Archives » 2007 » June

Top Secret Performance Engineering is a Japanese motor vehicle tuning company that makes performance car parts for Wangan, Circuit, Drag, and Drift forms of racing motorsports. Top Secret has won awards and been featured in many import car tuning magazines. In recent news, Top Secret took home Best of Show honors at the 2007 Tokyo Auto Salon for their “Final Evolution” JZA80 wide body kit V12 twin turbo Toyota Supra.

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The Toyota Corolla AE86 is a classic drift car suited to rally and drifting motorsports due to these attributes: Rear wheel drive limited slip differential configuration, low vehicle weight, good balance, a 5-speed manual gearbox, ventilated disc brakes, MacPherson strut style independent suspension in front and a four-link live axle with coil springs for the rear, stabilizer bars (sway bars) at both ends, and a relatively powerful and easy to tune 4-cylinder engine.

In Japan, these qualities made the AE86 popular with Japanese street racers named “Hashiriya,” who raced the AE86 in mountain passes, named “touges,” where the tight corners suited the AE86. Many car enthusiasts refer to the AE86 by its Japanese name “Hachi-Roku,” which translated literally means “eight-six.”

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A Sileighty (also written Sil80) is a Nissan 180SX with Nissan S13 Silvia headlights, front fenders, hood, and front bumper installed, hence the “Sil,” short for Silvia, and the “eighty,” for the 180SX. The Sileighty originated in Japan. Street racers and drifters in Japan did this conversion after a wreck because the S13 Silvia’s front panels and lights were lighter and cheaper than the 180SX replacement parts.

In the United States, it has become common for owners of the 240SX, the American version of the Nissan Silvia, to make their own Sileighties by importing a Silvia front end and installing it onto their car. Sometimes this 240SX/Silvia conversion is referred to as a “Silforty,” but most import enthusiasts insist on calling it a Sileighty because the proportions of the 240SX fastback body are identical to the 180SX components aside from labeling. Converted S13 coupes or convertibles are not considered Sileighties, instead, the car is most commonly referred to as a JDM Silvia Conversion.

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Masato Kawabata and his Nissan S15 Silvia drift car won Round 4 of the 2007 D1 Grand Prix Japan Season, held June 9th and 10th at Sportland Sugo, Miyagi.

2007 D1 Grand Prix Japan Round 4 Results

1. Masato Kawabata - Nissan S15 Silvia
2. Shigenobu Kumakubo - Subaru Impreza WRX GDB
3. Hideo Hiraoka - Nissan S15 Silvia
4. Masao Suenaga - Mazda RX-7 FD3S
5. Toru Inose - Nissan S15 Silvia
6. Ken Nomura - Blitz Nissan Skyline ER34
7. Akinori Utsumi - Nissan PS13 Silvia
8. Toshiki Yoshioka - Toyota AE86
9. Kuniaki Takahashi - Toyota Chaser JZX100
10. Youichi Imamura - Nissan Z33
11. Takahiro Ueno - Toyota JZZ30 Soarer
12. Tsuyoshi Tezuka - Nissan BNR32 Skyline
13. Masayoshi Tokita - Toyota MZ12 Soarer
14. Kazuhiro Tanaka - Subaru Impreza WRX GDB
15. Tomokazu Hirota - Toyota Chaser JZX110
16. Michihiro Takatori - Nissan ER34 Skyline

Overall D1 Grand Prix Japan Points Standings after Round 4

1. Masao Suenaga - Mazda RX-7 FD3S
2. Shigenobu Kumakubo - Impreza WRX GDB
3. Masato Kawabata - Nissan S15 Silvia
4. Ken Nomura - Blitz Nissan Skyline ER34
5. Tsuyoshi Tezuka - Nissan Skyline BNR32
6. Atsushi Kuroi - Nissan PS13 Silvia
7. Youichi Imamura - Nissan Z33
8. Tetsuya Hibino - Toyota AE86
9. Hideo Hiraoka - Nissan S15 Silvia
10. Toru Inose - Nissan S15 Silvia

The Nissan S15 Silvia has won more D1 Grand Prix Events than any other drift car with a total of 19 wins! The Silvia model is known for having excellent weight distribution, rear wheel drive, LSD (a more effective helical limited slip unit to be exact), the turbo SR20DET engine, and nice suspension setup. All of these components together make the S15 Silvia a drift ready car from the Nissan factory.

In 1999, Japan saw a new version of the Nissan S15 Silvia now boasting 250 horsepower (184 kW) from its SR20DET engine, thanks to a turbocharger upgrade, as well as improved engine management. The SR20DE (non-turbo motor) only has 165 horsepower (121 kW).

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Samuel Hubinette successfully piloted his Dodge Charger drift car for a win at Round 3 of the 2007 Formula Drift Season held at Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia. Click here to read Samuel Hubinette’s Offical Blog.

Formula Drift Round 3 Results

1. Samuel Hubinette - Dodge Charger
2. Tanner Foust - Nissan 350Z
3. Rhys Millen - Pontiac Solstice GXP
4. Tyler McQuarrie - RS-R Honda S2000
5. Chris Forsberg - Nissan 350Z
6. Daijiro Yoshihara - Nissan S13 Silvia
7. Kazu Hayashida - RS-R Nissan S-14 Silvia
8. Darren McNamara - Toyota Corolla AE86 Levin
9. Kenji Yamanaka - Nissan S14, S15 Silvia
10. Ryan Tuerck - Nissan S13 Silvia

Top 10 Standings in Formula Drift 2007 Season After Round 3

1. Tanner Foust - Nissan 350Z
2. Chris Forsberg - NIssan 350Z
3. Rhys Millen - Pontiac Solstice GXP
4. Daijiro Yoshihara - Nissan S13 Silvia
5. Kazu Hayashida - RS-R Nissan S-14 Silvia
6. Ryan Tuerck - Nissan S13 Silvia
7. Kenji Yamanaka - Nissan S14, S15 Silvia
8. Samuel Hubinette - Dodge Charger
9. Mitsuru Haruguchi - Nissan 180sx
10. Darren McNamara - Toyota Corolla AE86 Levin

Kazuhiro Tanaka was born July 4, 1970 in Ibaraki, Japan. Drift Team Orange member Kazuhiro Tanaka has been drifting in the D1 Grand Prix Series since the very first competition in Japan back in 2001. Tanaka first gained recognition drifting his orange Nissan S15 Silvia but later in 2005 Tanaka switched to the Subaru GDB Impreza like the car his teammate Nobushige Kumakubo drives.

During high school, Tanaka got his first taste of drifting when an older classmate that drove a Toyota AE86 Hachiroku executed a simple drift at an intersection.

“I was blown away at that moment to learn that a car is capable of moving this way,” says Tanaka. “Since I didn’t know anything about cars at the time, I was easily amused. I definitely wanted to try whatever he did after that experience. After obtaining my drivers license I purchased a Hachiroku! Since I knew that I needed to get used to speed before even trying to drift, I drove the car grip style for a month. Day after day I went up to the mountains and even racked up my gas bill to 400,000 Yen! ($4,000 USD) I worked hard after that to recover the money.”

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