On Pan Street

When Pan Speed take their TA car knowledge and apply it to the street, the experience in these cars remains in constant evolution. Rather than take the RE-Amemiya approach and build car after car adding the same parts time and time again. Pan speed keep their cars in house and they evolve.

Notice a similarity? Dry carbon wing is huge!

Overall, the car is not unsimilar to the Touge Monster from Amemiya. Just a little less showy.

This car looks like a street racer. Inside it has been stripped. Sticky rubbered CE-28N force the inclusion of a recaro SPG for the driver and over fenders for the extra tyre width.

Working around this car, you can see the mix of old and new.

Old Pan speed mirrors are cool. I like the small features including the gold metal covers for the original mirror locations.

Carbon bonnet is well executed. The difficult weave sections are finished well and the centre flaps are matching but not carbon. Thick weave has a great effect.

Small canards may not be the best shape for the car, but I guess they add downforce. Over fenders are subtle and meld well into the awesome side skirts.

A couple of high shots for overall appreciation.

Curved rear wing matches the fd3s shape well. Small rear over fenders need the rivet gun well loaded.

There's a diffuser for ground effect and style effect.

Next....

Strike a Pose.

The Art Factory "Strikers" FD3s is the second in the series. I think it looks better than the pink one. But I am still not a fan of the female child worship that happens in Japan. The race queens at this years event were the youngest I have ever seen.

And... I think the Itaisha loving geeks have a lot to do with that. I know Amemiya is trying to get younger people interested in cars but there has to be some point to draw the line.

Enough rant.... Details include the full 2002 AD- GT wide body kit from RE-Amemiya including the cool but fender mirrors. The graphics are well executed and the yellow/black combo with street camoflague is basically sound. Small details like the script tape effect around the base of the mirrors and other places on the car is cool too.

The screen is covered in graphics also. Show only but definately noticable.

Even the Enkei RP-03 are covered in vinyl. The headlights are yellow tinted and the list continues.

Further back, the manga craziness comes into play and there's a surprise lurking in the dark.

Russ.

Auto Pilot

The Auto in Auto Craft puts the Cruise on Auto Pilot. This Luxury FD3s is targeted at fast highway cruising with style. not unlike the Ferrari F599 it was inspired by.

The paint is the first thing you notice but it isn't the last. Detail keeps coming. I have a couple of criticisms of this car, but they are minor. Overall it is awesome.

The first is the large expanse of the bonnet. I can't help but think a sculpted bonnet of some kind would show the paint to much better effect. This pic highlights a small flaw in the sleek light panel gap however the masterful C-West/RX8 bumper is flawless.

It really does integrate well and modernize the car at the same time.

Auto Crafts sleek lights are a little different to RE-A ones. Maybe a little more basic with much more black covering the mechanism.

This view uncovers the KS-Auto Burnout Fenders.

Working backwards. Ugly mirros detract from the wonder, but the Autoexe side skirts work very well.

The line to the rear tyre is awesome. Better than feed skirts in my opinion. Painted is good.

Everyone knows I'm a fan of green. I also think the car would definately be better in one shade. Brown is not a colour for cars. Sorry. I can see the choice to match the interior, but contrast is good.

The rear is cool. IPF double cluster and a fantastic diffuser with rotary LED in the centre. But the dual exhaust is un-needed in this position. I won't show you, but the rear exhaust is not mounted well and the exit to get to those exhausts is convoluted.

The rear shows awesome weave on the rear canards and diffuser. And the finish on the wheels is wonderful.

Rays Volk Racing GT-30 with Matt rim. Strange choice but it immediately gives the car subtle attention.

If anything the matt wheels take away some Bling from the car. Front RX8 LED indicators light up well.

Shooting this car was an absolute nightmare as it was placed in the brightest place in the hall. Reflection didn't help this car's overall appearance and as always at TAS, interior is off limits.

Peering inside. The auto interior keeps the occupants comfortable with tan leather and matt finish suede alcantara complemented by carbon.

But I can tell, that without so much light, the car would blend into any environment. A true cameleon

Face the Magic

from the rear the semi-normal look can fool you.

Turn around and you'll find this....the G-Face of TCP-Magic.

Last year they featured a blue one at tas with the release of this kit and have since built 5 or six of these machines. This one however is special.

The doors are carbon and the rear hatch is a one piece carbon item also because TCP Magic are chasing weight reduction.

Why? well, while this may look like a widebody streetable car, the destiny is the centre stage of D1.

TCP Magic have been running the silver 13b car with Rays-G-Games77SOG in last years competition but it never had the mumbo to be a serious competitior.

But this year, He'll have some serious 4 rotor Mumbo to play with. It should be one of the most spectacular cars in D1. The engine is a derivative of Mad Mikes 4 rotor engines from kiwi land.

By the time the D1 season rolls around, you can be sure this package will be ready to schred!

Inside, the sequential shifter and dash pack are almost standard features for D1 these days.

It's a bit like drag racing. It seems a shame that D1 events only see cars running for a few minutes. But those few minutes are exiting.

Russ.

Fujita Streeter

Fujita Engineering's association with Advan is also well known through countless appearances in Advan advertising. Last month the car appeared in advertising with machined RS-D but this time the car has ....

New colour matt black RS-D in 20". The Afflux IV widebody kit always looks good, but this is off the charts!

Turn radius and ride height is rediculous on the car's race newly designed suspension.

The front of the car is still awesome.

Look at the Depth on these new advans. news is RG-D, RZ-ForgedD, RS-D and others are on the way.

Check out the size of these things. Bigger than the fender diameter.

Yep...235/30/ZR20 advan sport up front leave little gap for direction changes.

285/25/ZR20 als leave little room for bump situation.

but we don't care..... Wonder abounds.

You may remember me bagging the red stripe. Up close it's not too bad, but from a distance. Jury is still out.

Russ.