Merry Xmas 2008!

In 2006, Santa was having fun drifting it up. Last year he was having fun with girls. This year he has knukled down and is going for the record. He bought the car from craft company and in testing with 15000erp (enchanted raindeer power) it is hitting hard. Spotted here in shakedown at Tsukuba, he's crushed the rwd record now at just 0.003ms !!!!

This image was captured by a super high speed north polar camera and even then you can only just make it out.

Hope you get lots of goodies.

Tonight, Just listen for the rotary howl around midnight.

"Bwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap jingle jingle"

Russ.

AutoSalon Final Battle 2008

Those Aussies are at it again. The final battle for the autosalon magazine show car!

The focus is near normal body, crazy paint, huge power and even bigger rims.

The above FD seems the most drivable of this bunch but the candy apple red paint still would cause the driver angst. Nice feed kit covers the rims well.

This car has thin 20" or bigger rims, and probably 600+hp. To me that seems a bit rediculous. I guess you need that power to overcome the weight of the plasma TV.

I guess the weight aids traction also. Again normal re-trimmed FD seats continue to under excite.

Now Chester's car is pretty close. Bride and almost every concievable mod. It's just the oversize wheel fitment that takes the edge off it for me personally. It's sooooo cool, but it could be unquestionable.

Beside Chesters car, you can make out Pete's rice racing red SP. Just as Mazda built it. This car is one of 35 special versions with 120L carbon fuel cell and other nice upgrades.

"Sixth sense" has been in the OZ scene for a long time, the previously silver beast has been through a series of transformations. It now has slight upgrades and now popular flame job and massivly oversize rims...

Up close the wheels look nice. well detailed Bling VIP style. Note Blue Sidewall tyres!

From the rear, the car looks "quite a bit too high" without a body kit to hide those massive wheels.

This one is low, PAC engine and custome body works paint.

I'm not sure about the blue wall tyres and dished chrome when it's displayed on BROWN wood chips. Hmm think about the display guys....

I love them all and have misgivings for them all at the same time. The aussie cars are pure works of art that are dedications to their fastidious owners. They look sooo cool with huge power figures. Am I missing something? What has living in Japan done to me? I guess this is one style that I can't totally appreciate anymore. Enjoy this peek.

Most photos from KEV. Lots of other cars to see here.

Russ.

Tsukuba Super Battle 2008

"Greeting sportsfans!

Welcome to the Rev Speed Super Lap Battle for 2008.
In attendance are Japan's cream of the tuning scene, who are all vying for the super lap record at the world famous Tsukuba circuit."

Commentary over. when you are greeted in the first few minutes with sights of the Open class Revolution FD. It's a good day!

Street class requires shaken inspection and road tyres. The Fujita engineering beast was struggling for traction all day. 500+hp and Neova.. hahaha. Thats a fight you're not going to win with this tyre.

As I took some pics Fujita-san blasted the throttle a few times before the driver entered. Ear shattering!

On the track it looked great also! In the morning wet, the car was basically useless. no traction and the top driver fighting massive oversteer as the rear would break loose under the huge power. The car was in and out of the pits for adjustment.

TiRacing on the other hand circulated lap after fast lap in their street car. Awesome reliability and don't go too far. This is how you tune an FD for the street.

The lighting all day was strong. My little camera in only an IXY compact. it does it's best, but on days like today... miles from the track, it's tough.

I clicked away, then I used it for some video I will post later.

TiRacing under the bridge. All day I was watching the sun reflection on the carbon bonnets. I needed a super slow mo camera to capture that though.

pan speed came out for one lap to test the track conditions.

Then there was a flurry of activity near the pit.

The Screen Powers FD also got some attention.

Then i was sitting at the pit wall, when the Revolution FD blasted past, spinning it's 295 rear tyres the whole way up pit lane. Cool!

I raced out to get some pics.

Dino, Adam and others will have better ones. Their equipment is bigger than mine... (camera that is) haha.

Screen car also was circulating well. but the track was only producting 59 second runs, which for these cars is very slow.

On track the Revolution car is sooooo cool. Up the straight, the noise is insane.

The Street Class re-appeared for the second session.

Check the weather, it came out nice. 18degrees. dry track. Perfect for the final session.

The mines GTR didn't stay in front for long BTW.

One more of the Fujita car.

Then it happened.... Pan speed entry.

Revolution Entry...

Pan Speed shakedown and pit activity....

Revolution pit activity....

Pan speed. 56 seconds

Revolution 56 seconds...

This is what i heard over the speaker. "55.261." which I believe is a new RWD tsukuba record. But according to the Revolution Blog they didn't hit 55? Whats going on? I will retract this and wait for more info. Revo site says 56.08, 56.18 Sorry for misinfo.

Preliminary results from the board. Top three on the day.

Cyber Evo 55.281 so thats my mistake.... I misheard the time for the cars on track at the same time. Doh! oh well. I'm glad I'm not professional... haha.

Revo TA2 56.094

Pan Speed 56.751

So there you go...

"Well it's time to sign off and say Sayonara.... to the Rev Speed Tsukuba Super Lap Battle for 2008. This has been Russell signing off for RE-Xtreme."

Enjoy this video...

SAB Meeting - Mazdaspeed

Mazdaspeed. While few could afford the fully Mazda optioned cars. These must be considered the purest form of modification and the R-Spec was the pinnacle from Mazdaspeed.

What makes them good? Perfect Panel fit! Matched componentry. Not excessive, but targetet with the sports driver in mind. As street cars, these are cars you can live with everyday.

The details show the R-Spec front bumper (complete with canards) and the holes filled with MS upgraded oil coolers.

The bonnet is 100% carbon sandwich. At 350000 yen, it was one of the most expensive. A New GTR bonnet would be the same price. MS Wheels (produced by Rays) were also the best and lightest available. These MS-01 Magnesium versions are simply awesome. Back them with MS (endless) Callipers and up sized brake rotors and you have a formiddable combo for factory dominance.

Before the R-Spec though, the MS- GTConcept was produced, It's pretty hard to find one of these in stock form these days. This one took things a little too far.

Older Rays MS rims from the early 90's still look pretty good though.

A few other panels have found their way onto this car, but Mazdaspeed seats remain. They only really support the brand as you will slide around on these very easily.

The rear has an RE-Amemiya AC kit. Sides are Veilside. but MS Wheels look cool.

This one kept a more GT-C theme with sides, mirrors and typeII wing, but the rear was upgraded to R-Spec and the RE-A bonnet is definately not MS.

The Advan Super Racing Ver2. wheels still look wierd, but pretty aggressive.

This RX8 features Varis gear but the front bar is an MS item, so I grouped the car in this section.

Very tough looking 8 on the sadly discontinued, Rays SE37K