auto racing

We sit down with Murakami-san to discuss J’s Racing, his love for Hondas, and that engine blow-up.

ASM: Firstly, welcome to Australia. Is this your first time to our side of the world?
Actually no, it’s my second time. Though my first visit was many years ago, and that was more of a holiday. I love it here! This time around I’m here to see JDM Concept, who we are proud to announce have just become our Australian distributor.

ASM: Tell us a little bit about the background history of J’s Racing.
The J’s Racing company is 17 years old, so we’ve been around for a very long time. However, when the company first started, it wasn’t as a tuner. Initially we sold used cars. What we would do was buy modified cars and dismantle the aftermarket parts, returning them back to standard. We’d then sell the cars and parts separately.

ASM: So how did J’s Racing move from that to becoming one of the leading Honda tuners?
It was 13 years ago that we, as a company, entered into a race. It was an all-Civic race, and we were racing an EG6 Honda Civic Si-R. We found that the car needed more speed and performance, and so we started looking into making our parts for what we needed.

ASM: When did these parts become available to the aftermarket?
Three years after that, so ten years ago.

ASM: What would the tuning philosophy of J’s Racing be?
I guess it is important to state that we do not make parts purely for the sake of it… 

ASM: You mean you don’t make parts to capitalise on the market?
Correct, yes. The parts we make are borne from the race track. All of the parts we develop are things we’ve found we have needed in racing. We make parts, we race with them and, if they are successful, we make them available to the public. Of course this means that a lot of our products are made purely for race use. For normal street use they aren’t as effective, as to maximise their full potential you need to use them in racing environments.

ASM: Tell us a little bit about J’s Racing HQ.
We do nearly everything possible for Hondas. We do full race preps – including chassis strengthening – to installations and even regular servicing for tuned street or race cars.

ASM: And you are located in Osaka?
Yes we are. For our Japanese customers in other parts of the country, our parts are also now available through Super Autobacs. In terms of internationally, we have a dealer network around the world: U.S., UK, Germany, Greece, Asia and of course now Australia.

ASM: Now it is obvious that you’ve travelled a fair bit around the world. So in the context of the Honda communities that you’ve seen in various countries, what would the most common mistake be that enthusiasts do?
[Thinks] Overall I think that Honda enthusiasts aren’t making any big mistakes in what they do in terms of modifying. Although, I’d say one thing would be that often enthusiasts are choosing exhaust diameters that are too big for their car.

ASM: In terms of the export market, is the U.S. still the biggest?
It is yes, but I guess the U.S. is different to the UK, Asia and Australia.

ASM: What do you mean? Like a demand for difference in products?
Not really a demand for different products, but that each country is a bit unique in terms of car choices. For example, in the United States, the S2000 is extremely popular, along with the Civic and Integra. In Asia, the Fit is the most popular. 

ASM: Besides those cars you mentioned, what modern Hondas is J’s Racing focusing their efforts on?
Definitely the new [JDM FD2] Civic Type R, which we see as the next popular Honda car.

ASM: Do you see a lot of potential in it?
Oh yes. For example, the S2000 is a very nice car. However in our eyes, it is almost ten years old. In Super Taikyu, the DC5 is faster due to its weight. And so we feel the new Civic Type R will be the next evolution.

ASM: What about the NSX? Have you heard anything about it?
We’ve probably heard similar things to you in terms of its performances around Nurburgring, and it is definitely a car that we’ll be excited to develop once it is released.

ASM: And what would your favourite Honda be of all-time?
[long pause] It would have to be the CL7 Honda Accord Euro R. My personal favourite.

ASM: Why is that? Because of the mix of comfort and sport?
Yes it’s a very, very good car, because no matter how you use it, it is fast. It’s great on the highway, can be used on the touge and even circuit. And of course it offers luxury.

ASM: J’s Racing has certainly grown in notoriety for its S2000’s stellar performances in various Hot Version battles. My question is, who gets to choose the driver? Do the workshops have any input in saying, for example, that we want X or Y driver to steer our car?
Unfortunately we don’t get to choose which driver races our car. That is decided by them.

ASM: An incident happened in one of their races at the Maze circuit [Hot Version: Battles at 10,000rpm]. It was an all-S2000 race, and Jyuichi Wakisaka was driving your car. Something happened – there was fire beneath the car – before the video cut away quickly. It sounded like an over-rev, but there wasn’t an explanation and so not many people know what really happened.
[laughs] Yes he over-revved the engine on a down-shift, but apparently that’s meant to be a secret!

GRIND THE PAVEMENT part II

The first hurdle was to devise a way to be able to drop the height – wait for it – a whopping 30-inches. While most will see a three-inch drop as dramatic enough, Jason wanted to achieve the impossible: getting the underbelly of a Landcruiser to lick asphalt. To do this, the Landcruiser body was massaged, pummelled and beaten into submission to accept a Hilux chassis.

There’s extensive modifications to the suspension too, as Jason outlined from the beginning that the Landcruiser wasn’t going to be a showpiece, but rather a completely driveable proposition. At the rear, LLC devised a custom four-link setup. The airbag setup heralds from Slam Specialities in Fresno California, measuring 6-inches in diameter at the front and 7-inches at the rear. The main benefits of Slam Specialties’ bags are in their inherent design: they can run more than twice the pressure of conventional air bags, offer more stroke for increased driveability, as well as faster and more balanced weight control. Indeed, the ride of the Landcruiser is surprisingly supple, mimicking that of a luxury car as opposed to a vehicle so drastically modified as this is.

Compounding the headaches – and no doubt adding weeks of sleepless nights – was the fact that Jason had his heart set on fitting 22-inch rims to the Landcruiser. And rather than have anorexic, tram-like widths, Jason demanded that the rim diameters stretched to a whopping ten-inches and the tread footprint an enormous 295. When you consider their ride height objectives, you’ll start to fathom just how hard this part of the project was going to be.

“Making the wheels fit was one of the most difficult aspects of the build” Jason reveals. After commissioning Intro to fabricate the custom wheels, the daunting task of making the car fit the wheels (rather than the more conventional method of getting the wheels to fit the car) began. All four arches had to be unceremoniously cut away, with new inner front guards along with taller and wider rear tubs fabricated out of metal and welded into place. 

 In terms of the Landcruiser’s exterior, there are countless alterations that have been done, yet are subtle enough not to be immediately noticed. This is without hesitation deliberate, all done to elaborately emphasise the contours of the Toyota body. Everything from the wiper sprays, rear wiper, indicators and door locks have all been shaved. To further clean up the lines, the fuel filler was rerouted to the rear of the car, and is now hidden from view behind the passenger rear-taillight. Even the firewall didn’t escape an overhaul, and has now been flawlessly smoothened to mirror the finish of the new inner guards.

While most sane people would have been considerably chuffed with completing so many modifications, for Jason it was literally only the halfway point. After an unobtrusive coating in the standard 100 series maroon, Jason turned to the Darkness comic books to complete the rest of the exterior and interior.

Exploding out of the body is striking air-brushing inspired by the Marc Silvestri comics, and when you pop the boot you’ll see a continuation into the audio install. Cleverly done, the install gives the appearance of the white leather interior tearing and stretching to reveal a screaming corpse. Jaw-dropping to say the least.

At this point we have to agree with Jason that a book could be written on this Landcruiser. Indeed, after filling so many pages in ASM, we haven’t even touched on the extensive drivetrain modifications, the Eaton supercharger beneath the bonnet, its five LCD screens or its brake upgrade. There’s simply too much to talk about.

Which brings me back to my original point of exactly why this Landcruiser is one of the most poignant and earth-shattering cars to come out of Sydney. While 99% of enthusiasts will always remain within the comfort of bolt-on modifying, Jason and the team at LLC have snubbed the safety of convention and devised this totally insane creation. No part available? No problem, we’ll make it. Looks too hard to accomplish? Bah, it can be done. Aren’t we glad that there’s that 1% of enthusiasts that are willing to tear up the rulebook.

GRIND THE PAVEMENT part I

Say a nice friendly hello to one of the hottest cars you’ll see in a magazine. Ever.

To say that we’ve been pursuing the car you see before you for months would be an understatement. Hunting, or even begging, would be much more appropriate descriptions. And from the rumours that we’ve heard, it seems like we weren’t the only magazine hounding its owner, with everyone fighting tooth and nail to get the exclusive. We don’t know what swayed owner Jason Luttrell to opt for ASM, but let’s just say that we are proud to have a feature on what is undoubtedly one of my personal favourite cars that Australia has yet to produce.

Typically this type of fervour is reserved only for that trophy-dominating show car, or a mega-horsepower demo car produced by one of Japan’s select elite. So to have this amount of hype and fuss placed on – of all things – a Landcruiser, might seem a little bit of a waste.

That said, just one look at this thing and the interest its generated is more than justified. It is, with little doubt, one of the most neck-snapping rides you’ll ever see on the street. While most enthusiasts saddle up with a hero car and then embark on modifying one-upmanship to make their ride stand out, Jason went completely against the grain: an unsuspecting platform fitted with totally surprising modifications. And what drove him to do something so unique and distinctive? Destiny really. 

Delve into a bit of Jason’s past and you’ll uncover that his four year mission to build what has been affectionately dubbed the ‘Landbruiser’ was always going to be one of his life’s objectives. In terms of his previous rides, first there was the 1987 ‘bagged Hilux. Then a ‘bagged Triton complete with a Commodore V6 conversion. And a ‘bagged Vito van. As well as Toyota Surf which, as you would have guessed by now, was also fitted with air bags. All of them, particularly the latter, would culminate into the Landcruiser project which would end up costing upwards of 75 large. “I wanted to build something bigger and better than anything I’ve ever done before” he said. If you ask us, he’s accomplished just that.

The Landbruiser’s most striking feature is, of course, its ride height. While most might think that Jason has achieved this simply by fitting airbags, they’d be wrong. This particular project has been heaped with tribulations, with Jason having to resort to custom fabrication parts from head to toe. The mere thought of building such a car is enough to make us dizzy, and so to see such a creation in the flesh is more than unbelievable. It’s logic defying.

The ace card up Jason’s sleeve that allowed him to accomplish so many feats is that he’s a rather well-known airbag guru, founding Living Low Customs in Sydney’s West. Although the business started off out of a car port in 2005, it’s since spawned into one of the largest workshops specialising in custom air-bag work, no doubt growing in reputation as their Landcruiser’s notoriety spread across the world.

As Jason’s project was practically a ground-up proposition, there was little need for LLC to find a pristine example. And so when they came across a repairable write-off 100 Series Landcruiser with front-end damage, it was deemed to be the perfect canvas for what they wanted to achieve.