The Racers
In many ways, TAS resembles a Gran Turismo dream garage due to the preponderance of JGTC hardware. Check out this list of the GT300 cars we spotted: Unisia Jecs Silvia, Amemiya MatsumotoKiyoshi Aspara RX-7, Kosei Spirit MR-S, WedsSport MR-S, Cusco Subaru Impreza, and the 2002 series champion, the ARTA A'PEXi MR-S (our Nov. '02 cover car). The big boy GT500 cars were also up in this joint, to use the urban vernacular. The 500 cars included: ARTA NSX, Mugen NSX, Takata Dome NSX, Xanavi Nismo GT-R, FK/Massimo Advan Supra, Project Espelir Supra, Denso Sard Supra, Raybrig NSX, and the HKS CLK.
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Even though ARTA is the reigning GT300 champion with the A'PEXi MR-S, team principle Aguri Suzuki took the wraps off his latest GT machine. The GT300R is a full-blown racing version of the Garaiya, a completely new car, which will be sold by the Autobacs Sports Car Laboratory (ASL). The Garaiya features an FRP body draped over an aluminum alloy frame. The two-seater street car will be powered by a naturally aspirated Nissan SR20 motor (no power figures yet) mounted amidships with a manual six-speed transmission driving the rear wheels. The GT300R will get a turbo and a Hewland six-speed sequential box for starters. The price of the street car was not released at TAS but in the fall of this year you'll be able to pick up a GT300 of your very own for only $170,000. (Sorry, Russ, because it's a track car you won't be able to take it out on Friday nights to swoop on girls who hang out in the parking lot behind Swingers.-JN)
In terms of Japanese drivers and racers, who is Katsuhiro Ueo? No, he's not the manager of the Denny's in Osaka. In our eyes, he's even badder than Hideki Matsui because he's currently at the top of the heap of Japan's superstar drifters. As the 2002 D1GP Champion, Ueo's D'Sift Cusco Trueno was one of the centerpieces of the Advan Pavilion celebrating the company's 25 years in motorsports. Other D1 cars at the show included Nobuteru Taniguchi's HKS D1GP S15 Silvia (our Dec. '02 cover car), Yoiche Imamura's A'PEXi FD3S, the Vertex Soarer, Up Garage's Trueno, and Ken Nomura's Blitz Skyline. Ricky took some time off from his Web master duties at rikdaddy.com to get this month's feature on Nomuken's D1 machine.
If you like the Super Taikyu League, then you'll love this-Falken's R34 GT-R, Advan's Altezza, and the Gram Lights WRX were all at the show. There were also plenty of cars from the Integra One Make series including a new entry from 5Zigen.
The Others
At one time, complete carbon-fiber-bodied cars stood out more than the Jamaican Bobsled team at the start house but this is no longer the case as Varis displayed a woven widebody MR-S (with the slightest red tint) while C-West showcased an S2000 with its body panels made from the lightweight material. But the over-the-top award went to Amuse and its R34 GT-R covered in carbon fiber from tip to toe.
It was impossible to pick the cleanest car of the show but for us, it came down to the GP Sports FC3S and Weld's ultra sick Silvia. We'd have a better chance of hooking up with one of the race queens than we would ever have of building cars like these. Another contender was RE Amemiya's latest RX-7, which looked like anything but a Mazda with its Lamborghini scissor-doors and Porsche headlights. Last month's cover car, the 582hp JUN Auto Mechanic WRX, was also at the show and is very much worth mentioning. The Sube was built to take the AWD time attack record at the Tsukuba circuit, even though the JUN crew already owns this record with their Hyper Lemon Evo V. Mr. Hirano of Top Fuel feels much the same way. His Civic owns the FF record at Tsukuba but at the show he displayed a 500hp Integra Type R that he hopes will improve upon the mark. If we ever captured a record of any kind we would quit while we're ahead, unless it was for something noble like burping or punching the monkey.