Sunday, February 3, 2008

Track day at Tsukuba - Cancelled (TC1000走行会中止)

Due to the rain/sleet/snow falling on the greater Kanto plane this morning...got a call from D-Tech right as I was at the service station, getting gas. They told me the event will be rescheduled soon.

Too bad, I was looking forward to massive power oversteer/loss of traction understeer due to the slick surface, and learning to recover from those types of slides, but oh well...




BTW - finally figured out how to edit my cell phone movie of my car at SuperAutobacs last year. Had to use MS Movie Maker to correct the angle at which I had shot the movie (at 90 degrees left).

Here is the video clip:





The results of this dyno run are posted on my post for Dec 1, 2007.

http://akasakabcnr33.livejournal.com/2007/12/01/

Saturday, February 2, 2008

SSCT New Year's Party 2008 新年会

Tonight, attended my first ever SSCT (Skyline Sports Club Tokyo) New Year's Party, held in Ichigaya.

I got married last weekend in Zushi. The guys at SSCT knew this - and they (led by the SSCT Chairman, Fukai-san) surprised us (went with my wife) with some very nice gifts!

As for the event itself, there were some special guests present - selected speakers included Yoshikazu Sunako (Jukucho's dad), Kakizaki-san (?) and Goto-san (all who were involved in the development of the Prince 380 racing car, the predecessor to the first GT-R).

Followed by a short chat by Itoh-san and Watanabe-san, the developers of the R32 GT-R, and R33 and R34 GT-Rs, respectively.



After the talk show and dinner, they surprised us with this:



Fukai-san also gave us a special "stamina" drink - and a how to care for a baby book that would result from the stamina! Then, a judo book for when I got in trouble (to defend myself) and for her, a book on attorneys - good vs bad bengoshi!

After this, we went around taking pictures:


Here I am with Itoh-san, shortly after I got his autograph:



Here I am with Watanabe-san, shortly after I got his autograph:



I even got a picture with Sunako Sr:



Me, the wife, and Sunako SR:



And, as we were talking with him, I "won" this -



signed by Goto-san!



The wife with Sunako JR:


Thank you Fukai-san!



Tomorrow morning, I am off to Tsukuba 1000 - first time ever, running with D-Tech, a Mazda tuner. But I am not interested in times, more interested in the instruction on this short course. However, I did manage to fit the with S tires - at no cost - Fukai-san had bought four new s-tires for himself (he damaged one wheel/tire at the last track day), so he was throwing away his semi-used ones, so I got those for free! Thanks Fukai-san!!!