Spent the day at Silverstone (Japanese cars content)

Bucket

Went to JapFest, the biggest Japanese car event in the UK, with a mate today - both of us are total nerds for Japanese performance cars, so this was a hell of a good day out - and on a stunningly beautiful day too. Despite the terrible hayfever...

Here are some of the best pics:

A Honda Accord Euro-R - this is the late 90s/early 2000s Japanese domestic market equivalent of the Accord Type-R. I love it and was very excited to finally see one in the flesh. Never seen one in the UK before.

https://i.imgur.com/O9klAQG.jpg

This is a Honda Stream MPV, heavily modified with a K24 engine (another Honda engine which is easy to tune and can yield a lot of power). It still had a full interior and looked every inch the cool, usable modified daily driver. It was for sale, for £13k.

https://i.imgur.com/KOkursw.jpg

The interior of the tiny Honda Beat micro-convertible. Those zebra-print seats and floor mats are original...

https://i.imgur.com/hSx0Kxb.jpg

Now for something that isn't a Honda... a beautiful old Datsun 240Z.

https://i.imgur.com/jZ2xktq.jpg

A totally stock, very clean Mazda RX-7 - even on Japanese plates. Very special.

https://i.imgur.com/yfXxS6i.jpg

And now, an RX-7 which is a long way from stock... the engine is a Chevrolet LS series V8.

https://i.imgur.com/gyO2Eyh.jpg

A Nissan Skyline GT-R, my preferred R32 shape, with no mods at all - surely a very rare car.

https://i.imgur.com/iv2Ix4H.jpg

And a Subaru Impreza... possibly one of the most modified cars there. Utter madness.

https://i.imgur.com/hJXv0Uw.jpg

The back of said Impreza. All you need to know - the boot is full of exhaust pipes, which exit at those holes next to the rear lights. Not sure how safe they are at that height, especially with all the fire that shoots out of them on a regular basis.

https://i.imgur.com/BIsXD6Y.jpg

To round it all off... one of my favourite cars of the day, an S15-shape Nissan Silvia with some nice, understated mods.

https://i.imgur.com/xEuS8kU.jpg


Great day!

the_jaffa

That 240 is cool. Have you come across Mighty Car Mods on YouTube? They’re doing a Fairlasy at the moment. Putting an RB in it

Bucket

the_jaffa said:

That 240 is cool. Have you come across Mighty Car Mods on YouTube? They’re doing a Fairlasy at the moment. Putting an RB in it

Oh no, I hate that.

I'm all for a good engine swap, but the 240Z should always have a naturally-aspirated six in it, IMHO. People putting twin-turbo GT-R engines in them are going too far - unless of course, you mean a naturally-aspirated RB25 or some such?

Funkfingers

I was expecting this.

the_jaffa

Bucket said:

the_jaffa said:

That 240 is cool. Have you come across Mighty Car Mods on YouTube? They’re doing a Fairlasy at the moment. Putting an RB in it

Oh no, I hate that.

I'm all for a good engine swap, but the 240Z should always have a naturally-aspirated six in it, IMHO. People putting twin-turbo GT-R engines in them are going too far - unless of course, you mean a naturally-aspirated RB25 or some such?

There’s a good reason behnd the swap in this instance. They imported from Japan to Australia but due to Australian asbestos laws they could bring the engine, gearbox or brakes. They already had an RB lying around so it made sense to go with that. 

the_jaffa

Well worth checking out their channel if you’ve not already though. Lots of Japanese stuff

Bucket

the_jaffa said:

Bucket said:

the_jaffa said:

That 240 is cool. Have you come across Mighty Car Mods on YouTube? They’re doing a Fairlasy at the moment. Putting an RB in it

Oh no, I hate that.

I'm all for a good engine swap, but the 240Z should always have a naturally-aspirated six in it, IMHO. People putting twin-turbo GT-R engines in them are going too far - unless of course, you mean a naturally-aspirated RB25 or some such?

There’s a good reason behnd the swap in this instance. They imported from Japan to Australia but due to Australian asbestos laws they could bring the engine, gearbox or brakes. They already had an RB lying around so it made sense to go with that. 

Ah - that makes more sense.

underdog

The club I'm a member of had a stand there I think ElgrandOC.

Lodious

Love the 240z, it's an absolutely classic shape. Sounds like a great day out. Do the cars take to the track or is it just static displays?

Deadman

Nice pics.

mudslide73

the_jaffa said:

Well worth checking out their channel if you’ve not already though. Lots of Japanese stuff

Massive fan of their channels. They love their Japanese cars. Their MX5 v S2000 Turbo/NOS battle is epic. Top blokes too.

Guitar_Slinger

I only know the car names from playing Gran Turismo on the PlayStation.  Cool pics.

P.S. my autocorrect wanted to change it to Gran's Tiramisu.

Bucket

Lodious said:

Love the 240z, it's an absolutely classic shape. Sounds like a great day out. Do the cars take to the track or is it just static displays?

They do go around the track, in groups of around fifteen or twenty at a time.

Some of the noises were incredible. We heard two S15 Silvias that sounded more or less like passing biplanes, and a whole host of screaming 9000 rpm Hondas - the EP3 Civic Type R and DC5 Integra (my favourites) were well represented... several on track that were making a fantastic noise.

Dominic

Lodious said:

Love the 240z, it's an absolutely classic shape. Sounds like a great day out. Do the cars take to the track or is it just static displays?

The modern Skylines/Subarus don't do it for me at all but a 240z is an absolutely lovely car......something very Ferrari Daytona about it 
I do love a Nissan Figaro too but I don't want have to become Hairdresser to get one.

proggy

Dominic said:

Lodious said:

Love the 240z, it's an absolutely classic shape. Sounds like a great day out. Do the cars take to the track or is it just static displays?

The modern Skylines/Subarus don't do it for me at all but a 240z is an absolutely lovely car......something very Ferrari Daytona about it 
I do love a Nissan Figaro too but I don't want have to become Hairdresser to get one.

I started to get the 'hairdresser' treatment when I bought an MX5 a few years ago.

Didn't keep it too long.

breakstuff

Really liked the Gas Monkey 280Z they did recently.Feared the worst when they started it because it was in such good,original condition,but I think they did a great job.

https://www.gasmonkeygarage.com/see-the-gas-monkey-datsun-undergo-its-tuner-transformation/

sinbaadi

proggy said: hi

Dominic said:

Lodious said:

Love the 240z, it's an absolutely classic shape. Sounds like a great day out. Do the cars take to the track or is it just static displays?

The modern Skylines/Subarus don't do it for me at all but a 240z is an absolutely lovely car......something very Ferrari Daytona about it 
I do love a Nissan Figaro too but I don't want have to become Hairdresser to get one.

I started to get the 'hairdresser' treatment when I bought an MX5 a few years ago.

Didn't keep it too long.

Bless. 

chillidoggy

I've had two Datsun 240Z's in the past, a '72 and a '73. Great cars, remember them fondly. Mechanicals were superb, the engine was a 2.4 Mercedes built under licence by Nissan. The last one I had the suspension and engine worked on, and it went very well, although the brakes were shite, and most people changed them for Range Rover 4-pots.

Z's were probably made from recycled drainpipes though, as you could hear them rusting. Those that survive in good nick are worth a few bob now.

Looks like you had a cracking day, Bucket!

Bucket

chillidoggy said:

Looks like you had a cracking day, Bucket!

Certainly did.

It's given me a lot of ideas... I've been thinking for a while about what car I should get myself next, and now I'm convinced it has to be Japanese again - ideally another Honda. I've a 1.6 Civic at the moment and I love the brand, but I want an estate and ideally something a little faster.

I was inspired by seeing a couple of lightly modded Accord estates (I believe the correct term for the style of modification is OEM+), and it's made me wonder about a 2.4 Type S estate with some choice mods:

http://www1.garaget.org/archive/107/106249/126766/126766-1178798.jpg

Nothing too much visually, just slightly lower and with some nice wheels. The engine is a K24 with 188 bhp so relatively potent already, but those engines are supposed to be easy-ish to tune so I could probably bring it up to 210-220 without too much hassle or expense. This shape of Accord can usually be picked up dirt cheap as well (good ones seem to hover around £3k currently) so it really could work...

the_jaffa

Ooh, that Accord estate looks great

Heartfeltdawn

The 240Z is one of the greatest cars in history.