Nürburgring <9' or Bust

04/02/2025

has put together some of my favorite moments of the last few years driving my at the .
Also, a lot of me nerding 🤓 about my car's history, specs and future.
But the most fun has to be the onboard lap, sideways in the rain!
If you haven't watched it yet, you're missing out. I'm going to go enjoy it on a big screen again, cranking up the volume! 🎺🎺🎺🎺

30/01/2025

We're SO lucky to call One Lap Heroes our friends. And today it's a special day, since we're featured on their channel.

If you want to see the car sideways at the Nurburgring, if you want to see a whole feature on what the car has, what its history's been so far, where it's going, and an onboard lap at full chat, grab yourself a large cup of your favorite beverage, and enjoy!

If you have consumed Toyota AE86 content online there is a good possibility you have seen Jorge's car before. Infamous from the epic@GEAR98dotCOM video, that...

31/12/2024

Yeah, cars are fun... But that's nothing without good friends around. Guess I'm the luckiest guy on earth.
Thank you for these amazing moments in 2024. Roll on, 2025!

01/12/2024

19/11/2024

About that day I went sideways in the rain at the Nurburgring, and lived to tell the tale...
Also, that front inner wheel in the air!! 👀

24/03/2024

Obscure Race Cars of Japan, Part 5.

The Nissan R390: The Jaguar project that didn’t make it, and by chance of TWR meeting Nismo, became the most potent Nissan ever made…

In '95, Nissan jumped into the Le Mans 24 Hours "GT1" showdown with the 'NISMO Skyline R33 GT-R LM, a highly weaponized version of the BCNR33 Skyline GT-R.
But, they pretty much got ransacked by foreign rivals like the McLaren F1 GTR.

So, after just 2 years of their 3-year plan with the NISMO GT-R LM, Nissan waved the white flag and got cracking on a brand new vehicle - enter the Nissan R390 GT1.

By 1997, Nissan pulled the plug on the NISMO GT-R LM and decided to go all-in on a GT1-exclusive mission.
Originally, however, they were eyeing the LMP1 class with a prototype car based on the Porsche WSC95 tweaked by Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), packing Nissan's decade-old but proven Group C car engine, the VRH35Z.

But, internal committee protest at Nissan pushed them to hustle on yet another different, more street-related GT1 class machine.
The R390 was born in a rush, borrowing the chassis from TWR's '91 Jaguar XJR-15 instead of sticking with the WSC95. They shoe-horned in the rather hefty VRH35Z engine redesigning a part of it as chassis load-bearing block, re-coded as VRH35L.

The VRH series engine, originally for a Group C R88 and R90, was severely held back under the rulebook, so its true potential wasn't unleashed in the early attempts powering their C car.

But around the end of 1996 the R390 made it to the Le Mans 24 Hours pre-qualifying where it made a shocking entrance by taking pole position.
When it came to the main event, engine issues and transmission exploding, threw wrenches in the works. They got fined during inspection for not having enough trunk space, and successive modifications leading to overheating headaches, to add to the hurdles.
With all these last minute updates, the R390 struggled to keep pace on race day, with just one out of three cars crossing the finish line in 12th place.
The overall winner that year was ironically the Porsche WSC95, that was supposed to have been Nissans car, before they ditched it and TWR repurposed it to IMSA-bound Porsche.

Fast forward to '98, the R390 got a makeover and refinement on those part that didn’t work after the last attempt, lining up against Toyota's GT1 TS-020 and other formidable competitors.

Unlike previous years, the R390 now held its ground, even snagging a third-place podium finish and putting all four cars in the top 10.
The R390 project was gaining credibility and internal support in its second year and looked set to tear it up in '99.

But Nissan had yet another plan and they decided to ditch the GT1 efforts suddenly.
And the R390 bowed out without ever racing again. The base platform was reused as the R391 which raced one more year as open cockpit car but in 1999, with financial difficulties, Nissan just had to pull the plug on LM car racing.

We’d loved to have seen this car get a little more update and continue for a few years more. It almost won the 24, but seemed cursed, like the rival Toyota’s TS020 that also couldn’t get 1st.

20/03/2024

Obscure Race Cars part 3:
Toyota 88C-V to 90C-V

Tom’s and Dome built their first Japanese carbon monocoque WSP car in 1988 to aim high at taking down European norms. However mentioned in Part2, their efforts didn’t pan out too far in that year, with 12th place overall at LeMans as their best finish despite impressive lap times.

Toyota's official corporate debut in the World Sportscar Prototype Championships was 1989 and featured the 89C-V, an evolved version of the 88C-V, with a more simplified design and additional reliability goals. In the JSPC, both Tom’s and SARD entered one car each initially, totaling two cars, again constructed by Dome. At Le Mans, Tom’s expanded to two cars, and throughout the rest of the WSPC's six races, one 89C-V from Tom’s continued to participate.

Their performance at the Fuji 500km debut race was notable, securing pole position with a remarkable time that exceeded the course record by an impressive 2 seconds. Similarly, at Suzuka, they demonstrated their competitiveness by dominating the front row, although their campaign at Le Mans ended prematurely due to an early retirement.

The latter half of the WSPC European rounds saw challenges as the car struggled to match the raceway traits of Europe, resulting in a lack of finishes in the points due to mismatches in downforce-related settings.

In contrast, during the latter part of the Japanese series, the JSPC, they showcased resilience, clinching victory at the Fuji 1000km. However, their hopes for a championship victory were dashed by a pre-race accident, preventing them from scoring points and ultimately leaving the championship title to Nissan and Porsches.

Despite facing difficulties with the subsequent modified model with the 90C-V in the following 1990 season, they managed to secure victory at the Fuji 1000km, marking a significant milestone as Team SARD claimed their first win.
_____

The following specification folks, were with no computer traction assist nor sophisticated brake management. Just raw, human powered gate shifting and clutch, and bone-jarring stiff suspension once the aerodynamic features pushed the suspension down onto its stiffest point. Just like all other C-Cars of this era from Europe, the people who drove them were brave, resilient, and determined to last these long distance endurance stints.

Like their European counterparts, this era of Sports Prototypes were beautiful cars, before the large scale implementation of CAD designs and supercomputing. Bodywork had flowing lines with simple aerodynamic features, and still had fantastic looking 3-piece polished rim wheels! The Toyotas here, graced with specially made Rays Volk Racing wheels manufactured in my home town, Higashi Osaka, Japan.

Toyota 89C-V
Chassis: Dome Carbon Composite
Length: 4,790 mm
Width: 1,940 mm
Height: 1,015 mm
Track Width: F 1,560 mm, R 1,540 mm
Wheelbase: 2,725 mm
Engine: R32V 3,169 cc V8 twin-turbo, mid-engine (3S-GTE Racing 503E in modified USA IMSA GTP configuration)
Transmission: March 88T 5-speed manual
Weight: 935 kg
Tires: Bridgestone
Wheels: Volk Racing Rays GTC LM

18/03/2024

Obscure race cars of Japan:
Dome Celica-C 1982/Tom’s 82C

Tachi (Tom’s) and Hayashi (Dome) created this cool but short-lived Celica out of a small garage in Kyoto, Japan. The project kicked off from a conversation in a drink pub in Tokyo like many things do in Japan, way back in '82. But by chance this funky car Group C rules took the racing world by storm, especially in the late '80s.

At the start, Japanese carmakers weren't all in with prototype racing as the competition was truly formidable with the likes of Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, all with long list of trophies. However, Dome, a new Japanese racing constructor then with high ambitions, and TOM'S, a Toyota-affiliated tuner, teamed up to create the "TOM'S Dome Celica C" for Group C racing.

Now, when you picture Group C cars, you typically think of those sleek prototypes like the Porsche 956, right? Well, the "Celica C" stood out because it actually resembled a production sports car, thanks to a deal TOM'S struck with Toyota.

See, TOM'S boss managed to secure some cash from Toyota's advertising budget to fund their Group C project, but Toyota wanted the car to look like their new Celica.
So, Dome's designer tweaked the design, keeping that Celica cues while packing a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine in the rear. Yes, a mid engine space-frame race car… This engine was a highly modified stock block 2T-G pumped by a single turbo.

The "Celica C" hit the track in '82 at Suzuka 1000km but had to retire early. Still, it shocked everyone with a fifth-place finish in its first WEC race at Fuji Speedway later that year.

Even though it didn't bring back any victories, the "Celica C" caught Toyota's eye, prompting them to get serious about Group C racing. It paved the way for Toyota's debut at Le Mans in '85 and set the stage for their ongoing sports car racing adventures that still continue today. Toyota’s efforts didn’t result in a LeMans win until 2018!

This old Celica, if we dig its event records…
You’ll see familiar names like Satoru Nakajima, Kaoru Hoshino, Masanori Sekiya… and westerners might be familiar with the name Tiff Needell who was also the test development driver, and incidentally landed a seat in Toyota’s LeMans 87C a few years later!

Going way back, thanks to the "TOM'S Dome Celica C," a key preface in the racing history books emerged that will follow for a long time.

(Photo: Autosport Magazine, Japan)

11/01/2024

Let me explain the depth of most 4A-G fanatics to folks who just don’t get it.

It’s an engine building and parts collecting disease that haunt those who delve into the dark depth of this addictive geek domain.

It’s an art of making 1 horsepower more from a 150hp-ish, ridiculously low power output contraption in a world today of mundane minivans making almost twice that power.

It is sometimes about losing a few horses and searching the globe for bits and pieces so it can sound better to your ears.

It’s spending thousands of bucks, trying to sort out things yourself, despite the fact that a guru of these can fix it in 1 hour… but the pride of it being “mine” won’t let you take the easy route.

To translate this to a young person, it’s like having a collection of video games, and going out of the way to swap video cards and clock ratios, for each damn game… just because you can see the tiny difference in things that doesn’t amount to a bowl of peanuts to most normal people.

Yes it’s stupid. By any life standards.
But many of us found lifetime friends, all over the world.
Many of us really grew seriously esoteric about tons of things on how the world works, and how machines of all sorts keep our world humming along.
We’ve found ways to stay patient during many of our challenges in life, and discover a sense of accomplishment in small things we do each day.