Lightning McQueen came home 13th in his first race in the Japanese Super GT-300 Championship, one place ahead of new rival, Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go.
The rookie, who looks suspiciously like last year's Team Toy Story APR Toyota MR-S, has apparently been lured away from The Piston Cup by a company that makes products under license of Pixar and Disney. No matter, my three-year-old was beside himself with joy when he saw number 95 hit the track, and I suspect he was not alone.
14th pace finisher, the Mach Go VEMAC 320R (below), is far from new to Super GT's 300hp class, but may get a little more attention internationally once Speed Racer is released Stateside.
During our recent trip across the Pacific to cover the Tokyo Auto Show, we got word that our flight out of Narita was going to be delayed for 23 hours. The first thing that jumped into our jet-lagged minds was how much trouble it would be to catch a ride to the nearest city so we could revel in the JDM parts bonanza that is Super Autobacs. Think Kragen/Pep Boys/AutoZone, but with 20-times more new and used parts that don't completely suck. We never made it, but Autobacs presence at the Tokyo Auto Salon might make up for it when it hosts 14 different vehicles on its show stand, including a replica of the Mach 5 from Speed Racer and the SuperGT winning GT500 ARTA NSX. We're hoping that photos from the Autobacs booth are forthcoming, and when we get them, they'll be uploaded post haste.
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