A meeting of twin JDM legends on the Autobahn leads to a race toward an overcast horizon in the rain. Traversing the slick conditions at over 200 miles per hour, the twin Skylines show their true colors in purest form. Read more about the rainy Autobahn Skyline race at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Here is one nice ride I spotted last month when covering the D1-GP final in Fuji Speedway. This extremely low BNR32 belongs to Ryusuke Kawasaki, the editor of Drift Tengoku (Drift Heaven) Magazine, the only publication you will ever need to read if you are into sliding around in cars! Doriten (the nick name of the mag) first came out back in 1996. It was bundled along with an issue of Option, and it kind of stayed like that until 1999 when it was finally launched as a proper separate publication. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

I figured it was time for some import tuner love in this week’s eBay Motors Showdown. The Veilside RX-7 is a magazine quality FD with $50k in mods according to the seller. And the Hakosuka Clone looks sweet and has lots of authentic JDM touches. Oh, and both of these rides are John Naderi approved. So, which would you choose?

Last weekend at the Formula Drift awards banquet, an award for “Best Looking Car” was given out. I’m not exactly sure what criteria was used in the judging, but I don’t disagree with the results. As part of our Driver’s Month features on Speedhunters, we figured it’d be the perfect time to do a feature on the “Rossta” S15. On Saturday morning I took a short drive over to Garage Boso in Gardena where co-owner Frank Siharath showed me around the shop and rolled out the infamous multicolored S15 for some photos. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Mike Garrett

Sure, we all know that you would probably be racing in F1 already if there wasn’t that small complication about you not having a racing license. Guess what? Your endless excuses are now null and void. Time Attack is a venue where a regular guy (or gal) can go out and race on the big tracks. That’s right, no parking lot racing here. These events are held on real race tracks that you’ve been reading about in magazines and playing on Gran Turismo for years.

Time Attack is a timed racing event where you take your car onto the track, do your best impression of Aryton Senna on a qualifying lap, and try to put down a blisteringly fast time. Your best lap time is compared to that of people in your class (similar cars, similar mods). The one with the fastest lap time picks up a trophy and never ending glory.

Time Attack is something YOU can do in your own ride. To learn where, cost, car preparation, adrenaline factor and how to actually win a Time Attack read the rest at Speed Sport Life.

Sometimes it’s really hard to believe that the high tech R32 Skyline GT-R is now over 20 years old. The R32 is just one of several iconic Japanese cars that recently have crossed the 20-year mark. Others include the S13 Silvia and the NA chassis Mazda Roadster. Surely these cars will be the “nostalgics” of generations to come. The car in the photo is the Auto Gallery Yokohama R32, seen at Tsukuba Circuit last year.

By Mike Garrett

The perfect drift by driver M. Kawabata took place during a JDM session using a Nissan RPS13 on Toyo Tires. On the brink of completely spinning out, Kawabata keeps the car under control and implies a reverse entry drift. This is truly the perfect drift! The rear tires almost touch the outside boundary upon entry, and through the remaining duration of the drift he hugs the inside of the corner. Maintaining perfect speed, many have already dubbed this as “the best drift ever”. Read more about the perfect drift at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

GT-RR’s third signature build has come to a close over the weekend. This car was conceptualized to do only one thing, to make our client “R” as proud of a GT-R owner as possible. Unlike our previous two GT-R signature builds which aimed to be essentially all things to all people (show cars, magazine cover cars, track cars AND to please our clients), this car is a focused and direct ode to “R” and his desire to own his dream GT-R.

As such, I can say already (without hearing any feedback from anyone else) that this project was a success because “R” was happy! As “R” called it “perfect” and “10 out of 10″, I let out a sigh of relief that months of planning and building this car resulted in the very success I envisioned for it. Continue reading at The Real JDM

The original Z was sold in October 1969 in Japan as the Nissan Fairlady Z and was also exported to the U.S. as the Datsun 240Z that same year. Since this year Nissan has been building and selling the newest Z, the 370Z, which is now the 40th year for the Z line of sport coupes and convertibles.

The Z car has been an overwhelming success for Nissan, with more than 1,685,000 models in five different generations being sold over that time. Nissan is now celebrating the 40th anniversary milestone with the launch of a special edition 370z Coupe that goes on sale next spring (the first Datsun 240Z actually went on sale in the U.S. on October 22 1969).

The special edition model is based on the Touring spec of the regular 370Z and comes with a six-speed manual transmission and Nissan’s nifty Synchro-Rev automatic rev-matching function. The car also gets a limited-slip differential, bigger brakes than the regular model and 19-inch Rays forged wheels. Special touches include red leather trim, red stitching throughout the cabin and a number of commemorative plaques. Finally, the car’s exterior is also finished in a unique “40th Quartz” paint scheme. Pricing will be revealed closer to its arrival at dealerships across the country next spring.

By Viknesh Vijayenthiran

What is it like to ride in a highly modified Nissan Skyline R34? Ultimate boost from the HKS ball bearing turbo, instant spool, and awesome sounds create the ride of your life. Hang on to your mouse as this Nissan Skyline R34 swoops and pulls through traffic at crazy speeds. 1000 horsepower combined with all-wheel drive is the ultimate when it comes to traction, stability, and acceleration. Listen to the turbo spool and boost as the driver rips through traffic. Ah, the sweet melody of JDM performance.

This electric two-seater concept was built narrow to better navigate city centers. And yes, you lean this thing into turns. Think Nissan will build it? More at Autoblog

At first I thought, crap, John already wrecked the GT-R? Then I remembered that our GT-R still doesn’t have plates. Via Jalopnik

It isn’t every day you come across a car like this, that’s for sure. It all happened during a driving expedition my friends and I organized last fall, something we have been doing for years now. The idea is to all meet up at the Hakone Turnpike, one of Japan’s most well known driving roads, and drive up into the mountains and down into the Izu peninsula through the appropriately named “Izu Skyline” pass. Which is precisely where I first saw this impossibly spotless Nissan Skyline 2000 GT-R. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

Well, it took almost four days of living in Los Angeles, but I finally got behind the wheel of a supercar. Sitting here typing, I still can’t believe what happened. Now it’s not like I’ve never realized that I’m one of the luckiest bastards to ever walk the face of the earth—I have, really—but lately that’s been happening like, every [expletive deleted] day. You see, CarDomain and YoParts are going to be giving away a Nissan GT-R, and when I rolled into the office yesterday morning, Nads told me we were picking it up from DC Motors, which is a solid 45 minutes from the office, that afternoon. He also—for reasons I can’t at all fathom—informed me that I was going to be driving it back.

Continue reading "Swimming With Sharks: Driving a GT-R on the LA Freeway" »

Finally some exciting news out of Japan that doesn’t involve GT-R or Eco tuning! I desperately needed some variety from the past few month’s predicable tuning news and this delivers…

We all know I’m a huge fan (and direct distributor) of Amuse, so of course I’m super pumped up with their latest gear for the 370Z coming out!

First off, this is the coolest brace I’ve seen in a long time. The full titanium R1 Titan Brace Bar not only strengthens the chassis but also includes integrated harness attachment points. This is a killer product, if I owned a 370Z I’d already have one on order!

Continue reading "Amuse Z34 370 Aero Kit and More!" »