2 grind 4 ca$$$h, the true Turismo experience!
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Today Roger gets the race treatment. Hopefully three weight reductions and a racing modification will be enough for this car. White with a blue stripe looks pretty good!
We head out to High Speed Ring for the racing style ZZ Challenge race. Half of the competition is blue. They are all up front. At the starting line I’m wondering if we should have at least fitted race tires. Oh well! Let’s see how we do on street tires!
Our weight loss makes acceleration noticeably more quick. The street tires still struggle for traction at launch, but we get going only slightly behind the pack pretty well.
The fear here is that the other cars might be slightly tuned to have an advantage on the long straight this course has. We are able to keep up in turns and slowly hunt down better positions.
The final blue car in the lead takes the most effort to pass. We are still in second place for a good bit of the last lap, but Roger is a scalpel. This car is a precision instrument that goes exactly where you point it. Sure, there are times where we lose traction when carrying too much speed into a corner, but this is extremely simple to correct.
Once we get first position, it’s all over. The other cars aren’t very far behind, but the right racing lines are so easy to pick in this car that they can’t catch up. It’s a victory for Roger!
That’s the ZZ Challenge and Tommykaira finished. I reluctantly sell Roger to make room in the garage for the next car. At least I know the formula for the future. Next time we’ll head to Mazda and race an Autozam! I can’t wait! Look at this thing!
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I’m a big fan of Mazda’s vehicles. I don’t really like much of the current US offered crop of CUVs and whatnot, but I grew up around and owned Fords and Mazdas at a time when they shared a lot of components. My father bought an NA FC RX-7 convertible in the 80s, and we loved that extremely unreliable rotary.
I’ve personally owned four different Mazdas and a single Ford throughout my lifetime. None of them were or are sports cars necessarily (unless you count the Miata, but that’s an endless debate). But Mazda always manages to inject some fun to drive into almost everything they make even at the expense of a bit of NVH.
Some really interesting stuff came out of Japan in the 90s when it comes to cars. It was a time of experimentation and excess. I have no idea where a kei car that’s styled to look like some kind of baby Ferrari/Porsche/Lamborghini hybrid fits in there, but Mazda made one with a Suzuki engine and called it the Autozam AZ-1. I wonder if this is the same power plant the Alto Works uses.
What we get here is an MR car with gull wing doors and apparently “the ability to dance on the fine line between fun and disaster.” What a great summary of an MR sports car!
These can only be bought used, so we head to the used section of Mazda and buy one in Classic Red for around eleven grand. We name this curiosity Frank.
I take shots of the information screen later when only a blue one is available because I forgot to take them when we bought Frank.
We take Frank out to the AZ-1 Challenge. There is only a normal style race. The random selected course is Special Stage Route 5. It’s kind of a bummer to take this car out to this course. This is a high speed course meant for the really fast stuff. I feel like we won’t get to test Frank’s true potential out here. My fears are correct, but we still walk away with a victory.
0-60 takes about 18.5 seconds! Holy shit Frank is slow! But the chassis does indeed dance around corners. We have to be extremely careful not to scrub off too much speed braking or apexing at the wrong time. We claw our way to second and have to fight to take first. This goes a lot like the last race.
Frank looks like a cool character out there. I’ve raced 50mph go karts in real life, and I can imagine the sense of speed combined with the “pursuit of handling over stability” is absolutely terrifying to experience in the AZ-1 at its limits. It’s just a shame we didn’t get a shorter and tighter course.
That’s it for the AZ-1 Challenge and Mazda. Next time we’ll buy some coffee at Suzuki.
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A lot of sensation of speed is action per unit time and how close you are to fixed obstacles.
I love MR! I think MR gives you an advantage with easier direction changing allowing you to run less camber for the same turn in. You also get the ability to use power to correct light over steer. I like to use softer suspension in the rear than the front to minimize dive on braking and increase acceleration squat to maximize aforementioned over steer correction potential.
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Tonight we continue chipping away at the one makes with another kei car. This one is a Suzuki.
It’s the Cappuccino!
I always loved the name and appreciated the way this car looks. It’s cute, but it’s pretty bare bones with a style that holds up. And its power and proportions make a Miata look like a big car.
Cappuccinos can only be found used, so we buy the only one available at the dealer in Dark Turquoise Green Metallic. That’s a pretty nice looking color! We name this car Naomi.
I love the “front-wheel-drive, rear-engine” typo. This car is clearly FR.
We quickly get Naomi out to the Cappuccino Cup (It’s gotta be a cup!) normal style race. We end up at Deep Forest Raceway.
This is probably my favorite kei car of what I’ve driven so far. The goofy description describing a “mature” sports car is not far off. Despite the tiny size, Naomi feels very well balanced and has a pretty dignified look. 0-60 comes in about fifteen and a half seconds. That’s a good bit quicker than the AZ-1 despite their similar power and weight. I have no clue if that translates to real life.
Don’t get me wrong, this car is still phenomenally slow. And you do start to lose speed on hills at full throttle. Corners are super easy with the well-balanced chassis. Only the tighter hairpins require any braking at all. The long straight on this course allows us to touch triple digit speeds as well!
We are able to get in front of the pack around midway through the second lap. We stay there and take the win.
I really need to get an AZ-1 out on this particular course to see how it feels after driving Naomi here. Good times! This is the first kei car/track combination I’ve driven where the sensation of speed was really there despite the somewhat low speeds overall.
Normal style is complete. Next time we’ll spend way too much money to turn Naomi into a race car.
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Cappuccino! Cappuccino! Cappuccino!
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Tonight we’ll add some more kick to the Cappuccino! There’s a racing style race to take care of. So let’s get the race modification complete!
I really dig the look of the blue and white paint scheme.
Leaving everything else stock, we head to the Cappuccino Cup racing style race. I’m not feeling too hopeful here as the other cars most likely have more than just race modifications.
My fear proves to be correct as we just can’t keep up with the pack. Maybe on a small tight course it could be possible, but they just pull away so quickly any time there’s room to accelerate. We finish fourth at Clubman Stage Route 5 and sixth at Trial Mountain.
Naomi clearly needs a little boost.
So we invest in a stage 2 turbo kit and leave everything else as is. Street tires, stock clutch and transmission, etc.
That ought to help!
We head back out to the random course and end up at Rome-Night. This course doesn’t seem to come up very often, so I don’t have it as memorized as I should (or at all really). We’ll see if Naomi’s shot of caffeine will make us competitive!
It does! This car is still as predictable and controllable as ever, but the accelerator pedal works much better now. It almost feels like the street tires are enough here, but I know sports or racing tires would make things even better! The stock brakes do a fine job of scrubbing off speed, but we still don’t need to use them much.
We claim the victory here and decide the racing Cappuccino will stay in our garage. Naomi is just too much fun to drive!
That’s it for Suzuki and the Cappuccino Cup.
Next time we’re headed to Nissan to race cars we never acquired up to this point.
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Cappuccino, double-strength.
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A very capable Cappuccino, commendable competitor, charming character!
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Caffeinated kei car competition.
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Kei Largo
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The Nissan Pulsar is a car we did have in the states if I remember correctly. When I was a kid I was in the back seat of one that was involved in an accident. I remember even back then thinking it was a pretty pedestrian and boring car.
So here we are with a Pulsar Cup to complete at Nissan. I have no idea what kinds of Pulsars were available in Japan. Considering how much this game loves Nissan, my expectations are high!
There are two Pulsars available for purchase. One has slightly more power and less weight, so it seems like a no-brainer. We get a “Pulsar Serie VZ-R N1” in white and name it Nick. Imagine having to explain your Pulsar is cool because it’s a Serie VZ-R N1.
Once again I’m surprised at how potent the power output is. The description reveals this car is powered by a 2 liter four making almost 100hp per liter!
It seems like nobody ever made performance four bangers quite like Japan. With that high HP and low torque number, I expect this car to be a high-revver. I’m not dissapointed.
Our first attempt at the Pulsar Cup normal style ends in a third place finish at Seattle Short. This course is just too short to climb from sixth to first in two laps at least at my skill level.
Our second attempt lands us at Seattle Full. This time we have more track to battle for first position. We get first, but it’s a hard fight. This car has all the tricks of a JDM NA hot hatch.
Redline is nine thousand RPM! We are able to shift around 9500. Low torque means you have to keep your revs as high as possible. That’s pretty challenging on a city course with a lot of tight turns and hairpins.
Nick understeers pretty badly until a sudden transition into oversteer. You have to be awake to drive this car. It’s also a really strange feeling to downshift into second gear at speeds close to 70mph. There are just so many revs to use!
The lesser Pulsar model has some cool colors. The hot version we bought is only available in black or white.
Getting in first position during the first lap is nice, but we end up back in fourth and clawing our way to the front again for the rest of the race.
I haven’t seen “New Car Acquired!” in forever! Apparently I need to start leaving a slot open in the garage when I do these one make races.
The prize car is… our exact Pulsar with a goofy paint job. Yay!
That’s it for the Pulsar Cup. Next time we need to buy a March.
9 Likes
Tonight it’s time to buy a Nissan March. What the hell is a March? Apparently it’s a very small Nissan hatchback that isn’t quite kei-car small. I’m expecting slow and boring here, but the used market has an '89 March Super Turbo.
Super Turbo seems like a silly name, but I can dig the look. A look at the information screen reveals this car is super and turbo charged! So that’s more than just a silly name. That’s wild! That’s awesome! I had no idea these systems were used on such small engines in Japan in the 80s. I wonder how engine management is even handled here.
I’ll have to research this. Is there a belt driven supercharger and an exhaust driven turbocharger force feeding this < 1 liter engine?
We buy the used March Street Fighter II Super Turbo in Crystal White for an amazing price just over three grand. We name the car Mary.
The March Trophy’s normal style race course randomizer takes us to Clubman Stage Route 5. The AI are mostly driving 89 Super Turbos as well. Damn! I was hoping they’d be in the newer and slower stuff! As I learn the chassis and make a few mistakes, we end up in second place.
Another try lands us at Apricot Hill Raceway. Oddly enough, this car feels very well suited to this track. It also feels very fast for such a slow car. 0-60 comes in under twelve seconds. At the start line, the revs build pretty quickly. It’s not the same feeling as those 600-700ish liter kei engines that take the whole three second count to rev up.
Mary also exhibits a bit of oversteer. It’s a surprise coming from an FF chassis, but it’s controllable after a few corners to get used to it.
The AI fights pretty hard, but we manage to keep first throughout the second lap. I can’t wait to race mod Mary next!
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the March is called Micra over here in yurop (the car, not the Month, just to be clear!) which kind of fits the smallest minicar class theme!
If you think about it, hot shoeboxes are what made a marque stand out for most of us, because it’s what we’ve been driven around in most of the time, isn’t it?
I have a soft spot for the 205 because of that, and it’s the first car i’ve driven and learned some tricks of the trade on (like, emergency brake in a non ABS car on Snow, or shifting to neutral in an auto box, just as you come to a halt, to prevent the passengers headbanging when braking… some people have given me compliments for my driving style without realizing what it is that makes them feel so, Highest Praise You Can Get, aye 
)
Anyway, the Micra/March:
One of my best childhood friends was taken everywhere in one of these
and i had the chance to drive it with 427k KMs on the clock (~ 257k miles), and it was wild to experience this car being so old … now i wonder how a 200k+ miles march must have felt…
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I have a 200K mile scion Xb and it feels just kinda fine. I wish it had an easier life but its always lived out in the elements. Not looking forward to it seeing road salt. Im gonna have some de-rusting to do soon.
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A first gen toaster? I love those things!
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Damn I guess my suspicions were correct. I want one now.
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Wow as a person who went to high school from 95 through 99, I rode in so many of those Neons, haha. They were shockingly alright, yeah. Tiny, but I also am a huge person, so.
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i flipped one of those, a red 95 two door dodge neon. came up on a curve way too fast, slid, then overcorrected and went upside down. fun car if you can keep the wheels on the ground
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