What a fantastic weekend i’ve had, quite emotional at points too seeing over 1200 Subaru’s and every motorway bridge the course of the route lined with Colin Mcrae fans, posters, flags and signs made for a unique site. I’ve taken way too many photos so i’ll be doing them in three parts.

Here’s a taster for now a white Subaru Impreza WRX STI

I’m in awe of this car, this R34 is a testament to real quality JDM parts and not the chinese ebay shit people increasingly settle for these days.

I hate to think how many hours and dollars went into this car, perfect we just dont get many cars at this level in the UK, and i’m sat here in my GTR works club tshirt. Yeah im a fanboy

It’s been fairly light on content this week but i’ve been mad busy at work on a project, this week see’s the Colin Mcrae gathering memorial run. This will be Tiger Life material with over 1200 Impreza’s due to attend with a convoy predicted to stretch for over 2 miles from Lanark in Scotland to Prodrive’s base in Warwick.

I’m excited about covering this event so much so I just bought a circular polarisor for the camera, expect a heap of coverage soon, and on Sunday i’ll be visiting Prodrive to hopefully get a glimpse of the new Impreza WRC’s in build at the workshops.

I love rallying i’ve started following a lot more championships this year and ironically I cant get coverage of our own national championship but I can get regular reports from the APRC, WRC and various domestic championships.

Check out these photos from the recent Hokkaido round, Hokkaido is Japans second largest island, looking at the rain it could almost be the UK

Toshi Arai in the new Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Toshi is a multiple PWRC champion having driven for the works team for a number of years he now drives for his own team Subaru Team Arai. Toshi took the overall victory in the Asia Pacific Rally championship round.

Cody Crocker took fifth in the previous generation Impreza on Hokkaido’s gravel forest stages

Loving the Endless branding on the car, check out the Work Emotion alloys too

Not sure what Boobow sell, I love these Daihatsu Boon x4′s

Cusco field a two car team in the APRC Yanagisawa pictured here the conditions look bad this looks just like Wales in a wet december. I love the Cusco scheme Endless brakes seem to be the standard, thanks to the APRC and Linear photographs for the photos.

you could almost see this outside, Shibuya station, almost, head on over to the Racer86 blog for a full report on the retro rides show at Gaydon.

I’m loving this Toyota Cressinda,

Looks like Team BRR got their hands on a new Group N Evo X early rumours suggested that Mitsubishi was having trouble extracting power from the 4B11 in rally trim in comparison to the STI but hopefully this doesn’t prove to be true. The Evo X could be the car to finally stick it to the STI in the PWRC.

The car was rumoured to be homologated on the 1st of August but there’s been no confirmation yet, time will tell when it makes its proper competition debut.

Although a modest event the 2008 Swift Inside Day in Japan shows an emmerging tuning market for Suzuki Swift with the majority of development based on the range topic ZC31S Swift Sport.

The Swift has a big following in Japan and has been a sales success for Suzuki and is now gathering increased interest from Japan’s tuners.

HKS, HKS Kansai, Sunline Racing, Suzukisport, Monster, Matchless Crowd Racing, Last Station, Scrit, Launsport, GP Sports, Greddy all have demo cars and various products.

RSRS were one of the first companies to offer an aftermarket roots Rotrex supercharger conversion and accompanying piggyback ECU, RSRS are currently leading the way in suspension development offering a series of geometry adjustment parts.

Tryforce Swift with Scrit Aero yeah I hate the vinyl too, the car is still in a very light state of tune with just a carbon intake and free flowing exhaust.

Sunline racing are the kings of Swift tuning i’m hoping santa will bring me one of those carbon lips this year and matching canards,  liberal use of carbon all over including hood, rear wing and skirts. This car now sports the full Suzukisport SC150 supercharger kit note the bridge buckets and Craft Square mirror, Sunline doesn’t skimp on quality goods.

This Swift see’s regular track action and is one of the most modified in Japan

I love this photo brings back memories of a wet December on Wales Rally GB on the Ephynt ranges on a couple of months to go till the 2008 event

Photo courtesy Mitsubishi

 Its a funny thing car ownership some guys treat a car like a commodity buy something mundane, cheap to run and bland to drive going from point A to B. I’m 23 and i’ve only been driving roughly 5 years I cant afford an Impreza or an Evo or a Skyline and often i’ve been on the receiving end of badge snobbery.

I drive a 1600 Suzuki Swift Sport and i’m an out and out car enthusiast i’ve been a diehard japanese enthusiast since around 12 when funnily enough my dad had a Honda Accord S type, then onto an EP3 type R. I went through two Vauxhall Corsa’s before being able to afford the car I drive now.

I’ve never really been a show guy, my cars often dirty, I do 1000 miles a month roughly and I have a love hate relationship with the car I drive. Sure it rattles and its not that great on fuel but on a tight twisty road right now i’d not want anything else, as the adage goes its more interesting to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow.

My car Chris’s and Mikes all modest machines but we all love driving, and yeah I have a Monster fetish

I’ve some good friends with Swifts, forums in general I find frustrating especially owners clubs but there’s nothing I enjoy more than just getting in the car with some like-minded people and attacking some B-roads.

I’m grateful to people like Jay (JDM ego) for featuring my blog on their blogroll, luckily I managed to track down his new blog which is fantastic. I’d share his frustration with the cut and paste blogs that are out there, one in particular..

But i’m a believer in blogging what interests you and I really enjoy writing my blog and finding content.

Go visit  http://racer86.wordpress.com/  for a really fantastic blog from a car guy i’ll not post Jay’s link but its a great read (found via my google analytics, ironically i’ve had 112 views from California and 250 from the United Kingdom).

Likewise with 7tune.com they’ve let me post some of my photos and get into writing event reports and I try and bring content from an enthusiasts perspective.

I’m an enthusiast, I don’t have industry connections and I blog as I see it hopefully everyone enjoys what I write although most of my comments are Russian’s offering me herbal Viagra and discount homeowner loans.

Peace and love ( apologies for the overblown post )

Prodrive are one of the Uk’s leading composite producers supplying aerospace and the motorsport industry, Prodrive have branched out in test these stirrups have taken up to 1.8 tonnes before breaking. They weight just 40 grammes half the weight of an equivelant alluminium developed for Alan Webb Racing saddles.

Seems horseracing is the new motorsport, im always amazed by the level of engineering by Prodrive, they may well redeem themselves in the WRC with the new Impreza WRC.