Author Archives: Will@FluxAuto

Tokyo Auto Salon 2012

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I’m a little slow getting this posted, but here’s coverage from the Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) that took place at the beginning of this year. TAS is Japan’s equivalent of our SEMA show. It’s a national showcase of the latest and greatest from automotive aftermarket tuning companies ranging from wheels to power adders and aero kits. The Toyota GT-86 / Scion FR-S / Subaru BRZ was still pretty scarce when TAS took place, so the main focus was on the R35 Nissan GT-R. The Ben Sopra wide body kit for the GT-R made it’s debut on several of the demo cars for the top tuning companies including their own rear wheel drive converted drift car that they purchased from Blitz. There was also a drifting exhibition from the professional drivers of the D1 Grand Prix.


eGarage.com // Tokyo Auto Salon from Maiham-Media.com on Vimeo.

The best in show award was given to the 1200 horsepower Trust/Greddy R35RX GT-R:


Source: Greddy USA

Silver Lake Sand Dunes 2012

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This is highlights of the action throughout this past summer at the sand dunes around Silver Lake in Michigan. The video has some of everything from buggies, trucks and motocross bikes. There’s lots of gratuitous jumping, wheelies and drag racing. The footage was filmed by Dune TV and then this video was put together by the video guy of the Insane Racing Team from Iceland who compete in the Formula Offroad series. It definitely looks like a lot of fun.


Source: Insane Racing Team on YouTube

Adrian Newey Drives His Own F1 Cars

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Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey, is arguably the most innovative open wheel race car design the world has ever seen. Red Bull put him behind the wheel of two of his groundbreaking Formula 1 car designs. The first is a 1990 Leyton House March that represents the start of an era where Formula 1 cars were starting to tune front wings and underbody trays together as one aerodynamic unit. The second car that Newey drives is the Red Bull Racing RB6 that won the 2010 F1 World Championship. The RB6 represents the era of the exhaust blown rear diffuser where teams were changing engine mapping so that the exhaust from the engine was providing extra rear downforce.  Newey obviously has full trust in his work as he shows what David Coulthard calls a “10 out of 10 for commitment” around Silverstone.


Source: Nextgen Auto Videos on YouTube

Kei Miura of TRA Kyoto

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Kei Miura is the mastermind behind the T.R.A.-Kyoto design company. Miura works with other aero tuning companies to produce body kits for many Japanese cars as well as his own notable Rocket Bunny and 6666 lines for the Nissan S-Chassis cars. Crank and Piston got an inside look at his operation and his latest creation, the Rocket Bunny Scion FR-S. Miura designs kits by laser scanning the cars and then CAD modeling them. From there he uses a CNC machine to cut the molds for the fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) parts from foam.


crankandpiston.com // TRA Kyoto & The Rocket Bunny from Maiham-Media.com on Vimeo.

G&G GP Exhaust Production

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G&G posted this video detailing the fabrication of one of their GP series exhausts for the Yamaha R6. All of their exhausts are handmade in Italy. I thought it was interesting that most of the non-structural welds on the outside of the can were fusion welds done with the TIG torch and no filler rod. It looks like the base of the exhaust was welded with filler for strength and the baffle on the inside was done with a MIG for convenience since it’s not visible. Like all masters of their craft, this guy makes it look so simple.


Source: YouTube user Pielk