Ama-san's Blog

You may have discovered Isami Amemiya's old diary from his site. But it has had a revamp.

He keeps it up to date and there is some interesting stuff. The D1 FD that was never used is seen recently recieving a new Super Greddy 3 derived bodykit. Supposedly to Debut in Odaiba at the D1 showdown event. In what final form is unknown, but colour will probably be silver like the Super Greddy 3.

Check out the Blog from Ama-san.

Russ.

D1SL 2008 Round 2 - Suzuka

Sharing the weekend with the big D1 guns at Suzuka, the D1SL boys took flight in the wet conditions. The RE-A car doesn't finish well with a 23rd place finish is hardly exciting.

But I like this pic of the RE-Amemiya D1SL car with the flames ripping up the side. Very cool.

Russ.

D1 Grand Prix 2008 Round 3 - Suzuka

Not much good news recently. RE-Amemiya's Suenaga was ousted in the best 16 round.

Others couldn't progress to the round of 16. Qualifying sees both RYO and R-Magic into the top 32 around the 22 positions. While the FDs didn't get that great drift results, their very high entry speeds push them to the top of the qualifying points.

Russ.

ps. You can now get the RAYS gram lights 57D available in White, Orange and Yellow.

Super Taikyu Round 2 - Sendai

After qualifying 5th over 1.5 seconds behind the leader. The Okabe Jidosha Dixel FD3s Rx7 finished in 7th place. That's last in class.

The leading cars in ST3 class like the Ings Z33 and Tracey Sports NSX are just 5 laps off the lead ST1 car pace over 500klms. Thats quick. This year the pace is too hot for the 2006 championship winning car. 12 laps down obviously shows a couple of niggles but no way in the hunt for the title this year.

Russ.

RE-Xtreme Ver.II with Newera

If you've checked my other blog, then you'll know that its time to sell my FD3s RX-7.

Full details are available there from inception to reality.

Check full details and a large gallery on Newera Imports web site.

Russ.

Rotary Festa 2008 - Takasu

Track days are getting more and more common these days in Japan as street racing dies out. This event is held down south of Japan and attracts the 7 & 8 runners from that area congregating in Takasu.

With 45 cars on track and 23 more on display, it wasn't a bad turnout.

Fujita had a couple of beasts including the Touge Max car.

Check out more here on the Stoltz club site.

Russ.

RX-7 Magazine Vol 38

Aussies get a look in in this mag with the guys from Rank Rotary and a feature on the SPI and SPII. The Revolution TA car is showing its awesomeness, D1 car review including the new Green 20b. 1/2 the magazine is RX8 related as the RX-7 Mag guys organise the RX8 race for this year.
I didn't buy it. First one I didn't get in ages.

Full feature list here. http://www.planet1986.com/7-mag/book/review038.html

Russ.

7&8 Meeting 2008 Central Circuit

CC and the Feed Sei FD took out the FD event after starting on Pole. All were on wets.

Looked a bit tricky in the wet, there is a video of the http://www.supernow.co.jp/ FC3s.

The cars look stange running their spare wheel sets with wet weather tyres.

Russ.

Super GT 2008 Round 3 - Fuji

Rx7 qualified in 6th but finished 10 laps down at the back of the field...?

I guess thats the end of their season. Two very bad results is hard to recover from.

New shrods on the bonnet.

There was also a tuning car race with the RE-Amemiya ORC SGT Replica running. Their RX8 was also getting a shakedown for the Rx7&8 meeting on the 10th in Central.

Russ.

RE-Xtreme in Fuji

A little bit of action from Fuji Speedway Today. Nishiki suspension tuning shop put on this event and it worked in well with the regular NS4 session at Fuji. A good crowd of cars made life interesting for some. My car performed ok, getting used to the track and the car. The other Newera machines went well too.


Steven's yellow FD was carving up the traffic and Ian's Spirit R was looking pretty.

A great way to spend a public holiday.

Russ.

D1GP 2008 Round 2 - FSW

Suenaga again with a perfect 100 point qualifier. Along with 7 others!

Finishing in 4th. Koguchi S13 took it out. R-Magic FD finished in 15th after a course out and doing some damage to the side diffuser. These days the cars are totally on the limit so there is a bit of damage still occurring at most events.

Last event it was the RE-A FD that had a few bits missing, but it looked good here. It is featuring the new AD9 Bonnet vent additions which have recently been added to their parts list. Stay tuned for picture updates.

These pics are from the qualifying day. RE-Amemiya also had the SGC 7 Replica on display.

Russ.

Super Taikyu 2008 Round 1 - Suzuka

Super Taikyu this year may not hold much interest for FD fans or any fans for that matter. With only 30 entries over all classes, it's not exactly a popular series in a country as big as Japan. It doesn't get any promotion at all.

The FD3s has had it's day in Super Taikyu (endurance) racing. This year many post year 2002 cars are much faster. At Suzuka The Okabe Jidosha team (Dixel Brake sponsored car) failed to qualify then ended up finishing in 14th, 6th in class. The NRF car, now the Sato TamTam hobby sponsored car (red), ran well but over 3 seconds off the pace of the top Z33s saw it finish in 8th class position. Only 9 cars in ST3 class.

This series is dying as all cars are getting on. Without an injection of interest it will go the way of other production car endurance series. Dead.

Russ.

Fast and Furious Reality

One of the few "REAL" cars featured in the movie. The lucky owner of this beast will soon retrieve this special vehicle.

It turns heads at every corner and while deliviering it to the dockyards with Newera Imports, I got some shots with my new 10.0 mega pixel canon Ixy IS 25.

Very happy with it's snapping ability. Stay tuned for more happy snaps.

Russ.

Targa Tasmania 2008

Well this massive 5 day Targa is over. FD results in Modern Class are good even though the winner was a 2003 EVO 9 then Porsche GT2 and STi.

Rick Shaw (car 866) was the Best FD! Just 7 minutes behind after a lot of klms. 13th place overall is a fantastic effort against 4WD in this event.

TV star Glenn Ridge in car 830 was next 15 minutes behind and 26th place overall.

Bollom finished in 47th in car 824, 23mins back.

Blunden was 48 minutes off the pace in car 995. thats 71st.

All FDs finished which can't be said for the PINK GTR35. bad luck boys... Good for Mazda MPS3 - 1st in 2WD showroom and Late Classic saw the 1979 RX7 of Faux take it out.

Russ.

D1 Street Legal Round 1 - Ebisu

With about 5 people in the stands D1 Street Legal is a waste of time. There is no interest in this category at all.

For FD Fans the RE-Amemiya car and the Satoru works car were entered but with dissapointing qualifying runs. they were nowhere to be seen in the finals. RE-A qualified 15th in the preliminaries, But in the best 32 finished in 23rd... not exactly a thrilling result.

Russ.

Super GT 2008 Round 2 - Okayama

Well, no repeat from the SGC 7 this time. Qualifying in 13th!!! What the hell is going on? Thats a big change from a leading car.

14th place and two laps down... Is that what 55kg penalty gets you..? I don't think so, but the car was suffereing from setup problems. Check out the huge brake lockup above. The Privee' Kenzo car was also down the board presumably due to weight. The ARTA Garaiya is back taking out the win with Taniguchi's Porsche finishing second.

At least there were other things to look at. This pace car was cool. Okayama still using a pristine FD for pace car duties. Cool!

Russ.

Makers Cup 08 R1

No info or results yet. Just a couple of pics. Any day where this many FD3s gather is a good one.

Makers Super Taikyu machine still on track.

Russ.

Exciting Car Showdown 2008

Whats new these days... Heaps!!! A lot of tuners headed down to Nagoya for the Exciting Car showdown. R-Magic, AB-Flug, RE-Amemiya, Craft Company, Auto Craft, Feed, Scoot and Espirit. A great day for performance car watching.

AB Flug are back with a new kit for the FD. This wild machine has a crazy diffuser and revised front GTM bumper with combination light covers. Still looks weird but hey... Its cool in its own way.
Maru san had the R-magic kitted time attack 57 second street legal FD on show. It was looking fantastic after its recent time attack season and the Bronze Rays always look great!
The kit looks so much different that the Pink cars when it's all one colour. Very nice indeed. A great alternative to the RE-Amemiya GT AD. But the rear still uses the RE-A diffuser. R-Magic had a host of cars including the D1 machine and Rx8 , 8's were well represented also with Urgent, RE-A and a few others displaying them.
Craft Company has upgraded the CC Sei FD with a huge front splitter and new Gun Metallic Advan RS wheels. Hmm, I think it looked better with RG II myself... But it does look menacing!

Feed touge car is looking cool again. This years Sevens day race is going to be awesome. There are so many cars ready for the attack!
Esprit still have their FD. They were trying to sell it. I guess no takers for the 4Million yen machine... I could have bought this!

So what's RE-Amemiya Up to these days? GT-C SGC replica is still over fendered and under tyred. It needs fat 20" rims.

A nice Greddy Final Replica was at Nagoya. This looked especially pretty. A little more understated that the final car and more street focussed.
The Digital Builder car is definitely not understated. It is awesome! One of the best FD's around the tracks at the moment. But I guess it all comes down to purpose. To say anyone of these cars is better is a tough call.
Because just around the corner is Scoots 4 rotor FD. Still at the top of rotary tuning and Koseki is also one of the best suspension tuners in the business. He used to work in F1!

Auto craft had their RX7-8 on show to round out one of the biggest displays of performance cars in Japan. The show is not really about hype. It is about performance, that's why it's called the exciting car showdown

Russ.

RE-Xtreme FD3s Version II.

A few shots of my car after a wash and polish.

Recently there has been a few updates so the spec has changed a little. Check out my other blog for more info. RE-Xtreme II

The most notable additions are Aragosta coil over suspension Okuyama Three Point Strut bar and Cusco stabiliser bars. These combine to form a much more aggresive damping system for future track events and an enhaced touge experience.

Exterior wise, not much has changed, The combination of RE-Amemiya, Fujita Engineering, Auto Exe and Craft Square, combine with small touches from Knight Sports to create the very aggressive look.

Advan RS wheels in 18"x10" still adorn the car, however the 25mm spacers were overkill on the rear and currently the +25 offset is a tiny bit less than I require. The front will soon receive some custom ducting for the radiator to further improve the KOYO's cooling performance. Oil cooler ducting will also be installed.

Inside there is now a functional cluster of Defi BF guages with a Knight sports Oil Attachment being fitted for Oil Temp and Pressure. I have also added a Nardi Classic Suede wheel and Atc Suede gear knob. A new Carrozzeria CD player allows for som cool driving music. It is also colour programmable to match the Defi guages and i will soo do the LED dash mod.One of the other things planned for the car is a diffuser of some description, however the decision of which type seems difficult at the moment. You will see the car on track somewhere in the near future as the prep is done.

Russ.

Revolution Time Attack TA-2!

The Revolution TA-2 Carbon beast is finally finished! It looks incredible! An extra vent in the bonnet for the direct intake. This car has been in the build for two years.

Shakedown testing at Fuji speed way saw some impressive times while circulating very slowly

3 lap test 1'55.3
3 lap test 1'56.4
3 lap test 1'52.4 but the true potential is still unknown.

The concluded the 20 lap session without trouble running only boost of probably about 1 kg, about 420 horsepower. They were also running only half throttle on many corners until it is setup correctly. Ultimately, they aim to run boost to about 1.3~1.4 kg to produce around 550 horsepower. This thing is going to be awesome!

The body does look a bit wierd from some angles simply because of the huge wheel wells. Designed for high profile super GT rubber, It does look a bit off. But still sooo cool!

Russ.