I was reluctant to call this “coverage” because it really isn’t that… These are more like random captures of the USDM Freax event as seen through the eyes of my very good friends from Tactical Art. For the last couple of years, we’ve been able to keep up with all the latest happenings from the Tactical Art family and though I myself only get to see them maybe once or twice a year, the internet has really helped keep us to keep in touch. Thanks to social media outlets and such, it almost seems as if we are there hanging out with them and vice versa. I’m really happy to see how much they have grown over the last year or so and how their shop has seemingly went in a completely different direction. They were just starting out when I first discovered them and since then, they’ve become a recognized name within the Honda community here in the States. Yasutaka Shimomukai sends me batches of photos every month or so and it has helped to keep us all current with the project cars that they are developing there on a daily basis. They rarely have time to really travel far to attend events but when they do go, they always try to collect photo coverage for me. They go to a lot of night meets so it is hard to capture but for the USDM FREAX “Flip Out” event, they had to travel to the Twin Ring Motegi and was able to cover their entire trip…

If you follow this site regularly, then the legendary Twin Ring Motegi should sound very familiar to you. During my travel to Japan in mid-January, we paid a visit to the race track and event center to visit the famed Honda Collection Hall. A couple months ago, Yasutaka notified me that they had planned to go to the USDM FREAX event but I really had no idea when the exact date was. I think maybe a week ago, he reminded me that he was going so I told him to take a ton of photos for me…and sure enough, he did. I think a total of all the files he sent me equaled to about 10GB. It took a while to download but I was able to sort through all of it and these are the photos that made the cut. In the time that I’ve known them, not only has their shop expanded, but their photography skills have gradually improved as well. It literally went from them shooting with a handheld digital camera one day to them having dSLRs now with an assortment of high quality lenses. Some of the shots they ended up producing are actually really, really good and it was fun being able to go through them. I honestly have no idea who did a bulk of the shooting this time around as Yasutaka does a majority of the camera work most of the time but I noticed in this photo set that he is actually in a lot of the photos so the only other guy who has some skill in the photography department is Beeyan Hamada. I think the camera switched hands a couple times to a couple different people since some of the shots are drastically different from the rest but it all comes together in a nice little package detailing their trip to the event…

USDM FREAX is a magazine publication that specializes in its namesake, “USDM”. They cover all things related to automotive import Americana so it only makes sense that the first major event that they host is dedicated to USDM-styling. The photos below cover more of the Tactical Art guys’ trip and their own cars and not so much the cars at the show, but you’ll see some coverage scattered in the mix. I don’t know if you guys even care to see the really “USDM-style” cars anyways with the bike racks and sticker bombing and what not so it’s actually cool that they covered their own stuff more. It provides a more personal look into their automotive adventures instead of the cars that you’ve probably already seen before in other event coverage from Japan that I’ve posted this year. Anyways, this totals up to two parts so enjoy Part 1 for now and Part 2 tomorrow…

Thanks to Yasutaka Shimomukai, Beeyan Hamada, Masashi Kameoka, and the rest of the Tactical Art/Team Madame guys who made the trip to Flip Out. I must mention that I thoroughly appreciate the fact that they were all decked-out in their Chronicles tees and gear. They do an amazing job of representing Stickydiljoe.com in Japan and I couldn’t ask for much more from these guys….

The journey started out down at the Tactical Art facility in Osaka, Japan…. Through the summer season has brought about a lot of heat and even more humidity, you’re still likely to experience some rainfall in Osaka. The shop isn’t too big so Yasutaka’s IS250 is left outside while the project cars are tucked away inside. It’s hard to tell after the photos have been re-sized but it looks like they experienced rain on their entire trip to the Twin Ring Motegi…

The drive started in the late evening hours from Osaka to Twin Ring, which is located in the Tochigi Prefecture about 7 1/2 hours away…

7+ hours in a gutted and caged Honda isn’t exactly the most entertaining or comfortable of drives so some of the guys like Tomoyuki Sasaki elected to trailer their cars to the event….

Anytime you have a trek that long, it is important to find rest stops in-between to grab a meal…

The guys getting set to order on an automated system. At places like this, you often just decide what you want on the menu ala vending machine-style and then a server brings your food to the front counter. It is certainly a less personal style of food service but the lack of human interaction probably speeds the entire process up….

On the menu that night was Japanese Udon noodles…

Sasaki either enjoyed his food thoroughly or is attempting to withhold a fart in this shot…

Shimomukai-san rocking his Rywire Motorsport Electronics tee…

After the meal it was time to refuel before continuing their drive…

Toshiyuki Yanagi’s DC2R isn’t documented a whole lot in their photos but he was also their with them for the journey to Twin Ring. Yanagi is the guy that they always play pranks on so maybe they just decided to leave him out of the coverage as a joke, I don’t know, haha…

Yasutaka’s IS250 looking as good as ever on the CCW LM20s…

Sasaki’s trailer and Ferio which you saw come together a couple weeks ago here on The Chronicles…

Keisuke Morita works as an engineer for HKS Japan and comes back and forth to the U.S. often to assist with HKS installs for race cars. In his travels, he decided to purchase a USDM Scion FR-S as a daily driver back home in Japan. It is styled as it would had it been modified in the U.S. with CCW wheels and aero add-ons by APR Performance…

Pretty cool and very humbling knowing that someone from HKS Japan is representing my work on his personal car… I grew up always dreaming of running HKS products and now they are running my products, haha…

One of my favorite photos that they captured was this shot of Masashi fueling up his EF9 Civic…

Back on the highway on route to Twin Ring Motegi…

With so much time on their hands being that it was such a long drive, they took full advantage of practicing their rolling shots while speeding through tunnels…

Morita-san’s FR-S…

Shimomukai and his IS250… if you follow me on Instagram (@stickydiljoe) then you have probably already seen this shot…

…as well as this tandem shot of the IS and FR-S…

Another one of my favorite shots, that you’ve probably seen shared numerous times on Facebook last week, was this shot of Kameoka’s EF. I normally don’t like CCW Classics on older Hondas but his EF pulls it off very well…

One more…

Morita’s FR-S at another rest stop as the sun began to rise…

Masashi and Beeyan sharing some sweets in an attempt to stay awake for the final leg of the drive…

Yanagi’s Integra Type R in an uncommon rolling shot with both parts action and no action…

Arrival in Tochigi Prefecture…

Welcome (back) to Twin Ring Motegi…

A random shot of a Z duo at the staging line…

Interesting to see a Nissan Murano on R35 GTR wheels…

Yuto Sugure’s Civic on BBS wheels…

When I was first going through the photos, I was staring at this photo trying to figure out why they decided to take a picture with a bunch of bottled water. I thought that it meant that they were going to need it because it was going to be an incredibly hot day, but it turns out that I was completely wrong…

…because they used the water to wash their cars while they were waiting to get staged…

Yasutaka and Keisuke’s cars all cleaned-up…

EJ1 Civic coupe on color-matched Barramundi Design wheels…

AP2 S2000 with ASM aero and Volk Racing Progressive Tokyo Time Attack Model TE37s…

Nothing more USDM than a U.S. model 240SX hatchback with older Racing Hart CR wheels…

Really like this shot of the Tactical Art cars, The Chronicles, and Twin Ring Motegi all together…

A couple shots of an old mid-70s 500cc Kawasaki H1 Mach III bike that is in incredible condition…

It might have been hard to see in the first shot of the ASM S2000 above but this car is actually a LHD U.S. AP2…

Reppin’ Illmotion and LEVEL ONE Canada all the way in Japan…

TODA Racing dual titanium exhaust…

Black leather with red stitching is a theme carefully thought out inside the S2000, all the way down to the J’s Racing steering wheel…

The set-up for Flip Out…

When I say that they were reppin’ my thoroughly, I meant it. They even had kids wearing the tee…

Very unique engine bay in this Civic… They didn’t get an exterior shot but the flashy part of this build is definitely under the hood…

EG6 Civic hammered on Porsche wheels. Haven’t seen a whole lot of this build in 2013 after seeing it at numerous events the years prior…

USDM Acura TSX on Work Meister M1R…

JDM Honda Accord Euro-R also on Work Meister M1R…

One of the rare Euro-R Accords that I’ve seen in Japan with a customized engine bay. This one had a ton of polished parts throughout along with some custom fabbed pieces like the metal intake manifold cover. Also make note of the hard piping that replaces the factory cooling hoses…

Aluminum radiator with FEEL’s radiator cap…

The most interesting piece in the bay has to be this air intake piece. Kind of a peculiar way to route it just to have the filter in essentially the same place. Looks interesting though. Peep the Monster Energy resevoir can below too…

Speaking of custom engine bays, we now take a closer look at this Civic coupe. The exterior is a bit dated with the shaved moldings and the polished steelies aren’t really that great of a look but there are some cool details in the bay…

What jumps out right away is the nitrous oxide solenoids meaning that this coupe is on the bottle but what I did not expect to see so soon in Japan was the coil-over-plug set-up. The owner had custom bracket pieces made that help keep the coils mounted to the valve cover. The bay is also shaved clean with custom hardware and all. Pretty interesting and very reminiscent of something you’d see here, which as you know, is the whole idea…

Custom carbon fiber distributor cap delete cover since it now utilizes individual ignition coils…

Rywire clutch line installed as well…

Yasutaka Shimomukai’s IS250 parked in its designated area of the show…

Keisuke Morita’s Scion FR-S….

Masashi Kameoka’s EF9 Civic SiR…

Tomoyuki Sasaki’s Civic Ferio…

Gonna cut it off right here for now and resume Part 2 tomorrow. I got tons to do in preparation for Wekfest so I better get back to that right now. Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!!!..