Driving up to Azumino’s thrift shop to buy a DJ mixer afforded me the ability to take some shots of the ALPS while I was there.
Tag: jdm as fuck
Tokyo Auto Salon Part 3 And Thoughts
Wrapping Up
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.
As always Much Love <3 LaidbackMarco
Stumbling On A Drift Shop
When My Dad Came To Town
We explored town far more than I usually do on my own. As typical I take pictures of all the cool cars I see as we made our way around town. We even visited the famous UP Garage in Matsumoto where I spotted a clean Z32 Fairlady Z, which it looked like it had been a one owner car.
Azumino
is a small city located just fifteen minutes north of my house. Having never been there, it was fun to have a shared experience of exploring with my old man. On our way to the Thrift Shop(Cue Macklemore Song), we made our way by a Go Kart track where there were more sweet whips to add to the collection. This particular track also had Drift Karts outfitted with pvc on the rear wheels allowing for oversteer. I wanted to try it out, but the Drift Karts are a member only activity!
Down The Road A Little Further
Was a small drift shop which made me pull a U-Turn and park. There was a small group of people sitting on plastic chairs and chatting as they saw us pull up. After introducing both my father and myself as Americans. In broken Japanese I told them the story of how Japanese cars were one of the reasons I was currently in Japan.
I thought of my cousin and some of my friends back home who had introduced me to car tuning, drifting, and Japanese cars and it was hard for me to hold back my excitement as I oogled at all the unique cars in front of me. The strange thing was I couldn’t find the shop on the internet and it was only twenty minutes from my house. I was really glad to meet some car people and it seems that they had welcomed me with open arms.
“We’ll teach you how to drift when you get a car” they said laughing.
Getting UP
One of the mechanics started to point out the different cars. He smiled as he opened up hoods, proclaimed mods and paint jobs, and told the stories of different cars. One car in particular made me feel like a sixteen year old kid again.
The Yellow Toyota Chaser
Not only was a cool car that was unavailable in America, but also belonged to a sponsored Professional Sponsored D1GP driver. The 530 HP beast reminded me of the days when my friend Nick and I would sit and watch D1GP or best motoring videos for hours in his “Virgin Den”. I daydreamed about being able to be a professional driver for a small second, I often imagine driving a car as I’m walking around, heel toe downshifting and skidding a car as I turn. A fun thing you can do in a supermarket with carts is pickup the rear and give angle to the turns.
After having exhausted my Japanese skills I said thank you bowed and parted ways with the small shop owners. The opportunist inside of me wanted to offer my services to build a website for their shop, but not being able to get traffic to my own site, I didn’t feel confident in providing any value for them. Wanting to start my own car importation business and learn to work on cars myself I thought of maybe offering to wrench on cars for free perhaps shooting videos so I could learn about cars and help them out.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep hanging out with them in the future, but we will see!.
Until next time <3 LaidbackMarco