Photo: JDM Style Tuning
Toyo Tires gets on board with a massive monthly JDM street meet in Sydney.
Since 2005 the last Thursday of every month has been marked in the JDM enthusiast’s calendar as meet night. Leading up to the night text messages fly between like-minded drivers, cars are washed, wheels cleaned and unique touches are added.
With 2200 Facebook RSVPs, March 2015’s End of Month Meet was one of the biggest in JDM Style Tuning’s long meet history.
From all over Sydney Japanese and other marque’s modified cars converged on Sydney Motorsport Park’s massive drag strip car park. Swarming up the M4, the sleepy suburb of Eastern Creek was temporarily taken over by a buzzing horde of imports, euros and all things modified.
A high calibre of vehicles, a parking lot groaning with JDM machinery and an ego-free community made for an ideal night.
Subwoofers vibrated windows, neon under-glows flashed and rev limiters bounced as the Sydney car scene used every bit of their monthly opportunity to let it all hang out and enjoy their cars in a safe and shared environment.
Zen Garage and JDMST founder Justin Fox’s R32 GTR, freshly shod with go-fast Proxes R888 semi-slicks, parked up under the Toyo marquee, part of Toyo’s campaign to bring the high performance Proxes range into the hearts and minds of Australian car enthusiasts.
Joining the Gunmetal GTR under the Toyo tent was a C-West wide-body kited S15 Silvia sporting over 300kW and looks that stopped photographers in their tracks.
Sandwiched between these two cornerstones of fire-breathing JDM eye candy was a hint to the future – Toyo’s new Proxes R888R, successor to the R888 throne.
Justin Fox was pleased to see Toyo putting in the time with enthusiasts.
"My first introduction to Toyo was through the purchase of a set of T1R's for my DC2R.” he said. “The local JDM community at the time praised them as great sticky tyres with awesome wet weather performance and nice on the pocket too.”
“This was around 10 years ago, a time when 1.10 around Wakefield was a dream goal.
“A small bunch of us hit the tracks a lot back then, sometime weekly, just for the fun of it. Soon it got a little more serious and we moved on to semi-slicks.
“I'd tried a few brands of semi's, all of which were amazing and really hurt the pocket, then we discovered the R888, a semi which heats up damn fast, was cheaper than the rest, were quite alright in the wet and lasted a long time on the street.
“I've been an R888 fan for many years having them on various cars. My GT-R, a stripped out Honda Jazz and a MKV GTI (both of which were my daily drivers).
“It's great to see the Toyo banner fly at a community related event once more. I'd not heard from Toyo since Drift Australia. I personally think Toyo is a great brand, and I love it as much as I love other Japanese tyre manufacturers.”
As the sun went down over Western Sydney, amateur photographers scurried to capture a crisp white S15 bloated by thick Work Meisters next to a war-ready BN kitted S14 Kouki in the fading light. In the background a Huffy slider, powered by what sounded like a lawnmower motor, casually drifted from lock to lock.
This incredibly clean and complete Datsun 1200, slammed over SSR MKII’s, cheekily wore a yellow defect notice on its windscreen. Fitted with a pair of Brides, a wood grain Nardi wheel and fender mirrors, this is classic JDM motoring at it’s finest.
9LIVES was an appropriate moniker for this resplendent Mount Fuji Red 86, sporting utilitarian modifications and touge battle scars that each have their own story to tell.
A clean and popular drive that has been slowly gathering favour with enthusiasts, this particular E46 favours show over go, keeping things simple aired out over paint-matched wheels and a carbon lip.
Forever a favourite chassis, this TA22 Celica had swapped out its up and down for some round and round, exchanging the Toyota unit for a brapping rotary that stung the eyes of all it passed.
This gorgeous 911 whipped past the Toyo tent. The classic black and white looks and unique engine note had all eyes trained on the car as it strutted around the parking area.
These two very different homages to the various version of 86 demonstrated that no matter what generation you come from, Tofu can and should always be delivered with style.
This E30 sedan just keeps getting more and more jaw-dropping every time we see it. Combining German motorsport aesthetics with low offset, low springs and turbocharged power it is without doubt that when this thing hunts kebabs, it brings home results.
The entire night was over seemingly before it began, and as exhaust notes buzzed their way back to Brabham Drive to take drivers home, we immediately checked our calendars to see when the next #EOMM will be.
