Option is an automotive magazine founded by Daijiro Inada in 1981, to meet the demand for enthusiasts of modified Japanese cars in Japan.
The magazine is published by the Japanese media giant San-Ei Shobo Publishing Co. Ltd., the parent company of Sunpros, a company owned by Inada, who is behind both the D1 Grand Prix series and Tokyo Auto Salon.
During the earlier days, the magazines used to cover illegal street races held in expressways before it became illegal to do so. Also, it covers the exploits of Inada attempts at driving speed records, whether it was at Bonneville, at the German Autobahn or at the Silver State Classic, even by members of the magazine editorial team. Nowadays the series features Wangan competitions on closed roads and where it is legalised to do so.
Stream Z (ver.2) в After the show ended, the magazine and Dai decided on another attempt at the race, this time they took on another Z33 as a donor car but now with a wide arch kit to allow for wider tires. Whatever was intact in the old car had now been transferred into the newer car including the 3.8 litre engine. Now with the T88-38GK turbocharger giving out 100 extra horsepower to the previous car and for extra safety measures came equipped with a drag chute in the event of a tire failure. The Option crew also hired a helicopter to watch over the car in any event of incident but managed to finish third place overall without incident.
For the following year, the car was modified at the rear suspension allowing the rear camber to be altered. Unfortunately in 2005, on the day before the race, during a 1-mile (1.6 km) speed run, Inada drove the car off course after not noticing the finishing line (which was a set of cones), misreading co driver Susumu Koyama's (owner of tuner, JUN Auto) signal to slow down, and failing to slow down before a corner 2 km after the finishing line, causing mechanical damages to the car and putting the co-driver in hospital for whiplash injuries. As a result they were forced to miss out on the main race, but he was the winner of the 1-mile (1.6 km) shootout race that caused such misfortune for him.
Both the magazine's project cars have made appearances in video games, its earlier project car, Option Speed Wagon have appeared in the 1998 Konami arcade game Racing Jam as a hidden car and the infamous Option Stream Z have appeared in both installments of the D1 Grand Prix game by Yuke's and the ver.2 in Gran Turismo 4 all as bonus cars.