In the not too distant past, most of the JDM sportscar attracted too much attention in the prying eyes of speedo boys worldwide such as the Silvia, the Supra, the Skyline, the Civic, any JDM car you mention, but however, there was one kind of car that you never heard about unless you are a Gran Turismo fan and this one is rather different from the JDM cars I mentioned earlier...
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| What is this strange-looking car? |
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| Seriously, what is that?! |
What this is is called the Tommykaira but this is the ZZ sportscar. The Tommykaira ZZ, a sportscar that remains synonymous to the world of Gran Turismo.
If you're new here, you'd probably never heard of Tommykaira before. It's a Japanese tuning firm situated in the Kansai region. It was named after two former racing drivers Yoshikazu Tomita and Kikuo Kaira. Tomita Dram Factory, its parent firm, founded in 1968 and in the summer of 1995, after spending years of tuning some of the finest JDM cars such as the Skyline and the March, the ZZ was born and it was their first original handmade car that started from scratch.
The Tommykaira ZZ comes with a bathtub shaped chassis, which composed of aluminum monocoque with steel-tube frames. They learned that idea from racing cars, you know. Anyway, with all that lightweight bodywork, the ZZ was powered by a tuned version of the engine as expected from a Nissan Silvia. Yep, it's an SR20 engine which produces 178HP of power and 141.7ft-lb of torque. 0-100kph takes under five seconds and top speed is about 140mph. It's not what you called quick because this is not the kind of car you would bring it in a game of Top Trumps but don't be fooled because what I can feel it is one of the best handling Japanese cars ever made in the past because despite being not too quick, this car has good handling.
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| Handle with care, dude! |
Because it's all so light and weighs less than a ton, this car loves corners. This, I believed to be somewhat Japan's answer to British lightweights because it feels like a British lightweights thanks to the fact that it doesn't have concession of comfort and convenience for the driver in mind. This car is all about being hardcore and sharp enough to slice down corners like a ninja.
This ZZ though isn't just an ordinary ZZ. It's the S version. The ZZ-S is a highly tuned model which comes with an uprated SR20 engine which produces under the two-hundred horsepower mark and with under 700 kg of weight, it's sharper as well. You can enjoy cutting through the corners when you want it and there are endless possibilities to get yourself hurt if you driving around like an ascot.
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The ZZ-S is always a corner-happy
hoodlum |
Sadly though, the Tommykaira ZZ is extinct and as of now, there are very rare chances to see one approaching in the roads unless if you were in Japan. Anyway, in the noughties, Japan has another boutique sportscar which some say has the same traits as the ZZ but I'm not so sure...
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| The metamorphosis begins |
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| The metamorphosis continues |
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| A transformation completed |
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| Meet the Garaiya |
This is the ASL Garaiya, it's a lightweight sportscar, which is the same as the Tommykaira ZZ, but more importantly, it's a different breed.
Now, Autobacs, one of Japan's notable car parts/service store chain, had a dream to create their own dream machine, one that comes with a quality of an exotic car with the usability for everyday drivers. They enlisted Kikuo Kaira from Tommykaira to establish ASL or Autobacs Sportscar Laboratory and then launched this Garaiya project at the 2002 Tokyo Auto Salon. in Winter 2002. Anyway, about this futuristic-looking sportscar, it comes with the same engine that you would expect on the Nissan Primera compact sedan but with added variable valve timing which produces at the two-hundred horsepower mark and 151.8lb-ft of torque, sending the power to the rear wheels by a 6-speed manual gearbox. It is however it weighs a hundred kilograms heavier more than the ZZ-S, the way it handles is a bit different but I wonder what if I can pit the Garaiya against the ZZ-S...
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| Two Japanese lightweights! |
To find out, I pit the Garaiya against the ZZ-S for a drag race but anyway let's remember, while both of these cars produced the same 200HP output, the Garaiya is a hundred kilos heavier than the Garaiya. As the drag race starts, the Garaiya launched through the lead, leaving the ZZ-S in the dust...
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| Garaiya eats the ZZ-S for lunch! |
...and then in the braking section...
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| Both hit the brakes but the Garaiya stopped faster! |
...the Garaiya has better brakes than the ZZ-S. So, the Garaiya kicked the ZZ-S...twice. One by drag, one by braking. But what about going round the Top Gear Test Track, I asked Stig to handle these cars and then, there's the result...
1:27.890 - ZZ
1:27.966 - Garaiya
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| Enjoy your day at the UK! |
So, based on the lap times, both the Garaiya and the ZZ-S are stalemates after all. Although they maybe different, they both share the same connections between these two and that's about two unknown Japanese lightweights that does very well on track days. It's ashamed that neither of these two roam around in real life but still, they're still synonymous to the Gran Turismo franchise, I can tell. The ZZ-S was designed have a perfect sence of humor while the Garaiya is all about being a sensible one. No matter what, those Japanese lightweights are trying hard to capture the views of car enthusiasts, if there are any...
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| Just let it go where its heart desires... |
