Gymkhana is one of those tuner sports that captures my interest both as an Evo enthusiast and a motorsport enthusiast, i’m a big fan of Monster Sport products and for those who may not be aware Monster are both a Suzuki and Evo tuner.

Gymkhana or autocross takes place on closed circuits usually short in lengh often based at much larger circuits and involves piloting a vehicle around a set course of cones.

Courses are typically 1-2km paved circuits, the championship rules are strict to maintain the sport at an enthusiast and gentleman driver level most of the top drivers have full time jobs the All Japan Gymkhana Championship being the top of the ladder.

Its a grass routes sport without the politics some of the major championships have, and hugely popular due to its comparatively easy entry and close specification machinery. One of the most successful drivers is Tetsuya Yamano taking 12 titles.

The key to winning in this formula is handling and maneuverability one particular car that stands out is Kazuteru Kawawaki Monster Sport Evo.

Monster sport appear to be a big player in this category with a number of drivers sporting their products

The Evo from generation 5-9 seems to be the choice platform Kawawaki’s 9 on Enkei rims looks super aggressive, the cars visually look very similar to their Super Taikayu counterparts.

Autobacs RX8

It’d be unusual to see this kind of machinery in our national championships, the Japanese just take their competition and motorsport to another level the shear wealth of formula is amazing, hopefully i’ll show you a little more over the coming weeks.

There’s something about the atmosphere on Japanese rally events, the JRC still seems to be thriving split into three classes RN, RJ and RF events cater for anything from a Daihatsu Boon to Evo x. Adopting primarily a group N format much like our own national championship events are both gravel and tarmac.

The recent rally Hokkaido was won by Noriko harmony Hiroshi Kitamura/Takeshita in an Impreza, with Katsuta in the new Impreza Sti still leading the championship, the new Evo x group N is scheduled to make its competition debut at rally Finland so expect to see the Evo fight back late season.

Group N STI, not keen on these in gravel spec but Subaru stole a march on Mitsubishi by getting the new STI homologated earlier in the season, although the Evo X reportedly has issues with power.

Daihatsu Boon X4 of Keiko Masato Sekine/Igarashi in the JN2 class, the Boon is 4 wheel drive 100cc turbo engine producing 133hp with a kerb weight of 960kg

Trusty Evo 8 still looking fresh on the stages

Mitsubishi Colt 1500cc looks a little high to be a rally car

In another news, hilarious babelfish j-translation of the day goes to

Run sir evo, run followed by

Thanks to dropJay as well for blogging my site hope you enjoy reading, cheers for the support

The 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo WRC was hyped as the replacement for the venerable evo 6 which had taken Tommi Makinen to the drivers championship on no less than 4 seperate occasions. By 2000 the group A Lancer was beggining to lag behind the newer WRC class cars from Subaru, Peogeot and a resurgant Ford, the time had come to build a car to the WRC class regulations.

The Evo 7 WRC was produced and developed by rugby based Ralliart who’d prepped and maintained nearly every evo generation to date, the FIA allowed Mitsubishi to run an interim 6.5 (homologated based on the Tommi Makinen addition) to bridge the gap between the 6 and the 7.

Still using the 4G63 engine in much the same specification as the 6.5 but now with the chassis taking full advantage of the new rules suspension travel was increased by 45mm curing the bottoming out the older evo’s often suffered in group A trim the larger wheelbase also offering improvements in high speed stability at the expense of low speed turn in.

The car debuted on 2001 San Remo rally the car hampered by transmission troubles Tommi eventually ended the rally after collecting a cliff face, the previous Evo’s had been built to suit champion Tommi Makinen but the flying fin struggled to get to grips with the 7. He was on course to take another title that year but the car no longer brought him the success he’d enjoyed previously, prompting a move to Subaru for 2002.

Mitsubishi’s financhial problems and seemingly a lack of development and investment by the company resulted in the withdrawl of the Evo 7 WRC at the end of the 2002 season.

Every year it seems the tarmac extends further up the course

The XL7 from Monster Sport is the only car in the unlimited class but Drive Monster Tajima is looking to break his 2007 record, good luck Monster

More of the Evo x posted previously, pics courtesy of Artemis images

I’m digging this Evo X, on any other car at any other event i’d laugh at that wing but Pikes Peak is one of those places you really need downforce loving what look to be Advan wheels and the small canards just below the headlights.

Pikes Peak is this weekend and you’d be stupid to bet against Monster Tajima taking the title and breaking his 8 minute record

Just started following the International Rally Championship on Eurosport more often, great to see Guy Wilks out in the JAS prepeared Honda Civic Type R in the R3 class, sadly a broken driveshaft brought an end to the run.

I’ll post a little more about the car in future but im a big fan of both the R2 and R3 classes

Dealer tuned cars seem to be all the rage in Japan these days Monster sport the respected Suzuki and Mitsubishi tuner will sell you a fully tuned Monster Sport SC150 slalom for £12,500. With a full catologue of Monster Sport parts power is boosted to 150hp from 123hp with the use of a small supercharger.

Big thanks for the guys at 7tune for publishing my article go visit their site for some great j-content

Marcus Gronholm bowed out of the world rally championship last year, since then he’s done some course car duties, now it seems he’s taken a shine to Rallycross. Whilst rallying and rallycross are similar they are both very different disciplines, there’s no guarantee success in one is sucess in another but Gronholm took the Fiesta to a well earned win.