Leaderboard

Before I start I wish apologize for not having photos of my JDM Tour in Tokyo. I had about 20 pics to show but they got erased while correcting and lost all of them. Anyway while in Tokyo, I found a 5 hour Night Tour covering various Car Related Places to see. I chose the Shared Group Tour (about 6 to 8 people in a large Toyota van) and because it was a night tour, it didn't interfere my daylight plans. The cost of this particulate tour e $250 per person. It started at 4PM and ended about 9PM depending on traffic. Pickup Up point in my case was Toer Records in Shibuya. It was 300 yard walk from the Shibuya Train Station. At the end of the tour, you are dropped off near your hotel in Tokyo area. The First Stop was the Liberty Walk Store which is tiny 2store in a back alley on Tokyo. It was mostly Promotional Type of Store with t-shirts, hat, key chains,etc. Second Stop-AUTOBACS is a two building which houses a Parts Store (similar to our O'Reileys) on the Second Floor. The Top Floor held high end Racing parts(like Nismo, HKS,etc). Foreigners with Passports can get 10% discount off purchases. Their Book Section had car magazines, books,photo ablums,etc) ica 1/64 cars and all types of trucks and heavy equipment were on display... to purchase. Even had a STARBUCKS CoffeeShop. The Ground Floor, there was a Garage that could handle regular car maintenance or installation of even Turbo setup. Last Stop was the Daikoku Parking Area. This large parking is located in Yokohama Harbor. This parking area is next to where the Japanese Cars(Nissann Toyota,etc) are exported to US, Southeast Asia,etc. There was about 200 cars on the Friday Night that I went. Most of the cars there were the typical Street Racer types. Some JDM cars had UnderCar Lighting systems. A few cars had Full Body Wraps(Cartoon Girls Designs were popular). Majority of the cars were mostly on the quiet side probably because Toyko Strict Noise Regulations. There was one vehicle that caught my eye-it was White K Truck with an Extended Cab and Flat Bed. It had a Dual Floating Rear Axles( total of 6Tires and wheels). The rear axles move individually of each other. Unfortunately, the vehicle didn't stop and kept moving thu the parking area. People said the best night for car viewing was Sunday Night but I was leaving Monday morning, maybe next time. I would still recommend this Tour for Car Lovers to learn Japan Car Culture and see some unique vehicles.

This winter I've been making good progress on various aspects the build, but most importantly getting back into the groove of one mini project per day. Tonight I diassembled the frontend of the car to revisit the cooler packaging. In the last iteration of the build I had intentionally left enough room to mount a half-size AC condenser, which are popular for other turbo cars such as evo's running large forward facing turbos. The packaging is extremely tight as I wanted to retain the hood springs while running a large oil cooler and condenser behind the fmic. I also left enough room for the option to run a 2" thicker core fmic in the future. I did have to mount some new PIAA horns as the OEM units would not fit. After some measuring, the plan this week is to SS hardline the oil cooler from the bulkhead fittings as although everything is functional I've never been quite happy with the SS braided hose. At the time I also didn't have the 10AN SS hardline bending tools and materials which I now have. Perhaps this will allow me to bring the oil cooler further to the pass side and give the condenser a bit more room as well.