Team Obscurity Racing - AusZoku

Zokusha keeps going in 2012

dandfx — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:52:40 +0000

DMC – North Chiba

dandfx — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:11:56 +0000

One of the many random spots discovered from late night aimless wandering was DMC – Dootech Motor Care. My attention was initially gained from a partly disassembled Ferrari receiving some repairs. European supercars don’t get my taste buds tingling but for a shop to be trusted with such a repair it implies there is something special about their standards. Check the shelves in the back of the workshop.

It was 9.30 at night with patches of rain intermittently falling from the sky so I took a hurried look in the car park beside the main workshop. There was a cool array of cars available from American inspired vans to this purposeful looking Alto Works

A3SGTE, presumably it has expired.

Often In Japan you will see hard to find models parked up around work shops.

Sometimes, but not often they are fitted with extremely rare wheels like these Southern Ways Aero Sports with some nice negative offset.

On the rear were some suitably sized meshies, unfortunately rust is taking over this GX71 Cresta. Nothing some Zokusha box flares wouldn’t cover though. I checked DMC’s Blog and one of his recent posts was showing the wheels missing. Some scum has stolen them straight from Endo’s car!

16×10 areo sports are rare and I hope they find their way back and his GA61 stays safe.

My Japanese is very limited but I had a quick chat with Shingo and asked if I could photograph his tyre rack. From what I could see every tyre has a matching rim hidden inside!

Once he saw my excitement he slowly opened one of the boxes stacked up

To reveal some monster SSR Formula Mesh.

Straight from the factory. 16×12 -48!

If I remember correctly, Endoo-San planed to use them in a future build which he hasn’t decided on. These images are from 2010 so maybe were closer to seeing these wrapped in rubber.

Arigato Gozaimasu Endoo-San

Toyota 7 and Nissan R-381 in action.

dandfx — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:50:40 +0000

I have something R-381 coming up in a post soon.

Tam – Motorsport

dandfx — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:50:59 +0000

The Toyota Automobile Museum houses a small motorsport inspired collection.

The Cosmo and Prince R380 were present as they were competitors to Toyota’s motorsport efforts.

The Toyota GT2000 must be one of the most elusive additions for Toyota collectors. Pure sex on wheels but easily over shadowed by something completely unobtainable to collectors…

A 1970 Toyota 7. Jiro Kawano developed both the GT2000 and ’7. The 1970 model was destined for group 7 of the Japanese Grand Prix until rulings changed and only open wheel cars would be eligible to enter. Rumours around the interwebs say there are only 3 ’70 editions, the plan was to take them to the states and make the most of the revisions made by Toyota. Unfortunately the luck of number 7 wasn’t on Toyota’s side with two of their most important drivers killed in testing.

The wedge shaped body is complimented by the slightly elevated rear wing.

It looks quite large in images withe the wide sloping nose…

Until you see the driver position to show the scale of thing. Its length is around 700mm less then a standard S13.

TAM – A 3D History

dandfx — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:01:02 +0000

Toyota Automobile Museum is based in Nagoya, only a few Km’s from the centre of town. The results of an online search showed a lot of potential so we decided it was worth the trek.

The building was surprisingly large, surrounded by very well maintained hedges and lawns which is a luxury in Japan. We paid our entry fee and received a warm welcome from one of the staff. Initally as you enter there is a lone Toyoda Model AA which is Toyota’s first production model. http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/data_e/a03_08_1.html

The thing about the museum is that is more of a history of the automobile then a Toyota timeline, they have a very special collection of their creations scattered over the three levels. The tour starts with restorations of the earliest automobiles ranging from wooden motorised seats from the 1800′s. They’re interesting in person but not entertaining material so I’ll skip to the production cars after showing this full crocodile skin interior. A sign of wealth is by having the skins of multiple animals on your car right?

The Flying Feather was built to be economic and light. It was independently designed by a Nissan executive who wanted to start his own business after dealing with unions and internal politics. The prototype was built in the second floor of a building with no ramp to the lower level. http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/data_e/d02_01.html

Technically it’s not from the Nissan/Datsun stable. It would be hard to argue that its styling didn’t inspire more modern designs…. especially if it was parked alongside a K11 Pao. They have a collection of early model which were continued into the 80′s and still to today. After we passed through the auto section we were taken back in time with a history of culture. It is broken up and features everything from bicycle, cameras, household appliances and also sprinkled with some showroom condition cars.

The grounds keeper decided to scare our guide with the remains of a bird which wont be making it into the history books.

Enjoy.

Zokusha – Daikoku Futo

dandfx — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:25:50 +0000

Everyone knows the Daikoku Futo parking area, it has involuntarily hosted some of the largest car gatherings and had meet ups a few times a week. I was lucky enough to spend a few nights in a row there soaking in the mix of drift cars, highway racers and vans with sound systems so loud you can hear the bass from the top loop. Unfortunately the zokusha didn’t arrive and it’s probably a result of the constant and increasingly regular patrols and evictions.

It’s inspiring that a video captured in January this year has such a diverse range of zokusha. In this clip there is a huge variety of popular makes and also a few odd balls which you don’t see often. I recognise a handful but the sheer amount of fresh cars is quite exciting.

Beyond Demon in motion.

auszoku — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:47:38 +0000

Beyond Demon.

auszoku — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:46:45 +0000

This Alto works has taken the term Oni-Kyan ‘demon camber’ to the next level.
The works has been subjected to a set of what looks like tiny BBS on chunky tyres with around -45 on the rear and a -30 on the front camber
From what I’ve found so far, there’s nothing showing the underside but I can assure you, there is an excessive amount of custom fabrication in producing that much camber.
If this were to show up on any other site/blog, the reasoning behind giving this car so much camber debated in extensive depth over the fact that this would be considered ‘dangerous’ by the majority of the western public
But hey! this is in Japan, not every car has to be 1000hp car that does under 1min at tsukuba circuit. there’s other ways of building boss cars and the owner of this has done so.

Thanks for viewing
JohnZoku

streetside – civic

dandfx — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:59:58 +0000

Wold wide there’s arguments about what’s JDM or if certian mods are period correct or purely if a rig rides low enough. In Japan it partially flips the other way around.

The Honda USDM scene is Americas interpretation of the age old Japanese styles with a little twist. Sliding through Osaka’s Americamura this Civic parked up mid intersection, past the stop line for the traffic lights. In the background you will see a blue sign, that’s the police station and when this was taken is mid crackdown on illegally modified cars by the Osaka authorities. The owner had a presence where people seemingly knew who he was, maybe a local store or restaurant owner or something more.

Equip 03′s in fluro to match the candy style paint covering OEM body lines. A hella flush license plate holder leads into the engine bay full of metal polished and matching blue accessories. AEM engine cover fill out the American influence. Hands and feet gather around to take a peak as the bonnet, or should I say Hood was raised.

street side – kp61 wagon

dandfx — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:34:03 +0000

There’s a recipe to building cars. As a chef you have the choice of creating new and innovative five star dishes, or just taking one out of the book and running with it.

The most important aspect of the dish is to have a range of ingredients that compliment each other, nothing to overpowering whilst ensuring there is enough zing to keep your taste buds salivating. A KP61 wagon on its own is quite tasty, like a traditional ramen. Add some MKIIs, front lip, fender mirrors and wing. Mix to well combined and add a dash of low before serving. … enjoy