A slightly productive weekend at the shed this week. Reubens Laurel is reunited with the shed as he tries to find space to fit it next to the bus. We fix the March and paint some bits for the AE86.
Reuben gets a one-way ticket to Sweden to drive his C33 Laurel back to Ireland in one weekend. He meets some interesting friends along the way and gets back just in time for work on Monday.
It’s back to the AE86 build and shed antics, we prep the bay and spray it with a coat of primer. We also get soaked at a car show.
What a way to see Nikko, a track I’ve always wanted to see at a dream event. The “car gods’ were good to us on this trip. It was a fantastic way to sign off our car hunting in Japan. Our 18 days of travelling from the north to the south had let us meet so many people. We had seen so much stuff, from shops to cars to scenery to tracks, engaged with many interesting people.
Drifting Legends! We finish our Japan journey at the Battle Magazine Cup held at Nikko Circuit. We also get caught in a typhoon before heading back to Ireland! It’s been a blast making these videos and reliving the trip. Cheers for tagging along and enjoying the memories with us.
After a lovely evening at N-Style, and a rather uncomfortable afternoon, we were exhausted. We hadn’t slept much the previous night for obvious reasons, and this night was shaping up to be no different.
After a look about power vehicles, we decided not to take the piss as the lads wanted us out of there, and we made our way up to Nihonmatsu to meet Chogo.
Once we were good to go, we decided to make the drive to Ebisu, we knew we would get there late, but that’s where we would be meeting Chogo from CSS in Nihonmatsu, the town just down from the circuit where we met the guys before.
We visit the world’s greatest Honda Collection at Twin Ring Motegi, have a chance encounter with Asimo, and get treated to Touge mountain racing with one of the original members of CSS.
One of the things I couldn’t believe was the number of abandoned houses on the way up the road. The further we headed north, the fewer young people we saw, and it seemed like a lot of the smaller towns look deserted,
The sleep at Daikoku was pretty rough. Looking back, I don’t think we slept at all. The roads above Daikoku never ease off. It’s a constant stream of traffic 24 hours a day, not to mention people cruising into the car park at all hours revving cars. What did we expect?
Still, it was funny to say we slept there. Originally It Daikoku intended to be a rest stop for people passing by, so it made sense at the time. We needed to get to JDM Distro before 11 am, so here we were brushing our teeth in the toilet area and hitting the road to Saitama to the Distro Japanese warehouse.
The night wasn’t over yet; we decided, since we were on the outskirts of Tokyo, we would head towards Daikoku. It was a Wednesday night. Still, we had nothing else to do; Thursday was our only day to drop the parts off at the Japanese JDM Distro warehouse, so we had to stick around the greater Tokyo area.
Winds Auto has a long history with the AE86. The owners have been selling them, drifting them and making parts for the AE86 chassis for over 20 years. Winds is a husband and wife setup. Obata, the owner, is an ex D1 driver and former member of one of my favourite teams Guntama-R.
His wife Hiromi used to drive the pink AE86 in Formula D. They are well-established drivers, and it’s great to see they are still in business and still operating and actively drifting together to this day.
Feeling adventurous around Fuji and slightly refreshed after a somewhat questionable sleep, we decided to head for the famous Hakone turnpike. Luck was not on our side with this one. It turned out the peak was in the clouds, so we didn’t see a whole lot at the top. I bet there are spectacular views in the daytime, maybe next time!
A chance encounter with Smokey Nagata and Hiroshi Tamura, otherwise known as MR GTR at Daikoku PA. We also stop at a few legendary AE86 shops and drop the gold bonnet off at JDM Distro.