Endurance Racer
Japanese tuners Murakami Motors have an NC demo car that they also use for motorsport. Team Murakami, including Hiroyuki Murakami himself, compete in the ST-4 Class of the Super Taikyu domestic endurance race series for production cars. The Super Taikyu season has seven races each lasting for several hours at Sports Land Sugo, Twinring Motegi, Fuji Speedway, Okayama International, Autopolis, Suzuka, and the new Autopia circuit at Inje, South Korea. The entry list includes a variety of production cars from Audi R8 LMS and Mercedes AMG SLS in the GT3 class to Honda Integra DC5 and S2000 in the ST-4 class. You can view the full line up from a slightly rainy Round 5 in the video below, and yes you may want to turn the volume up. Murakami's NC features at 3:00.
The Super Taikyu series has a group of promotional girls known as the Super Taikyu Race Image Girls, or by their nickname the S*CREW... yes you read that right, they even have their own logo. This year's girls are Hitomi Yasueda, Mire Odawara, and Nana Futatuki, you can see more on their website - Super Taikyu S*Crew.
Anyway, back to the car. To prepare for racing Murakami's NC was completely stripped bare, the shell was welded up for additional strength and a rollcage welded in. The car is painted in MM's signature shade of orange, which they also used on their earlier Mk1 race car. Initially the car was fitted with the Mazdaspeed front bumper, but over the years its appearance has evolved and now it is fitted with the full Nopro GT bodykit. This includes a rear diffuser piece which is attached to a cut rear bumper to smooth the rear airflow, help generate downforce, and also aids cooling the differential on those long endurance races. Also at the rear is a large GT wing for extra downforce. The front foglight holes in the GT bumper are used to run cooling ducting to the front brakes. There are also some carbon fibre door mirrors to reduce drag and save weight.
Recent additions include the Nopro carbon fibre hardtop, and a vented bonnet which you can buy from Murakami for your own car. The car's engine is the 2.0 but it's had a fair bit of work and ECU modifications and produces around 200PS. Other performance mods include uprated engine mounts, a custom race exhaust, uprated clutch, Bilstein suspension, carbon differential, and lightweight 17" Rays TE37 wheels with Yokohama 215/45/17 tyres. To speed up pitstops, the car has been fitted with an air jack system.
You can see more pictures of the car's build here.
The next race is Suzuka on 21st September, read more at SuperTaikyu.com
Recent additions include the Nopro carbon fibre hardtop, and a vented bonnet which you can buy from Murakami for your own car. The car's engine is the 2.0 but it's had a fair bit of work and ECU modifications and produces around 200PS. Other performance mods include uprated engine mounts, a custom race exhaust, uprated clutch, Bilstein suspension, carbon differential, and lightweight 17" Rays TE37 wheels with Yokohama 215/45/17 tyres. To speed up pitstops, the car has been fitted with an air jack system.
You can see more pictures of the car's build here.
The next race is Suzuka on 21st September, read more at SuperTaikyu.com
