Well, this is it….Today, we’re gonna take a look at the last photos of Atsuki’s EG6 build up until the point where it met its unfortunate end and was subsequently parted. If you guys have been following this build through the last couple of years, today’s post will provide some closure and give you some insight as to what happened to it that day at Nakayama Circuit. I still to this very day do not know exactly what happened but I don’t think it had anything to do with mechanical failure or anything. From the impact, it looks as if Atsuki just lost control of it momentarily and then plowed into a safety wall. He walked away with no injuries thankfully but the car is no more. I know many people are trying to make a point that they would probably repair the car but to be honest, when it comes to building a race car, you want your frame to see as minimal damage as possible. Once things get tweaked or bent, it throws the entire balance of the car off and even if you can use a frame puller to repair it, the car might not ever be the same again and if you were the driver or builder, who is to say that you would even trust the car after. For them, it just didn’t make sense to really put forth any effort to repair the car as they could probably easily find another EG chassis or other Honda to build another. They did save all the parts from it that were re-usable so I see Atsuki starting another project in the future. Knowing him and how his personal style is, the car will probably look pretty similar to the original Tactical Art EG6. I gotta admit, it is still a bummer to see this car destroyed because we all invested a lot of time in studying the car and watching its development. We all understand that it is just a car in the end but I think we all have some sort of attachment to it and sentimental value. This is, after all, the car that helped me discover Tactical Art in the first place. If not for this build in its previous state, I would have never sought out more information as to what Tactical Art was all about. I got to meet these guys soon after and then we have become good friends…
Enjoy the photos below leading up to the crash. I don’t have any actual photos of what happened and how it crashed but I do have the before and after photos. There is some more good shots of the car like the previous post but this time, I’ve attached some onboard video as this was one of the few times when they actually utilized a camera inside the car to record his runs. Thanks to Yasutaka Shimomukai as usual for providing the content from Japan and Atsuki for being cool with us seeing the creation and untimely demise of his personal car…
One of the new additions to the Tactical Art EG6 since we saw photos of it at Central Circuit was this ATS Garage banner that Yasutaka picked-up during his visit to America last month. I was joking around with Yasutaka recently that it was the ATS Garage banner that caused the crash because it was so damn big, haha. Of course it had nothing to do with it but it was funny to look back and joke about it now…
The EG6 on jackstands with the Work Meister S1 wheels off the car…
…as it awaited a new set of Yokohama Advan A050 rubber….
Back on the ground and ready for more testing…
Shot of the rear looking towards the bay doors of Tactical Art…
Loaded back on the trailer since it’s not a road car that’s registered for use on Japanese highways…
Arrival at Nakayama Circuit located in Okayama Prefecture of West Japan…
Off the trailer and into the paddock…
Set-up to prep the car for its first session…
Fueling-up the EG6…
GoPro Hero3+ mounted to the roll cage of Atsuki’s EG…
A shot of the gutted and caged cockpit…
The guys putting in some more prep work into the built B-series motor…
A shot of the individual throttle bodies that were retrofitted from a Toyota 4A-GE motor….
Safety equipment is always important when visiting the circuit…
His office for the day…
And we’re off. Below is some on-board video that was captured via GoPro…
After the first session, the car returned to the paddock for adjustments…
One of the early morning issues that they had to correct was the ride height, especially with the addition of the new A050 tires. Not sure if it had to do with it being a different track or not but I don’t believe they had any ride height/dampening issues at Central Circuit…
They immediately got the car in the air and got to work on the front suspension…
Dampening adjustment and ride height correction on the Tactical Art coilovers….
Once everything was secured, it was off for another session…
I don’t have anymore in-car footage but here are some quick clips of the car captured by various people from Tactical Art from a spectator viewpoint…
While Atsuki was out on the track, Yasutaka snapped this photo of an Amuse S2000 that was also there for some testing…
Return to the paddock…
The crew taking a break for some snacks and smokes…
I like how they incorporated the Tactical Art logo onto the visor of Atsuki’s helmet…
Resting…
Atsuki kneeling by the car making adjustments and corrections in his head before setting the car up by hand….
Nice FD RX-7 at Nakayama Circuit on Advan Model 5 wheels…
Not your average track car. There was both circuit and drift happening at the track that day but it’s hard to imagine this car doing either….
Tire check on the Advan A050…
Really liked this shot of the front nose of the Tactical Art EG….
…and then it was time for the next session for Atsuki and his Civic. Here you can also see Masashi’s Toyota Mark X in the background…
Below are a couple more clips…
After that particular run, the car came back where a quick alignment was done to the car….
During the alignment, Shimomukai got some photos of a AE86 drift car with ITB’d 4A-GE motor…
Masashi saying what’s up to the world…
And it was during the next, and final, run when the crash occurred. They weren’t able to capture anything but you can see the below after the loaded the car back onto the tow truck…
From this angle the impact doesn’t look that significant…
…but the passenger side is where the car saw the most damage. You can also see that the crash destroyed the radiator and fluid was everywhere….
There’s nothing you can really do at that point except take it back to the shop to assess the damage in detail…
They realized that the damage was serious enough where they didn’t want to attempt to make repairs to it so they started to tear the car apart and save whatever was salvageable…
Atsuki pulling the steel fuel lines out of the car. As you can see, literally everything was taken out because the shell was set to be delivered to the scrap yard soon after…
The motor was the last to come out but it too was saved as there didn’t appear to be any damage to the engine at all…
You can see here how the impact shifted everything over. Almost like a prize fighter with a broken jaw…
Here you can see how the engine mount bracket and frame binded…
Atsuki cutting into the mounts that held the carbon roof skin in place as he saved that too for the next chassis…
And here is the front passenger wheel. Interesting to see how the wheel is still structurally okay considering the amount of impact it sustained. The lip is ruined obviously but you can see how the face and a majority of the wheel retains its strength. That’s what you get with a forged wheel with good metal. It doesn’t explode into a thousand pieces like some of your more affordable, cast, replica wheel. It would have been cool to save this as a memento but they ended up throwing this wheel away along with the bare shell of the car…
They used a couple of floor jacks to pull the shell out of the bay as they waited for the truck to arrive to pick it up…
Pretty crazy to think back on how this is sort of an end of an era as this was Atsuki’s long-time project. As I mentioned earlier, if not for this car, I and the rest of the world would probably have not known about Tactical Art. Now it’s on to the next project and what direction he will choose to go with that car….
The crane picking up the raw, damaged, shell onto the truck as it makes its way to its final resting place. As you can see here, another vehicle headed to the wrecking yard was Beeyan’s Toyota Wish mini-van. Not really sure what the story was on that but I think that maybe the car wouldn’t pass Japan’s strict car inspection regulations so he just decided to scrap the car. Maybe he’s planning on building a Honda in the future as well…
Just earlier this year I got a chance to see both these cars in person and now they are stacked on top of each other never to be seen again…
Didn’t expect to see this at the end of 2013 but we will just have to wait and see what 2014 has to offer the Tactical Art family. They already have a couple new projects in the works that will surprise a lot of people so I’m sure Atsuki will be busy with that until he finds time to build another track car…
Myself and The Tactical Art family appreciates you guys for taking the time to look at these photos and for your continued support for both The Chronicles and Tactical Art. Thanks for looking everyone….
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great footage and send off to a great build we saw thanks to you brotha big props to you and the tactical art fam
My most favorite EG ever built… RIP Tactical Art EG. Can’t wait to see what Atsuki has up his sleeve for their next car.
Its sad to see what happen to that EG..i’ve been following that built of that EG here since its started. like the rest..we look foward for their next project!
Btw that Toyota Wish might end up here in Malaysia as a Half-cut. They better come with adjustable coilover and that tail light parts for my Toyota Wish!
So sad, my all time favorite Eg, but i’m sure something new will come from Atsuki !
I dont know how, and I don’t know why, but my EG was also destroyed 6 months later… similar accident. And this was the model car my eg was going after, how ironic. One year later I never thought I’d be posting this looking back at this build for my next inspiration. Like Atuki, I feels… I will come back racing again