Archives » 2007 » September

Initial D Arcade Stage 4 began testing October 21-30, 2006 at three gaming centers in Tokyo, Osaka and Aomori Japan. Initial D Arcade Stage 4 was introduced internationally in July 2007.

The new Initial D Arcade Stage 4 has a new physics engine, cell shaded animated characters, a 32 inch LCD screen, and the gear shift has been relocated to a lower more realistic location near where you insert your Initial D card. A new feature connects gamers to Sega’s All.Net online play network that allows players from around the world to race each other in tsuiso battles and fight for high scores.

The new Initial D cards allow players to own 3 cars and stores data like modifications to vehicles, avatar customizations, and high scores. The car tuning and customization is done at the end of every three plays in the order of Performance, Bodywork, Performance, Aerodynamic Parts….and repeats this order throughout the game. You can’t transfer data from older games since the new machines won’t read Initial D Arcade Stage 1 through 3 style cards.

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VeilSide is a Japanese automotive company located near the Tskuba Circuit in Tokyo, Japan that produces high performance aftermarket car parts like: body kits, suspension, wheels, intake manifolds, steering wheels, gauges, racing seats, pedals, and shift knobs. VeilSide also produces a clothing line of VeilSide apparel. Currently, it seems that body kits have become the focus for VeilSide, since they discontinued some of their car parts and wheels.

VeilSide’s most notable products are their body kits or “aero-fashions.” One thing that makes VeilSide cool is that their body kits drastically alter the original lines of a car yet look stock. VeilSide’s aerodynamic parts catalogue was originally based on Japanese cars like the Toyota Supra and Subaru Impreza, but recently they have designed body kits for American and European cars. In Summer 2007, VeilSide released a new body kit for the 2005+ Mustang body style.

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Masato Kawabata took first place at Round 6 of the 2007 D1 Grand Prix Japan drifting series driving a Nissan S15 Silvia. This is Masato Kawabata’s second First Place finish for the 2007 D1GP Season. Kawabata won Round 4 held June 9th and 10th at Sportland Sugo - Miyagi, Japan.

Next D1 Grand Prix event is the Japanese Season Final. The 2007 D1 Grand Prix Championship is October 20 and 21 at Fuji Speedway, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

2007 D1 Grand Prix Japan Round 6 Results

1. Masato Kawabata - Nissan S15 Silvia
2. Takahiro Ueno - Toyota JZZ30 Soarer
3. Youichi Imamura - Nissan Z33
4. Tatsuya Sakuma - Nissan S15 Silvia
5. Toshiki Yoshioka - Toyota AE86
6. Daigo Saito - Toyota JZX100 Chaser
7. Tsuyoshi Tezuka - Nissan BNR32 Skyline
8. Nobushige Kumakubo - Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution CT9A
9. Masayoshi Tokita - Toyota MZ12 Soarer
10. Ken Nomura - Nissan ER34 Skyline
11. Hisashi Oginome - Nissan S15 Silvia
12. Atsushi Kuroi - Nissan PS13
13. Masao Suenaga - Mazda RX-7 FD3S
14. Toru Inose - Nissan S14 Silvia
15. Michihiro Takatori - Nissan ER34 Skyline
16. Kazuyoshi Okamura - Nissan S15 Silvia

Nitrous Oxide, Nitrous, or simply NOS is a chemical compound (N2O) that when introduced to a car’s engine increases horsepower performance. Typically, nitrous is not used in competitive drifting, instead, nitrous oxide is most commonly used in drag and street racing applications - drifting requires delicate use of horsepower to control drift angle but there are drifters that use nitrous like Japanese drifter Shuichi Yoshioka in his Nissan S15 Silvia. “The car has only 400ps (395hp). If two cars go into a curve at the same speed, the car that has more horsepower has more control. I use NOS to get more power,” says Shuichi Yoshioka.

When nitrous is injected, temperature inside the engine is about 572 degrees F, nitrous breaks down and nitrogen and oxygen are released. The extra oxygen creates additional horsepower by allowing more fuel to be burned and the nitrogen helps control the combustion process by reducing cylinder pressure. In addition, nitrous has an intercooling effect that reduces intake charge temperatures by 60 to 75 degrees F, further increasing performance.

Potential horsepower gains with nitrous:

4 cylinder engine extra 40-60 HP
6 cylinder engine extra 75-100 HP
8 cylinder engine extra 125-200 HP

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JDM Option is the coolest drifting and motorsport DVD series from Japan with high quality drifting video and excellent subtitles. JDM Option International: Volume 26 has three main features:

- Jidousha (car) Soccer World Cup
- 2006 Tsukuba Superlap Time Attack
- Video coverage of 2006 D1 Grand Prix Malaysia Series

The car soccer segment is the most entertaining part of this JDM Option DVD and there is not much drifting, but the Tsukuba Superlap time attack was cool.

Jidousha Soccer World Cup is simply insane. What else would you expect when you combine demolition derby, soccer, and a 50 pound soccer ball?

Two teams, Akutoku Tuners vs. Boso Drifters face off in a dangerous game of car soccer. Daijiro Inada acts as referee but really Inada spends most of the match running for his life from these drifters since he has the smallest car!

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Visiting Japan? Why not visit the legendary Mount Akina - as seen in Initial D! Get the most out of your visit to Japan with the Drift Japan Where to Drift in Japan page.

New Page at Drift Japan Blog shows over 20 places to drift and enjoy JDM motorsports while visiting Japan – includes Map & Info.

Click Here to View New Page: Where to Drift in Japan!

If you know of any popular drifting destinations in Japan I may have missed, please leave a comment and I’ll update the drift map.

Japanese drifter Daijiro Yoshihara drove his Nissan S13 Silvia to victory at Round 6 of the 2007 Formula Drift Season. Round 6 of Formula D was held at Wall Speedway in New Jersey. Next Formula D event is the Championship Finals - October 13, 2007 at Irwindale Speedway, California.

Tanner Foust is the point’s leader going into the final Formula D event. Foust’s closest competition is Daijiro Yoshihara, Chris Forsberg, and Rhys Millen.

Formula Drift Round 6 Results

1. Daijiro Yoshihara - Nissan S13 Silvia
2. Rhys Millen - Pontiac Solstice GXP
3. Tyler McQuarrie - Porsche 911
4. Tanner Foust - Nissan 350Z
5. Darren McNamara - Toyota AE86 (Nissan SR20DET engine swap)
6. Chris Forsberg - Nissan 350Z
7. Chris Cook - Dodge Viper
8. Ryuji Miki - Mazda RX-7
9. Casper Canul - Nissan S14.5 Silvia
10. Samuel Hubinette - Dodge Charger

Touge is a Japanese word literally meaning “pass” as in mountain pass or a road between two mountains. Touge refers to the narrow winding mountain roads.

Due to steep elevation changes, a series of turns and bends, sometimes called cut backs, is needed to provide access to and from the higher elevations. Aside from construction limitations, like not being able to pave a road straight up the side of a mountain, the winding road is intended as a safety measure - typically preventing drivers from reaching extreme speeds while on the mountain.

Nevertheless, street racers and motorsport enthusiasts alike seek to test their drifting skills on the touge. Eventually, these touge racers began to adopt driving techniques used by rally drivers to help maintain their momentum through the corners. From touge racing, drifting was born.

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The Trust Company was founded in Japan in 1977. The Trust Company owns several popular automotive brands like GReddy, GREX, and GRacer.

GReddy is a popular manufacturer of street-legal JDM and Domestic automotive performance parts like: exhausts, headers, air intakes, turbo kits, superchargers, intercoolers, oil cooling systems, suspension kits, brakes, body kits, fuel injectors, camshafts and other engine performance parts.

GReddy, pronounced GUR-EDD-EY, not [n00b] “G-Ready,” is originally named after a Japanese mountain named “Great Eddy.”

GRacer is the aero parts brand of the Trust Company. GRacer specializes in body kits that improve handling by delivering maximum aerodynamic advantage - increased down force and increasing positive airflow effect to vital engine parts and cooling systems.

Since 1994, the development and distribution of Trust Company products within North America has been accomplished by GReddy Performance Products based in Irvine, California.

Trust Company Official Website: http://trust-power.com

GReddy Official Website: http://greddy.com