7's Day 2011 - FC Heaven

Daikoku is always full of FC3s and FC3c on 7's Day. This is the venue for the FC lovers. These two BN Sports style machines showing the true Japanese Drift style made famous by Haruguchi.

You always find awesome cars here, This B-Wave bumper on the FC was always a favourite of mine.

Panasport G7 5 spokes and some nice period correct items. some people would kill for the window rain defectors on this car. But check the background, Daikoku fills with enthusiasts, from restored stock to wild chops.

these old school Enkei 3 piece rims and a wild combo and further down the row you see the Tamon demo car. Some guys bring some items to off load.

The Japanese variety and abundance is hard to imagine for some. Stock 84 FC3S to 91 Enfini. It's all here.

GT-R rims are a nice upgrade on this base model. Thankfully no NA cars in Japan. Only the turbo monsters.

These black car was the cleanest I found. The owner very pleased to show it off.

All FC lovers are "quirky", right? You have to be to put up with FC electrical gremlins and the 80's wonder.

If that's too much for you then a few upgrades usually eliminate most problems. But some take it a bit further to full rebuild level. This car was perFeCt!

go go FC.

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7's Day 2011 - Eco UN-friendly

Something tells me this FC is not driven much at night.

Or on the street for that matter. Lack of registration number, the odd bonnet latch, massive splitter and serious rubber all point to a capable circuit machine.

Cage and stripped interior in this very clean FC and that green colour does not mean Hybrid....It means GO! Wheels are gram lights with S-tyres for good measure. I must say, being 10 years since I last owned an FC, I'm a bit out of date with parts makers, but the front bar, bonnet and mirrors work well on this car. Rear wing looks like a garage BB item.

Just one of the cool FC3s at sevens day.

December 2011 - Editorial

December means... Xmas Shopping? Holidays? Toys?

No... TIME ATTACK!


Time Attack Season is upon us. Expect to see some monsters out and about. Arios, CC, R-Magic, Pan Speed  and RE-Amemiya and others will be running again soon.

These machines will be in attendance at the REV Speed Tsukuba Super Battle on Friday 9th of Dec and I have my camera ready...

Recently, as you can see I'm still sorting through the masses of images from 7's day.
A bunch of new parts have been released for the FD3s, I update some of them on the Facebook page so check it out.

I'm also heading to the Tokyo Motor show next week. We shall see what new toys there are.

End of December Xmas will come. Here's a few for your list.

Ebbro RE-Amemiya Super GT 1/43 Scale Static die cast model.
Yokomo RE-Amemiya GT300 1/12th scale RC.
Tamiya RE-Amemiya Super GT 1/10th Scale RC
Yokomo RE-Amemiya D1 FD 1/10th Scale Drift RC

Or Maybe something real.

RE-Amemiya TS Concept TAS Car 1/1 Scale

Then it's TAS time early next year. I'm watching the cars from AB Flug, RE-Amemiya NA7 and the dress up machine and others are in their final stages of preparation.

On a liberating note for me...

RE-Xtreme Version III has left my posession so at the moment I am FD3sless. That hasn't really dampened my love for the beast though. Maybe one day....    Maybe... There might be another.

7's Day 2011 - Death Machine

This sinister FD3s was on my own shopping short list a while ago. The current owner using this street car for drift and circuit attack.

Wearing the R-Magic full N1 Quarter Fenders with stock rear bar integration and the N1 Front Bar with additional splitter (an expensive item in itself),  the grim reaper would  have fun in this car. 4, pronounced "Shi" in Japanese is an unlucky number sharing another meaning of "death", so 444 is kind of like 666 in English.

As a street car stance is again set to normal height and the 17" Advan RGII complement the car very nicely.

Stock callipers are all thats required and somehow the stock popup lights still have the "correct styling." Tow Hook, Canards, craft square mirrors and a CF R-Magic hood complete this car's appearance. But to save that splitter it needs to be this high. (for those of you wanting ground effects to work properly, the splitter needs to much lower than this on the track.)

So a quick photoshop shows the down and dirty image of this car.

A "Complete" tuner car like this doesn't come cheap. but when you buy from the second owner, it's usually about 50% cheaper than a DIY build.

Watch out in the mirror... the reaper is lurking!

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7's Day 2011 - F-See

Here's a little inspiration for those FC-Xtremists among us. Most FD owners have probably had an FC or two in their past...

These are the ones they probably dreamed about. Border / Tamon / Convertible with TE37 and V-Mount.

Or perhaps an RE-Amemiya FC-2000 front to complement some older tuning components like these MS-01 Mazdaspeed rims.

How about THE original RE-Amemiya Greddy II widebody with 928 headlight conversion on OZ rims. Awesome or what!!!!

Or maybe something wider... this car tuned by ERC features some extra wild parts from Border, Tamon and more.

Makes you want one again, doesn't it? I wonder if the electrics are still working?

Speed Hunted

I was recently approached to put together a small article about obsession. What makes us fanatics live and breath car obsession?

The Speedhunters guest blog for a look inside RE-Xtreme is Here.

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/11/18/guest-blog-gt-gt-russell-gander-re-xtreme.aspx

My first article on Speedhunters was a long long time ago and I looked at the top5 most influential FD3s.

That article is Here... but maybe it needs expanding to a top ten. The top 5 still bear true but the scope was limited.  The Scoot 4 Rotor and Veilside Tokyo Drift car would make popular additions.

http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/01/05/user-ranking-gt-gt-re-xtreme-top-5.aspx

On a side note... RE-Xtreme Version III has recently left my possession, so I'm not as obsessed as people think... What's Version IV?

Russ.

7's Day 2011 - Touge Legend.

What does it take to create a legend?

A good script, an actual event or chance. Whatever the truth, the Touge Monster FD3s is a legend. The defeater and defender of the Touge. On a chosen piece of asphalt in Gunma Japan, this machine was, and still is, capable of dispatching more powerful and favoured 2wd and 4wd opponents. It defines the term "Total Balance". It also builds credit to the notion that if you want to drive hard and get satisfaction, you don't a million dollar budget, 600 horsepower or a widebody pretty car, especially on the street.

At seven's day I spotted the car in the carpark at Tsukuba, the car is still street registered without drama, and during my trip from Tsukuba to Daikoku, the surprise street attack was still evident. Unfortunately I was driving and not taking pictures at that time. (fun fun)

Twin turbo, 360hp, and only 17" wheels and Neova may sound a bit under spec, but it led to more than a few replica builds including my own. The white FD in the background of the picture below was the replacement built by RE-Amemiya. Both cars would go toe to toe all day and all night on your favorite mountain pass.  

Quite simply ... adequate.

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