About Powerhouse Takahashi

Powerhouse Takahashi is blog focused on longer form articles and opinion pieces revolving around racing games of all shapes and sizes. What is currently out there in the racing game space is largely focused on covering the news and developments in the industry, with only a small dabble into the world of opinions and editorials and sadly mostly in a closed-minded way that doesn't push the boundaries of what's out there.

There is a lot of room to go beyond fluff pieces and driving impressions in this space, and I wish to explore what else is out there and share where those adventures go.

Origins of the name

The name Powerhouse Takahashi initially began as a name of a throwaway team in a offline racing league I ran in GTR2 - FIA GT Racing Game about a decade ago in a bid to fill out the grid in a couple races. The black and white Porsche 911 993 GT2 that the team ran, driven by a Irishman and an American, was meant to be a reference to the Bullet Club faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

The team, then only called Team Takahashi, got it's title from Yujiro Takahahi: the first non-gaijin (gaijin meaning foreigner) to be a part of the faction that was meant to embody a more American style of wrestling in contrast to the puroresu that makes up the bulk of wrestling in Japan. Powerhouse Takahashi would then be my brainchild in a different offline league to try and have that same antagonistic style of faction in contrast of the more glossy teams in the series, but it simply never got off the ground. Years later, here we are; the name stuck in my head but with nowhere to use it, until now.

What to expect

As I said on the top of this page, the pieces on Powerhouse Takahashi are going to be longer in nature, and exploring as much of the racing game genre of video games as I possibly can. While the basic act of racing or driving remains largely the same, the way you do that from game to game is never always the same, let alone at the basic level of if you're driving a car in the first place. I want to see what's out there, and I want to share that and give other people something to think about in that regard.

There will not be a regular or consistent release schedule. This is a passion project for me when I already have two other jobs in the real world. Some stuff will be scheduled ahead of time, and there will be some series of articles down the road, but for the most part stuff will be published when it's done or after one pass of editing and revisions and published the day after. In the future there will be guest contributors as well from friends who have their own stories and opinions to share within the world of racing games.

About me

My name is Joshua Morgan, and I go by Josh or Jem. My pronouns are he/they and I hail from the Unceded Stz'uminus Territory on Vancouver Island, Canada. I've been playing racing games for 25 years, with the earliest titles I've played being Gran Turismo on the Playstation and NASCAR Racing 2 50th Anniversary Edition on computer.

Since then I've played and collected a vast array of racing games across console generations through the whole spectrum of the genre and have competed in the top splits (highest level of competition) within the GT World Series play on both Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7. My current setup for racing with a steering wheel is a Thrustmaster T-GT, utilizing both the Sparco P310 and R383 steering wheel rims depending on the style of driving required, paired with the Thrustmaster TSSH Sequential Shifter, and all mounted to a Playseat Challenge fold-able racing chair.