By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Sadly, it seems like there’s a never ending streak of bad news coming out of the auto industry these days. The latest is the word that Honda is scrapping the new NSX, a car which has been in development for some time now. I suppose it’s not too surprising considering Honda is pulling out of Formula 1 and announcing cuts elsewhere. Building high dollar, low production sports cars just doesn’t make sense given the current state of the auto world. It’s sad because the new 500+ hp NSX was shaping up to be a true supercar, just like the original was when it came out in the early ’90s. There is still a chance the project will be revived when things get better for Honda which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.

By Mike Garrett   Photo: World Car Fans Source: Autoblog

I wanted to blog about a company that is always behind the scenes but often not recognized. Do you know the name Tracy Sports? If not, you soon will…

I met Yamamoto-san from Tracy Sports nearly three years ago. At the time I was so impressed, I instantly decided that I wanted to become their North American distributor despite them being entirely unknown outside of Japan. This happens from time to time, I get lucky and find a great company that nobody has ever heard of and then I make it my goal to let the world know. Over the past three years, I’ve ended up distributing Tracy Sports products to clients all over the world and people are now starting to see first hand what I’ve seen.

You might recognize some of their products on my S2000, and if you read this blog you’ve seen their parts on various clients cars as well. I’m going to focus now on what you haven’t seen. Lets start with one picture of one of my favorite cars of theirs and then tomorrow I’ll dig deeper into it. I hope you love this car as much as I do, it’s one of my all time favorite NSX’s.

Want to know more about Tracy Sports? Read Part 2 and Part 3 of this article at The Real JDM.

All I can say with certainty is that this NSX was/is a client of Top Secret and that Top Secret had some involvement with the build/tuning of the car. Unfortunately, since I was just walking around the office and snapping pics, I wasn’t able to get a spec list on this car. Spec list or not, it is quite clear from the pictures that this is a serious street/circuit tuned NSX. Some of the key points are found in the engine bay picture. Any car with a custom carbon roof scoop feeding air through a lexan hatch to a six individual throttle injected NSX engine must indeed be a serious car! Off of memory I think that may be a Mugen hatch setup but I could be wrong.

This car is clearly a member of "Top End" a wangan crew in Japan with some really hardcore cars and members. If you look up and can find more info on Top End you’ll undoubtedly see some other nasty NSX wangan attackers and maybe even a Porsche or two! I hope you enjoy the pics which I’ve been sitting on for years and are released here for the first time. And here’s a video of other team Top End NSXs from my buddy Mike’s old Grip Video, and a link to some of the team Top End’s rides. More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "The Mystery NSX In Top Secret’s Garage, Circa 2005" »

John just left to catch a plane to Calgary, where he will join Team Angry for Bullrun. Am I jealous? Um, yes. But someone has to sit in the office and type. So here’s the news:

• With gas prices likely to stay high, the US auto market may soon mimic Europe. Does that mean we’ll get the cool European Focus? SEMA News.
• And Americans are definitely driving less. Like, 30 billion miles less. Motor Authority.
• Spy photographers caught the rear end of the 2010 Mustang. I’m still worried that Ford is gonna screw it up. Jalopnik.
• The next generation NSX was spotted lapping the ‘Ring. And it’s quick. Autoblog. 
• The National Labor Committee doesn’t seem to think the Prius is so PC after all. National Labor Committee.

This is something I simply just don’t understand. Last time I was in Tokyo I took a picture of this Super GT NSX car. This photo was taken because it was the largest, most idiotic exhaust I’ve ever seen and I needed a photo as proof to explain to someone just how ridiculous it is. I still don’t know how to explain it… it’s like a caricature of a race car come to life.

I’m sure there must be a reason for that exhaust, but I have no idea what it is besides a joke or a marketing plan for Super GT to gain six year old fans.

It was in the mid 90s that I started really getting into JDM tuning. Back then this was my favorite car, the DOME Project/Mugen NSX JGTC Car. Looking back 10 years, I can say that this is still my favorite JGTC car. Its hard for me to put my finger on why its my favorite. Of course there’s nostalgia (I got to see this car run at Fuji Speedway during my first trip to Japan). But perhaps it’s that in future years JGTC cars became even more advanced and even further away from the street cars they are based on. This NSX still had a bit more of a connection to the street legal NSX to me, so I could relate more to just how bad ass they made it. Plus I still like the color combo and graphics on it, I think it still looks great 10 years later.

For comparison’s sake, I’ve also put up a photo of a later NSX which would be my second favorite JGTC car (I always liked the NSX the best of the GT cars). Someday soon I’ll dig up and post more photos of old JGTC cars, they had some really cool ones back then that people have forgotten about (AE86, Silvia, McLaren F1, Diablo, etc). And if my memory serves me right, I recall even seeing a Chevy Cavalier JGTC Car (they sold it as a Toyota Cavalier in Japan). Its been a while… someday I’ll dig up the old pictures perhaps. But for now, enjoy my favorite JGTC car of all time. More pics after the jump.

All of the games in the Gran Turismo series have been super popular, and from the looks of this trailer, the fifth installment should be a total blast. One big complaint die-hard fans have had with the series—the lack of damage modeling—has been fixed, and graphics look so good, it almost makes you wonder why you can’t smell any exhaust. Of course, there’s a laundry list of different cars available to flog—check out some of the superstars starring in the preview below. The prologue—which doesn’t have all the features the full version will contain—will be released on April 28th, with the complete game to follow in the next 12 months. Get more details over at Winding Road.

Everything seems to be going according to plan on this dyno run—until about the 30 second mark. You really have to hand it to the dude in the chair. He doesn’t even flinch.