CAR HighLIGHT: FINAL MOTION STAGEA

We've all see pictures of Nissan Stageas fitted with front R34 or even R35 conversions. But honestly, is that even necessary when the stock car can be made to look like this? It's not everyday that you see a fully stripped out, track-prepared station wagon unless you happen to live in Osaka where Final Motion is located. This is one tuning shop that hasn't succumbed to the tightening regulations that have forced most tuners in and around Tokyo to go, well, a little soft. Things are very different in the Kansai area of Japan, extreme is still the order of the day when it comes to personalizing cars, after all this is where VIP originated from.

CAR HighLIGHT: THE BROMAD

Sometimes when staying in random hotel rooms, I often find myself trying to imagine what sort of goings-on had previously transpired in the same space. Maybe it's like trying to see ghosts.

I'd love to know what stories that the hotel walls would tell, if they could speak. I'm sure some of the rooms I've stayed in would have some interesting tales to say!

You could likely say the same thing about old street machines too. I'm sure there are cars out there which have been witness to some amazing events and stories over the decades.

CAR Highlight: JOHN DOLLISON'S S13 SILVIA

Reading through the recently posted Ebisu articles, Dino mentioned that I went AWOL during the G1GP finals. That's because I couldn't resist the opportunity to shoot Aussie John Dollison's S13 at the top end of the Nishi course.

With John coming from the same State as me in Australia, I've known him for quite a few years now. This man seems to never fall shy of impressing people with the unique styling he does to any of his cars.

CAR HighLIGHT: THE AUDI QUATTRO CONCEPT

If I could pick one vehicle that excited me the most at the LA Auto Show, it would have to be the Quattro Concept in the Audi booth.
Andy Blackmore covered this car a bit when he looked at the Paris Motorshow , but I thought I'd post some of my own observations on this beast from the LA show floor.

CAR Highlight: THE TAXI ROD

My next Car Spotlight comes from the Long Beach Motorama back in September. At first glance this car looks like your typical "rat rod" or "suicide rod", but this wasn't built out of a common Ford or Chevy. No, this thing started life as a 1956 Austin Taxi.

CAR SPOTLIGHT: STAGEA AT NIKKO CIRCUIT

Whilst staying in Nihonmatsu for the week leading into G1GP and Autumn Matsuri, I headed down to Nikko Circuit where a private drift day was behind held.

With this month's theme being Haulers & Sedans, this Nissan Stagea seemed to be an exceptional choice to do a spotlight on.

I was quite surprised as to how well this car slid on the track, with very consistent runs lap after lap.

CAR SPOTLIGHT: A PRESIDENTIAL Q45

When I think of VIP style, my mind conjures up thoughts of important political dignitaries being escorted around in full sized JDM sedans dropped to the ground with two flags waving up front representing their respective countries. If my fantasies somehow played out in the real world, those sedans would look somewhat similar to this second generation Infiniti Q45 from this year's VIP Festival.

CAR HighLIGHT, NO CLUE II

When I was walking around the California Hot Rod Reunion last month, I came across another car that would make a perfect spotlight for Haulers and Sedans month. It seems the back in the '60s just about any body style could be built into a drag machine, and it wasn't all that unusual to station wagons out there on the strip. This '56 Chevy two-door wagon is a fine example of that.

CAR Highlights JZX90 TOYOTA CRESTA TOURER V

While Rod was over in the UK for JDM Allstars, one of the drift cars that stood out at Wembley was Zack's 1994 Cresta Tourer V. Four-door drifters are a perfect fit for this month's Haulers & Sedans theme, and this lurid red JZX90 certainly deserves a spotlight.

There's something about four-door sedans that lend themselves so well to angular body-kits. Zack's Cresta uses a five-piece DAMD kit from Japan.

CAR Highlights, SUPERVAN 3

Technically this isn't quite a car spotlight but checking under the available categories it would appear we don't have a van spotlight so car spotlight it is ! Actually, it's not too far off a car despite it's rather generous proportions. Originally built as Supervan 2 in 1984, the van is actually based on a Ford C100 race car chassis with a scaled down MKIII Transit body dropped on top.