Moritani then meets the eye

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Civic Galleryは、EA世代からEK世代までのシビックのレーシングカーに特化した自動車アーカイブおよびブログです。

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Moritani then meets the eye

EZ ADworks Tropical

EK,EG,EF,EA

4 Moritani then meets the eye

Team/Chassis: EF / J.R.D.A - Moritani

In my hunt for the next relatively unknown Civic race car to share, I pondered what EF I’d pick and the Moritani car was a strong contender.

I had quite a bredth of images of this car through its various itterations but I hadn’t taken the time to delve into it’s story, and I’m so glad I finally did for this post.

What I thought was initially just an EF sponsored by a pretty well known Japanese engineering company turned out to have a much bigger back story...

It turns out that this wasn’t really the Moritani car, it was actually the J.R.D.A car supported by Moritani.

For those who don’t know, the J.R.D.A stands for The Journalistic Research and Development Association.

The journalists association had been looking for ways to further it’s experience in motorsport and came up with the idea of giving well experienced Honda One Make racers the financial support to further their careers by offering them a drive for a Group A team, while also getting them to write about their experiences.

All of this culminated in a monthly column in the Racing On magazines titled ‘An invitation to A’, a team of 6 strong Civic One Make drivers and race ready EF3 ready for 1990 Inter- Tec series.

The J.R.D.A and team members drummed up teams to support the vision which ended up in Moritani, Autolook, RAZO, Toyo Tires and Motorola coming on as sponsors.

Motorola’s sponsorship was especially interesting as they were using the car as a test bed to create communication devices for race cars so drivers could speak with their pit crew during the race.

The first itteration of the car saw it in the blue two tone livery above, rocking a mix of Wedsport Kurage’s in either blue or red, sporting the number ‘21’.

After the first race of the season at MINE Circuit, the decision was made to switch up the colours of the car so it was more distinct in the JTC field as it then sported a red variation of the two tone for the remainder of the season as well as switching to car number ‘90’.

Considering the team, drivers and car were all new to Group A, they performed well with 2x5th places in class and a peak of 4th in class at Sendai Hi-Land. This feels especially strong when you consider that alot of teams had already moved to the EF9 platform during the 1990 JTC season.

The regular Racing On articles were also getting a lot of positive responses too as readers were really appreciating the full depth the drivers were going into when talking about their race weekends.

The project overall was looking like a success with many drivers being supportive of the concept and team results were overall very positive considering their experience.

At the start of the 1991 season, the decision was made to move to the new EF9 platform with it’s (Soon to be legendary) B series engine, the decision was also made to refresh the livery so the scheme was updated and some flourishes were added. Wheel support was also switched to Mugen this season so the car ran Mugen MR5 centrelocks instead of Wedsport Kurages like prior.

The 1991 season again showed good promise with a handful of positive finishes including a best in class of 3rd at Suzuka, they would of likely had a really strong season but they did have a few DNF’s due to teething problems with the EF9, which makes sense given how fresh the race spec was.

Throughout the season the drivers were continuing to share their observations with Racing On readers which again was getting a great reception (You can find most of these articles within the gallery).

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The 1992 season brought on yet another livery change which ended up being very short lived with Moritani stepping away from the project post round 1.

Motorola then chose to step up as lead sponsor, plus Mines and RAYS wheels coming onboard which saw the wheels change to Volk 5/4 centrelocks.

This spec lasted for only 2 races before Motorola decided the car needed to change up more significantly with them as lead sponsor and Work wheels came on to replace RAYS. This culminated in the car below with the purple Motorola livery and Work Ewing RSB’s.

Given all of this change during the early part of the season it’s no wonder results were a bit mixed, but the team did managed a 4th at Suzuka.

As if the livery changes hadn’t been enough this season, the last 2 races of the 1992 season brought on an especially unique change.

Motorola likely couldnt afford to bank role the entire team for longer then a handful of races, so the J.R.D.A project was in trouble.

But there was light at the end of the tunnel...

Another team in the JTC that needs no introduction had also been running a similar initive of supporting drivers through the ranks and had decided to provide support to the struggling J.R.D.A team.

JACCS offered the team their legendary number ‘14’ EF9 and partnered with the J.R.D.A to run a collaboration team till season end.

This worked out perfectly with JACCS introducing their EG6 race car, meaning you were seeing both generations of Civic battling together in the famous JACCS liveries. The car retained most of the smaller J.R.D.A sponsors including keeping the Work Ewing RSB wheels as well as maintaining their ‘90’ race number.

Unfortunately the results didnt come flying in, with a 8th at Sendai Hi-Land and 6th at the final round of the 1992 Inter-Tec season at Fuji Speedway.

Sadly this seemed to be the point where the J.R.D.A project came to end. I’m sure they supported racing in other capacities but the 1992 season was the last time they campaigned a car (That I can find anyway).

It was really interesting to discover the ‘14’ car having a slighly extended history, but beyond this season I haven’t been able to track down where the car went. I think it could be likely that it ended up in Malaysia like the original J.R.D.A EF3 which seemed to run at the Macau GP and then disappeared.

For now this is where the story ends, but if I find anymore I’ll make sure to update on here.

And in the meantime, make sure to visit the gallery to see even more images of the J.R.D.A car here