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86 Spotting in Japan

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I love Japan. I know… Change the record, but it seriously is my most favorite place in the world. As a foreigner, everything about this place astounds me and every corner I turn I find a new surprise. On one recent sunny day while walking through Shibuya in Tokyo, I stumbled upon this Toyota dealership where they were displaying the new 86. While to many, the new 86 is probably old news, seeing it displayed in Japan exemplifies how bland new cars can be in Australia at times. Two particular 86′s were being displayed at the front of this dealership; one of which being this beautiful Pegasus White 86 kitted with every TRD optional extra that is available.

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The other, which to many people would be the more desirable of the two, was a Velocity Orange RC model. For those that don’t know about this model, it essentially is the model to purchase if you only intend to build your 86 as a race car. The car comes with the bare minimum; no airbags, no sat nav, no AC or radio and best of all, steel wheels as most would intend to purchase wheels for it anyway. At about 2/3rd’s the cost of the GTS model, these things would be incredibly popular for many people if it were to be available in Australia… Sadly, it’s not.

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One other car that I spotted was this rather striking Crown; yet another car that we do not get in Australia, and equally as impressive to spot.

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So feast your eyes on these cars, I dare say it will not be very likely for us to see anything like this at a Toyota dealership in Australia anytime soon. But if being in Japan teaches me one thing, it’s that if every single thing that makes automotive culture in Japan amazing was also in Australia, then travelling to this amazing country would quickly lose its appeal. E!CM

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R35 | Shibuya

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No talk. Just look.

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D1GP RD.1 Osaka

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A quick tease into what I was doing whilst in Japan.

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When Passions Cross Paths

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Many of you may not know this about me, but on top of being a passionate car photographer I am also regularly a wedding photographer. The chance of these two passions crossing paths is not often to the point of nearly being non-existent. Today however, while shooting for my lovely wedding couple; Elisa and Ash I was treated to the sight of this beautiful JZX110 Mark II, one of two in Queensland I am led to believe.

So… Who would like to see a proper shoot done on this curvaceous beast?

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A Day In The Life Of EffSquared

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It’s not often in this day and age that one would get to witness a master craftsman at work first hand. It is a dying art to find someone that has the skill and passion to make their craft really stand out from others, but recently I had the chance to follow exhaust and fabrication expert Nathan Domrow of Fabulous Fabrications for a day. The work that he would be completing just happened to be the exhaust for my soon to be running Sr20det ke70. In the past 8 years of owning my Corolla I have had countless problems with exhausts scraping the ground, hitting the body of the car and regularly falling off the 30 year old hangers. This time I decided I was going to get my exhaust done right!

The morning started off with modification of my gktech front pipe, which was basically sitting on the ground before I let Nathan loose on it.

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Fabulous Fabrications

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A quick look into the work being done on my Corolla exhaust today by the one and only Fabulous Fabrications. A photo set covering a day of work for this assiduous gentleman will be coming up very shortly!

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Getting That Drift Itch

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There are always plenty of reasons that I tell myself I’m not out at the track shooting enough, and most of the time they’re pretty invalid; I really need to get out to the track to shoot events more often. BUT, if there is one valid excuse for not shooting enough it’s this piece of junk, which just so happens to be my pride and joy, shitbox it may be.

I’m slowly piecing everything together for the SR20det conversion, and there’s starting to be some light at the end of the tunnel. I’m currently at the point of having the complete driveline ie: engine/gearbox/tailshaft/E series Tarago diff all connected and complete which is a point I’m very happy to be at. My intercooler and radiator are all mounted and about to have all the cooler piping completed by a close friend. I have all the bits I need to set up the fuel system; Bosch 044 and surge tank and I’m just waiting on some fittings. Wiring is all plugged in and just need some small connections to be made. I also have my exhaust booked in on Monday to be constructed by Nathan from Fabulous Fabrications. Aside from minor bits and pieces the list of things that need to be done is getting shorter and shorter each day, so I’m very excited to hopefully be kicking this over in the next few weeks.

I’m getting that drift itch.

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Another Teaser – Kiwi Tim’s BA Falcon

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Another teaser for now as I’m actually leading up to a couple of combined feature cars, but I’ll be telling you guys much more later!

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Roger Callan’s LS3 Cressida – Teaser

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A quick teaser for a shoot I will have coming up in the near future. Roger Callan’s LS3 cressida was by far my favorite car to watch drive at Rad Times. I couldn’t wait to get another chance to point my camera at it, so this morning I took the drive up to see where the magic happens at his workshop.

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Rad Times at Queensland Raceway

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When it comes to drifting events in Australia, the way I see it is there are two types of events. The first type of event is usually in the form of a competition where conservative and practical cars are built to compete against each other. The drivers, while highly skilled, will drive in a way that ensures their victory but will not put their car into jeopardy for the next event. The other type of event that is seen will be smaller level private days where there is less to lose, and often more reason to push your car to the limits. Events like these will see a larger variety of modified cars, and the extremities of the modifications pushed to the boundary. While these events are much more relaxed, this mix of variety, skill and zero stress about pushing the car to the limits makes for some unbelievable drifting. The latter event is without a doubt my favorite, alas they are often far less popular for people to watch; there is no advertising for these events nor are there many or any big name drivers for spectators to be excited about.

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Midnight Mechanics – 2012 Season

The last twelve months has absolutely blown by, but for us Midnight Mechanics it has been a year of unforgettable drift events. Our 2012 saw more track time together than any other year, and as such we have been getting quite the collection of footage from each of our events. I thought it would be suitable to do a compilation of all of our events from this year into one video. I’m looking forward to bringing you guys even more footage for the 2013 season. With both Jasons now running high strung 4agte setups, Cass’s ae86 coupe build and his current 20v Ae86 hatch along with my Sr20 ae71 build, we are really looking forward to ripping up the track even more so this year! E!CM

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Changing of the Guard

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What do you desire most in a car? Performance? Style? Pedigree? Perhaps, like many automotive enthusiasts, the want for a reliable and comfortable car throws the possibility for these options out the window. For my good friend Cassian Finnerty, and many other passionate AE86 owners like himself, the chance for all of this and more has become a reality with the arrival of the new Toyota 86.

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Living The 86 Dream

It’s not something that many of us get to experience as car enthusiasts, but there really is nothing like owning a brand new car. The new car smell, the texture of everything new and the feeling that you get from knowing that no one else has driven this car. One of our good friends, Cassian of the Midnight Mechanics, gained this experience this week when his brand new Toyota 86 arrived. We have been spending the afternoon taking photos of this beautiful thing to grace your computer screens, so there will be plenty of photos coming up in the next few days! E!CM

- Grant

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ETS 180

This has to be one of my favorite images from the 2012 Tectaloy International Drift Challenge. Nigel Petrie, a driver who I am privileged to say I have driven with this year, put on a phenomenal show up against some of the big names in the game and managed to push out near flawless runs all weekend.

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Not Quite Summer Morning Session

I love Morning Sessions. I’ve said it plenty of times before, and I will happily say it again. Honestly some of the best cars and drifting action can be seen at these laid back events. What started out as overcast and potentially rainy November 28th, quickly turned into a scorcher that would remind us all that summer is here. Normally for an event like this I would be out amongst the action with my own car, however being knee deep in turning my Corolla into the Nissan powered abomination it will soon become I had no choice but to sit back and watch. For something Different I decided it would be interesting to leave the Digital SLR at home and come to the track armed with nothing but my EOS-1 film SLR and a couple of rolls of color slide film.

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Missing the Morning Sesh

I’m thoroughly missing those winter morning session shenanigans. I honestly cannot wait to get the camera out again and get covered in tire smoke!

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Midnight Mechanic, Jason Murray, at the Queensland Raceway Morning Sesh

After two years of building and countless struggles to get the tune right, this Wednesday past Jason Murray finally justified all his hard work with a full day of drifting his beige 4agte Ae86 dubbed ‘Latte Lasis’ at the November Queensland Raceway Morning Session.

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Busy Times

Things have been fairly busy for myself lately, so I thought I would share my reasons why.
Still plenty of work to go, but I hope to have this thing kicking over within the next month.

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Japan 2011

Not a whole lot has been happening here at Excitement! Car Magazine over the last few weeks, but I have been recently re-living my Japan travels so I thought I would share this rather striking 1200 ute that I found outside of an Up Garage near Tokyo. E!CM

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The 2012 Queensland Raceway Matsuri

Many of you may be thinking that Matsuri is purely about drifting. Well, you would be wrong.
The Queensland Raceway Matsuri, for many, is an escape from every day reality. It is about the struggle between that boring life you live week in week out and the one thing that rips you away from it all. It is about the culture that we all live in, and most of all it is about spending time with your closest of friends.

For myself, and my close friends and fellow members of the Midnight Mechanics Jason Murray and Cassian Finnerty Matsuri was all of these things and more. Across both the 6th and 7th of October, 2012 there was no one thing that concerned us more than the smooth bitumen that we call Queensland Raceway. E!CM

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