Tokyo Auto Salon 2012 - Shakotan Jam

By night, at new year there are always gatherings all over japan as the remnants of the Shakotan and Kaido racers hit the streets.

Style and creativity is something that these car lovers display regularly.

Sometimes they meet out side Tuning Shop Tetsu.

Testsu specialize in all old school mods to create a special Shakotan ride.

Old school Z, Celica, Skyline and Savanna. Names we love like Cressida and Laurel also feature.

Here is the mechanic hard at work on a special S30 Z.

Hard at work on the mirror placement. Apprentices are taking a break as the work nears completion

Work on their own cars finished hours ago with test drives also complete.

Retired specials sit in the showroom. (Remember these are so small. this image is actually twice normal size.)

In the back room he has another in the build.

Screaming past the showroom this Savanna RX-3 sprints to the PA.

The other guys are ready to roll as the sky gets light.

Fill up and roll! Let's go to the PA.

By the time they arrive, dawn has broken!

The guys have been having fun in their sweet rides.

Rodenstock inspired 99 rocking out.

Ichikoh Nissan. ready for some sill riding.

Something for everyone.

Kaido, Shark nose or simply flared. However extreme, this Shakotam Jam at G-Works PA was awesome!

If you want to make your own. You need some cars and some Putty. I have a few of these RA-30 in my collection that I'll post soon, but I'll be adding to it. Tamiya Epoxy and some time.

1. Disassemble and Paint Removal
2. Fender grinding for clearance.
3. Putty Fender Addition
4. Basic shaping
5. Detail shaping
6. Body lines
7. Special details.
8. Paint.

If you build this many, you may need some donor cars and you'll end up with some spare parts.

Fantastic.

Mazda FD3s 1/24 Lowering Techniques (Fujimi)

How do I get decent ride height on a Fujimi FD3s RX-7 1/24 Model? Here is one idea.

Let's look at the front.


remove the mounting pin from the top of the suspension dampers.
remove 1 coil from the spring.

The result should look like this.

Increase the size of the hole in the mounting position. (some cars will require slight reshaping of the upper side mounts when the body lowers.) Usually with different bonnet.

This is so the bigger damper top can slot in.

To compensate for the drop at the bottom.  Make two spacers for the lower suspension arms.

You can mount the body under the second tab instead of between the two mounting positions.
it should rest nicely on the rails.

About this high.

REAR:
trim the tab from the inner portion of the rear disk rotor.
this allows the axle to sit lower. disk will be slightly off centre but hardly noticable.

There's a couple of extra pics from my post on AF
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=977432

Rear should be a little lower.

Hope it helps.

Mazda FD3s 1/24 Lowering Techniques (Aoshima)

How do I get good stance on an Aoshima 1/24 RX7 Fd3s  model? Try this.

FRONT:
simply remove the spacer from the top suspension A-arm
glue the spacer to the lower suspension arm.

Carefully cut this piece off.

Somply glue the removed piece to the bottom.

REAR:
remove around two coils from the suspension to cater for the drop
remove the chassis mounts so the subframe can sit flat

You can see the depth here




to go further.

reshape the wheel hub to allow for a further drop in ride height.

You can see the hub sits below the suspension arm.