Sunday, 30 November 2008

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

Saturday, 29 November 2008

SAB Meeting - Knight Sports

Knight Sports are a company that goes fairly un-noticed in Japan. Their approach to tuning is not so flashy and their philosophy is more about street legal performance. In the car park only the odd knight sports exhaust showed their presence.

That said their demo cars are pretty wild these days. The new 7 has some serious components. It's quick and track focussed. But please please please put the Gun Advan RS back on the FD. the white TCII look horrendous.
The 8 on the other hand is a cool machine, recently benefiting from enhanced lips to the already aggressive aero. The rear bumper is new too but it houses a huge pnumatic jack that looks terrible.
This car has already cleaned up 3 rounds of the RX8 RACE series in Japan. The final is 21 Dec at tsukuba at the RX Winter meeting.

This car features carbon doors, bonnet and aero parts that look good, but the inside and engine bay is all business. It's a pitty it's not as clean as say the Mspeed GTR but it is a race car 100%


While not quite as savage as the Pan speed 8. It's very very close in times.


I'm guessing this is a new RX8 from knight sports, after you change the aero, there is only the rear lights to let you know. mmm. Advan RS in 19"!

Friday, 28 November 2008

SAB Meeting - RE-Amemiya

My favourite Amemiya car is the Super Greedy III. While it's not everyone's taste, if it had been released 6 months earlier I would have bought this kit.

I think it really makes something that fits with the mazda design. Part RX8, Part MX5, but still FD. Some of the details on this car are very cool.

The front fenders are much wider and can easily handle large rubber. While the width of the fender also does away with the confused corner of the bonnet. Creating a smooth flow and a favourable shape.
This posibly the bit I feel could be improved, with the rest of the car very clean, the areas behind the fenders are a little busy.

But the car generates a real presence. The front is very low, the integrate canarda also work well with the frnder flares.

Sleek light base for these lights are now extended to hose the small indicator. Park lamp is eliminated.
The underbonnet area is just as impressive. The position of the bonnet vents and the way the carbon shroud channels air through it is an integrated feature.

Both elegant and effective the Level Man intercooler is a seriously thick piece of gear and dominates the bonnet area.

At the rear the hatch has been dropped and slides past a set of IPF lights. Note the rear wing has no side panels. This looks wierd at first but soon looks stylish more than some other designs.

On the other hand, the AC D1 based kits from Amemiya never really had coherent styling. From only a few angles, the car manages to get attention for the right reasons.

I think this is mainly due to the added length this kit adds. The front becomes much longer and destroys the balance of the car.

And when you get to the rear things really look terrible. This one has the light fixtures in black which really looks terrible. The Centre exit exhaust is not used here either and just makes you wonder why.

This angle is the best. Front on. So i looked around this car for details. Maxis III bride seats are awesome and the car is solid mechanically.

So what does it take to get it right. ???? There are so many combinations from Amemiya.

This one is pretty good. The new Touge Monster. A young guy was driving this around so it didn't seem to be in the demo stable anymore. A lucky customer.
This car has run 59s at Tsukuba and won the Best Motoring Hot Version Toege Battle.

It's still far from perfect however, but that's to expect from a circuit focussed machine that's hard to keep clean and 100% pretty.

Side diffusers have the wobbly wave, Red carbon bonnet looks a bit rough and some details are not exactly spot on.

But who cares, it's still awesome!

Running on street radials the RP-F1 wheels look purposeful, but I still think these cars would look awesome with 18" rubber.
Some other tough FDs wearing RE-AD GT kit are looking a bit tired these days. I don't know if newer things look better or the rivet fascination from RE-Amemiya is just wearing off me. The AD GT kit always looks better without the side diffusers.
This car in white anf FRP somehow looks very cool. 2005 front with the integrates splitter looks good.
The older one is starting to date and the carbon parts always discolour. Old RE-Amemiya rims are still ugly and heavy.

This Touge monster copy is very nice though, the black bonnet and carbon splitter looks good together. This car had real pressence. No widebody cars are recently interesting.
This one with chrome Advan RS looked pretty cool too.

Engine compnents on this car were the main ingredients. Big turbo in effect.


Older RE-AD kit still catches the eye. This is the RE-Amemiya catalog from 1992!

This guy on the other hand represents some dress up style while still pushing big HP. While some Amemiya components in effect, like many he has a mix that has you looking twice for detail.

Thursday, 27 November 2008

SAB Meeting - FC Represent!

Following on from the R-Magic Post. I spotted this Spirit R coloured FC that looked amazing.

Panel finish thats free of the curved door effect on most FCs, plastic side strips that fit!

Low ride height set off by old school Enkei (maybe) 3piece wheels had me staring at this car for a while. The owner has done a beautiful restoration of a car that's now over 20 years old!!!

It deserves a few more shots. This car would look awesome on the touge. Tight winding roads are where it belongs. Not in a car park where the careless BMW owner parked beside can cause some pin dents.

Anyway...
I walked a bit further and found this origi-didge-inal Efini IV with BBS rims. A car that in it's day was a pretty awesome machine. 215hp I think. WOW! (sarcasm). Beside that you can see the contrast between standard and a nice street tuned example.

Lower, meaner, and a nice combo of parts. Front bar, RE-A Mirrors etc. and the Grenade R34 style wheels set it off really nicely.

But this monster still manages to beat them all. Beatuful PAN speed kit has been enhanced by this owner to make all the more special.

The front rubber lip makes the bar even lower. The larger canards also give a more menacing look.
Huge Brembo brake combo complements the RAYS 57TC wheels and the bayside blue finish is absolutely spotless.

It would almost be a shame to take this to a circuit and get paint chips all over it, but it certainly looked capable of some hot laps. The huge Voltex wing add some down force to balance the canards at the front and the custom rear light treatment finished it off very nicely indeed.
Most of the kit is Panspeed, I would have like to see the rear fender additions blended but hey.
Awesome!
Russ.