Luck of the Irish

Introducing another blogger who visits Japan regularly, Chris Gray from Ireland.

Driving an AE86, which is a sure sign of die-hard dedication to the tuning cause, he described himself as "I guess I now live the tuning life even though I actually tried to 'avoid' it. I'm a Tuner, driver, JDM importer, photographer, writer, Tour guide haha, the list is endless!"

While the rest of us read about shops such as J's Racing and Sunline Racing, he gets to visit them and see all the cool demo cars in the flesh...

The J's Racing Tokyo AutoSalon demo S2000. Field report here.

Sunline Racing's demo R35. Field report here.

I guess the Irish really have better luck than us!

Mint Fresh!

Murray hails from Scotland and he's a man of many talents - blogging, web design car tuning and of course photography, which explains this rather nice picture of a sweet Japanese girl from Tokyo Autosalon 2009. You can enjoy similar displays of his photographic talents here, here and here.

In addition to pretty Japanese girls, his blog Minto Fruit covers the Japanese car scene during his many visits over to Japan.

Last but not least, we both drive S15s!

Eight Lives

I have always like the performance of Evolutions, but not necessarily their looks.

The first to fifth iteration look a bit too much like Protons for me. Number 6 is obviously legendary, but again the 7th attempt looks a bit half-baked as the front grille is too similar to the base Lancer.

The Evolution 8 is the first Evo whose looks I really like, with its square-jawed, gaping front and stretched fenders conveying a sense of muscularity and menance. So when you take the range topping MR version and bolt on a tonne of quality JDM parts, you get this magnificent example.

LOOKS - INGS body kit, with a carbonfibre bonnet up front and boot out back topped off with a Voltex GT spoiler. The cumbersome stock side view mirrors are also replaced with aerodynamic Ganadors

GO - Basic bolt-ons like HKS Super flow intake and HKS Hi Silent power exhaust, combined with higher boost (HKS EVC5) and aftermarket engine management duties courtesy of a APEXI Power FC, equates easily to approximately 350 bhp.

STOP - With a proven race heritage in F1, WRC, NASCAR, Indy Car and the likes, the Alcon 6 pot mono block calipers are combined with 343mm rotors produce mammoth and fade-free stopping force. The 17" Buddy Club P1 rims allow the huge calipers to be proudly displayed through the thin 6 spokes.

TURN: The MR's centre of gravity has been lowered by the use of aluminium for the roof panel and weight reductions to the upper half of the body. Other handling improvements are to the electronic 4WD system - to the ACD (Active Centre Differential) + Super AYC (Active Yaw Control) handling systems. To this already potent mix, an set of Tein Monoflex coilies are paired with EDFC to allow for fast, in-cabin damper adjustment.

A practical, good-looking 4 door sedan with the ability to let 95% of all cars on the roads kiss the dust... What more can an enthusiast ask for?

Formula Drift: Ivan Lim does us proud

So what if it's just 24th out of a field of 32?

On his debut USA appearance in Formula Drift, at Round 7 of the series at Irwindale Speedway in Los Angeles, our very own Ivan Lim is amongst names like Manubu Orido, Vaughn Gittin Jr, Ryuji Miki, Rhys Millen, Tanner Foust... Get the picture?

Ivan drifts in a S13 in the Formula Drift USA series. The S13 was built and maintained by Pac-Rim Motorsports and tuned by HKS USA. Formerly driven by experienced Formula Drift competitor Daijiro Yoshihara, the Silvia runs 420 whp courtesy of a built SR20det and HKS GT PRO 3037 blower combo, with more suspension components than you can shake a stick at...

Check out the full specs here.

Ivan's appearance marked Singapore’s first appearance at the highest level of professional drifting. Some of you may think that he's over there living large (cue: drifting in the day while hitting the club with hot promo girls like the one shown above) but here's a reality check from his blog excerpts:

When people ask me what i have seen in So Cal, i’ll tell them Gearheinz power and service... , Irwindale speedway and American tyre depot...

I didn’t get any practice as i went up a week before race day and had to work on the vehicle from 0700hrs till 0200hrs daily and only managed to get 3hr plus of sleep! The time difference didn’t help too and i was totally exhausted.

We should all be proud that of what Ivan is doing, putting blood, sweat and tears into pursuing his dreams and putting Singapore on the drifting world map.

Check out Ivan's blog for more here.

Carbon Clad T-Shirts: Driftmania in April!

From April onwards, our sister site www.carbonclad.com will launch a new t-shirt collection every month.

With our D1GP All Star-inspired t-shirts, fans of drift kings like Kazama (above), Nobuteru, Ueo, Kumakubo and of course Keiichi, are in for a treat in April!

A big thank you to those that have already purchased our t-shirts! For those that haven't, there's ten more days till the end of our opening promotion. From now till 31st March, key in coupon code 'CC' when you make your purchase for an additional 20% off.

Visit www.carbonclad.com today, buy a tee or two if you like the designs and tell your friends about it. Spread the love!