A couple of weeks ago we had enough room in our schedule to accept Daisuke-San's invitation to head over to the ZeroFighter garage in Nara-Ken.
A location not easy to miss as you pass the company's large notorious Orange sign and logo shown across the front of the main office building.
The team moved to this location just a couple of years back, one that used to be that of a former filling station, but also offers a lot more floor space that allows the duo of Daisuke-San and his brother and company CEO Yousuke-San to fulfill their customer needs.
Indeed upon arrival and exchanging greetings with all, it was Yousuke-San's EG that was one of the first things I'd wanted to look over. A couple of month's prior it had undergone quite a big repair job after going off track at Suzuka, and indeed once more just the weekend prior to my visit I had also been at the same track where the driver and machine received quite an unfortunate helping hand after a frantic race start and got sent into the wall just after Suzuka's pit lane exit - quite near to where I was
standing.
A lot of work needed to get the main core and subframe back into shape.
Something that Yousuke-San was already well engulfed into as you can see here.
On the same floor, many other customer cars were in for all types of various jobs, from repairs, to component swaps, to full race-spec prepped cars.
Not trying to be in the way too much for what work the guys had going on, we headed upstairs above the main garage space to where the team has full-on spray room and part preparation area. It's here where the ZeroFighter cars get that special Orange mix of paint applied to them and over customer cars get some fresh clothes too.
The quality of their work was easy to see.
In the corner on and next to the lift that moves cars between levels one and two, were the two ZeroFighter Honda Fit's both in need on some love ahead of whatever battle they were due to take on next.
It's one area of the business that the team have developed over the last couple of years. You see - Daisuke-San is also the secretariat of the Honda One Make (Vtec) Champion Race Series. And that series also allows for a division of the Fit to be ran, not to mentioned that the brothers also take part in the renowned Suzuka Clubman Series that also runs a FIT 1.5 Challenge Series - so the guys have quite a business for maintaining and upgrading this chassis for those reasons.
Back downstairs and Nishida's EK was parked up, another car you may recognize if you follow us across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc.
And on the loader was Daisuke-San's EG - still there from that for mentioned Suzuka race of which he had a great weekend, securing second place.
The setup of the car very much that of an N1-spec classification so it's easily adaptable to both the One Make and Clubman races depending on the schedule.
If you want to know more about the rules for the One Make races, be sure to check out our video on YouTube channel (we'll link it at the end of this post subscribe and give it a watch).
Outside the main office, the team were sorting through a number of their own custom made exhaust components. They now have an English support page on Instagram (@zerofighterautocustom_english) if you'd like to get your hands on any of their goods.
Inside, and more goodies we could check out. ZeroFighter also various ranges of suspension kit for various Honda chassis.
And of course, obligatory ZeroFighter and Honda Racing decals.
If you get to the visit the premises in the future and it all becomes a bit too much for you to take in, you can always grab one of the copious amounts of Hyper-Rev magazines from the rack and pull up a chair at this custom made table and down a beverage from the vending machine outside.
You've had a rest, and going back outside you wouldn't seem foolish for thinking you'd actually just arrived at an UP Garage store as the team had quite a large number of used wheel and tire sets ready for purchase and immediate take away.
From ENKEI RPF1's, to WORK Wheels, and few more obscure sets, there's something for everyone.
On the forecourt and the company also retails a multitude of used Honda cars for sale. The team often have a few uploaded to the site or share them via social.
If you are in the market for a quality car whether it's one for the road, or even a used N1/N2 spec race car for importing to your country, again you can contact the English page we mentioned above.
That's if for now from the premises of ZeroFighter, we'll be back here again in the near future for some more 'special' content that we've got planned, so keep an eye out for that.
Big thank you Yousuke-San, Daisuke-San, Takuya-San and everyone else for their time and hospitality as always.
Shimuzu,
Roughsmoke.
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Check out the Honda One Make rules here, and subscribe to our channel for more contnet.