Man, it seems like only yesterday that I got back from Australia but here we are, just a day away from the 2017 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. By the time you read this, not only has the World Time Attack Challenge passed, but also my Year9 Anniversary Meet, which literally took place just yesterday afternoon. It was an amazing event and I loved how we all were able to bear the heat and enjoy each other’s company. There were great cars, amazing people, and really good food yesterday. Now as I prepare to get ready for yet another SEMA Show, I want to try to get the rest of these WTAC photos up on the site because I honestly feel like they are some of my best work EVER, and I’d love to share all of it with you guys. I know it isn’t really what you’d expect coming from me since I don’t typically cover much time attack or circuit racing events, but the World Time Attack Challenge is a must-go-to event. If you guys have already been to Japan and had a chance to experience Japan and all its nuances, I think you guys should really try to make the trek over to Australia. They have a pretty incredible car scene out there that is very much their own, though they take a lot of inspiration from both Japan and North America. Their time attack scene in particular is just unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Just the amount of great content they stuff into one event is pretty fucking crazy. I appreciate the guys that put this event together. They are doing an incredible job of making time attack exciting and accessible to automotive enthusiasts from all over…

Today you’re going to look at photos that Tiffanie and I captured on Day 1 of the event as well as some shots from Day 2. If you’re looking for more than just racing photos, WTAC actually hosted a car show on site as well and it featured a bevy of solid builds of all makes. A bulk of the photos you’re going to look at right now are actually from the car show-side. I gotta get ready for SEMA now so have a look and come back for the rest of the photos. Enjoy, I’m off to Las Vegas for a few days but will continue to update throughout the week!…

WORLD TIME ATTACK CHALLENGE 2017

SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA

PHOTOS BY STICKYDILJOE & TIFFANIE MARIE

WORDS BY STICKYDILJOE

Classic Group A Taisan STP BNR32 Skyline doing exhibition laps around the Sydney Motorsport Park with Keiichi Tsuchiya behind the wheel…

The Longhurst Racing Sierra Cosworth exiting a corner with the Fury Racing replica Bluebird close behind…

I’ve always been a huge fan of the oddball Mitsubishi Starion, but always preferred the widebody version and not so much the narrow bodies. This one from Sutherland Mitsubishi looks pretty great though and its nice to see a Starquest on the track for a change and not sitting in a wrecking yard somewhere…

Oddly enough, the narrow body Starions are known to be the only year that had the vented hood but this one does not have it…

I really liked this shot of the Cosworth as it came out of a turn that I captured behind the barrier…

I don’t recall what powerplant was in this particular 1981 Nissan Bluebird but the original Fury Racing Bluebirds housed a 1.8L SOHC twin-spark Z18 4-cyl engine with a Garrett T03 turbo running about 23.5 PSI of boost which made about 360HP…

John Smith Group A Supra race car and Colin Bond Mitsubishi Evolution….

While I was off Vlogging, Tiffanie took the reigns and captured some shots of Adam Casmiri and the JDMyard Civic on the track…

Jason Dorrington and the Vic Time Attack FD going down the straight…

Adam chatting with his brother Aaron has he gets set to run the next session during the late afternoon of Day 1…

Car Shop DREAM FD looking spectacular in the pit area…

As we were walking back to the parking lot to go get some lunch I spotted this Toyota Cresta with a turbocharged Ford Barra engine that has been a staple in Australia for years now, as it powered the popular Ford Falcons down under. I did a little bit of research and found out that this particular Barra motor makes about 600HP with its Garrett turbo upgrade…

Towards the end of Day 1, after most of the general public had left, I made my way over to the front stage area to capture one more shot of the RE Amemiya GT300 RX-7 as the sun was setting. What an absolute perfect time to capture it as the golden glow of the sun reflected off the widened FD…

Centerlock Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels have to be one of the coolest things EVER…

2016 WTAC Club Sprint class champion Daniel Meredith’s turbocharged Honda Civic hatchback on display this year in the vendor area…

I didn’t capture any drifting coverage because they did most of the drifting towards the end of the day when WTAC ended, but there definitely were some cool builds sliding around, including this Lexus GS300 fully-gutted and caged with a 20B rotary powerplant…

2JZ-GTE powered Toyota 86 with the updated face sitting on Rotiform wheels with fully suspension arm upgrades likely from Wisefab…

Pretty wild to see this E92 BMW coupe running a Nissan RB26DET swap…

After glancing at the drift cars, Yonas alerted me that there was actually a car show happening not too far away from the vendor area that was hosted by popular Australia-based automotive website, The Lowdown. I was weary thinking that most of the cars at the show would be whatever, since car shows at race events back home don’t necessarily produce the best cars, but boy was I wrong. The entire area of the show was filled with some really cool builds…

The first car that caught my eye as I walked into the area was this widened S15 Silvia which was lined-up to get staged…

Also really liked this RB26-powered Vertex S14 Silvia Kouki model on Volk Racing TE37SL…

This R33 GT-R looked spectacular sitting nice and low on silver Volk Racing CE28N…

Under the hood was an RB26 featuring a HKS T51R turbo…

Nissan Silvia S15 Spec-R seated nicely on SSR Professor SP3 wheels…

This wonderfully simplistic EG Civic hatchback had a nice stock body with a meaty set of 949Racing 6UL wheels. Under the hood was a K-swap as well…

Tiffanie taking a break from shooting to just walk to show area with me…

Super cool modded Honda Concerto sedan which actually runs a Jackson Racing supercharged single cam engine sitting nicely on a set of complete RS Watanabe wheels…

I absolutely love 96-98 EK4 Civics and this one immediately caught my eye when I spotted it in the show section running a Spoon Sports carbon front lip, carbon side mirrors, and bonnet. The bronze Volk CEs fit so snuggly as well…

While the UK is busy doing a horrible job of replicating Kanjozoku builds, this Australian enthusiast has seemingly got it just about right in terms of theming his car after that specific ‘look’. Just based on experience of seeing Kanjozoku culture for myself while traveling to Osaka, I gotta say that this Civic might just be a little too clean. That and the car probably isn’t stolen, lol…

One of the cars that I wished we would have always had in the U.S. were the S15 Silvias. They are just great-looking cars from the factory and this one is just lowered on a set of Work Meister S1 wheels. All the aero that you see on it is an OEM Spec-R aero package except for the carbon bonnet…

AE86 Trueno running the familiar black/white two-toned color scheme utilizing carbon fiber over-fenders to fit an aggressive set of Volk TE37V wheels…

Despite Australia having so many Japanese-model vehicles available in their country, including most Skylines and Silvias, The EK9 Civic Type R was never available there, only the EK4 body. I think the highest trim level available there was also something Honda produced as a VTi-R. I’m sure there are a few that have been imported but the only way to get one is to build a EK9-look Civic like we had to do over here in North America. The one you see above is pretty spot on with a ’97-2000 EK9, with no aftermarket add-ons other than a set of Regamaster EVO wheels…

I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty fascinated with the Utes in Australia because the only thing we ever had that was close to them was the old Chevy El Caminos. In Australia, these half car, half truck looking things are fucking everywhere and people mod them as well. This Ford Falcon Ute looked pretty great on a set of K-Break Hybreed Fivesta wheels, which is a pretty odd choice for a Ute since it is a traditional Japanese VIP wheel. I guess the Aussies also try to make non-traditional VIP platforms ‘VIP’. Looks great though…

Concept Garage S15 Silvia running Garage Mak fenders and rear over-fenders, sitting on AME Tracer wheels…

On Day 2 of the event, the weather had shifted dramatically and it went from sunny high 80s mornings to a fully overcast, windy, high 50s gray day. We got back to the track pretty early since the guys wanted to get the JDMyard EG out there as soon as possible so as always, I took the opportunity to walk around and shoot…

The Car Shop DREAM FD has a complete one-piece removable front end, which makes working on the car a lot easier…

A glimpse into the MCA Suspension garage where the Hammerhead laid dormant wanting to run the fastest time ever at WTAC…

The Stormtrooper face of Andy Forest’s Subaru WRX…

It was honestly pretty rare to see the Scorch Racing S15 Silvia without at least one person standing around to study it. Since there was no one in sight, I snapped away and tried to get as many photos of it as I could…

The crew even rolled it outside eventually because they had to do some team photos with a photographer from Japanese Option magazine so it was perfect timing for me to join in…

I can’t even imagine how many people have been waiting for a moment when they could just be standing in front of this car without the presence of onlookers. While I was shooting, I couldn’t help but stop every few seconds to look around to see if anyone was going to walk into my shot. Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…

Team Scorch Racing with driver Under Suzuki…

I actually received a message from Rob Nguyen earlier tonight telling me about how he enjoyed my photos so far from the 2017 World Time Attack Challenge. It was pretty surprising to be honest because I didn’t think he even knew The Chronicles existed but I’m glad he saw it because it was honestly a pleasure being able to see his CR-X in person finally. I had seen and heard so much about the Mighty Mouse CR-X and really didn’t know too much about it (other than how ungodly fast it is) before I looked at it in detail, in-person…

Inside the engine bay of Mighty Mouse, with a boosted K-series stuffed inside and the wheel wells cut-out for tire clearance…

Look how wide the front is especially with the aggressive front aero and the doors removed…

The Car Shop DREAM FD was definitely a favorite of mine from the event…

The afternoon before, I walked the car show area and noticed that at the main stage area, there were three cars under car covers waiting to be presented to the public. I waited a bit and I guess the covers weren’t meant to be removed until later because it never happened while I was there. So I made sure to walk back over the next day to see what all the hoopla was about. As it turns out, there was some pretty cool shit under the covers, including this beautiful FD with an RE Amemiya front-end from Garage88…

Bronze Volk ZE40 wheels were the perfect choice to contrast against the white exterior, and I love that they ran a bolt-on front over-fender to squeeze as much width as possible for the front wheel…

Voltex rear wing, a subtle rear fender flare, and RE Amemiya carbon taillights…

A look rear-on at the center-exit exhaust on the FD…

Also on the elevated platforms was this Tamon Design AP2 S2000 from Concept Garage…

You don’t see the Tamon kit very often because its quite pricey and hard to come by, but I sort of dig it. I know some people don’t like it because the lines are a little eccentric but its honestly not bad-looking overall at all, especially with some concave Volk TEs paired with it…

The third car on the platforms was this TRA Kyoto Pandem Toyota 86, which looked great, but could honestly be a couple inches lower to suit the aggressive lines of the kit…

Not only were there a bunch of Skylines, Silvias, and Honda Civics, the show at WTAC even featured a really nice Lowirder Impala build propped-up on three wheels…

Onevia coupe on RS Watanabe wheels…

PS13 Silvia on 15-inch SSR MKII wheels…

Under the hood is a naturally-aspirated SR20…

This gray EK looked pretty aggressive with the Rando front bumper revealing a big front-mount intercooler behind it. It also features J’s Racing front fenders, a front splitter under the Rando bumper, and PCI sideskirts. I think I have an engine bay shot of it that I captured later during the JDMYARD x Chronicles meet, which followed WTAC…

While walking around to see if there was anything I missed, I noticed the Spoon-themed EK4 that I really liked had its bonnet open. You can see above with it propped that it is a legit Spoon Sports bonnet and under the hood is a B18C2 motor running a Mugen air box…

I also went back to capture a rear shot of this Kanjozoku-inspired EG build on SSR Type-X…

Wrapping-up this section with a shot of this EF9 Civic hatchback with Osaka JDM front wide fenders and Chargespeed/Chargespeed-style front lip. Nice-looking hatch with a simple livery and SSR MKII wheels…

Just one more portion of WTAC coverage to come, so please stay tuned for more, oh, and share this post if you enjoy the photos and content please! Thank you as always…