Today was a great day, I had the honour of hanging out with the guys from Mercury Motorsport and to document a day of testing for this years World Time Attack which is only just over a week away, how scary! The R35 GT-R is currently on a safe tune at 500 KW at all 4 wheels, pure aggression. The only thing I could relate to seeing this machine on the track was a GT500 car, to me that’s impressive! Tomorrow I will be covering the Annual Nissan and AWD Time Attack shootout, stay tuned for articles on Speedhunters.
Just when you thought this blog was all about drifting in Japan… By now, I’m sure the majority of you would know that the 2011 World Time Attack Challenge is just over 2 weeks away, 15 days to be precise. I thought I would whip out the external hdd and go through some images from the 2010 event which was crowned the best event throughout the entire year. Being only a few weeks out from such a big event, we’re constantly chasing and organising things almost every day and I have to say, I’m getting more and more excited every day.
This year will showcase the fastest Time Attack cars on the planet such as: Cyber EVO, Sierra Sierra EVO, Scorch Racing S15, The 53.6 second @ Tsukuba – Garage Revolution RX-7, Hi Octane R34 GT-R, Panspeed RX-7 and some tough Australian R35 GT-R’s. Sadly, the Cusco / Tomei WRX will not be competing this year, however the infamous Tarzan Yamada will be.
I will be flying into Sydney on the 1st of August with Matthew Malcolm to meet Mr. Kha and Mr. Carbonare, the Team NFS crew for this years WTAC. It’s not only the Experct Class I look forward to spectating and shooting but also the lower classes, it’s always good to see the comparison on the field between the classes.
The 2010 car that took out the event was of course the Cyber EVO with a stunning time of 1:30.587…
…which of course will once again be piloted by the one and only Tarzan Yamada.
Another Japanese driver that will be back in action at Eastern Creek is of course Kouta Sasaki – the driver of the vibrant yellow Panspeed FD3S RX-7 which I’m sure will lay down some very firm times this year.
With only 15 days to go I’m sure everyone involved in such a big event is starting to feel the pressure on their shoulders, whether you’re building cars or just heading down to shoot the event, I sure am getting very excited, and a little nervous for that matter. I’m sure thousands of people will be jumping on flights internationally and landing in the gorgeous city of Sydney on route for Eastern Creek, I really can’t wait! For constant updates from now until the event be sure to check out World Time Attack.
Here is a sneak peak of 1 of the many workshops we visited. One of the days I think I counted 14 workshops within a 7 hour period, each shop was reasonably short and quick but it was well worth visiting all the garages we did. Here is a photo I took at the very first workshop we visited one morning, it was called Auto Service which by the looks of things specialises in circuit cars, mainly GT-R’s. This specific GT-R was parked around the corner alongside the workshop so it was just asking for a photo. How aggressive is that rear spoiler. Ever since I rode in a 35 GT-R last year I was instantly addicted, I look forward to the day I own one myself.