Japan Day 8 – JZXs at Nikko Circuit

After Ikeya Formula Casey and i headed to Nikko Circuit, as we drove through the tunnel and entered the circuit we were so excited, probably my favorite track of all time and we were standing in the middle of it.  

We headed to the pits to have a look and a familiar face appeared, its Alexi from Nori Yaro, after we had a quick chat he asked if i wanted a passenger ride, do i ever!!

There were a few “missile” chassis getting punted around.

I know everyone loves low cars but the size of the ripple strips and the need to jump them (if you want to chase someone)  at Nikko meant all the fast cars had normal ride height.

After being exposed to so many JZXs in one day you start to learn a thing or two about the cars. The recipe seems pretty simple for the big sedan but nothing is more important the wide tyres, the fast guys were running huge rear tyres and making them last for long sessions, the run up the main straight at Nikko means you need a lot of grip to get the speed for the flick to carry the car backwards and into the second corner.

Our man from Wonder Manabu was here and he agreed to put the incar camera in for his last session, more on that later.

This was the standout driver and car combo at the practice day, massive flicks and backwards entrys, you will see this in the next post “Action at Nikko Circuit”

Its simply amazing the performance these missiles had, notice the stock side mount cooler? If you lived in Japan had 10 years of spare parts lying around for your big dollar track car then it makes sense to get a shell for next to nothing and utilise those spares in that car to belt around.

No missile here, this car was spotless, love the tint

Ito Auto put on the event, what a great day.   

Fluro gram lights on white work well, but its under the bonnet that worked even better.

Now thats neat!! Simple but effective, a full Trust Turbine kit makes a lot of sense.

….1 Plates finish it off.

Manabus car sitting in the pits.

Alexi dropping off the famouse turn 1 edge, i was amazed at the grip and speed the big car displayed, Alexi was a brilliant driver and it was a huge buzz for me to be lapping Nikko, thanks mate!!

Turbine kit looks to be a 30/37 a perfect match for a 2J

The interior was super neat aswell, the rear seats were trimmed in red material aswell, nearly all the JZX drivers drive with the rear windows down, this fills the back seat with rubber off the front wheels, why do they do this? More angle?

XT7s are a popular choice at track days across japan.

But you cant beat and old AVS wheel for light weightness.

According to the stickers the car was running the V1 knuckle, a look underneath confirmed it,  such a great design by Toyota to use a simple removable knuckle.

No shit!!

Huge love for garage THRASH seats!!

This blister kitted JZX was the one we saw the day before at D1SL, the driver is a plumber and works 4 days on 3 days off, i guess those days are filled with drift drift and drift, lucky man!

Oil coolers are a popular addition in Japan and for good reason.

Thats it for the JZXs in the pits at Nikko, stay tuned for the action to come in the next few posts.