Since the late ’80s, grip racers, drifters, and weekend warriors have played the distinct note of Nissan’s 4-cylinder 2.0-liter turbo-charged performance engine. Since then the SR20 seems to have a fanbase that has only grown. The SR Heritage event held at Shizuoka’s Fuji Speedway is a testament engine’s legacy. The cars and culture surrounding the engine things equally legendary.
Many consider the late ’80s and early ’90s the golden era of motorsports culture in Japan. Initial D, Best Motoring International, and games like Gran Turismo have elevated this twenty-year period of time a mythical status. Nissan’s SR engine was racing in the mountains, on the track, and straight into our hearts.
Below are photos of the event. An article will be linked below once written.
Finally having some sense of being settled into my home there was another thing I had to take care of. I didn’t like the idea of my… Read more “The Promised Land”
As the day winded down crews began swapping tires, relaxing, and preparing to leave as the sun started to set over one of the best days I’ve had. The Fuji Speedway Drift event was coming to a close. I had wished that the sun remain where it was forever and that this day wouldn’t end. This wasn’t just a golden hour of the day for photos, it was one of the golden moments of my life.
Drivers make laps around the track was mesmerizing. With their driving ability, stickers, and chassis adorned with aggressive upgrades you could see the hours poured in. The jealousy bug bit me hard because I knew there were people who made a living from driving cars, meanwhile I couldn’t make money off of anything I tried. I imagined myself in the driver’s seat of one of the cars as it made its way around the small track.
I had missed the rain and arrived to the pleasing sound of engines roaring, tires squealing, and turbos hissing. In the parking area were people relaxing, chatting, and cooling down their cars after their time on the track. The atmosphere calmed me despite the loud noises of all the cars. I’m glad Japanese Drift Events are Chill.
Tokyo Auto Salon so I was a reluctant to want to go to the drift event the following day. Money is getting to be a little tight. Low pay and my growing list of expenses made me hesitate to say yes. The continual debt that I owe my parents hung over me like a shadow as I put gas in my car. Stress stopped me dead in my tracks when I had to pay a tolls. Hungry I was hesitant to feed myself after watching the bills from my pocket drain.
I’ll be more stressed about money moving through the rest of the month. Feeling truly happy was worth it. At the same time it was also emotionally painful to be so close to a dream and constrained to the sidelines. In that way one of the most pleasurable moments in my life cut deep with a poisoned blade.
Some of the “highlights” of Tokyo Auto Salon, were things that didn’t excite me at all. I was immune from the hype surrounding newer modeled cars, exotic cars, and even the new Toyota Supra, but there were some things I was really happy to see. I’d never thought I’d say this in my life, but. . .
I was happy to see a Toyota Yaris
My dad actually owned a Yaris Sedan in 2008 and although it was a cute car, it’s one purpose was fuel efficiency and economy. Even with the SE trim, which came packed with a spoiler, fog lights, and 4-wheel disc brakes, there was no getting around the safe design that Toyota went with. The one exciting thing about it was that its 1.5 liter engine used the same VVT-i technology that the 20v 4AGE, although it’s numbers were well below that of the legendary 4a Engine.
When I saw that Toyota not only had gotten back into rallying(please come back subaru), but won the manufacturers’ championship I was really surprised. I was actually happy to see a Yaris in person, and it gives me hope that Toyota will go back to the ways of making cars for car people as well as continuing to sell cars that the general public can enjoy. My hope is that they will roll out a tamed down version of their rally car, as well as put an inline four cylinder in their 86.
Japan wants the WRC
To those of you who don’t know the WRC is the World Rally Championship, and they used to hold events in Japan. I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only one who wanted to go to an event(although I want to go as a driver even if I’m at the bottom of the standings tee hee). Japanese roads are perfect for rally stages, the touge is where many driving legends are born. One legend that even laymen might know is Colin McRae.
When I saw Colin McRae’s subaru and Tommi Mäkinen’s Lancer, the boy racer buried inside me had been resuscitated. I was reminded of one of the reasons I fell in love with cars when I was young. It wasn’t just because the WRX was one of the main cars in the Colin McRae rally and dirt series. It was because of what Tommi and Colin stood for as drivers as well. In the same vein as Ayrton Senna, to them it was never about driving just for points.
When in doubt flat out
Colin McRae
They drove the fastest they could all the time, because they loved cars and driving. It was weird to be standing next to the cars which were painstakingly realistically modeled in numerous games, and that I had spent countless virtual hours in the cockpit driving, crashing, and racing on roads. I wasn’t sure if life had turned into an game, or games were just getting realistic, because for me it shattered reality a slight bit.
The Last Thing That I Enjoyed
Was seeing the D1 drivers talking on stage with their cars proudly displayed in the same room. Another codemasters game, in GRID I had gotten pretty good at drifting the C-West Silvia virtually, but what these guys were here doing it in real life. I resisted the urge to want to ask them how to be a driver in my bad Japanese, not like I understood much anyway, but what I did understand was the massive ability they wielded. I was a little jealous that they had gotten to live a life that people like me can only dream about as I studied their cars, which resembled fighter jets with all the switches inside of them.
The weird thing is I don’t even really like competition drifting, but the fact you can make a living from drifting makes me a little less cynical about life.
When I was invited to go to Tokyo Auto Salon, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Not a fan of big crowds of people, or really leaving the comfort of my own home on the weekends, it was my love of cars that made me leave my shell.
In my pursuit to make a living from creative work, I often hit walls where it feels like I’m failing to improve at a certain thing. I’m glad I went to tokyo auto salon because I really got my ass kicked.
I Learned So Much In My One day There
There are moments in life where you get destroyed so badly that it sparks a paradigm shift. That day made me realize that I had so much to grow as a photographer as the crowds of people forced me to work my Camera’s controls more rapidly than I had ever before.(I shoot in manual mode) The lack of time,space, and the random strangers who apparently don’t care that you’re taking a put me in a position where I had to come up with more creative compositions.
These are some of my best shots, stay tuned for part two where I’ll write about my mistakes!!
You must be thinking my what a cynical and twisted author to write such a statement. This thought isn’t actually my own, it’s pulled from a section of one of Jordan B Peterson’s video lectures. As an aspiring creative myself, I don’t think he could have said it any better. In this video he explains how creativity is as much of a burden as it is a “gift”.
If you don’t have five to six minutes to watch that video TLDR it’s hard to actually make a living doing creative work, but without doing it you feel like there is something eating you from the inside out. It’s something that you love so much and can’t live without but it torments you at the same time.
There are moments
during the creative process where you touch upon the divine and the pencil just seems to glide from a hand that’s not your own, but for every one of those moments are a hundred of the times where you’re stuck with negative thoughts in a loop of erasing and illustrating again. It’s a weird paradox of enjoyment of doing an action in coexistence with frustration and hating what you create. I once asked another artist how she became so skilled.
It’s a lot of self-loathing
Cleana Broman
It’s almost bipolar the way the pendulum swings from orgasmic ecstasy to utter despair.Like the fear that rests in the back of your heart when you fall in love. . . now that I’m this invested if you ever draw your sword it will cut and leave a scar just as deep. Is art a reflection of the creator’s soul or an image of the creator themselves? If so do other people only seem to see the blemishes and imperfections? What do my creations look like through other eyes. . . what do I look like through other eyes?
I Started To Take Art Seriously
over six years ago now. People see where I’m at now(which is still trash tier) and they don’t know all the crawling and clawing I did just to be this bad. They weren’t there when I’d shown up to my first art class with people who had been making creative works seriously for years and when it came time to show your work there was nothing nice to be said. . . the more painful thing was when someone forced themselves to say something nice. Like participation trophies in sports sympathy comments only make the recipient feel worse about themselves.
No one knows the loud voices and arguing I had to do just to even pursue “a useless art minor” as my parents said(although so far they’re right). Procrastinating projects because everytime you try to start you end up just staring at a blank piece of paper. The next year was filled with drugs to numb the pain of going somewhere you were the worst at, the only non art major in the art class. Almost dropping out because you were tired of being at the bottom. All the free late night drawing classes on wednesday that took away from your time doing other things. . . and where you awkwardly drew and saw a naked girl for the first time. All the shitty pieces of digital art you drew all the damn sketchbooks, all the pieces in the recycling bin. Almost getting fired for drawing anime, having your impromptu art gallery taken down at your other part time job, and sacrificing sleep and lunch time to practice drawing. Or failing classes because you practiced sketching instead of paying attention. . . all that to still be shit tier stings
No one sees when you get so frustrated that like a child you punch desks, trees, kick guard rails, throw sketchbooks, or hurl pens across the room. . . usually I keep that to myself.
Don’t Compare Yourself to others
is some B.S. statement unsuccessful people say to validate their mediocrity. While I do believe that for certain situations like personal bests in fitness, in fact I told my girlfriend to do that with her 2K time. Side tangent aside, what do you think the market does? They look at what you put out and then they take a peek at what someone else can do to see where yours sits. So I say compare yourself to the best, compare your own work to the people that inspire you and see what they do and you don’t and how you can try to get onto, or better yet ascend where they are. Taking an honest look on where you are might sting, but it will help you improve at a faster rate.
I’m going to sound shallow and super vain right now, but money is literally how we calculate worth and value in our society. If you can’t make any money(I haven’t made any so I feel you if you can’t). Than what you’re doing is not working nor is it valuable enough. Frequently I look at the artists I like and ask what makes their work so special. I go to https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=production_materials to see the industry standard of the field I’m trying to get into and experiment in pursuit of a similar end product.
That Statement Above Sounds Insecure
It does, but if I were able to make money from my art, but money allows the freedom to continue to do art at hopefully a more frequent and rapid pace to improve more. It gives you the flexibility to take classes courses attend universities to attain more skills. People with money likely know this, it allows for the ability to work harder on yourself than on your job.
I’m So Insecure
That not even the loving compliments of many grade schoolers is enough to make me feel good about the art I produce. . . I mean these are the same kids that are impressed by me touching the short ceiling, and the ability to lift a chair and desk at the same time. . . they’re still at the age when even us normal mortals can be seen as “heros”. . . my advice to them is their taste in art sucks and they need to find some better heroes. There will be the day when they realize how unimportant I am and when they even forget about my existence in their lives.
I’m So Insecure
That I get jealous of the skills of some fifth and sixth graders. . . so young and at a skill level comparable(or better) to mine. It then makes me think of the junior high schoolers, the high schoolers, and then the college kids here. I came here with the dream to be an animator, I’ve drawn almost every day this year to try to make that a reality, but if the sixth graders are already where I am perhaps it’s just a pipe dream after all.
Now That You Know A Little About The Honest but Piece of Shit Asshole Author/Artist Lets Get Started
Sidenote Inktober sounds like such a fun and innocent thing. . .but fuck intober I’m happy to be done with it albeit two months late.
Day 1: Poisonous
Made me think of poisonous gas . . . I used my pinterest, which is a lot of cute girls in school outfits posing(kinda embarrassing but I like drawing cute girls I should diversify it though >///<). Finding a pose I liked I drew it but also because I think respirators are kinda punky cool and bad ass, perhaps it’s a gas mask or a panting mask I drew that as well. The five-seven is my favorite handgun due to not only it being Sam Fisher’s gun of choice, but the unique round it fires. The hand is a little small and the neck might be a tad to long here.
Day 2: Tranquil
One of the things I do where I only focus on that one thing is drinking my tea in the morning. Just to be able to not give a shit about anything but taking sips of hot liquid is nice before I start doing daily planning.
Day 3: Roasted
The thing that always comes after roasted for me is marshmallows . . . damn I haven’t had one in so long. Character designs are from yuru camp, but the pose and the composition are totally original.
Day 4: Spell
The one spell she knows is explosion. . . this is a terrible piece I don’t even want to talk about it, I was frustrated during this.
Day 5 Chicken
The girl looks bad, but I think I did an okay job on making the chickens fit into the world of cute anime. . . like even that chickens ass is cute.
Day 6 Drooling
A collection of images from me wouldn’t be complete without a cat girl. A mention of seeing someone sleep is a weird intimate experience. . . sleeping is when people are at their most vulnerable after all.
Day 7 Exhausted
It feels nice to get into the bathtub after a long days work. . .but who has time for taking baths anymore. . . not me
Day 8 Star
Pose again was taken from my pinterest board, but here’s star guardian Ahri. While some people get to make a living playing games all they do for you is make you more broke and hate yourself more
Day 9 Precious
One of the most precious things in my life was this stupid red car. . . I actually had an AE86 but my dad sold it. . now I’m working my ass off to get a real sprinter trueno, but as with most things in life all my work leads to is me being tired
Day 10 Flowing
One of the few pieces I actually like, it’s of little girl deep sea miku looking at a Koi fish underwater. . . but I forgot to ink it before I gave it away to a student. . . that’s about the only thing I’m capable of doing with my drawings giving them away to kids and watching them smile.
Day 11: Cruel
not taking credit for this pose and composition. Cowboy Bebop’s characters live in a cruel world where nothing works out for them either, but spike is always able to smile and light his largely mangled cigarette.
Day 12 Whale
sometime ago a cute little humboldt penguin called Grape was able to steal the hearts of internet weeaboos, nerds, and geeks for his love of the 2-D Cutout of Hululu. From Kemono friends, Hululu is a anime girl equivalent of a humboldt penguin. I don’t imagine penguins would be happy to see orca whales or sea lions.
Day 13 Guarded
I’ve Actually Always Liked Fighting Games, it was one of the first genres I played with my dad. The truth is I’ve always been trash tier at them despite how hard I tried to improve. Common in most modern fighting games the low guard can only be opened by a grab, crossup, or overhead.
Day 14 Clock
When I was a kid my mom used to wake me up, either that or my sister’s blaringly loud Taylor Swift music. My least favorite part of the day was waking up and heading to school. . . school wasn’t a good experience for me.
Day 15 Weak
I remember watching the entirety of Dragonball Z in a week. One of my favorite “transformations” is the Kaioken. Sadly to current dragonball standards this form is kind of weak.
Day 16 Angular
This car is really aggressive and angular, so i even tried to represent the tail lights in a more sharp way. I actually own one of these cars and it’s a blast to drive.
Day 17 Swollen
Haruhi Suzumiya is a tale about a girl that is actually the god of the world without realizing it. How swollen is your ego if you want to be God?
Day 18 Bottle
I drew this because I wanted a girlfriend to do stuff like this to and have her not hate me after I did it. I want to buy a drink for a girl on a hot day and surprise her by placing it on the back of her neck or her face while she’s not looking.
Day 19 Scorched
One of my favorite dragonball characters is Vegeta, and boy does he scorch the earth when he does a big bang attack or final flash.
Day 20 Breakable
I tried to remake the style of the KDA akali video of a champion I like and used to main before I realized I was trash at league of legends.
Day 21 Drain
When you’re feeling drained you can always drain a cup of tea or coffee in attempt to recharge and relax
Day 22 Expensive
This is my dream car that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford due to how expensive they are becoming. Although this peppy little 1.6 liter is still far cheaper than a GTR. . . I’d want to have enough disposable income to buy one, but things aren’t looking too hot.
Day 23 Muddy
One of my favorite movies is this one called A Garden of Words by Makoto Shinkai. It’s unique use of angles makes me think of Kyoto animation. Shinkai’s movies also have amazing atmosphere from their shots of rain to the amazing colors and VFX they make use of.
Day 24 Chop
Mighty car mods has this thing called chopped where they hold up two fingers if they beat someone in a race. To me it’s kinda like the peace sign or dueces, so I drew myself with my car from the perspective of someone who had been passed.
Day 25 Prickly
I actually dropped that mug and broke it. . R.I.P. was my favorite mug, but Kirito has Prickly hair and he’s one of my favorite anime protags. . . Even with all the hate Sword Art Online gets. I mean he’s a young dude that finds success by being the best at VR games. Of course he’s a character designed to live a power fantasy. The show would be nothing without it’s stellar animation and soundtrack though.
Day 26 Stretch
Next inktober prompt was stretch. The interesting thing is if you look at a lot of still frames of animation during their animation even anime has stretching and squeezing. Not to the extent of western cartoons but during extreme action or drug induced trips like in Samurai Champloo animators are free to express themselves.
Day 27 Thunder
Trueno actually means thunder in spanish. Any excuse I have to draw this car I’ll find it, because damn you know by now I want one.
Day 28 Gift
This year I bought a gift and tried to make someone else’s christmas more important than mine. The odd thing was giving someone else the majority of my time and attention ended up making me feel happier than I had in a long time
Day 29 Double
The Toyota Supra is a car made iconic by the Fast and the Furious movies and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like it because of those movies. But I actually didn’t like those movies until I had played the equally cheesy titled Need for Speed games. I had played numerous titles but my favorite two ended up being Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for speed Carbon both of which had the Toyota supra. With a name that’s sure to capture the heart of every ten year old boy I fell in love with both the Supra and The BMW M3 GTR.
Day 30 Jolt
Any excuse to draw these cars and I’ll take it. Levin means lightning in spanish sure to give someone a real jolt right? I decided to draw a coupe this time because I always draw the hatchback.
Day 31 Slice
The last drawing of inktober and I was relieved to get this shit done!! A little late but finished indeed. Hopefully you can tell that this is a drawing of a girl. I actually borrowed her haircut from someone special. I made some mistakes inking that I tried to cover with whiteout but it’s whatever.
The Takeaway From Inktober
compared to last years inktober I’d say the drawings have definitely improved, but if you’re not an artist who gets paid to make art keeping up with this challenge is a nightmare. Life gets in the way sometimes, but I persisted to the end.
