Japan, here we go again ! Part III. Hi-land Final Attack. スタート !!

Okay, so here we are with Ammoprod, just about to go to Hi-land for the first time not without a kind of emotion.

Well welcomed by this kind of stuff. As you can imagine I was like a kid. The famous SS Works AE86 !

And of course, this very eclectic parking area, each car you see is purely modified to be the quickest !

And still wondering why the hell we can't see this kind of beauty kicking BMW M3 asses on French tracks. Such a well balanced car, it's a real shame that's they are only famous for drifting here in France.

Here, you can also see this very "grifty" S15 (use to grip and to drift as well) aggressively driven by a cute girl.

And this incredibly FAST Infiniti Fuga ! What a FAST VIP ! The noise from its exhaust was just pure eroticism for our ears !

And just like my first time in Japan, I had this strange sensation of being part of one of my Favorited internet pages. Such a strange feeling !

And finally the EK4 arrived !

Ammoprod got this very exclusive stuff !

And this is how you manage to run almost 200 cars for Free practices sessions, Qualifications and Race, in a single day !!

The famous J-C Pepino from Work wheel Japan made a very very very long trip from Osaka to have a final run on this track, which was a huge part of his life for many years ! And it's also thanks to him that I could have this incredible chance to race at Hi-Land, I would never thanks him enough for this ! (I'm not sure, I was probably thinking about something like that in this picture "If Only we could make the DOHC ZC turn clockwise to bolt it in the 86... " )

Okay, it's now time to get behind the wheel to make it done ! And still strongly jet lagged here I am for the free practice.

This track is SICK ! It's a strange mix between Charade and the Nürburgring Nordschleife . An oldschool track with some fast and technical sections. Lot of places where you can overtake safely. (I'm saying this like I had the opportunity to overtake someone ! ). Hi-Land could have been the perfect track for the SB1. The EK4 was very cool to drive, well balanced, with good brakes and with a helpful LSD. But as I was as tired as excited, I made few mistakes without damaging the car.

After having qualified for somewhere next to the last place, I really had to have a rest, and it's exactly what I did. (The most Otakus of you have of course noticed the "Garage M" sticker on the trunk. )

Things are now getting serious ! Static start, and "IT'S LIGHTS OUT !!! " (you can imagine the voice of Simon Lazenby commenting the Formula 1 if you want.)

After having mad a pretty good start, even overtaking few cars in the firsts corners, I made few "shifto misu" that cost me lot of time and many places as well ! But the most important fact, is that I didn't touch someone, which was the most important ! After few laps, the pace difference between the other cars and me, was so important that I quickly lost them to be "Forever alone" The Only car I could manage to fight against was this EG6. Little Civic well driven by a girl about 2 seconds quicker than me. She went out of track after trying to overtake me haha ! BUT but but but... After one lap, she managed to catch me again and to accomplish the move very well...

The fact now, is that I was single, in that way I didn't have to look the most of time in the mirrors, so I could improve my lines in every single meters of the track, and that what I did ! Sometimes going a bit beyond the limits !

Finally in the lasts laps, I've seen few cars crashed into the walls, (probably because of the rain beginning) So at least, I wasn't the last ! According to Taro San, Kawasaki San over-classed me a little bit. I can see that ! And it was now time to say to the EG6 driver how sorry I was about my bad driving ! "Matta Sugo ne ?!" No problem !!

It wasn't about winning the race of course, impossible ! But surely the fact of racing at Hi-Land. Something that I couldn't even dream about few months ago and thanks to J-C Pepino, Taro San and of course Shin San from SMAC Garage in Sendai, the dream came true ! m(_ _)m

Here is the start of the big guns final race ! (Sorry for the quality, I was looking at the real life stuff instead of trying to catch the perfect video. )

A Japanese track day couldn't be one without the very famous Shan ken pon ! I can't tell you how bad we were, but that was pretty bad ! At least I manage to win 5kg of rice !!