prostock racing BNR34 time attack monster

Prostock Racing are the new kids on the block. This tuning shop has been around for less than a year but has already made a name for itself. With state of the art facilities they offer maintenance and tuning service like any other shop out there but at a far fairer price. I shot their BNR34 demo car last year in Osaka, when it was being finished by the guys at Garage Ito. Back then the Prostock shop was not even built yet but they knew they needed a demo car from the onset so built the monster you see here. It was supposed to compete at last years Tsukuba Lap Battle but never showed up as the guys at Prostock didn’t want to run it if they weren’t sure it would come first.  So with a bit more fine tuning done to it the car should be ready to go this December, shooting for a record lap in the low 50’s. 53 sec is the target. Can’t wait to see what it can do.  In the meantime enjoy the pics.

 

The wide-body kit is made of dry carbon

Ikeya Formula custom made front & rear double wishbone suspension and subframes.  Even the steering rack is repositioned and uses custom links & pivots

Forged Brembo Racing 8-pot calipers, with magnesium-alloy pistons 

Nice and short screamer pipe…..well no, this is actually the exhaust!  You can just about see the Hollinger sequential

Engine has been positioned well into the bulkhead and lowered too.  HKS 2.8 L kit in RRR block, HKS V-Cam & T04-Z for over 650 PS.  To keep piping short the intercooler sits in front of the radiator.  All custom made by ARC

Simplicity is the name of the game in the interior. The race-spec roll-cage is joined buy a dry carbon dash & Motec data logger. The driver sits next to the B-pillar so the steering column has been extended, just like in a race car.

Knight Sports RX8 Supercharged

Back in 2005 I shot this, the Knight Sports superghagted RX8. For more info please check out my old blog here

Mazda Speed RX8

Here is one from 2004, the Mazda Speed special version of the RX8.  I remember this car had some pretty sorted handling, zero roll, pin sharp steering and decent brakes.  Engine was running a lighter flywheel so felt even more free revving than standard.  Some pix:

Very nice and subtle body kit

More RX-8…

08-08-08 doesn’t come around too often so I’d thought I’d dig into my photo library to find past RX-8 related material.  The below pictures date back to 2003 when I first tested the then brand-new RX-8.

Together with a friend’s new RX-7

Little drift…

RE Amemiya Oh!Gre8 RX8

Here is a little blast from the past. Well not too long ago, back early last year I shot this impressive RX8 customer car built by RE Amemiya. Perfect day to post up RX8 pictures, what being August 8th, 2008 and all! This car was built for a famous anime artist, Ito Oogure, creator of Tenjho Tenge and Air Gear. Oogure-san took care of the design of the car while Amemiya-san did the rest. Think of it as an anime car turned into reality, but it isn’t until you open the doors that you get the full impact of the conversion.  RE Amemiya called on the services of Obayashi Factory, Japan’s best-known custom interior and audio/video shop.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking…

Custom rear end with twin center-exit exhausts

RE-Amemiya turbo kit (280PS)

 

Tokyo dome amusement park

The girlfriend and I went to the Tokyo Dome amusement park on Sun night. The idea was to ride on some attractions in an attempt to cool off, something that didn’t really work out as I ended up sweating tenfold as I climbed up all those bloody stairs!

Started off on the Skyflower which is as camp as the name suggests. Basically recreated a fast traveling elevator going up and down (61 m) in a little cage with a fake parachute overhead. It was then on to the Linear Gale, apparently the world’s first hanging-type linear roller coaster. I really enjoyed this, some pretty hard core accelerations while your feet dangle in the air. Cooled off a bit on the Wonder Drop water slide by getting completely soaked and had fun laughing at the people covering themselves up with what can only be described as a full-body condom. I mean, if you don’t want to get splashed don’t ride on the bloody thing! It was then on to the Thunder Dolphin, the main roller coaster. I loved this despite being abandoned as my girlfriend pussied out at the last minute!  First drop is insane and the rest of the ride is pretty amazing as you seem to fly in the air between buildings.  At one point you also go through one as well as the center-less ferris wheel they have there.  Would have gone on it again if it wasn’t for the 30+ min queue.  Was really scared of riding the Tower Hacker, an 80 m free-fall.  I don’t know what was worst, the actual drop or the 10 sec + wait at the top….wondering when the thing would actually drop!  Ended up feeling nauseous on the spinning roller coaster, even though it looks like a ride for kids. Stuff that spins around really gets me.  Anyway nothing a handful of fried shrimp at Bubba Gump’s wouldn’t cure!

Team Tarzan Tomei/Cusco Impreza

Was at G Force on Friday for a dyno run of the new Tomei/Cusco Impreza that will be sent to the US to compete in the Time-Attack series out there.  Car is in its final stages of set-up and was out on the Dynopack for final checks.  Stay tuned for a more in depth look at this car soon.

the hakosuka that left Japan

You just got to love these old Skylines.  The GT-R replica you see here belongs to my friend Roy and it’s currently been driven around the streets of Las Vegas, well has been for some time now.  I got to shoot the car literally days before he shipped it off from Japan last year.  One of the cleanest classics I have shot.  

Just look at that profile.  Roy picked his PGC10 2000GT 2-door coupe at Garage Kutsumi.

Roy added that menacing lower lip spoiler and replaced the front headlights with more modern projectors.

These cars HAVE to roll on Watanabe RSs and Roy certainly didn’t hold back in this department fitting some custom gold-painted 15″ items with a polished lip.  GAB shocks and HELP springs lower the car considerably while some urethane bushes sharpen up both the handling and steering feel.  Adding more precision to the set-up are the HELP tension rods and anti-roll bars.

These 2000-GT’s used to run the old L20 straight-6 engine, a lump that put out 105 PS at 5,200 rpm and 16 kgm of torque at 3,600 rpm.  Nothing special in today’s standards,  which is why a lot of owners of these cars upgraded to the L28, a larger capacity SOHC straight-6 which went in without any problems.  Roy was lucky to find this swap had already been done to his car and on top of this a few nice other modifications.  First up are the triple ø 40 mm Solex carburetors, which allow the L28 to breath better and swallow more fuel thanks also to the SK Sports polished individual intake trumpets 

After the suspension improvements Roy realized he needed a proper racing seat so fitted a Bride Gias carbon-Kevlar racing bucket, which also happens to be reclinable.  You have to love the period-fitting fan in the passenger footwell!