Man, forget NASCAR and its participation trophy stage racing. Forget Formula One and how even the drivers don’t give a shit this year. The only racing I want to watch is Australia’s Improved Production Car Championship, and this wacky Honda Civic vs. Toyota AE86 battle is the best thing I’ve seen on track in forever.

I’ll be honest: I had no idea this series even existed until I saw it on a cursory browse of r/cars this morning. It is what its name implies: an Aussie series for modified road cars, divided up by engine sizes. This particular race was ahead of last weekend’s Adelaide Clipsal 500 V8 Supercars race, which explains why it was on Fox Sports down there.


This particular clip shows one hell of a dogfight between the rear-drive Toyota AE86 Corolla and a front-drive Honda Civic, both small-wheelbase cars with similarly sized naturally aspirated engines. They’re pretty evenly matched throughout the race, and there’s a ton of back and forth until the end when the Hachiroku takes the checkered flag. It’s like Initial D, but in real life, on a track, with Australians.

Alas, not everyone fares well out there:


This is the only racing I wish to watch from now on, please and thank you.