R&R 2003

Rotary and Roadster 2003. This was an awesome event that I attended in 2003. I knew about this one and I convinced Marc Brupbacher from www.neweramedia.com to accompany me here and film the event.

After a good three hour Fd drive at reasonable speed we arrived at the Ebisu circuit in northern Japan near Sendai. This place is known for its 4 circuits that house a D1 round and the BIGx event. This cold place in the mountains is no place to be when its wet either. A terrible day had the racers running with lights on to overcome poor visibility and S-tyres were trying to cope with the lack of traction. All the tuners attended and they all were displaying the new tuning options for the Rx8 which was more or less on debut.

Revolution, Yumekobo, Kazama, Vertex/Carmake T&E, R-Magic, Fujita, Amemiya and Pan Speed were in attendence among lesser known Kagotani and Sanai works. I was in awe of the Fds on display that I had been lucky enough to find here. The japanese open pit philosophy also allows you to get up close and chat to anyone and everyone, buy parts and relax.
There was also a drifting class with a performance by D1 driver Asamoto.

Rotary and Roadster splits the day into race events for the Fd driving public in Standard Turbo and Tuned class while the tuners fight it out in the Shop class. The Shop class was cancelled as the fog rolled in late in the day but the time attack sheets had Amemiya on top and Pan speed close behind.

You can catch footage of this event on Skylines and Skyscrapers available from Newera and
I managed to get a feature into an Aussie magazine, Fast Fours & Rotaries. This is a great event where the Rotary fraternity goes all out for supremacy. Don't miss it.

Russ