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There we sat, the 7 of us nodding off intermittently on the Odakyu highway bus en route to our Hakone destination in Japan. Besides the gorgeous scenery and abundant onsens, this area is renowned for it’s iconic twisty roads as featured in Initial D and is also home of our destination Fun2drive. Before my very recent trip to Japan, I …

Hi guys! My name is Minh and I’m the new creative director for trak-life. I come from a design background and specialise in graphic design, photography and illustration. I came onboard late last year during the downtime to revamp the brand’s identity and website. The team realised that moving forward in 2016 would benefit from a restructure of editorial and pictorial …

Phil It feels like an absolute eternity since my last trak-life post. And it might as well have been considering Pearl remained mostly unchanged for 2015 and we only slotted in three trackdays (so sad). Alas life priorities just happen to get in the way. Sure, getting married and jetting out for a honeymoon is all well and good but …

In the pursuit of happiness (and fantastic lap times), it quickly became apparent that my old humble Bilstein Shock Absorbers and Eibach spring combination just didn’t cut it anymore. I know I know, Fridge the heavy R33 was never intended to be a track car let alone be equipped with spine shattering springs. Something’s got to give and it ended up being the …

HICAS. Seemingly a good idea in theory, not so good on the real world tarmac. As a result, the chances of finding an aftermarket HICAS lock out bar on any Nissan equipped with this controversial technology is almost guaranteed. Yet even with a HICAS lock out bar installed, does your car still feel a little sloppy around corners and isn’t hugging the ground as if it …

With Pearl under wraps for most of the year, Jay and his  R33 decided to attend the latest JDMYard trackday with our good friend the 00-YEZZ Turbo Mirage. The Fridge only managed to break a swaybar mount this time around, the PB unfortunately will have to wait till next time when new MCA X-Series coilovers are fitted as only a …

Ever wondered what those clunky or chattering noises are coming from the rear of your beloved S15? Hopefully it’s not your exhaust dragging on the ground but instead is the cries from your diff begging for some new fluids to bask in. Even though these noises are all too common in a mechanical type LSD, a fresh batch of fluids …

Ever looked underneath your car and realised that the OEM castor rod bushing’s are cracked and leaking some oil residue? Well you’re not alone – you my friend have suffered from castor rod bush death just like all the other Nissan Silvia, Skyline or Stagea owners! Nissan castor rods have a pressed liquid filled bush which was designed to reduce …

Three days under the scorching Sydney sun didn’t do my skin any favours. If anything, it left me with a horrible shirt tan that will forever stain my summer image and probably take most of next year to even out (yep still there). “Was it worth it though? Most definitely” Bolting on another day from last year, the Yokohama Advan …

For the majority of us import sports car enthusiasts, 98RON fuel provided at the local pump serves its purpose quite well. Whilst not exactly cheap these days, it is at least abundant and has a decent octane rating. But as with most things in life, there will always be something better out there to tempt you. If you surf the …