Friday, September 29, 2006

Hakone



I went to Hokane yesterday for a photo shoot.



This is the final ad coming out in the Japanese VTEC magazine.

I took some video footage too so hopefully I can post some up here next week. It was lots of fun zooming thru the touge of Hakone in the S2000!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Monday, September 25, 2006



Saw some friends this weekend from the US.
This is videographer/dj extraordinaire Mr.Joesh and me.
We went to a bar called Heartland in Roppongi Hills.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

My Story Riceboys in Super Street Oct '06









私が書いた記事が米国の自動車雑誌Super Streetの10周年記念号の中に掲載されました。

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Seeker S2k





Met Ryo Teraoka from Seeker today. They are a tuning shop that specializes in Honda parts. Check out:http://www.seeker.co.jp/

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Lonelygirl15

The story is out: Lonelygirl15 Is Brainchild of 3 Filmmakers

Those of you who don't know who Lonelygirl15 is:The lonelygirl15 story unfolded in a series of confessional video blogs, supposedly made by a home-schooled girl named Bree, Since June, viewers have questioned whether Bree and her friend Daniel, who also appeared in the videos, were real people or part of some larger project or promotional scheme. An ominous hint of a satanic plotline to come suggested a horror film in the making.



You can see the rest of her vlogs on YouTube and Revver.com. Just go and search lonelygirl15.
People didn't know if the story was fiction or real. But it was 3 film makers that made this on a shoe string budget and it became a huge hype. Interesting what the web can do. Its the Blair Witch Project of the net.
Story on CNN.com

面白いできごとがアメリカでおきています。YouTubeやRevverといったビデオ投稿サイトを使って「ロンリーガール15」lonelygirl15というVlog(ビデオ・ブログ)が今年の6月から始まりました。色々と謎をもったBreeという女の子が日常の出来事やDanielという友人との関係、父親との関係、宗教などについて話します。これが瞬く間にネットで火がつきしまいにはファンサイトやSNSで大きな話題となります。また、lonelygirl15についてコメントするビデオも出てくる状況。いったい彼女はだれ?実は宗教は悪魔崇拝?など噂が飛び交うこと数ヶ月。なんとCNNやNYタイムズも取り上げるほど。
それが昨日やっとこの話もキャラクターもすべて3人の映像製作者が作ったものであることがLATimesのインタビューにより明らかになりました。YouTubeなどのビデオ投稿サイトは限界を知らずどんどんこのような新しいスターを生み、メディアとしての存在価値を広げてきています。
まったくあたらしメディアの使いかたとして無視できませんね。

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Hybrid Civic

The video location shoot of the new VTEC Club took place at Fukushima Prefecture's Ebisu circuit.



One of the cars that we brought out was the Civic Hybrid Racing car.



Honda's hybrid car racing program is actually not even a "program" yet. It all started in 2003 when a couple of engineers from Honda started playing around with the idea of entering a race with a hybrid car. Honda never officially backed up the team so the members had to get together after their day jobs to complete this car from scratch.



Keiichi Tsuchiya and Daisuke Ito both said the car lacks serious power but what can you expect from a hybrid? The Honda engineers say that the car was made for endurance racing. The high efficiency gasoline engine is supported by the electric motor for additonal power similiar to how a super charger assists an engine. This engine is based on the 1500cc Fit engine instead of the stock engine.



One of the biggest obstacles the car faced was "heat". If they want more power for the motor, they need the batteries to work harder. Which causes heat. If the batteries get too hot, they melt and that's the end of your race. So during the race the drivers had to keep their eyes on the battery heat meter at all times. Water nor air was powerful enough to cool this oversized battery so they went to the extreme and decided to carry dry ice in the back seat to cool the batteries.



I mentioned earlier that the electric motor works similiar to a supercharger. The biggest difference is that the motor assist only when it is necessary according to the ecu mapping. The electricty from braking is collected and used to charge the battery.

At first it was set to assist 4th gear to gain top speed. But they realized they wanted more pick up rather than top speed. So they programmed it so the motor would kick in for pick up and if it had enough power left over to also help the top speed.

With fine tuning they were able to achieve efficiency while improving maximum power.



As for drivers, basic driving skills is a must but whether you can save electricity during the race becomes a big factor. This Civic uses a regenerative braking system so you brake early going into a corner but should never shift down and engine brake. You have to go into a corner without giving any gas using only the brakes to slow down. This way you slow down and generate energy at the same time.


After Daisuke came back from his first impression of 3 laps, Keiichi tried to hop in the car as he usually does for his turn. But the engineer told him that they were out of batteries and have to recharge. I guess Daisuke engine braked and drove the car like a normal car which didn't allow the car to generate enough electricity.
This needs getting use to for the driver at first. As more and more hybrids make it out to the racing tracks, drivers will have to adapt to the new requirments of hybrid car racing.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Sport Compact Car/Forza/Best Motoring


November 2006 Issue



A special Best Motoring DVD sponsored by Forza motorsport will be inserted in every Sport Compact Car magazine on the news stands! This is huge for us as it will help further get our name out to car enthusiasts and give them a piece of what we are all about.

The guys are Sport Compact Car are great and we really like working with them because we speak the same language. It was really quick when we decided to go with this plan because we knew we could compliment each other and also make the readers happy! This magazine hits the newsstands on 9/19 so make sure to pick one up!

特別編集のBMI DVDを米国雑誌のSport Compact Carに挿入することになりました。約20万部発行されるこの雑誌は日本車を取り扱う雑誌の中では老舗の正統派雑誌に入ります。最近はショーカーなどを取り扱う雑誌が多いなか、SCCはパフォーマンスを重視した雑誌です。
チューニングカーイベントでは東部最大のNOPI NATIONALSでも配布されるそうです。

コンテンツは既に発行したDVDの中から抜粋して3コーナー入っています。それでもちゃんと60分近いので読者はお腹いっぱいになるはずです。

9月19日から全米のニューススタンドに並びます。
反応が楽しみですー。