the NER S13 – purchased off yahoo auctions early last year it has gone through a bunch of upgrades, maintenance and general work over the past 15 months to comfortably get back home on the streets of japan.

this is somewhat a famous car with history. built by TOMEI in the early 90s into the 2000s in collaboration with one of the largest magazines and media companies CARBOY to document each stage this car and engine went through in order to attack courses like Tsukuba 1000 & Gunsai. being in the hands of drivers such as keiichi tsuchiya and max orido there are a number of scanned documents from magazines and HOT VERSION videos still present on the internet today that this cars life used to be.

the car wasn’t ran for somewhere between 8-10 years from what the original owner told me upon picking up the car so it is a very cool feeling having it running, driving and trouble-free back on the streets of japan. the original 2.2L motor that the car was renowned for had to be pulled out and loads of maintenance taken place ready for another car down the track. the current motor setup in this now is from another car. SR20DE with GTIR 4 throttle intake setup and 260mm cams all run by the original TOMEI REYTEC.

after all the maintenance and work i finally have had the chance to make it look a little more appealing over the past few weeks, get things cleaned up further, get temporary insurance in order to take it for a drive & shoot. enjoy the photos right smack bang in the middle of summer in the hills of nara prefecture

love always x

HOT VERSION / GUNSAI video link: click here

3037 S13 update as it hasn’t seen any sunlight let alone run under its own power since september 2021 (last year) blowing an engine at meihan sports land a month after kansai all stars. it is a very common situation in japan, even for myself for the time i’ve spent here with cars & driving to have cars pulled down and rebuilt immediately in order to get back out driving and practicing ASAP as that is priority, at least in the kansai region of japan. luckily enough i have had the 2530 practice car to fill in those gaps of weekly events, practice and traveling whilst the 3037 car got pulled down and rebuilt very thoroughly.

i will have some more in-depth information, photos & videos very soon with what changes and upgrades have been done specifically however will wait until the car is a little more complete. below is a small youtube video of some raw clips earlier this week heading out to PRO SHOP DIVERSION from SKY MOTORS as the car is now back together and running. a pre-run-in setting check before the engine is run-in as the engine itself and components are all different for the most part

the following update will be running-in the motor at suzuka motorland hopefully later this week, following that back to DIVERSION for the full-setting and finally PARTS SHOP TAKA for the livery install x

if you follow SHIRTSTUCKEDIN across our social media platforms you would have seen myself, naoki & takeda made the giant treck to hokkaido last weekend, more specifically tokachi speedway. i have only ever been up to hokkaido once which was back in mid 2019 for a very small event next to chisato airport to take photos.

fast forwarding two and a bit years it was time to go back again however this time with a truck and 2 cars. on the sunday there was an event held and organized by takeda-san (YURA MODE) – it has been a while since he has put on an event up there due to the pandemic. ever since i saw naoki drive here for the first time a few years ago from videos kicking around on youtube i have always been beyond interested to at least go and see the course in person let alone drive it. being extremely far away from nara, kansai means multiple days off work and a bit of budget needed to make it a possibility.

to put it briefly how far away this course is from kansai the trip began in nara to fukui in the truck which was a 3 hour drive to the port terminal. from there a 22-23 hours boat ride to tomakomai terminal in the south of hokkaido. unloading the truck off the boat to then another 3 hour drive direct east just past a little city called obihiro to then, tokachi speedway totalling transit time to around 54 hours.

this is the first proper shakedown i’ve done in the practice car which i purchased at the start of this year, putting most of the time and efforts into the main 3037 meihan car but with that currently having it’s engine rebuilt the practice car was the pick to take up north. it is a very simple setup car. SR20DET, step 1 cams, HKS 2530 with a 12CM rear housing, 4.3 2 way, b-knuckle, stance suspension, radiator, intercooler and R33 mission. naoki took his main S13 up in which has had some recent work and loads of maintenance done to it along with getting re-tuned last week and making just under 580HP out of a 2.1L step 3 SR20DET.

usually when i go away driving i leave the camera at home however i’ve been more motivated to take it lately even if it means getting it out and taking photos for 10-15 minutes, memories will be forever and need to continue to remember this. below are a few photos i took over the period of the trip along with a 10+ RAW youtube video i have put together which includes the trip to and from, in-car footage and some outside footage of naoki absolutely ripping apart tokachi. towards the end of the day i managed to put the camera inside naokis car however the battery died instantly. if you have the time i highly recommend watching it below.

once again thank you to each and every single one of you for your following and love through contact and purchasing goods via the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN online store, it makes doing trips and driving like this a possibility and hope to do more as soon as possible. loveee always, caseyy x

cool pair in ecopa, shizuoka – SR all stars meeting 2018 x

suzuka twin circuit hitomiGO practice day. enjoy 11 minutes of uncut raw footage. can’t wait to drive this car again x

shirtstuckedin meeting, daikoku parking area late 2018 x

Following off my last blog post on the first day of driving the new S13 in Motorland Mikawa. Onwards from that Keisuke and myself were tossing up a few other circuits on the outer regions of Kansai to pick and drive. It was a decision between Bihoku Highland in Okayama Prefecture or Tokushima Kart Land in Tokushima Prefecture.

With stupid loud cars it was quickly decided to drive TKL over Bihoku due to their noise restrictions. Not to mention almost every single day of the week and year TKL is open for フリー走 which basically means free practice/running.

With another afternoon & almost all-nighter of preparation and over-looking on the cars we left Izumiotsu area super early after an hour or so of sleep and headed towards Tokushima. The showed route on google-maps said between 3-3.5 hours pending traffic which can easily make a simple-straight forward trip turn for the worst in Japan.

For the very few times I have been to Tokushima I have always thoroughly enjoyed for a few reasons. Wrapping around Osaka City, through Kobe and towards one of the longest and strongest suspension bridges in the world – Akashi-Kaikyo which links off the main island of Japan Honshu to Iwaya on the small, beautiful Awaji Island. Driving over it you receive panoramic views looking down towards Okayama on your right and Osaka on your left. The only thing that is a little depressing about this little stretch of road is the price you pay in tolls to go on the bridge however it’s an amazing experience in itself.

Directly after you’ll reach a parking area on the left called Awaji Service Area which gives you some spectacular views looking back towards Honshu and Kobe City. We stopped here to stretch our legs and grab some horrid-tasting Japanese black coffee and a cigarette.

As expected there were a few cars that rolled in just after we pulled up so fired off a few shots of this beautiful R31 Skyline on Hayashi Streets and XR-4s.

I once again rented a truck to bring my car. With a drive of 3-4 hours it’s always nice peace of mind having a truck in the group just incase anything goes wrong. Keisuke however decided to once again drive his street registered S15 closely behind.

Awaji Service Area is definitely a large parking area that is always beyond busy. Huge ferris wheel and plenty of souvenir shops.

After a 20 minute break enjoying the view and grabbing breakfast it was time to keep pushing on the Kobe-Awaji Expressway towards Tokushima. I enjoy this photo of all the cars ready for a fun day of driving.

A couple hours of driving, merging into one-lane highways, getting lost and getting stuck behind old Kei-Car drivers constantly we made it to Tokushima Kart Land. This circuit along with many others in Japan is really in the middle of nowhere and has an extremely interesting, tight and technical entrance especially in a truck.

I remember many years ago before I really ever came to Japan or knew where certrain places were or circuits consisted of this course has always stuck in my mind as a place to not only shoot but to drive. The gallery corner view. Looking straight down onto the circuit with a wide hairpin and a tiny palm tree planted in the middle. This wasn’t the first time I had been to TKL but usually with seeing courses for the first time in Japan it’s always so much more dramatic to see how steep and or tight the landscape really is.

If I remember correctly this course has been year around 40-42 years. I had a brief conversation with the owner sitting in the office and believe he has been there since day dot so there is definitely some old buildings, stickers and memorabilia around if you keep your eyes peeled. This is the little drivers meeting / briefing office painted in a contrasting pink offsetting the green hills pasted in the background.

The few cars we saw at Awaji Service Area on the way just so happened to be driving this free practice day also. It was basically 4 other cars plus Keisuke and I and drive as you wish. 8am-5PM for 4,000¥. You also have the option to start drifting again from 6PM-10PM for an extra 2,500¥. I know plenty of cheap circuits to drive but I think TKL takes the win.

Just like Motorland Mikawa this day was unbelievably hot, around 38-40 degrees if I remember correctly so Keisuke and I were pretty cautious in terms of drive time. With only a very few pit-bays undercover we were taking terms each session to get the cars under cover, pop the bonnet and poor a few solid litres of water straight onto the radiator. As cold as this climate gets in Japan it does the same in reverse, extremely hot and humid and can easily see why a lot of the cars that drive in this country have water jet sprayers installed on their cars.

Escaping the extreme humidity we jumped inside the ice-chilled office / restaurant for some lunch and a look back through TKL’s past. All over the walls are photos from a long time ago with specific events and meets that had been held there. I don’t think I got any shots of the photos framed and hung on the walls so you’ll just have to go and look for yourself.

After a few more solid sessions after some lunch back to back Keisuke ended up giving me a little nudge in my perfectly aligned and straight rear end! 6 or so hours of driving on and off with minimal sleep and next to no car issues again. Watching temperatures and letting the car cool down when it needs to is definitely worth it.

Stopping in Kobe for a coffee on the way back to Osaka. Will never get sick of drift cars loaded onto trucks in Japan. Simple things.

Thank you to Rob-San for driving, as always (L)

Another circuit ticked off the list in Japan, there are definitely a lot of closer courses within Kansai I want to improve and consistently practice on however it’s nice to get out of the area and drive places you’ve been living through online photos and videos for years and years. Below is a few minute video I put together of driving TKL, enjoy. F: 235-40R17 TOYO R1R R:265-35R18 KENDA KR20. casey xxx

october/november two-thousand-eighteen – now available online – CLICK to shop now x

the SHIRTSTUCKEDIN online store will be re-opening this SUNDAY 28th 9PM PST / MONDAY 29th 2PM AEST. more information to come x

the only other day i managed to get some in-car footage. onboard at tokushima kart land free practice. ¥4000 to drive the entire day. enjoy xxx