Tokyo Road Trip in my USDM S2000
09-11-2015, 06:17 AM
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Tokyo Road Trip in my USDM S2000
I took a week off work to drive my S2000 down towards Tokyo. My first two days were at Twin Ring Motegi where I signed up for a Circuit Cruise. Unfortunately I live too far away to get the required JAF Circuit License in order to participate in full speed events. I did end up being the only person in attendance. The Control Tower manager who spoke excellent English had the track workers ready their "best pace car" based on seeing my S2000. While the S2000 Pace car was getting ready, I got a tour of the control room for scruitineering, TV broadcasting and reviewing the race and any requirements for yellow, or red flags.
[media]https://youtu.be/i8670_ABqSw[/media]
After the lapping I went over to the Gran Turismo Cafe right next door and got lunch as well as played a little GT6. The surprising thing was, their were only a couple people there besides me. Most people at the track were just workers moving all the containers full of WTCC cars.
Twin Ring Motegi is an awesome track. There is so much there for family fun, racing, and special driving courses. I know there have been posts on here about the collection hall, so I will keep that to a minimum. I was the first one in the door and during my entire time exploring all the floors of the museum, I only came across two other people. At this point I am thinking, "Where is everybody?" This is the coolest place right in the backyard of millions of people. LOL
The rest of my trip consisted of visiting tuning shops such as Arvou, where I met Yuusaku Shibata. Lucky he was there, because he is driving in Super GT and Super Taikyu this year. He showed me the awesome World Record setting Arvou HKS GT Supercharged S2000.
Next I stopped by Seeker where shop owner/manager Teraoko Ryo was there and was able to fix me up with a top off of Motul oil since nobody seems to carry it. I also purchased a couple items from him.
I then proceeded to go to Spoon. It is just a few blocks down the road from Seeker. I was granted free roam to explore as I pleased.
Lastly I went over to ASM in Yokohama. If you go to any shop at all while in Tokyo, go to ASM! It really is in a class of its own. The ASM Time Attack car was undergoing so rebuilding, so that was cool to see. The car is truly amazing in person.
I had some car trouble on the Wangan due to excessive water and my rear diffuser. But after getting drenched by the torrential downpur and passing semis, I had to head to Odaiba to grab some dry clothes and got a couple pics before heading back towards the west side of town and doing some laps of the C1. If the weather would have been better during my trip I would have been able to get a lot more accomplished, but as you may see in the news, the flooding was pretty bad in Japan.
I had many plans of places to drive and visit, but it was hampered by the weather. Every famous mountain road I went to was closed due to the rain and flooding. Even the toll way was closed three times on my way home. I spent a day and a half covering the same amount of distance that should only take 8 hours at most. My plan was to go to Irohazaka, Haruna, Akagi, The Bandai Azuma Skyline and Mt. Zao, all were closed. So unfortunate since my car goes into storage for winter in just a couple short months, then it is back to the U.S. it goes. I am going to try and do a couple of the drives some time in November. The Bandai Azuma is at the top of my list.
[media]https://youtu.be/i8670_ABqSw[/media]
After the lapping I went over to the Gran Turismo Cafe right next door and got lunch as well as played a little GT6. The surprising thing was, their were only a couple people there besides me. Most people at the track were just workers moving all the containers full of WTCC cars.
Twin Ring Motegi is an awesome track. There is so much there for family fun, racing, and special driving courses. I know there have been posts on here about the collection hall, so I will keep that to a minimum. I was the first one in the door and during my entire time exploring all the floors of the museum, I only came across two other people. At this point I am thinking, "Where is everybody?" This is the coolest place right in the backyard of millions of people. LOL
The rest of my trip consisted of visiting tuning shops such as Arvou, where I met Yuusaku Shibata. Lucky he was there, because he is driving in Super GT and Super Taikyu this year. He showed me the awesome World Record setting Arvou HKS GT Supercharged S2000.
Next I stopped by Seeker where shop owner/manager Teraoko Ryo was there and was able to fix me up with a top off of Motul oil since nobody seems to carry it. I also purchased a couple items from him.
I then proceeded to go to Spoon. It is just a few blocks down the road from Seeker. I was granted free roam to explore as I pleased.
Lastly I went over to ASM in Yokohama. If you go to any shop at all while in Tokyo, go to ASM! It really is in a class of its own. The ASM Time Attack car was undergoing so rebuilding, so that was cool to see. The car is truly amazing in person.
I had some car trouble on the Wangan due to excessive water and my rear diffuser. But after getting drenched by the torrential downpur and passing semis, I had to head to Odaiba to grab some dry clothes and got a couple pics before heading back towards the west side of town and doing some laps of the C1. If the weather would have been better during my trip I would have been able to get a lot more accomplished, but as you may see in the news, the flooding was pretty bad in Japan.
I had many plans of places to drive and visit, but it was hampered by the weather. Every famous mountain road I went to was closed due to the rain and flooding. Even the toll way was closed three times on my way home. I spent a day and a half covering the same amount of distance that should only take 8 hours at most. My plan was to go to Irohazaka, Haruna, Akagi, The Bandai Azuma Skyline and Mt. Zao, all were closed. So unfortunate since my car goes into storage for winter in just a couple short months, then it is back to the U.S. it goes. I am going to try and do a couple of the drives some time in November. The Bandai Azuma is at the top of my list.
09-11-2015, 10:55 AM
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Very nice.
Any photos from the Seeker visit?
Any way the OP could visit the shop Stradale? They wrench on a ton of Hondas/S2000s and make one off parts.
www.stradale.co.jp/
Any photos from the Seeker visit?
Any way the OP could visit the shop Stradale? They wrench on a ton of Hondas/S2000s and make one off parts.
www.stradale.co.jp/
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09-15-2015, 03:43 AM
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I will research getting to Stradale. I will be going back down to Tokyo for family vacation time in the coming months. As far as the Arvou S2000 goes, I only got a few overall pictures of the car. (mostly due to the lighting in the garage being pretty dim. I have a couple Seeker pictures. The shop is very small and in a weird location. They are really restricted on space due to the location of their building. But Teraoka-San really has a good operation going there. We have all seen the cars!
