US v.s. Japan Friendly Match

After the D1 grandprix on 12/17, we had our own little friendly match between the US and Japan. Yasuyuki Kazama, Ken Gushi and Rhys Millen. Oh and even Verena Mei too. But to make all conditions equal we had everyone go in the same car. A car known to be a pretty hard car to drift. The new Mazda MX-5. It's easy to drift in your own machine you are used to competing in. You're really good when you can look good drifting a stock MX-5 without any modifications at all. (We got a stock MX-5 with the Sport Package that comes with an LSD and sports suspension) They were all good and we had a great time watching them. Lots of laughs too.

Some more staff shots

Photo #1. Camera guys. Definitely people you do not want to mess with. They are the toughest of them all. There would be no video product without these guys.
Photo #2. From left. Girl drifter and model Verena Mei. http://www.stargirlracing.com/ Now this girl has guts. The day before the shoot, Tsuchiya asked her if she wanted to join in on the drift competition between Kazama, Rhys Millen and Ken Gushi. I wouldn't blame any hard ass to back down from that challenge but she accepted and went head on with those guys. Hats off to her. You have to buy the video to see what happened.
Middle is Ken and to his right is Tina who helped us out for the day. Tina can't drift yet but she has the looks to become a model soon.

Photo #3. 2&4 Production guys. From right, Yamada-san who is the genius that first came up with the original Touge Showdown in Hot Version. In the middle is Tanabe-san who was basically the guy who said 5 years ago, "Zigzag Asia? I have no idea who the hell you guys are but, I'll let you guys make the English version of Best Motoring". We owe it big time to him for believing in us from the beginning. Last is Mi Amigo Matsuda-san who's the production manager of these shows. Some people say his roots go back to Pancho Villa but I'm too scared to ask him in person.

Zigzag Asia Staff

We are actually a pretty small group. Starting from the left is Masa Kuji who is our General Manager for Zigzag Asia(America) and he's also a board member of the Japanese HQ. Masa grew up in Canada and plays hockey but he's also a car nut. He was just about to cry when we sold the Tommykaira Z but it wasn't doing us much good to pick us up at LAX so we decided to sell the car. I know he used to own a Mark II in Canada, a 180 during school and an M3 before moving to LA. Next is Ken Takahashi Ken is our sales director for Zigzag Asia (America) among many other roles like chief gossip officer since he's so plugged into the import industry. Ken is also a judge for the Formula D drifting series. Ken is OG and native so he drives a big O'l American Hummer and also owns a Grand National from the 80's. For some reason, he also owns a right hand drive JDM S13 Silvia. I like driving it around town when I'm in the States. It's completely stock but it's a great little car. Next to him is Katsu Takahashi who is not related to Ken Takahashi despite their resemblance. He is our wonder guy who is in charge of practically all creative work from video editing, ads, t-shirts, DVD packages, website, stickers you name it. Katsu has been into cars and I think he's just about changed cars every year for the past 5 years. I don't even know what he is driving now. Oh, wait I think it was Citroen. Yeah, he likes European makes. Last is me, Taro Koki who is the president of Zigzag Asia Co.,Ltd in Japan and Zigzag Asia(America) located in Torrance. I live smack in the middle of Tokyo and I don’t own a car. In Tokyo there is Yuko my sister who takes care of administration and accounting. She's usually in Japan holding down the fort while Katsu and I go back and forth. This picture was taken at Willowspring immediately after our American Touge shoot. Katsu and I are back in Tokyo starting to edit AT2 and Masa and Ken are back to business as usual selling Best Motoring and Hot Version DVDs.

Hot Wheels presents American Touge 2 Report

Our second American Touge shoot was a great success for us. I want to thank all of the tuners that brought out their cars, our sponsors, people that came out to watch, the media and everyone else that helped make it happen. It would not have been possible with out you!
After our first shoot last December we really received a lot of e-mails from shops around the US asking us when we would have another one. Earlier this year, we decided to go ahead but have an open casting call to give as many tuners a chance to have Keiichi Tsuchiya drive their cars. Out of about 100 cars, we narrowed it down to 40 cars. All 40 cars showed up with a total of about 200 people. Most people were extremely happy with the event. That they had Keiichi Tsuchiya and Yasuyuki Kazama drive their cars and they got to meet the two top level drivers. Just seeing the fans happy makes it all worth while for us to come all the way from Japan to do a US shoot.
On the other hand it is a video shoot and not an event so the video shooting has priority, making some people who participated unhappy. For instance, we only have so many video equipment so we have to choose which cars will get on board cameras. We equiped as many cars as possible during a short period of time. But in addition to appearing in our video, the tuners that brought their cars will for sure get exposure through the other media which were on site. Super Street, Modified, Import Racer, C16 and Jtuned were all there to shoot photos. Those are the top magazines in the industry so the tuners are killing a couple birds with one stone(coming to American Touge 2). But my biggest regret were the tire rules. All of the confusion caused on site was totally caused by the lack of preparation and lack of acknowlegement on how serious the situation would be. It is completely our fault. In Japan we don't have any written Touge Showdown rules since it is not a sanctioned race nor event. It is just a segment in our video that showcases top level street cars by the hands of our drivers. We just tell the tuners to bring street radial sports tires. We do not have slicks, semi slicks, nylon ply street legal tires. We don't have "competition" DOT approved tires. Since we didn't have time to narrow down the make and spec of which tires are Ok and not. We just left it to " street legal, steel belted radials" which caused all of the confusion. We were not intending to turn people back if they brought slicks in the first place. We were willing to give people chances if their car broke down. It is not a competition, it is a video shoot.
That all said, I appreciate that everyone cares greatly about who wins. It is awesome that each tuner takes enormous pride in how their vehicle performs at our shoot. We as producers need to take more of that into account and take this entire project as more than just a "video shoot" we plan each year. We intend to do that.
One most learn from each mistake and for our next video shoot, we will have to make the rules and judging process more clearer. We will also probably need to designate which tires are OK and which are not.
It is a learning curve for all of us. When we first started out we wanted to simply bring entertaining car content from Japan. Now our goals are to produce entertaining car content which involves both the US and Japan. Integration always has glitches in the beginning. We will work hard to get rid of the bugs to truly produce an international version of Best Motoring and Hot Version to successfully make something that makes everyone involved in it happy and proud.

Porsche Cayman

Covering the Porsche Cayman was one of our objectives for this trip in late December for us. Cars for the media have only been recently released from Porsche USA. In Japan the earliest we can get our hands on it will be mid January so we decided to fly over to the US to get the first ride out of all of the Japanese media. Best Motoring scheduled for release in January will cover the Porsche Cayman. Sam Mitani a good friend of mine who is the international editor for Road & Track appears in Best Motoring for the first time as the US host for Keiichi Tsuchiya. Sam is also well known in Japan since he has a monthly column in a Japanese magazine called Xacar. He writes about the latest movements in the US auto industry and motorsports. Thanks to him we were able to make it happen this time. I would like to see Sam appear in more Best Motorings in the future. He is bilingual and knows cars across all boarders.

Best Motoring US location

Preparing the MX-5 for the Hot Version segment in front of our office.

Bosozoku

I saw in the news today that Japanese police will use paint guns with florescent paint to catch bosozoku on new years eve. For some odd reason, Japanese bosozoku from all over Japan come out on new years eve and head towards Mt. Fuji. You know just like army ants on a rampage, they just come out of no where, eating everything in their path and march straight forward to the target point. Each year, that point happens to be Mt. Fuji. In Japan the first sun rise of the year is supposed to be very lucky and many people stay up to see it. If you can see the first sun rise of the year by the tallest mountain in Japan, Mt.Fuji, that is like finding a batch of four leaf clover under a rainbow in Western standards. For the bosozoku it is the same as they too want a prosperous new year. Japanese police have been trying to catch these guys but they are slippery fish so they thought paint guns with florescent paint will help identify them at night so they can chase them down. They were even showing how they were training today. They had traffic police dress up as bosozoku and drive around while cops from vans shot paint at them. Some of these police acting as bosozoku were way to good at it. I had a really good photo of a bosozuko bike I took at Daikokufuto one night but I can't seem to find it. You'll just have to settle for this photo of some crazy bosozoku wannabes. Needless to say in the bosozoku world, the lower you crouch the badder you are.

Oakley

Oakley Hemi Funny Car
and Head Office



I had a chance to recently visit Oakley at their head quarters in Foothill Ranch CA. My perspective on the company totally changed after taking a tour of the company. Not only do they make sick looking sunglasses, they are actually very hi tech! Every concept, development, testing and manufacturing of their glasses are all done in house. Nothing is outsourced. Their glasses are their core business so they do not let anyone near it. Not to mention they have a million patents too. They even have a self sustained environment at their head quarters. That means they can fix every thing in house, like their own airconditioning system or lunch tables for that matter.
The first thing you notice after driving up to their office is that it looks like an Oakley astronomical obsertatory. (Photo: With cool Ducati parked out front) Once you go inside, the the Oakley Hemi powered drag car catches your eye on the back wall. Right behind the lobby is a big auditorium where we basically sat down and got brainwashed by these cool extreme sport images and music. Got me pumping and also thinking about what our motorsports content can do with Oakley, real seriously. Joses was our guide for the day and he taught us a lot of things we did not know. All the research and testing that go behind each pair of shades are pretty impressive. We especially liked the beebee gun test. There is a rubber dummy that you put shades on and a machine spits out a metal ball at it at 200mph. The Oakley shades bounces the ball off while some "competitors" glasses cannot withstand it. Next time I get shot at with a beebee gun I'll make sure to have my Oakleys on. : ) We finished the tour with lunch at their caffeteria in front of the NBA approved full size indoor basket ball court where guests and employees are free to shoot hoops. It was truly a cool experience. I have more respect for Oakley than ever now.

What's a touge?

The touge means "mountain" or "hill". When we first came out with our Best Motoring International videos in 2001 we had discussion whether we should translate the word to mountain or rather go with the Japanese word "touge". We thought the English language can use another Japanese word besides banzai and sushi. Since then we've stuck to using the word touge because it not only means mountain but represents the kind of hills that the Japanese race on. At first people were saying, "oh, man I love your tooj showdown". We kept at it and now it is pretty commonly used at least in the import racing community.
Initial D made touge racing known but it is still an underground activity. All of our Touge Showdown segments are shot on a closed circuit. We like to keep it on the tracks and do no support street racing.

American Touge 2

All of the participants have been fixed for our second American Touge shoot in the US. We're asking all participants to arrive to Willowspring at 7am on 12/20(Tue). We have 40 cars plus. Most people will probably bring friends along so we're estimating about 100 people and cars. It should be a fun day.
All of the regulations for the cars have been posted on our web site http://www.bestmotoringvideo.com and the forum on the site. Biggest thing the participants need to care about is tires and the drivers seat. Tires cannot be slick racing tires. You will be disqualified so please make sure to have sports radials. I say drivers seat, because owners must realize that Tsuchiya and Orido will both be driving the cars. Now Keiichi Tsuchiya is not the tallest man on earth and even though Orido is not Yao Ming their driving positions are way different. Every car MUST have adjustable seats or Keiichi will simply refuse to drive it. So please do not forget about this fact.
Other than that just having every body close to Tsuchiya and Orido will make it a real fun day. US fans seldom get to hang out with these guys so we think it'll be a great chance to meet them and also to have the cars judged by them.

Best Motoring Intl.Vol.18 Fast on 4 Trailer

XDL Show

We went to video shoot the XDL show at Irwindale on 12/3. It was the first time drifters and stunt riders performed together. I think there will be more events like this to come in the future. Manabu Orido, Nob Taniguchi and Takahiro Ueno all had fun at the event. Special thanks to team sponsors and partners at Paramax, Oakley, RS-R, HKS, Drift Association, Red Bull, Mazda and Yokohama tires.

Zigzag Asia will be producing the XDL Show promo video so look forward to that.

Video Blog test

The XDL Show

The first innagural XDL will be held on December 3(Sat), 2005 at Irwindale International Speedway. There will be all kinds of motorsports events during the day and a XDL Show comprising of the drifting and stunt bikes. The drift drivers are guys you are familiar from our Hot Version International videos, Manabu Orido and Nob Taniguchi. Takahiro Ueno will join them to show some of the best drifting action on the planet.
We have helped out to get these guys over to the US for this show. All of them are top contenders in the D1 Gran Prix drift series. But in XDL they will be able to show off some of their skills they usually cannot show in competition drifting.
More information at: http://www.xdlshow.com

Lotte Marines

Bobby Valentine the manager for the Japan series champion, Chiba Lotte Marines is a living icon now. He even has his own beer "Bobeer"... He lead the Marines to their first win in 31 years. Valentine has now signed on to a multi year contract to manage the Marines.

Sema Show 2

SEMA Show 1

On our way to the SEMA show from LA. Our Best Motoring Hummer hauled the Spoon RL into the Las Vegas convention center. I got off the plane and directly went on a road 6 hour road trip! What a trip.

SEMA Show

It's that time of year. The SEMA is coming up on 11/1-11/4. Best Motoring will have a booth #24829 again. We'll be showing promo vids and passing out some freebies. On exhibit will be a very special racing car. I'll post pics from the show next week. Bye!

Tokyo Motorshow 2005

The GT-R prototype was revealed at the Tokyo Motoshow last week. The last time Nissan showed a GT-R was at the Tokyo Motorshow in 2001. At that time it was still a concept car. Nothing in regards to performance specs were announced but they say that the design is 90% fixed. The production model will be released in 2007. What a monster this thing is going to be. I can't wait to drive one when it comes out.

S2000 Coupe

One of the coolest things about Ichishima-san is his imagination. Who would've thought to make a hard top coupe out of the S2000 and make it into a racing car? Simply bad ass.

Umbrella Girls

A GT race is never the same without those umbrella girls.

Best Motoring Location in Tsukuba

The things we have to do to make a DVD. A hurricane was about to hit near Tokyo and we had to bring the entire cast and crew out to shoot the next Best Motoring. We had the new Mazda Roadster but the weather conditions just wasn't right for a rear wheel drive car.
Oh yeah, we started a t-shirt give away campaign on the Best Motoring website so if you're interested in sporting the coolest import car brand, go to http://www.bestmotoringvideo.com.

Subscription Service

Subscription Service is something new we've started to answer the needs of our fans. A loyal fans that buys everyone of our DVDs doesn't need to go online or wait until it's out at Best Buy. They should have the DVDs delivered to their homes each month. That's what we thought and that's why we started it. Anyone can sign up from http://www.bestmotoringvideo.com/img/home/features_02.jpg

Island Paradise

Los Roques. We weren't that fortunate with the weather in November but it's a nice place to kick back and relax. These islands off the coast of Venezuela are a hidden paradise.

Car show in Napa Valley

some photos from the show. I believe this is a Mercury.

wow

Snowmobile

35th Anniversary Z

Amuse's 35th anniversary Nissan 350z appeared in the JDM Hot Version vol.75. Just wait a bit until we come out with the English version of this NA Valve Timing tuning segment.

Hot Humid Houston

Formula D Houston
We passed out Best Motoring and Hot Version fans/uchiwas at last weekend's Formula D event in Houston. The over 90 degrees temperature sure helped make our fans a hit that day.

Nismo Skyline GT-R

BMI Vol.15
In Depth Look At the $170K SKYLINE
Nismo R34 GT-R- The Final Chapter
First look at the Ultimate factory made Beast R34 GT-R. Interviews with NISMO's developers. Tetsuya Tanaka, the development driver for the Z-Tune, goes on a time attack at Tsukuba Circuit. Naoki Hattori takes the car to the streets of Tokyo with a big grin on his face.

IMPREZA STi spec C: Nurburgring Super Time ATTACK
No stranger to the "NUR", Gan-san goes to Germany, where he tests the Impreza STi spec C proto type on the Grand Prix course and the Norschleif course at Nurburgring. Also includes exclusive interviews with the Subaru developer.

GOROKO: The Shogun [ Episode 2]
Because of Ske-san and Hachibe's humiliating loss to the challengers, now the Shogun himself is forced to get into the driver's seat. Gan-san takes the challenger on with the Mazda RX-8. Afterwards, driving lessons are given to all the participants by the almighty Shogun.

Integra Type R Inside Honda's New ITR
New Integra Type R: Track Impression by Motorharu Kurosawa. Ohi, not convinced from just the impression rides, he goes up against Gan-san on the track with the old DC5 Type R to see if the new Type R (driven by Gan-san) is truly a faster car.
Featured cars: New Integra Type R, Old Integra Type R, DC2 Integra Type R 98 Spec

JDM Sports Car Battle
The New DC5 Type R is put to the real test in Best Motoring's trademark battle with its rivals.
Featured cars: New Integra Type R, '05 Civic Type R, Impreza WRX, RX-8 Type S, Roadster Turbo, Altezza RS200 Z edition, MR-S S edition
Battle Cast:Motoharu Kurosawa, Takuya Kurosawa, Takayuki Ohi, Takeshi Tsuchiya, Ryo Michigami, Seiji Ara and Hironori Takeuchi.

35th Anniversary Z33 vs Z Version ST Tsukuba Battle
Will an additional 500 rpms to the rev limit and 0.5J width change to the rims make any difference? Naoki Hattori and Takuya Kurosawa check out the 35th Anniversay 350Z on track.
Featured cars: Fairlady Z35th Anniversary, Fairlady Z Version ST

Uchiwa?

Uchiwas are traditional Japanese fans we like to use on hot and humid summer days. Actually, they are good use at night too because in Tokyo it can still be humid as during the day. We made some Best Motoring & Hot Version uchiwas for fun. We'll be handing them out at events when we feel like it. If people like them maybe we'll make some more. Who knows?

Willowsprings Shoot

Gan-san

Just got back from our LA shoot. Everything went great and we are very happy with what we were able to shoot. The Ford GT had never been tested on the tracks by any media so we were very lucky for this opportunity. I'd like to thank Damien Takahashi who helped us get to the right people at Ford. And of course Moe Durand and Tom Reichenbach from the Ford Motor Company. Also Ron for letting us shoot his GT40. The line up shot of the new Ford GT and the GT40 was something else.
This episode will be in the July issue of the JDM Best Motoring and in the international version a few months later. Go to bestmotoringvideo.com for new release information.

American Touge

AT Finally, I'm able to post a photo on to this blog. That Picasa software is no good. I love this DVD cover. I think it's the best we've had so far.

LA bound

American Touge is about to hit the streets next week and we are bound for LA again for a Best Motoring shoot this time to shoot the Ford GT. Organizing a location shoot is a really hectic process. Producers, directors, the cast and coordinators all have to work together for it to go smooth. Lucky we have Zigzag Asia (America) that basically takes care of every thing we need to in the US. Masa and Ken at Zigzag Asia (America) have been working overtime to make sure all transportation is taken care of, all the cars are in place when we need them, all filming permits and licenses are taken care of and even make sure there is lunch for everyone. This is going to be very interesting shoot since not only were we able to get a hold of the new Ford GT but we were also able to get a fully restored origianl Ford GT40 to appear as well. Talk about a blast from the past. We won't be able to go full throttle on the GT40 but we will for sure on the Ford GT. Gan-san will make sure it will be tested.
Somehow I haven't been able to upload photos onto this thing lately. It's not working.
Next, I'll put some more stuff from my trip to LA. Hasta luego.

Hot Version Volume 3 American Touge

AMERICAN TOUGE HOT VERSION INTERNATIONAL VOL.3
Sales Start April 30, 2005
Hot Version goes West for the first time as Tsuchiya and Orido travel to California. As you know the Touge Showdown is one of the popular segments in our DVDs and we are proud to been the one to export the word "touge" from Japan. With drifting gaining more and more recognition, the touge is being recognized as the place where it all started. That being said, Keiichi Tsuchiya and Manabu Orido were both notorious touge racers before entering the world of professional motor sports. But they never forgot their roots were at the touge. In this special American Touge Showdown we gathered cars from America's top J-car tuners willing to step up to the challenge. Will the US tuners endure heavy bagging? Or will they gain respect from the outspoken critics of the two experts from Japan? In the end they race the touge tail to nose to see which tuner will walk away with the first American Touge champion. This English version has a longer director's cut compared to the Japanese version video! Footage you can only see here!
Featured Cars : Comptech NSX, Comptech S2000, Hasport EP3 Civic, Top Setup EG6, Techno Toy Tuning AE86 Corolla, Vishnu EVO VIII, XS Engineering Impreza and Honda S2000. Featuring: Keiichi Tsuchiya, Manabu Orido and Kazumi Kondo

RX-7 Real Sports
We love the RX-7 and we cover both tuned and stock. An indepth look into the FD3S.
Featured Cars : Fujita Engineering FD3S, Yumekobo FD3S, Panspeed FD3S, Auto Produce Boss EVO, Zero Sports Impreza, Sanai Works FD3S, FD3S Bathurst R A-spec, Lancer EVO VIII GSR, Impreza STi spec C and NSX-R
Featuring: Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nobuteru Taniguchi, Daisuke Ito, Katsumoto Kaneishi, Shunei Kawasaki

Life in the Fast Lane - Orido & Wakisaka [ episode II ]
Our cameras follow the two Japanese racing stars throughout the season of JGTC, Super Taikyu and Formula Nippon. Featuring: Manabu Orido and Juiichi Wakisaka

BONUS FOOTAGE Keiichi Drives a Cop Car!
You know Japan is the land with GT-R and other sport compact police cars. This day we followed Keiichi where he was greeted as a driving instructor for the Japanese traffic police. He even takes some lucky guys in blue on a drift demo!

Getting Ready for Another Trip

Next week I will be leaving for the US again. Another trip to LA for a Best Motoring video shoot. This time we are test driving the Ford GT.
Also the Lexus GS430 and Infiniti M45 which have been released in the US already but still waiting to be launched in Japan. Actually I had a chance to test drive both of these cars for Road & Track SPEED back in January when they just came out. A group of us drove from LA to Las Vegas to do a comparison test. The Lexus GS430 was so nice that I forgot how fast I was going and I got stopped... I showed my international drivers license to the highway patrol officer and he took a loooong look at it without saying anything. I was telling myself " he's not going to give me a ticket". I was wrong. I'm probably the first Japanese to drive the car and probably the first to get a speeding ticket! The Speed 2005 Spring issue should hit the stands pretty soon. I'm looking forward to seeing how it came out.
Getting back to our US trip. Gan-san is our reviewer this time. He's old school but knows his stuff. Those of you who are familiar with BMI know that he's the back bone of the series. He's actually the only one left from when BM first started in Japan 15 years ago. He's really happy with how the English version BMI is doing so well abroad. Many people now recognize him at US events. When he was in LA with us last time for GT Live, he was swarmed by fans. First it kind of took him as a surprise too. But a very pleasant one.
This shoot is not a battle but just Gan-san test driving the cars. We will be at Willowsprings, Streets of Willow course on April 26. If you're interested in seeing a Japanese legend test drive an American supercar, feel free to drop by and say hello.

American Touge

We are just about to release our 3rd Hot Version DVD American Touge. This is actually something we've been wanting to do for a long time. To bring the Japanese cast and crew to the US and make a US version Touge Showdown. It didn't even have to be a Touge Showdown. It could have been anything if we can get everybody over to the US. For us it was a small goal achieved. For a company that had been exporting Japanese car culture to the US, we wanted to do something more integrating. Not just bring over finished programs to the US and translate them but actually do something in the US. Our market is a very niche one but what other Japanese content has actually made that cross over besides anime? Even with anime, there are pretty bad ones. Just because they are from Japan doesn't mean they are good.
So for us, if bringing Japanese car video programs from Japan was step one, mixing more local US stuff in our show was step two. We're proud of this next Hot Version not just because it's as exciting as hell but because of what we worked for. It took us a whole 4 years to come this far and we're very very happy about it.
There were so many people involved in the production of this DVD. Of course the Japanese cast, crew and the US tuners that showed up despite of the short notice. We really appreciate it guys! We made sure everyone's car got a fair judgment just like in the J-version. I don't want to give out too much stuff before the DVD goes on sale at the end of this month but Tsuchiya and Orido were very impressed with the level of tuning in the US. Seriously they had no time to test drive the cars before we shot. What you see is really their first time driving the US tuned Japanese cars.
Also I want to thank Takara USA for sponsoring the segment. Without them it would not have been possible.

Power House Amuse

Power House Amuse is a very popular "tuner" in Japan. Hideki Tanabe is the man behind the brand. All you need is a couple minutes with him and you can feel his love for cars. It's almost freightening. I was able to meet Tanabe through the production of our DVDs. Since Keiichi Tsuchiya named the Power House Amuse S2000(photo) the "Touge Monster", he's been a regular at most of our Touge Showdown video shoots.

Amuse S2000 (AP-1) Specs
Power 260,2ps/8439rpm
Torque 23.9kg/m/6447rpm
Weight 1124kg
Engine Normal F20C
ECU Amuse Hi-TECH ROM
Air cleaner Mugen
Plugs Trust/Greddy
Exhaust Manifold Amuse R1 EX Manifold
Muffler Amuse R1000

Chassis
Suspension Kit Amuse Hi-TECH Damper kit
Spring rates F 12Kg/mm　R 14Kg/mm
Brake pads Amuse R1 Brake pads
LSD CUSCO MZ Type RS
Tires Yokohama Advan A048
Tire size F 255/40/17 　R255/40/17
Wheels RAYS CE 28N
Wheel size F 9J-17　　R 9J-17

Exterior
Front spoiler Amuse front lip spoiler
Front hood Amuse Dry Carbon Bonnet
Trunk Amuse Dry Carbon Trunk
Wing Amuse Dry Carbon GT Wing
Top Amuse Dry Carbon Hard Top
Mirror Craft Square

Interior
Seats RECARO SP-G ×２
Steering Custom made
Meter Amuse 300km/H Meter
Others
Amuse Twin Meter panel (water and oil temp)
Connect: info@amuseusa.com
http://www.amuseusa.com

Formula Drift

Last week Zigzag Asia coordinated the Japan shooting trip for G4's new Formula Drift TV show. It will be the 4th program of the season where Chris Forsberg, a Formula D driver, comes to Japan. Dai Yoshihara, another Formula D driver and friend, is his guide to Ebisu circuit and the touge of Japan. Ebisu circuit is where we shot the Drift Bible and I think it was an interesting opportunity for Chris to be able to see the roots of drifting. Especially when Dai took him to the touges of Hachioji. Look for the show on G4. Photo is from when we went to eat shabu-shabu in Roppongi. From right; Chris, Dai and G4's VP of Motorsports Josh.

Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya

What can I say Keiichi Tsuchiya is a legend. I've been lucky enough to see him drift up close and there is no better nick name than the Drift King. This is a photo I took last December at Willowsprings International Speedway when we shot HVI Vol.3 American Touge and Drifting 101. Standing next to him is our director Katsu Takashi. Keiichi took Katsu around for a spin in his Kei Office S15. Katsu said he lost all sense of direction after only a few corners. Everything was going side ways unlike what you're used to when normally driving a car.
Even though he's a former top driver, superstar in all of these videos, judges D1, has a regular radio show and appears on TV all the time Keiichi is still a cool cat. When RJ de Vera was in Tokyo, he took us out to Roppogi to some bars that he's a regular at. RJ got to ride with Keiichi more than a few laps when shooting Drifting 101. I know he was feeling woozy after a while. I don't blame him. Seeing is believing, the Drift King rules the tracks when it comes to drifting.

Best Motoring International Vol.13 Carrera Invasion

Best Motoring Vol.13 Carrera Invasion

This was just released at the end of March. We release a new BMI video every other odd month and a new HVI video every other even month of the year.

First post

Hi. Ok so this is my very first post on my own blog. I used to have something called the CEO's journal on our very first Zigzag Asia.com website but we decided to tank it when we closed down our portal and decided to go a different way. Here I just thought it would be interesting to experiment again and try something similiar but keeping it much casual. Lots of interesting things are happening for me and my company so I'll just keep posting things as they happen.

So what do I mean by "different way"? Well Zigzag Asia is now a production company of Japan car programs. We are a production company but we spend a lot of our time marketing and selling our programs. Producing something makes no money unless you sell it. If you sell, you make a profit and go on making more DVDs or do other fun stuff. Well, enough of that. I can get into that at another post.

What do we produce? We make Japanese car programs called Best Motoring International and Hot Version International which are originally produced by a Japanese company called Kodansha. Best Motoring has been around in Japan for about 15 years. It's a video magazine that tests cars and battles them out on the tracks by professional Japanese race car drivers. Hot Version is also a video magazine that tests and races tuned cars. This show is hosted by Keiichi Tsuchiya who is also known as the Drift King.

We're really fortunate that the international market has accepted our programs. I'm just happy that we are able to provide something fresh from Japan to car fans everywhere.

Kodansha is our biggest partner since most of our programs are originally from Kodansha. We produce programs from scratch as well like Tuning into Tokyo which was a show coverage show we produced. Recently we produced a 20 minute promotional DVD for Valvoline called Drifting 101. Drifting 101 will be handed out at every Hot Import Nights show this year. We're very happy and proud to be a part of this project. It is a win-win situation for everybody involved.