FEATURE – OKAYAMA 86 FESTIVAL PREVIEW

There’s just way too much content to go through for one or two overviews of this absolutely EPIC day down south at Okayama international circuit. Up to 400 of the countries best Hachi Roku’s converged on the place and I made the 700km south along with Keiichi Tsuchiya and the team from Hot Version to make sure every angle was covered. Go and check out the preview… Read more

EVENT – World Time Attack Challenge: Friday Morning

It’s a sunny but windy day here in Sydney, Australia. We’re at the new Sydney Motorsport Park, formerly known as Eastern Creek Raceway. With the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) underway, cars from all over the world have gathered to race against the clock. With the morning session done and dusted, the current leader is Nemo Racing’s Mitsubishi Evo 9 with an astonishing time of 1:25.74, a whole 3 second faster than the record set by Tarzan Yamada in the Cyber Evo last year.

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EVENT – Showcased Presented By The-Lowdown.com

It was a beautiful sunny day in Sydney, Australia as it played host to the one of the best meets Sydney has ever seen; Showcased presented by THE-LOWDOWN.com. This was the perfect opportunity for enthusiasts from all over Australia to come together and share their love for cars, whether it’s a time attack machine or a show car on bags, this meet had it all. With cars from interstate driving more than ten hours to attend and workshops working overtime to get their car ready to be debuted at Showcased. Read more

EVENTS – 24 Hours of Racing, 36 Hours of Fun! – PT3.

Let me take you back to the Nurburgring 24 hour race once more. Due to the trip both Allard van Grafhorst and myself made to the Le Mans 24 hours these photo’s have been laying around catching dust. Here is more on the Sunday of the race. Read more

FEATURE-TOYOTA CELICA TA23-THE CELESTIAL BEING

 

Not everyday you come face to face with legends, and we were extremely lucky to be able to feature a pristine 1975 TA23 Celica that belonged to one of my many friends who had a united passion for restoring and maintaining Japanese Legends. Read more

EVENT-SUPER GT ROUND 3 MALAYSIA

 

After much anticipation and hearing the commercials on radio for the past 3 months, the day of Super GT finally came and boy were we an excited bunch. For me it was my first time and i seriously did not know what to expect but for Kevin he has been to Super GT in the past few years. All of us had problems sleeping the night before because of the excitement creeping on us; like a feverish disease and the blistering heat that is notorious here certainly did not do us any justice. Read more

EVENT-FORMULA DRIFT MALAYSIA-HOT ACTION ON A HOT WEEKEND

Last year’s Formula drift venue really took a toll on many of the cars, but this year’s venue is of a more driver friendly surface with a challenging layout, with a long straight that allows for a high speed entry into a series of S-Shaped corners. Read more

SNEAK PEAK – FIRST SUBARU BRZ SPOTTED ON THE STREETS IN THE WORLD? IN SINGAPORE?

First Subaru BRZ (a brother to the Toyota 86) in Singapore? Read more

FEATURE- HELLO KITAE, A DRIFTER’S PASSION

The AE86, or the Hachi Roku, which literally means 86 in Japanese, is worshipped by many in the motorsports world, and made famous by the anime that took the world by storm, Initial D. The aura and the driving physics of this car is definitely not one of luxury or class, but more along the lines of raw unprecedented fun, and the car’s handling capabilities are quite forgiving which entitles many novice drifters to learn and experience drifting and extremely fun driving all in one readily available package, one of which many modern cars are unable to achieve. The AE86 is truly a legendary piece of engineering, that gives one an adrenaline rush regardless of whether you are behind the wheel or just watching it in action from the sidelines.

The Hachi in question here is known as “Pinky”, and it’s definitely not your normal AE86, judging by the eccentric colour chosen, one can already begin to understand how different this Hachi is. The owner of this Hachi goes by the name of Anep Dorifuto, a local drifter in Kuala Lumpur, who’s just beginning to learn the ropes. His drifting exploits began in 2009, and he bought his very own Hachi in 2010. After beginning to perfect the art of going sideways he has won several events. Events that Anep participated in have all been on the local scale, namely the Cyberjaya Drift challenge and the KBS drift challenge to name a few. In one of the races he earned 6th place in the expert category and 3rd in the novice category.

When one talks about Hachi’s, one usually revels about the 4AGE engine, and the brilliant toyota handling, but there are other cars out there that have parts that fair a little better than the Hachi’s, which leads to another unusual piece of information. A normally aspirated SR20 lifted from an S13. Other parts have also been exchanged and include the front axle and front suspension, all also from the S13. All this is made possible with the help of Under3 Garage, who takes care of all the mechanical details. With these modifications, Anep has successfully negated all of the issues had with the original parts, and now with a car that has more power and more precise handling, this hachi is now a weapon to Anep, ready to tear up the track.

To many this is just another Hachi with an unusual colour scheme, but this is no doubt a tribute to Anep’s passion and hunger for speed. Fueling his burning desire to have created this precision drifting machine, which now has the characteristics of a poison dart frog. Blazing about with it’s brightly coloured skin to show that its a highly potent and worthy adversary regardless of its size. Drifting is a sport which requires immense precision and control on the driver’s part, and as for the car, it has to stand out and appeal to the crowd and judges. It’s safe to say that Anep has managed to achieve that combination with flying colours.

If you are from Malaysia, Catch this car in action in SpeedCity Serdang ( near Astro building ). This car is one of the main attractions, which you could hop on and feel that intense adrenaline rush.

 

Check out Retro Garage for more awesome pictures and also don’t forget to drop on our 7tune Facebook Page. Have a nice day.

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7TUNE. The Ultimate JDM Experience Since 2005

Words – Eugene Chan
Photos – Praveent Chelvam

FEATURE – FORMULA DRIFT KL 2011 – “HISTORIC BATTLE”

17 & 18 of December was another successful milestone for Formula Drift Asia fans, with the likes of many superstar drifters from all over Asia coming together to participate in a heated battle of tire smoking and sideways sliding. Round 3 of the Formula Drift series was set in the tropical country of Kuala Lumpur. Rain clouds were looming above but the event was somehow blessed and that rain never came. With the prominent names of the drifting scene like Manabu Orido, Daigo Saito and Daijiro Yoshihara, Formula Drift USA Champion as a special guest judge and from Thailand Kiki Sak Nana and Tong Nakarin of Team Red Bull, one can only expect some fireworks and the drivers didn’t disappoint… Read more

FEATURE- KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – A KID IN A CANDY STORE

As Forrest Gump says, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”, this can literally be directly applied to the JDM Scene in Kuala Lumpur. Read more

DRIVEN – THE NEW TOYOTA 86

Let me start by putting the internet arguments to a rest. The new Toyota 86 is an epic little machine that will amaze you when you get behind the wheel and really go for it. It is also so simple and rewarding to drive on the limit and I’m certain it will be absolutely pounced upon by all sorts of people when it get’s released next Spring. Forget about it’s looks, power figure, weight and wheels for a minute and let’s just take a look at how good it is as a drivers car ( and for that matter a potential drift machine )… Read more

FEATURE – THE STORY OF MONA – THE LITTLE RED TOYOTA COROLLA KE20 THAT COULD

 

Hello. My name is Praveent Chelvam and I am 19 this year. Kenapa saya cinta JDM? “Kenapa saya cinta JDM” means “why do I love JDM” in Bahasa Melayu. I am from Malaysia and I come from a small town named Ipoh. I have been in love with JDM for 17 years and counting. And this small red Toyota Corolla KE20 Deluxe named Mona started it all. Read more

VIDEO – TOM’S RACING HISTORY

Have you heard of Tom’s? The JDM tuning house that is intimately tied with Toyota. If you open a HyperRev of a Toyota car, you’ll see a fair few Tom’s parts in there. They make everything from bracing to coilovers, all specifically tuned for the Toyota street cars. Read more

WTAC NEWS SCOOP – CYBER EVO LAUNCHES PROTEST

In the wake of Sierra Sierra’s stunning 1:29.024, the Cyber Evo team has launched a protest, claiming that the American team is running NOS; a claim the Sierra Sierra team deny.

Sierra Sierra has invited the Cyber Evo team to come and inspect the car but as of this moment no one has visited.

This news has come as a surprise to the paddock as the Sierra Evo has blasted out of the box to take the top time by a long way, leaving the Cyber Evo team to make up almost a second over the next 3 sessions.

Just to add a little more drama to the situation, the Sierra car is currently out of the running for sessions 2 and 3 with a blown head gasket but they expect to run for the final session which is sure to be a blockbuster ending to a fantastic event. Crucially, the weather has cleared here and the rain clouds that threatened the event have been blown upwind meaning there is plenty of action still to come.

7Tune is live on hand with the latest news and we’ll be back soon with more from a bright and sunny Eastern Creek raceway with more news, entertainment and information.

7TUNE – The Ultimate JDM Experience Since 2005

Words – Adam Zillin

Photos – Adam Zillin and Brendan Mok

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