This afternoon we were in Chiba checking out a few auction sites and decided to swing by Mobara Circuit to check out the tail end of a grip/drift day they were having there.  I took a good amount of pictures, but since the site has been slow while I’ve been in Japan, I wanted to at least get a small update in.  This 86 belongs to one of the circuit employees…

The sun setting behind the circuit made for a pretty nice backdrop to the evening.

I apologize for the lack of site updates, but be assured, there is a lot of great stuff on the way; I just need to find some time to get it processed.  Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@naritadogfight) – while I’m on the road, it is updated more often than the site.  Thanks for checking in!

Last Sunday, since we were in the area for the Minkara meeting anyway, we decided to stop by the Stance Nation meet at Fuji Speedway.  Park and Matt were there as well so it was bound to be a good time despite what happened; I was running on fumes at the time so I mindlessly went along with anything suggested regardless.  Yasutaka messaged me on Facebook and told me to swing by to say hi; I wasn’t able to visit Tactical Art this time around, so it would be nice to say hi again.  Having slept for an hour and a half at a manga cafe in Shizuoka did pretty much nothing to revive me after a 3 day no sleep fest…

Anyway, once on the grounds, I was surprised to see the Garage Mak cars in attendance.  Garage Mak is based in Nagano, which is probably about twice as far from Fuji as Tokyo is; that’s quite a drive!  Anyway, they were looking as good as ever – extra stancy.

I took a few pictures at this event, I’ll post them up sometime soon, but tomorrow will be the start of the NDF Winter Cafe coverage so check back often.  Cheers!

It’s already been a week since we hosted the first official Winter Cafe at Umihotaru, and I’m still very excited about how it turned out.  First and foremost though, I’d like to thank each and every person who came out (with or without a car) to hang out and meet new people.  Above everything, I created this meet for the purpose of networking.  I love meeting new people, and these sort of events are the perfect way of animating that goal.  I hope everyone who attended took something away in that regard.  I’d also like to extend my gratitude to of course my good friends Sekinei and Nao who helped put this together, and sort of act as ambassador of NDF.  They also did a good job of tying it into their own page, CPK6, highlighting rolling shots on the Kawasaki 6 line.  Sekinei is a large contributor to NDF in Japan and I truly feel at home when I’m here because of that – our friendship has grown and I’ve been introduced to people I know call good friends as a result.  I hope, as the years go on this meet can grow, and serve as a vessel that harbors those kinds of international relationships.

OK then – Saturday November 16th, Umihotaru PA; venue to the Cafe.  I’ve always loved this parking area, mainly because of how cool the location is.  If you’re not familiar, Umihotaru is located as a midpoint on the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, and it is literally in the middle of the Tokyo Bay.  There are many restaurants and arcades there, but mainly it’s got a large parking lot…that’s basically all it is actually; a parking lot.

For our purpose though, it’s perfect.  Many car enthusiasts gather here on the weekends anyway (for obvious reasons) so it worked out great.  It’s a great halfway point between Kanagawa and Chiba, so it didn’t put anyone out location wise.  Over the years I’ve developed quite a good relationship with the Z community in Japan, and was very excited to see a good dozen of them show up for the Cafe.  Including my good friend Harada-san, whose car is seen here, in his newest form.

Kikurin’s extremely widebody MKIII.  This car is pretty amazing in person – hundreds of hours of work in just the body alone.

Nao’s wangan running MKIII now on BBS wheels (wider than the previous Volks).

The Z guys were the first to show up…and mostly the last to leave!

Koudai Satou’s Evo Wagon…

…on mismatched passenger and driver side Works.  Such a cool wagon!

My good friend Matt of Constant Fun – you can see a little post he put together here.  Hope you read Japanese.

Our friend of the show came out in his S14.3 – not the greatest shot, but the lighting is kind of strange here.  This car is executed so well!  See more of it here.

502 Factory Toyota Athlete

I like this shot of this LS because it makes Sekinei look very ‘yabai’.  Great looking car too.

This Aristo came along with the LS, and was very well built.

I’m convinced Vertex aero is among the best looking for this chassis.  I also am a sucker for VIP builds with bucket seats; although with that front mount, it seems this car would handle itself quite well on the Aqualine.

Another awesome Vertex build was this white S14.  I’ll have some more on this later…

Among the RWB cars that came out, Motomasu-san brought out Mujer Bonita – love the color of this.

Early in the night…

Around 11 or 1130 things starting picking up…

Satoh-san rolling in…

This car is deserving of it’s own post, so look forward to that haha

Satoh-san and Satou-san ^^ かっこいいguys ~

Revolfe S.A. tuned R34 – at just over 500 horsepower, this car gets on just fine.

Yui Yui brought out her Z33 with full Weber aero and custom NDF decal ^^  Pretty cool getting to meet her, and seeing her car in person.  The Weber kit is pretty rare.

Friends talking around Totsuka-san’s twin turbo Z32 on Meisters.

Asano-san’s now famous 180SX from Chiba.  Pretty excited to see him come out with some friends.

I think I’ll stop it here for part 1.  There’s still a lot more to cover and there’s no need to stuff it all into one post.  Hope you enjoyed so far – it’s been great going back through these photos.

Thanks again to everyone who came out!  みんな、 ありがとうございます!  Stick around for part 2 next week.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!  This was the official sticker of the event.  A similar design will be made for next year, and so on…there is one catch though.  These will not be reproduced.  100 were made, 50 were given to the first 50 people at the Cafe, and 10 were left with friends.  40 will be on sale on the NDF Store this week – when they are available I will post on the NDF Facebook page.  Remember though, once the 40 are gone, there will be no more so if you’d like one please order quick.  Stay tuned!  Cheers.

Well, I suppose I’ll just dive into the second part of the NDF Winter Cafe; my apologies on the wait, work has been pretty busy since I returned (If you missed it, check out the first post here).  Remember, you have an opportunity to purchase the official 2013 decal here.  There are only about 20 left, so if you’re interested I’d act quick.  If you do purchase, I extend my gratitude.  It will help fund next years cafe, as well as the limited decal, which I hope to be just as great.  Also, as a bonus, I’ve made an official Winter Cafe wallpaper using a shot of this ridiculous MK4.  You can head over to the wallpaper page to check it out.

Another shot of Kikurin’s widebody MKIII – from this angle you can kind of get a grasp on how much wider it is than stock body.

Akira Furuki brought out his track prepped RWB RS…on a trailer at that!  So cool, very grateful that he came out and had some fun.  Sorry for the quality of picture on the next few shots, but Umihotaru shuts down some of their lights after a certain time; which happens to make photography a bit difficult.

A shot of his engine bay – the car sounds absolutely terrifying.

Unique little FD that came in quietly and kind of parked off to the side.  Interesting choice of parts.

33 brothers! (or sisters?)

Rear shot of the Z33 in the previous picture…

Another couple shots of Motomasu-san’s Porsche.  Absolutely love the color on this car.

Totsuka-san having a chat with Kume, Tayama-san, and Masuhara-san; crazy Z guys!

Another shot of Totsuka’s Z32.

This ER34 and Primera rolled in together and both are pretty unique.  I’ve always loved P11′s and my good friend used to own a P10 here in the states.  That car handled so well, I’m really surprised you don’t see more of them used as tuning chassis’.  This one had a really neat touring look to it.

And of course there’s no party without Yusuke!  Good to see him again after the previous nights street drifting.

Harada-san and Amisaki-san; together they pretty much destroy the Z community worldwide.

Quick shot of the Revolfe S.A. tuned R34 – notice the AVEX banner in the back?  So cool…

Rear view of the Vertex built S14…you can see Lovers Rough in the far back…

This MK4 had an awesome aero package equipped.  A combination of Top Secret and Tamon Design peices made for a really unique and aggressive look.  The Ganadors set the whole thing off as well.  I don’t even want to imagine how fast it is…I would just get depressed.

I can’t think of a better combo…

I know everyone is super hyped to see more of Yuki’s FD, but after I finish the Cafe coverage, I’ll make a separate post because his story is pretty great and I’m pretty excited about it…so hang in there.

In the mean time…

Check out Yuki’s friend’s car, whom rolled along with him as well in his time attack, four door R34 with a really cool Meister combo.

I’ll stop there for now, mainly because I have to process orders from yesterday, and wrap up a few things before the holiday.  I hope you’re enjoying the coverage so far, and thank you for visiting!  I know for certain you’ll enjoy the next part.

Dreamworks built FD being prepped for a run around TC2000…

A nice departure from the aero saturated Evome series – not that you ever need a break from that…

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’ve been away for a bit; I’ll have the final post on the NDF Winter Cafe up tomorrow, plus 3 or 4 special features from the meet – stay tuned!
A special thank you to everyone who has ordered from the NDF Shop since it reopened; we’ve just placed a new order to get fully stocked soon.  There’s only a handful of 冬カフェ decals left, but we should be restocked in the classics, plus a few new designs soon.

Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.  It feels like I was away for quite a long time; sorry for the lack of updates.  I’ll pick up from the break with the last installment of the coverage from NDF Winter Cafe.  Again, I’d like to thank everyone who was able to make their way out to Umihotaru; from the feedback I’m hearing, it seems like everybody had a great time – and that was exactly my intention.  This will be the final installment of what I feel was a great meet with a few special guests…

One of whom this S2000 belongs to.  My good friend Taka, whom for a few years was my partner in crime at various Super GT and Super Taikyu events.  He’s been really busy with a new job the past year or so, and as a result, hasn’t had much time for auto related activities.  I was super surprised to see him roll through, as he made no mention to it at all and wanted to surprise me.  I don’t want to say it was emotional for me to see him, but let’s just say I was really happy.  It’s these type of relationships I’ve had the privilege of creating over the past 3 years that make anything I do worthwhile.  It’s also great to see that his S2000 is looking as good as ever with the added CR aero.

Another car I was really happy to see was Shimizu-san’s RWB 993 – the same car I was privileged to drive in Idlers earlier this year.  It was almost like a reunion of sorts.

This is one of my favorite RWB builds to date.

We were able to get some really awesome rolling shots of it leaving Umihotaru as well.  These were posted up on our special K6 Facebook page that Sekinei and Nao run – check it out if you get a chance!

Just for kicks, here’s a closer look at Yui’s wing and the special NDF decals she had made.  I think this is very, very cool and I’m pretty flattered actually.  What do you think; should I make some of these for the NDF Store?

Magician ~~~~

Another couple shots of Asano-san’s RPS13 and friends hanging out.

This FD gave off an extreme Initial D vibe for some reason.  I think maybe because a lot of the cars in that series are drawn with a sort of sunken wheel look…

MK4 on Model 5′s!

This is a Ferrari 360…although, not a normal one…

This particular Ferrari belongs to the Executive Designer of ABLUG; Mr. Kei-san.  I was fortunate enough to talk to him on a variety of subjects ranging from the kit he’s currently designing for a Mercedes R230, to how he thinks American hamburgers are gigantic.  He’s a great guy and I’m looking forward to meeting him again.

Another out of the ordinary car was Shoji-san’s Tamon kitted 370Z.  Before I was able to see the Tamon Design kit in person, the Amuse Vestito kit had always been my favorite aero for the Z34.  After seeing this car though, it would be hard to deny it the victor.

There are so many facets of this kit that I enjoy.  It compliments and enhances the stock body lines like nothing I’ve seen.

It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into the design.

Well, that’s it for the Winter Cafe coverage.  I hope everyone enjoyed and again thanks to everyone who came out; we’ll see you next year!

…and you still have this to look forward to…

Stay tuned!

If you don’t know Weld, then read up.  If you do, then I don’t need to explain to you how great their cars are.  Now, I’m not too sure who the owner of this particular Mark II is now, but it’s easy to tell when Weld has their hand in the build up.

We ran into this JZX100 at Fuji  the same week as the G Edition meet.  I wish I could have gotten some more shots of it at full lock, but truth be told the driver was having a rough time with it on track.

Regardless, the car looks great…

…but that’s what we’ve come to expect from such a company.

One of the most notable cars that attended the NDF Winter Cafe, and personal favorite of mine, was of course, my friend Yukimitsu-san’s time attack spec FD3S.  Mr. Hara is the Representative Director at Car Shop GLOW, and an avid Time Attack driver whom I first met at Battle Evome.  You’d imagine that it’s probably quite an inconvenience to take a full blown race car to a meet in the middle of the Tokyo Bay (and you’d be right), but the just the day before, he was at Tsukuba participating in the Attack event…

…and while he didn’t get his target time, he didn’t manage to damage his exhaust pretty bad.  What I’m surprised about, and actually very thankful for, is that he took all day Saturday to fix it so he was able to come to the Cafe.  A lot of people would have called it off, and it would have been much easier to do so, and for that I am extremely grateful.  His car made quite an impression at the meet.

It was pretty nice to be able to compare the new aero setup with what was used earlier in 2013 at Evome.  The changes so far haven’t been significant, but they are a bit more extreme.

A close up of the new front canard setup.

Side view of the CE28′s wrapped in Direzza’s new ZII’s and the not visible Aragosta coilovers.

The new massive T88 engine setup.  He is shooting for 56.4 on TC2000 next year and I think the T88 will be a huge help.

The color of this car is very unique.  Unlike most browns, at times, this paint looks almost metallic.  If you don’t know, Car Shop GLOW isn’t necessarily a tuning company.  They specialize more in interior installs, and custom lighting applications.  I know many of you on the Facebook fan page were interested in his tail lights.  Unfortunately, these are a one-off set and the shop does not sell them (even if they did they’d be very expensive).

Thanks again to Mr. Yukimitsu ~ ありがとうございます!  来月お会いしましょ~ See you next month.

Cheers.

Bee☆R had a good showing at the みんカラミーティング at Lake Yamanaka near Fuji, with Imai-san bringing out a couple of his cars…

…among them his now iconic Rocket Bunny BRZ.  If you remember, this was one of the first of the new gen 86′s to sport the Miura styled kits in Japan.  Still looks good today!

While Motoda-san wasn’t able to make it out to the Winter Cafe, I was glad I got to see him at the G Edition meet at Fuji the next day.  He was parked next to his friend Nakata-san; who owns this 4 door R34.  I’ve always been a huge fan of this car and was pretty excited I got to see it in person.

Motoda’s R32 was looking almost the same from when I last saw it at the beginning of the year, except for a few minor changes; like the addition to the front lip.  Such a good, simple look.

Motoda made a tiny Yuta for the back window ^^

Voiture-502 Custom and Service Silvia at the Minkara Meeting.  One of the two Silvias the shop brought out to show.  Looking great with a lowdown style on SSR Longchamps.

Very strong Minkara flavor.

Attack || Tsukuba Circuit ☆

Kiyotaka Ejima’s intimidating FD maxed out at a 56.580 at the beginning of the year.  I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do at next years Evome.

By far the most unique car that attended the NDF Winter Cafe belonged to Satoh-san of Satou Motors in Chiba.  I first saw his car browsing みんカラ one day and soon became friends on Facebook.  When I heard he was coming to my meet I was pretty excited.  This car represents to me a huge part of why I love the automotive lifestyle here in Japan.  The appreciation of originality is so far above any other country, that as opposed to being shunned, cars like this are adored.

The first thing that stands out about the car, aside from the bright orange color, is the full URAS Type S kit; with a couple personalized aero updates, like the rear canards…

…and cut rear bumper.  Satoh brings it hard with his decal game too; check out the Raiders ‘Kewpies’ parody on the wing end plates – so good.  Working close with the guys at A-One-Factory, Satoh came up with some pretty awesome designs.

Mismatched SSR SP1′s make up the wheel choice and add to the creativity of the exterior.

The hood color, which is difficult to see in photos, is something to be seen as well.  A sort of rainbow sparkle effect was added into the black.  Just one more thing that makes this car the poster child of pushing styling limits.  If you’ve seen this car before though, you know there is one thing about it that we can all consider the ‘Pièce de résistance‘….

…and that is, without a doubt, the roof of the car.  A mural we can all agree is on point with the rest of the car, and after seeing it, you know the car just wouldn’t be the same without it.  This alone makes this car 100% perfect to me.

Cheers!  Thanks for coming out Satoh – see you soon.

Meet Misa.  Misa was showing her car at the Minkara Meeting and after discussing it a bit with her, I knew I had to make a post on it.  I’m not sure what everyone will think about this, but I absolutely love it.

At first glance, although pretty amazing, it may seem like (I say this in the nicest way) just another Japanese FD.  V-mount, full R-Magic aero, carbon bits every where, fancy wheels, etc., etc. Even if that was the case, it wouldn’t be a bad thing; but it’s not as you will shortly find out.

19″ Gram Light 57 Accelerate Pros in titanium finish wrapped in Advans take care of the four corners. This is a 2-Piece forged wheel that you don’t see too often.

But all of this still isn’t the reason I liked this car so much.  If you take a look at this R Magic decal, you’ll start to get an idea though.

Misa covered pretty much every part of the car should could in rhinestones.  Door handles, interior pieces, headlight shrouds, decals, even the end plates on her canards; all were covered in rhinestones.  I have no idea why, but I find that extremely cool.

Check out the little titanium rotary design in the headlight.

The interior matches the exterior quite well…in the fact that it’s also covered in rhinestone.  Check out the Power FC Controller…awesome detail!

Her son gets shotgun – lucky kid!

Extraordinary!  Even has a backup camera in one of the license plate bolts.  I love seeing original ideas like this executed so well.  Great work!

Aoki’s Doraemon themed, RE equipped FD.

Our first run in with Art Engine was quite awhile back at Tsukuba Circuit during an open track event.  Which, after this post, will give you an idea of how versatile Art Engine is.  The company, based in Chiba, while not very well known outside of Japan, has it’s hand in quite a few projects.  While last time, the owner Tobashiya was running his FD at Tsukuba, this time, at Mobara, we meet a different member of the Art Engine family; Hideto Sakamoto.  On top of being a family man with two kids, an insane driver, and a great mechanic, Hideto is also a very nice and funny guy.  Always great to meet people who are down to have a little fun too…

Sakamoto is a technician at Art Engine, and the driver of this Cresta you see here.  Adorned in Art Engine’s signature livery, it’s difficult to mistake it for any other car.

Hippo Sleek aero, and Work Emotion CR-KAI wheels make up the majority of exterior aesthetics and are splashed in the unmistakable lime green and white two tone.

This car isn’t just looks though; and Sakamoto isn’t just a technician…this guy can drive.

Of all the drivers at Mobara that day, he was the most consistent.  Great speed, great angle, no mistakes.  Each turn on the circuit was his to control.

Largely in part to driving skill, and a little help from…

…the 2JZ under the hood providing plenty of power to spin the rear wheels.  Of course, all the work done in house at Art Engine.

We caught up with Sakamoto at the end of the day and he seemed pretty pleased with the performance of the car.  I was pretty glad I got to see another Art Engine car, as well as meet another one of their staff.  Always nice to expand the network.

While not in his signature Ray Bans, this shot still came out cool.  This is the fun I was referring to in the opening paragraph – I know this was a little embarrassing for him; I thought it had an old Option vibe to it – すごいね （笑）!

Thanks again and hope to see you soon! サカモトさん –> また、お会い出来るのを楽しみにしています。

Tatsuhiko’s all black FD sure made a presence at Tsukuba on this cold Sunday morning.  A menacing profile that was backed up by sub one minute lap times around TC2000.  The buddy club QF’s look amazing on the front set of wheels.

While the TE37′s take care of the rear tires.

This FD strikes a good balance between all out track car, and a street car.  I really like the canard and splitter set up.

59.365 hot lap

Hope you’re enjoying these small highlights of some of the lesser known individuals in the time attack scene.  Lot’s more to come!

Well, I bet you didn’t expect to see coverage from the Stancenation G-Edition show on this site…and neither did I!  I know this coverage is more than late, but it’s been kind of a fun post for me to put together.  Attending this show was actually a nice surprise, and I got to see a lot of friends as a result; which, when it comes down to it, is the only thing that really matters to me.  We were a few miles away at the annual みんカラ Meeting earlier in the morning, and didn’t particularly plan on stopping by the Speedway, but I got a few messages from friends that were there, so we decided to stop by as we were very close.  It was great seeing a lot of the cars in person that we normally see on the internet on a regular basis.  Like Saito-san’s S14 above…

…and others like Sasamoto-san’s Y33; which was on a set of Rezax that day.  Really like this car, especially the vinyl on the rear quarter panel.

Sano-san was present and getting quite a bit of attention.  His FD seems to change every time I see it, and after talking with him for a few minutes, he definitely strikes me as the type of guy to always have new ideas.  His originality is insane!  He let us in on a few secrets in regards to a new engine soon…but I’m not allowed to disclose anything ^^

Of all the cars in attendance that I was able to see, Masakazu-san’s SW20 was probably my favorite out of all.  For obvious reasons; this car is aligned with my tastes perfectly.  Thanks to Elvis for getting me in contact with him as well.

Yasutaka-san’s USDM styled S2000.  If you follow Joey’s blog, The Chronicles, I’m sure you’re aware of who Yasutaka is and his association with Tactical Art.

I had an opportunity to see him at Joey’s 5th year anniversary meet, but it was still nice catching up at Fuji.

It was also neat to see Keisuke-san’s Scion that was adorned with a catalog of HKS parts.

This guy must have just come from Las Vegas…

Of course 326 Power had a strong presence.  They had a pretty cool booth set up with a whole bunch of different sedans on hand.

These two Toyota’s from ‘Kandy Shine’ had matching glitter pink paint.  Hard to tell in the pictures, but it was actually very cool.  It also reminds me of a live performance of this song.

This R32 has been gaining quite a bit of exposure lately.

A R32 I’m sure you’re already aware of; you can’t get much lower than Naoki-san.

This RPS13 looked pretty track ready with the decent amount of aero it had on.

Awhile back I made a small post on a couple of the Garage Mak cars that were in attendance.  You can check it out here.

The LEVEL guys had a large showing with all their S2000′s.  I remember sending a LINE message to Vincent while I was here as he’s friends with a few members.  You can check Vincent’s S2000 out in the newest Import Tuner!

Even outside the show there were some really cool cars to check out.  I really liked this hatch on TE37V’s.  Very simple, very clean.

Even though it was missing some flares in the rear, I was completely in love with this car.  I wish I had some more time to wait around for the owner…

This Gloria was sitting all by itself on a nice set of SSR SP1′s, so I had to take advantage.  Fuji’s lots make for some cool backdrops.

Well, hope you enjoyed what little coverage I had.  Maybe you saw something you haven’t yet, maybe you didn’t – but if you want to see more, there are plenty of sites with great coverage.