Of all the tracks in all the world, what other circuit name can get you as excited as Tsukuba?  The Green Hell comes close but Tsukuba is where all the action goes down in our awesome world of hachiroku!

Alexi over at noriyaro has once again provided us disciples of the church of AE86 with a juicy sermon.

A while back when I took the Skyline to go drifting at Tsukuba Circuit, there was a series of AE86-only one-make races being held by Option2 magazine and Ken Sato’s Mercury workshop on the same day. The drifting sessions were filling the dead time between races, which was the main event of the morning.

Naturally, there were a whole bunch of very quick hachirokus there competing in the roughly ten-minute races, running the gamut from expertly tuned and prepared to completely boro and awesome.

The fastest car was Tsutomu Suzuki, driving his #18 Cashiew Trueno (pictured), with a best lap time of 1’02.885. Hibino competed in the race in his SR20 turbo D1 Levin, and came fifth overall.

Jump over there now and check out the sh*t-ton of pics… I just love the one without the rear windscreen… BORO!

It being the last few weeks of summer in Japan, the ’86 enthusiasts in the land of the rising sun make good use of the warmer nights to gather in roadside parking areas and talk up all things hachi roku.  Only a few weeks earlier, the same crew attended the HACHiRoCK!! FeSTA 2008, but being the die-hard AE86 fans they are, were itching for another meet up before the frozen months set in, trapping them inside their houses for 3 months of AE86-less confinement.

Check the website for the rest of the photos. It never ceases to amaze me simply how many AE86 enthsiasts there are in Japan, and again how many of them are feverishly active within the Japanese scene.

In Japan HOTSTAFF is a name synonymous with hard-tuned circuit-spec 4A-GE’s. Aptly self-exclaimed as a ‘Race Engine Manufacture Company’, HOTSTAFF is located in the north of Japan on the island of Hokkaido far from the neon lights and allure of busy Tokyo. It might be this seclusion from the majority of AE86 garages in southern Japan that makes HOTSTAFF and their customers so unique.

Being so far from the mainstream AE86 scene, the Hokkaido AE86 drivers compete in what they refer to as their ‘One Make Race’. Held a few times a year at Hokkaido Speed Park or HSP since 2005, the ‘One Make Race’ is a small but friendly competition between AE86 drivers to hone their skills and have some fun.

It hasn’t happened since 2006 but we’re hoping the drivers from Hokkaido are planning a comeback!

Check out the pics from the ’06 event after the jump.

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After our mini featurette on Japanese workshop Carland, most of you should be familiar with the Kyoto based company and its AE86 expertise. Now, Carland have just started to organise meets and events for their customers and other Kyoto based ’86 drivers. Their first meet last month in Kyoto was a meet up at the Arashi Mountain Takao Parkway Parking Area for a group photoshoot for the upcoming Toyota Levin & Trueno Magazine Issue 21.

Pics after the jump.

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We’ve got some great photos today from a short ‘touring meet’ in Hakone, Japan on April 27th. Not much else is known about the meet up yet but judging from the photos it was a huge success! White is ever popular as you can see …

Photos after the jump.

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Tsukuba Circuit played host to an AE86 vs VTEC Track Day. Which consisted of an open practice through out the day, with a race to finish it off in the afternoon. The race combined the fastest ’86s and Hondas from the earlier practice sessions and put them head-to-head in an all out battle for NA superiority. The race was taken out by the Techno Pro Spirit AE86 Levin affectionatly known as ‘Taro’ but it wasn’t given an easy time as it was pushed all the way to a nail-biting finish by the YellowFactory EG Civic (both pictured above).

Some pictures from the event after the jump.

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Kataoka Racing Service is a japanese workshop that organises nostalgic car track days in the Western regions of Japan. Amazingly, the field is made up of mostly AE86′s but there are a spattering of other fine examples of classic JDM steel aswell.

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