D Car — November 2003
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About this issue
250 available scans from D Car — November 2003, in right-to-left reading order. Japanese OCR and English translation drafts are available throughout. Drafts have not received exhaustive image proofreading; unreadable source remains recorded in the archival data.
Page 15 — English draft translation
Air Force sport compacts descend on Route 16. National Route 16 circles the Tokyo metropolitan area, and sport compacts that could be mistaken for fighter planes race along it. Just as the rumors said, on weekend nights the USA-bred compacts wage heated battles on Route 16. We were lucky to meet the team while it paused to rest. One member welcomed us casually from a 180SX fitted with vivid neon tubes and domestic-market-unreleased parts. Its yellow “Y” plate made it easy to tell that the car belonged to someone connected with the base. They really were a U.S. Air Force cruise team.
Captions and page details
…and custom machines. We heard that a lively team had recently begun appearing at this custom-car mecca. The team was said to consist mainly of pilots stationed at Yokota. To check the story, our crew visited Route 16 at night.
At Yokota Air Base, where fighter aircraft roar overhead, Route 16 runs beside the base. At night, the road is lined with spots glowing in brilliant neon. This highway, steeped in an American atmosphere, is the perfect stage for showing off a car…
Route 16
Ken-o Expressway
Team SOLO is elusive. To respect each member’s independence, it has no fixed route. The members gather at an American diner along Route 16, and often cruise from Route 16 onto the Ken-o Expressway.
Oume Interchange
Yokota
Air Base
Route 16
DEMODE
DINER
Hinode Interchange
Tamagawa
River
15