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On May 8, 2009 TunerLab was invited by one of our associate shops (Seltz) to join in their race day at Motorland Suzuka (not part of Suzuka Circuit, but in Suzuka City). This day was held for Seltz's customers to race their cars and to promote racing.
The day started pretty bad, it had been raining for 2 days straight, and the early morning on May 8 was also overcast and looking like rain. Luckily around 9am the sun came out and started drying out the track.
Only 8 people other than myself showed up for the event, so we were lucky to be able to run all day without any traffic.
We traded 30 minute sessions with the drift group all day, so 30 minutes grip, 30 minutes drift from 9am-5pm. So I drove in 7 sessions, for a total of 133 laps. I ended 3rd out of 5 cars, with almost all of our best times all within 1 second of each other.
In my group there were 5 cars, EK4 Civic hatch back with DC2 Type R engine (full race spec car), turbo charged EK9 Civic Type R, 2009 FD2 Civic Type R, Mazda Roadster.
In the drift group there were 2 cars, crazy orange AE86, and an automatic Toyota Mark II. The AE86 was trailered in, and was the typical hardcore Japanese drift machine. Crooked headlights, bumper attached with a few zip ties improperly aligned and nearly falling off, a slew of Watanabe and Speed Star wheels ready to go. The AE86 was driven by 2 guys all day, and incidents included the exhaust system falling off twice (was only held on with coat hangers), a spin and crash into the wall requiring a quick bumper repair consisting of well-placed kicks, 4 blown tires, and the final straw, a water pump blowing up.
The Mark II was pretty amazing too, it was automatic, and basically unmodded. The driver drifted the crap out of it all day, much respect to him.
This track was really hard to drive in a GT-R, it was small, technical and not well suited to higher power cars. The Hondas loved it as it was well suited to quick repsonse, light cars. Regardless, I managed to eat pretty much all the cars except the EK4, as it was full race spec set up for this particular circuit. I drove 133 laps, and completely abused my car, but had a great time. Most of the track was driven in 2nd gear, with 2 points requiring 3rd gear for a few seconds.
All in all, another great track day with great people to race with!
Pics:
Coming off the back hairpin
Back straight
S-Turn
Roadster in the S-Turn
Civic Type-R in the S-Turn
The group in the paddocks (I'm in the background)
the "Rs"
Waiting to go out for the first session
AE86 drifting, in every picture I took of this guy drifting he is smiling!!
The group (yep that was most of us!)
Turbo EK9 Type R
Out of the hairpin
Chasing a Roadster
The paddocks
Taking a breather in the pits
Me heading out, Roadster checking tire pressures
Type-R on the front straight
In the pits
The "Rs"
Who says you can't drift an automatic 4 door??!!
ready for the first session
getting ready to go out for a session
sandwiched between civics
in the s-turn
AE86 trailered after blowing it's water pump
ready to go home
The day started pretty bad, it had been raining for 2 days straight, and the early morning on May 8 was also overcast and looking like rain. Luckily around 9am the sun came out and started drying out the track.
Only 8 people other than myself showed up for the event, so we were lucky to be able to run all day without any traffic.
We traded 30 minute sessions with the drift group all day, so 30 minutes grip, 30 minutes drift from 9am-5pm. So I drove in 7 sessions, for a total of 133 laps. I ended 3rd out of 5 cars, with almost all of our best times all within 1 second of each other.
In my group there were 5 cars, EK4 Civic hatch back with DC2 Type R engine (full race spec car), turbo charged EK9 Civic Type R, 2009 FD2 Civic Type R, Mazda Roadster.
In the drift group there were 2 cars, crazy orange AE86, and an automatic Toyota Mark II. The AE86 was trailered in, and was the typical hardcore Japanese drift machine. Crooked headlights, bumper attached with a few zip ties improperly aligned and nearly falling off, a slew of Watanabe and Speed Star wheels ready to go. The AE86 was driven by 2 guys all day, and incidents included the exhaust system falling off twice (was only held on with coat hangers), a spin and crash into the wall requiring a quick bumper repair consisting of well-placed kicks, 4 blown tires, and the final straw, a water pump blowing up.
The Mark II was pretty amazing too, it was automatic, and basically unmodded. The driver drifted the crap out of it all day, much respect to him.
This track was really hard to drive in a GT-R, it was small, technical and not well suited to higher power cars. The Hondas loved it as it was well suited to quick repsonse, light cars. Regardless, I managed to eat pretty much all the cars except the EK4, as it was full race spec set up for this particular circuit. I drove 133 laps, and completely abused my car, but had a great time. Most of the track was driven in 2nd gear, with 2 points requiring 3rd gear for a few seconds.
All in all, another great track day with great people to race with!
Pics:
Coming off the back hairpin
Back straight
S-Turn
Roadster in the S-Turn
Civic Type-R in the S-Turn
The group in the paddocks (I'm in the background)
the "Rs"
Waiting to go out for the first session
AE86 drifting, in every picture I took of this guy drifting he is smiling!!
The group (yep that was most of us!)
Turbo EK9 Type R
Out of the hairpin
Chasing a Roadster
The paddocks
Taking a breather in the pits
Me heading out, Roadster checking tire pressures
Type-R on the front straight
In the pits
The "Rs"
Who says you can't drift an automatic 4 door??!!
ready for the first session
getting ready to go out for a session
sandwiched between civics
in the s-turn
AE86 trailered after blowing it's water pump
ready to go home
is it stock BOV btw?
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