If you like to read comics I recommend 2 popular manga in Japan which focuses on street racing. Both are not new but are favorites among kuruma otaku (car nuts).

頭文字D　-　INITIAL D
The central character “Takumi” drives a Toyota Trueno AE86 (Hachi-Roku) which has his family’s Tofu shop name on the side of the car.
The story follows Takumi as he enters the world of illegal Japanese street racing on the various Touge roads in Japan (TOUGE = mountain passes). The focus of the story is driving technique and tuning.

Many people know about Initial D and have probably watched the anime or maybe even the movie. I am originally from Japan and grew up when the Initial D manga were still being released on a weekly basis.

湾岸ミッドナイト- Wangan Midnight
“Wangan” means Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway Bayshore route and it is their stage. The main character “Akio” drives a Nissan Fairlady Z (S30) called “Devil Z”. And his rival Tatsuya drives a Porsche 911 Turbo (964) called “Black Bird”.

The story is about car tuning, vehicle setup and driving technique as well as the emotion behind it all.

I recently watched this animation on DVD and I saw a TEIN logo in the story! If your familiar with famous Japanese tuners you can probably see a correlation between characters in the manga/ anime and real life shops/ tuners.

Check this out if you are a kuruma otaku.

Image from http://www.amazon.com/