After a three-year hiatus, the D1 Grand Prix finally returned to Tokyo for two days of D1GP's "Tokyo Drift in Odaiba" exhibition. Located in the center of the city, the man-made island of Odaiba is the perfect venue to expose drifting to fans who might not be able to see D1 at the other circuits around Japan. Since there is no actual racetrack in Odaiba, the course was set up in a large parking lot with temporary grandstands. Thirty of the top D1 drivers practiced and organized impromptu exhibition runs surrounding official competition each day, so all the fans were guaranteed a healthy piece of the action. Crowd favorite Nobuteru "NOB" Taniguchi, who has returned to D1 on a limited schedule this season, chose the event as his second D1 appearance of the year, behind the wheel of HKS's famed Toyota Altezza. Also notable was the debut of AE86 driver Toshiki Yoshioka's new 3SGTE-powered Lexus SC430 drift car.

Battle of the Imports recently caravanned across Nevada's desert to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and with it, brought a new twist to import drag racing: the Grudge Match. An enthusiast at heart, BOTI founder Frank Choi knows all about the rivalry between domestic V-8 power and sport compacts, and this time around, Frank wanted to find out which would reign supreme: the V-8 heads or the import nuts. Thus, invitations went out to championship PSCA 10.5 cars (read: super-fast American muscle) to race against some of the best Pro FWDs the import scene has to offer and to crown a champion once and for all. It was a battle of tubbed and slicked muscle cars against tube-framed front-wheel-drive imports...but more on that later! Battle is known for more than settling grudges, and the crew kept their Las Vegas event buzzing with plenty of SpoCom-only racing throughout the night. Dozens of privateers vied for entrance into the limited eight-car Sportsman classes, and the Pro Import class was comprised of a total of 14 cars-each duking it out for the Battle purse. What did this mean for the spectators? That calling what went down that evening "exciting" or "all-out" racing wouldn't even begin to tilt the scale of anarchy they witnessed!

Humans are an endlessly creative bunch. If there are gaps in our knowledge, we'll fill them in. We imagine faces, body types, and possibly whole life stories on the basis of how a radio announcer's voice sounds. And when we see a car like this trick '03 Nissan 350Z, a mental picture of its owner forms.

Odds are, you haven't a clue who this guy is. But by the pictures alone, you can tell he's as JDM as an S15, so assumptions would lead to a tuner, driver, or drifter, but he's none of those. So, why is he in 2NR? Because unless you've been living under a rock, are Amish, or have been abusing really hard narcotics since 1997, I can guarantee you've been hands on with his product-or at very least, have heard of it. And if you're White or from the East Coast, aside from that wack movie, he's one of the reasons you got into the tuning scene. Still haven't the foggiest? Kazunori Yamauchi designed a little game called Gran Turismo.

Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America recently invited any and all Mitsu owners out to their third annual MOD celebration at the company's Cypress, Calif. headquarters - to get a good taste of the aftermarket, socialize with fellow Mitsu enthusiasts, shake hands with corporate higher-ups, and talk their rides with high ranking members of the automotive press; yours truly. With heavy Starion, Eclipse, Talon, EVO, 3000GT, Lancer, and Mirage involvement, plus tons more, peep the DEC issue of 2NR for images and details of more cars than you probably thought Mitsubishi ever made. In the meantime, chomp on this: www.mitsubishicars.com

I hate to sound totally unpatriotic, because I'm not. After all, I just wasted my entire economic stimulus package of $600 on a couple of Bathing Ape shoes and matching BAPE New Era cap that shouldn't have cost me more than two digits-but did. Thank you, Dubya, by the way, go America! If my unnecessary purchases of Japanese boutique clothing didn't stimulate the economy, I don't know what will. If I could just make a suggestion, though, since I already brought out the Alan Greenspan in me, can we ease up on the strict emissions laws? I know the polar bears are drowning, the glaciers are melting, and a volcano is about to go postal under Yosemite Park, but with a decrease on emission regulations, we can possibly get back all that we've missed because of it-like the Toyota Supra, Acura NSX, and of course, vehicular artwork like this Mazda RX-7.

The golden rule of tuning? If you want to increase the performance of your car, you've got to cover all the bases. Want to add forced induction? Better add fuel as well. Want to make it accelerate faster? Without crashing? Then upgrading the brakes is a must. And so it goes with raising the boost of a factory turbocharged car; don't think it's as easy as pushing a button on that aftermarket boost controller of yours-you've got to deal with the consequences. The first of which, is likely going to be heat.

* Dynamomoter: MD Automotive
* Testing & Installation: Luke Munnell
* Text & Photos: Luke Munnell

Greddy High-Hp Evo Intercooler
All you EVO VIII/IX owners out there looking for big power, don't think for a minute your stock front mount is up to the task of handling all that increased boost. GReddy has what you need in their newest Spec-R intercooler kit, designed for high boost, turbo-upgraded '02-'07 EVOs, pushing 600 whp or better. Featuring a 4.5-inch thick core, cast aluminum end tanks and TIG-welded construction throughout, the Spec-R provides superior cooling efficiency to radiate excessive heat and minimize heat soak. Available in two-, three-, four-, and five-row designs, with 70mm inlet and 80mm outlet mandrel-bent plumbing, the kit features 95 percent efficiency with a pressure drop of only 1.85 psi.
www.greddy.com

Interview By Carter Jung

The British car industry has a lot to answer for. Example: the '95 Rover 220 Turbo Coupe. This was built on a Honda platform-the Concerto, as Honda had a stake in Rover at the time-it was front-wheel drive and had a 200hp engine. The Rover version deployed MacPherson struts up front-the JDM Concerto used double wishbones. By now, the words torque steer should be springing to mind. Despite a Torsen torque-sensing differential, the 220 Turbo was not kind to it's front tires.

Admit it. We've all done it. You get home, plop your potato on the couch, and fire up the remote. Somewhere in your erratic pushing of buttons you stop and oogle at the machines; typically Speed, Discovery, or TNT. And somewhere in those years wasted in front of the tube, you've undoubtedly crossed a few documentaries on the creation of an iconic car. Love or hate the topic vehicle, most can agree it makes for good television. Nine times out of 10 the show will speak heavily of the "engineering feat" of say an RX-7, a Skyline, or chassis/suspension-wise, a Lotus 2-Eleven. But, every once in a blue moon an OEM will turn the tables, ask the design department to administer a car into fruition (think T-bird or Eunos Roadster), and call it a work of art.