Thursday August 25th 2011: 106 days since I’ve been to Japan and I’m having bad withdrawals. I want to go back. Searching through photos from my first trip I couldn’t resist to post this characterised looking Mark II JZX 100. The feeling I got when I looked at this photo was a real shock, it was an instant flashback from my experiences in Japan and it’s just given me more of a reason to return. This was definitely one of the greatest nights of my life. After a full day out at Fuji Raceway we returned back into Tokyo and thought we’d drop by the ever so famous Daikoku PA in Yokohama, little did we know what we were about to see. Shortly, I will be sending just under 400 35mm shots to Chris to get scanned onto disks so I can get them up on the blog and let me tell you I can’t wait to show you them! In the meantime I will be posting random photos from both of my trips to Japan.
I’ve always said to myself that when I move to Japan I will build and own a Toyota Chaser – JZX, whether it be a 81,90,100, 100mk2 or a 110, either way I absolutely adore them. This particular 100 was spotted at Nagoya during a street session on a Friday night. Even though you can’t see too much detail on the car it’s pretty much how I would style a big 4 door Toyota: Remain standard aero and deep 18’s with a sexy exhaust system that produces an amazing 1J note, I really wish I could explain to you exactly what this machine sounded like when it was sliding.
A couple of months prior to Japan I was speaking with Alexi Smith on a regular basis trying to sort out our trip, mostly discussing the events we scheduled to attend. He mentioned that during the time of Ebisu Week there would be a couple of grassroots drift days held down south at Nikko Circuit. Alexi said at some of these low key events you may be lucky and see some pretty crazy cars out on the field, possibly a D1GP car? Or maybe D1SL? During the JZX Day on the Monday I was standing on the outside of the ever so famous first corner at Nikko, the 3 wheeled entry. This white on white JZX100 Mark II comes screaming down the front straight, smashing into 3rd. A transition like no other, dropping the rear right wheel off the edge causing the front left to leave the ground.
Downshifting to 2nd gear and smashing the limiter making instant smoke at the rear. What an entry. A 1JZ has never sounded so good. These guys really can drive, it is honestly unbelievable how consistent they are lap after lap, easily the best drivers in the world. I could only imagine a D1GP driver tearing up this tiny little track, but then again I think to myself, it surely couldn’t get much better than this? After all it is Japan…
So, this year I’m 19 years old which to me feels daunting. Up until now I’ve done some pretty exciting things as a teenager, as most of you know I visited Japan last November. Over the 18 day period the memories will be imprinted in me until the day I pass on. Meeting random Japanese people from Daikoku PA and ending up in their cars smashing up the mountains the night after was truly breathtaking. Visiting dozens of tracks, workshops and shops was overwhelming for all of us, as I still sift through the images I find it hard to believe I was there only a few months ago.
The last week of the trip we were settling in at Nihonmatsu, Fukushima for the G1GP and Autumn Ebisu Drift Matsuri held at Ebisu Circuit. Travelling with 9 drifters from Melbourne, Victoria, 7 had purchased cars to compete in both the Gaijin Drifting competition and the Matsuri. The only 2 people that didn’t purchase cars were myself and Nigel Petrie. As we had 8 long days and nights at Ebisu, Nigel and I thought it would be more than ideal to drive the 167km’s back towards Tokyo to a little town by the name of Utsunomiya which is where the ever so famous Nikko Circuit is located.
On the Sunday night we arrived to Nihonmatsu, everyone except Nigel and I had planned to head to Ebisu to pickup their cars and begin work. However our schedule was a little different, we had planned to attend the JZX day at Nikko the next morning. Driving along the highway keeping our eyes peeled for the exit I noticed the humungous power lines sticking up beneath a number of trees on the opposite side of the highway. We literally screamed our lungs out. After getting f*#%d by the GPS we randomly ended up out the front a small workshop with the characters “IKEYA FORMULA” printed. Our days just kept getting better and better, we must have done a few good-deeds to deserve the things that come in our path. After driving in, parking and being introduced to the President of Ikeya Formula we sat down, had a drink and looked over the Presidents hill-climb 350Z and a few customers cars. Shortly after we were Nikko bound.
As we arrived a little later than expected, we only caught about 3 or so hours of the 1 and 2J’s screaming around the tiny circuit. After the day concluded we met up with Alexi Smith and Manabu Mitsumori once again to tea up a feature on his JZX 100. After shooting the car all I wanted to do was to lock up my camera and make sure nothing could happen to it to loose the data I had stored on that little SanDisk Extreme III 8GB memory card. As I was finished shooting both the JZX and Manabu-san I sat back, had a talk to Nigel and Alexi and watched everyone pack up their belongings and head home for the day. This time of the day is truly spectacular, I say it so often and I’ll say it again, I really wish it lasted longer than it does. The light is even, the air is crisp and the atmosphere is silent, at the specific time at Nikko I honestly couldn’t think of anywhere else I would of rather been.
I’m not sure if these images give the same impression as they do to me but I’ve tried giving you a detailed description to help. As these are some of my favourite images I’ve come across I’d like each and everyone of you to have the access to widescreen, high resolution wallpapers.
First image: 1920×1200. Second image: 1920×1200.
Casey.
After a full day of action at Fuji Raceway, we were yet again blessed with a great number of cars parked up at Daikoku PA located in Yokohama Bay. One thing about our Japan trip, we didn’t have time to scratch our backsides, Day in, day out we always had a packed schedule. Nigel managed to sneak into this photo having a closer look at the rear.
Rather then the images sitting in iPhoto, I’ll try my best to get every single photo I took on the blog.
This JZX rocked in at about 09:30PM alongside a JZX 100 Mark II, which I’ll be showing you some images of in the next post.
