first of all a very belated happy new year to each and every single one of you. we didn’t have much of a break during the end of 2024 into 2025 period due to preparing for a lifelong dream – having a car entered at Tokyo Auto Salon.

long story short boss man naoki spoke to me mid last year with a simple question of ‘do you want to participate in the 2025 tokyo auto salon’ next to my car, in which without much thought swiftly responded ‘yes’. before we knew it the end of the year was near, the HKS 2.1L managed to get hot which completely ruined the head, block and most of the pistons. following this the car went to SKY MOTORS in osaka to takuzo-san for a full pull-down and rebuild. new head, block, HKS 87mm pistons, rods, brand new oil & water pump, head gasket and some head work to get it back, running and not only ready for auto salon but for the 2025 season. the new engine made a wild 531HP at 1.65 bar.

i have been shooting this event for many years, dating back a few decades ago to Australian auto salon’s and even back to working with auto salon magazine when i was 16 years young or so. honestly this has been one of those self-manifestation goals i’ve had for a very long time. the fact that very minimal foreigners have had cars and or companies entered into this event has made me beyond hungry to make this a reality.

over the course of 3 days we had a rediculous amount of people pull through to say hello, express their gratitude and positivity with what we’ve been doing and creating for the last 15 years in which we’re forever thankful – so thank you everyone. as usual we’ve put together a video & very small photo gallery from the event (below). 3 days wild days of the event plus months of preperation.

next up is osaka auto messe 2025 which is held in osaka next week, february 7th, 8th & 9th. if you’re in japan during this time be sure to make it as it’s osaka’s largest event in the annual year.

ready for a giant year, thank you always. caseyyy x

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.