbo’d Ayrton Senna-themed Acura RSX featured in the last issue of Sport Compact Car Magazine.  Be sure to look for this cover at the news stands before its gone for good!

HKS Japan has been working on a replacement for their famous carbon fiber Evo VIII time attack car in the form of an Evo X dubbed the CZ200S.  If you don’t know by now, its a popular Time Attack past time to try and complete a lap of Japan’s Tsukuba circut in less than a minute and shave off time from there.

So far with only off the shelf HKS parts the CZ200S squeezed off a 59.495 so half the battle is won right there.  Now their challenge is how much lower they can dive below their best time.  This is definately going to turn out to be an interesting story for their team.  I’ll try to keep you guys updated on their progress.