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7/7/2016

When someone says 7's Day, you automatically think of 大黒, it doesn't matter what part of the world you're from. 7's Day is the most anticipated article on Speedhunters for me. It's the one article i look forward to reading all year because the gathering of RX-7 owners on this day in Japan is legendary. Although i've come to see that Rinku 7's Day is perhaps the more organized and well attended event, 7's Day on 7/7 is the more well known one outside of Japan. All previous years on 7's Day, all we did to celebrate would be to share a picture of our RX-7's and drool over all the pictures other people posted. But late last year, a few buddies of mine, Edwin, Prav, and Ted, decided it was time we had a proper 7's Day here in NYC. It would be the first of it's kind in our area, or possibly in the U.S. that we know of.

The long awaited day arrived and the plan was to meet at our usual spot on 28th and 11th. The guys coming in from Jersey decided to meet up at a gas station right before Holland Tunnel.



In case you were wondering, yes, that's a 3-rotor in that 1st Gen!


From there we traveled in together. Man, hearing the sounds of the rotary engine echo through the tunnels is nirvana.

Photo by John Mascarvinas


Photo by JLiu Photography


The best part about 7's Day is seeing all the RX-7's together, and when we pulled into our meeting spot, we were not disappointed. A lot more RX-7s showed up than we had expected. There were even guys coming from Boston and Albany, NY to attend.

Photo by JLiu Photography


Unfortunately, i didn't get to meet as many new people as i would've liked as i spent the whole time hanging out with people i already knew. But what can i say, if your friends have cars like Phil's RE-Amemiya AC037 FD, you would know what i mean!

Photo by JLiu Photography


Photo by Emil Blanco


We're lucky to have so many photographer friends who are willing to come to our gatherings to capture the memories on our behalf. Since their photos are 100x better than any i could've taken, i am mostly using their photos for this entry.

Photo by JLiu Photography


Photo by @d.blackman


The plan was to do two separate cruises, but we ended up not being able to go through Times Square because of a BLM protest/rally. We ended up doing a loop down West Side Highway, through Battery Tunnel, and up the FDR for only a short distance.

Photo by Prime NYC


Being able to cruise the streets of NYC with a bunch of RX-7's was truly a magical moment. RX-7's in America are already so rare as is, but having over 20 of them in one of the greatest cities of the world, not normally known for cars, made 7's Day the event of the year.

Photo by @d.blackman


We ended the cruise downtown by City Hall, where we said our final goodbye's and the cars started dispersing.



All-in-all we had an amazing night that will be hard to forget. Granted, it was a little messy at times with people not knowing where we were going and some people getting lost or separated from the rest of the group, but being able to look to the left, right, back and in front and only seeing RX-7s made it all worth it. Although we didn't manage to get a picture with all the cars, we did get a group shot of all the people, which in the the end, is what these gatherings are really about right?

Photo by Prime NYC


For more coverage of 7's Day NYC, be sure to check out PRIME NYC, which Edwin and Prav run, and also happens to be the guys who organized this event: http://primenyc.co/7s-day-nyc-rotary-revival/

July 3rd 2016

The first big event of the year was the Import Expo x Clean Culture Race, Drift, and Show at Pocono Raceway. This was a unique event as it wasn't just a car show, but also included a trackday as well as a drift expo. We woke up bright and early and met up at the gas station, our favorite early morning meeting spot:



Since both kids wanted to tag along, Naomi had to ride in Jesse's BRZ and Isaac stayed with me:





Although we tried arriving early, we got stuck in a traffic jam at the gate to the track:



We were supposed to get there earlier before the show cars showed up since we had a driver's meeting, but we ended up getting lumped in together with everyone else so we ended up being late.

Pulling into the garages:




After getting situated we rushed over to attend the driver's meeting so we could figure out what was going on. The plan was to have a total of 4 thirty minute sessions over the course of the day, with the track being shared with drifters. The beginner group, which all of us were apart of, were up first.



Since we got in late, we ended up missing the first half of the first session because we still had to get teched







Once we finished teching, Jesse and i jumped in and went out for our first run. I had an instructor with me on the first run so he could guide me through the course as i had never run this configuration before. It was a pretty small section with a large part of it being the bank of the Nascar oval.



It was really strange to be back out on track again after my incident in 2014, but at the same time, the car felt so at home on track.



The FD is one of those cars that feels so clunky on the street but so alive on the track. Everything feels tighter and smoother. The engine especially feels so smooth as you rev it through the gears. Even the suspension is tighter and stable as you carve through each corner. The upgraded SS tires really helped build my confidence as not only did it not slide once, it didn't even chirp! Talk about serious grip. The best part of the track day was being able to drive around with other FD's, including Ted and Albert:



Thank goodness for all the awesome photographers who captured the day for us drivers!





The best part of this kind of event was that there was always something to do. If we weren't driving, we were checking out the drifters or the cars in the car show. Although i didn't get any good footage of the drifters, i did snap a few pics of the cars from the show:



I will always love the R34. To me, the R34 is the epitome of the GTR style. Granted the R35 trumps all in the performance category, the R34 captures both the style and performance we've come to love about the GTR chassis. The R34 will live on as the legend of the GTR family.





Isaac had the most fun of all. Not only did he finally get to see in person two of his favorite cars:

Lamborghini Aventador


BMW i8


He even got to sit in a real drift car!


He's really developed an interest in drifting. He was willing to sit on the bleachers and watch the drifters out on track for an hour straight. Normally he's bugging me to leave but this time it was me who had to drag him back to the garages.

All in all, it was a great event with lots to do and see. To me, it is the ideal event because i get to do what i love most, hit the track, and there's lots to see when i'm not driving. I really hope more people put together events like this instead of just the standard car show which gets old really quick.



I can't wait for this event to come around again next year!

Perhaps one of my biggest regrets after i crashed my car back in November 2014 was the fact that i never got a chance to drive it. Of course i drove the car here and there, but i never really drove it like i used. I'm talking about those drives that start before the sun comes up and ends up in some remote location such as High Point State Park or Bear Mountain. Having finished the build just in time for my favorite driving season, I just had to plan a fall drive with a couple buddies. I managed to round up a few guys who were just as eager and excited to get out there and drive. So much so that they were even willing to wake up at 6 am in order to get to the starting point by 7 am, just as the sun was coming up.



We met at a local gas station. I was the first to arrive and tagging along was my favorite little passenger, Naomi! The best part about bringing her was that she was just as excited about the drive as myself, although i don't think she really knew what she was getting herself into.



As usual, there's always one straggler, so we waited around for the slacker to roll out of bed and get to the starting point before we could head out, roughly around 7:45 am. Since it had been a while, i decided to stick to one of my favorite routes...back roads to Delaware Water Gap then to High Point State Park.



Luckily for me, my brother-in-law brought his camera along so i didn't have to worry about capturing the moment and i could just enjoy the drive and the scenery.





We were at the tail end of the season, but there was still plenty of beautiful scenery to be seen as the leaves held on to the end before falling down.



One of the BRZs had some prior obligations, plus the fact that we left late, so he had to break off and head back before we got to High Point. Although we were one man down, we still made the most of the trip up to the closest thing we can call a mountain in NJ (its sad, i know).



Around 11 am, we finally made it to our destination, and as always, the view was fantastic!







We hung out, chatted a bit, and just enjoyed the scenery, which was made complete with some cool cars!









And at the top of the hill stood this monument, marking the highest elevation in NJ

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After we got done shooting pictures and enjoying the view, we headed down the mountain. We decided to stop at my favorite restaurant for lunch, Chatterbox Diner, before we split up and headed our separate ways. All in all, it was exactly what i needed to fully appreciate having my car back after what seemed like the longest 10 months of my life. I'm already looking forward to the spring drive, which i'm planning to be an all FD affair, so stay tuned for more coverage if you want to see some badass RX-7s.

Before i sign off for the night, here is a video from the SNTRL x USDM FREAX meet/cruise, so if you want to know what it was like to be there, check it out.