Author: Toby Thyer
Sweating gallons of water while shooting nonstop for 20 hours straight, all to the soundtrack of Hi-NRG techno and brutal pops ‘n’ bangs maps is sufficient to make anyone feel a bit weird. But despite those most excellent exhaustions, the weirdest thing about my first trip to Malaysia earlier this month was the cars. Not weird, as in running 19-inch wheels on an Impreza WRX, or doing a wing-delete on a Skyline GT-R. I mean weird in a Bizarro World alternate universe form of way. Welcome to the wacky world of Proton. I’m not ashamed to confess it, nevertheless it took…
Western Foundations Today, the Proton is the dominant automotive life form on Malaysian roads. Nevertheless it hasn’t at all times enjoyed such an autocratic rule. I feel it’s protected to say that automotive enthusiasts generally swing to the East or the West side of the automotive sphere. In fact, some people swing each ways. I’d like to throw my keys in a bowl with someone with fantastic automotive tastes like Mark Riccioni, since you never know what you is perhaps driving home in. German, Japanese or Italian, you’re guaranteed to be in for an excellent time. Most countries have – or no less…
I really like antique promoting. There’s something comforting about how products were marketed in the nice old days, the illustrations, type fonts, and slogans give them a captivating character. So after I saw this Coca-Cola-themed Nissan Fairlady Z, I needed to contact its owner, Hajime Noto, and schedule a shoot. That is one among five cars in Hajime-san’s collection, one other being a feature-worthy R32 Skyline GT-R. But this Fairlady appears to be the automobile he’s most happy with. Hajime-san has been restoring it over the past five years at home. He assembled body parts and panels, built the engine, and…
Most individuals have a hobby. Some are lucky enough to receives a commission to do it. I count myself as considered one of those few lucky people. Capturing landscapes with an inexpensive camera began as a lighthearted strategy to escape my studies at university, but photography eventually became my day job. I can remember the day I realised that my hobby had been consumed by the drudgery of labor, however it hasn’t been in any respect bad. Takuro Koyabu, the owner of this Pandem-kitted R33 Nissan Skyline GT-R, knows exactly how I feel because he’s in the identical boat. His hobby…
The grass is at all times greener on the opposite side of the fence, isn’t it? Or perhaps that must be the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean. A few of you living stateside probably feel a robust desire for a slice of authentic Japanese culture, but Yuya Kishi – ‘Park’ to his friends – has taken a Latest York slice-sized bite of American culture, and not only along with his cars. Park lives in a house that appears prefer it was shipped directly from the set of The Truman Show. That will not be removed from the reality, because…
It’s a well-recognized scene for me: sharp winter sun, 7-Eleven automobile park, and a well-preserved slice of Japanese performance motoring history. But no matter how over and over the identical scene presents itself, it all the time makes me smile. Well, it does once I’ve had my morning coffee. And for the record, the very best Japanese conbini (convenience store) coffee isn’t found at 7-Eleven but at Family Mart, which unfortunately didn’t have a store near my meet-up point with Speed Forme owner and founder, Mr. Makoto Kawauchi. Although we planned to satisfy at 8:00am, we each arrived late. Kawauchi-san due to traffic…
I’m definitely a ‘glass half empty’ sort of pessimist, so heading out onto the streets with no game plan within the hope of finding automotive gold is like having a baby with a whole stranger. a birth is inevitable, but how it can all pan out is one other thing. Perhaps the knowledge that just a few interesting cars could be spotted on the road in Yokohama is a bit of less worrying than whether your mystery child will grow as much as be an upstanding member of society, but each are sure to get the guts racing at the very least.…
Honda NSX, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Supra – the holy trinity of ’90s Japanese performance automobile royalty. But who’s king? That’s a troublesome one… Many would argue the NSX, with its aluminium semi-monocoque construction and Ayrton Senna-tuned handling, is heir to the throne. Others might insist the GT-R deserves to be crowned king for its domination on the race track and grip like a gorilla on a zipper line. Then there’s the A80 Supra, which celebrated its thirtieth birthday this 12 months. Surely it will be king for its mythical tuner kudos and supreme street cool? I recently met with a bunch of…
I consider there are three stages within the lifetime of a modified automotive enthusiast. The primary stage is eighteen to 30 years old, where making as much noise as humanly possible along with your automotive is paramount. Next is the 30 to 50 years old stage, where being courteous to others by keeping your automotive on the quiet side is essentially the most necessary thing. The third and final stage – 50 years to old to the grave – loops back around to the start; other people’s opinions grow to be irrelevant, so you possibly can make all of the noise you wish along with…
Japan has probably produced more iconic high performance vehicles than some other car-manufacturing country. The Supra, Jimny, Impreza and GT-R are only just a few of many. Okay… rewind. The Jimny? Really? Now before you bite my head off for mentioning the Suzuki Jimny and Nissan GT-R in the identical breath, let’s discuss it over a latte within the café of Japan’s Jimny Museum. That is the private collection of Mr. Shigeru Onoue, the founding father of Jimny specialist shop APIO. Onoue-san is the undeniable godfather of Jimny tuning in Japan and has been producing aftermarket upgrade parts for the wildly-popular Suzuki off-roader because the late Eighties. Positioned within…
