J's Racing

Interview by Charles Kha Photos by Mark Pakula

We sit down with Murakami-san to discuss J’s Racing, his love for Hondas, and that engine blow-up.

ASM: Firstly, welcome to Australia. Is this your first time to our side of the world?
Actually no, it’s my second time. Though my first visit was many years ago, and that was more of a holiday. I love it here! This time around I’m here to see JDM Concept, who we are proud to announce have just become our Australian distributor.

ASM: Tell us a little bit about the background history of J’s Racing.
The J’s Racing company is 17 years old, so we’ve been around for a very long time. However, when the company first started, it wasn’t as a tuner. Initially we sold used cars. What we would do was buy modified cars and dismantle the aftermarket parts, returning them back to standard. We’d then sell the cars and parts separately.

ASM: So how did J’s Racing move from that to becoming one of the leading Honda tuners?
It was 13 years ago that we, as a company, entered into a race. It was an all-Civic race, and we were racing an EG6 Honda Civic Si-R. We found that the car needed more speed and performance, and so we started looking into making our parts for what we needed.

ASM: When did these parts become available to the aftermarket?
Three years after that, so ten years ago.

ASM: What would the tuning philosophy of J’s Racing be?
I guess it is important to state that we do not make parts purely for the sake of it…