Who’s your daddy? M Speed. For the second year in a row, the R34 GT-R from M Speed won the coveted title as the fastest car in the RevSpeed Magazine sponsored Tsukuba Super Battle. Tsukuba Circuit, located in the Ibaragi Prefecture, was the battle ground for this tuner fest to show who has what it takes to be crowned number one. Not only are the majority of power hitter tuners there, but there are also smaller less known shops and garages there in attendance proving that they can enter the track and keep up with these power houses. There were a few surprises and some very new entries this year versus last year; we will get into that later though.
There were a few new contenders that traveled a great distance to compete against the locals. Teams came from the UK and another from the Land Down Under, Australia. Andy Barnes of Sumo Power brought a pink 350Z, High Octane brought a black R32 GT-R, Fensport drove their Toyota Celica GT4X 4WD, RC Developments piloted a Mitsubishi Evo 6 and lastly there was Zen Performance with their Subaru Impreza.
Since today was the official release date of the new GT-R R35, there were two in attendance. MCR had a beautiful red one and Mine’s had a white one, each in their preferred colors. It was such a tough decision on which one to drool over, considering they were still in stock trim versus some of these cars with millions invested into them, Yen that is. Clearly, we could see which of the 2 R35 GT-Rs would be the quickest; the one sporting the most stickers. As we all know, just by adding stickers you gain an extra 30+ hp, per sticker – LOL. But in all honesty, it was quite a treat seeing the Mine’s R35 on TC flying past you. The Mine’s R35 managed to get a 1:03.1 laptime, very impressive and respectable for a car in standard trim, well, except for the power adding stickers. Although the MCR R35 posted a time of 1:01.9 driven by the man himself, Tsuchiya, this did not occur at this event. Again, even the MCR GT-R was in standard trim, according to the owner of MCR, Kobayashi-San. Let the rivalry continue, as they battled it out last September at Fuji Speedway at the annual GT-R Magazine Meet in their R34s.
MSpeed had the quickest lap time that day, with an astonishing 54:481 lap time, and that was in the yon WD class (4WD), the Pan Speed FD3S had the 2nd quickest time of 55:603 and in third place was Garage Trial in their Evo with a 56:094 best lap time. Perhaps what enabled MSpeed to come home with a first place victory was that it was already sporting the number 1 as its official entry number. Altogether there were 17 cars that had a best lap time sub one minute, now that is very impressive, including the Hi Octane Racing R32 GT-R with a 59:623 lap time; time to throw another shrimp on the barbie for these blokes.
Put this event on your calendar, it is quite easily the best race of the year in many ways, but don’t just take my word for it, ask any of those that were there to witness this annual event or simply just look at the pics. I would have to be on my deathbed in order to justify missing this event, but even then I would kick my own bum for not attending.
By Paul Castillo
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