I beat the slasher before I beat the 350Z.
I dunno what's happened on your end Vicx. I started a game fresh, with an 85, raced all the events I could during the day, and all the opponents at night I felt I could beat. Read ALL the BBS and Email posts at the beginning of each day. The slasher showed up for me on like Day 8.
And it's not that the opponents after Hakone are easier, it's just I made quite an upgrade from an AE85 that had probably 135hp, to a Silvia S13 breaking 300hp. Against my 85, they'd be dead even races, but with the Silvia, I've just managed to get one leg up on the current opponents.
Now I race all the events I can, on all 3 areas open to me (Hakone, Haruna, and Akagi) during the day, then at night, I check all the parking lots for any rivals that aren't white, and when I'm done with them, I go back and pick on any white rivals I haven't beaten for extra cash.
I got a funny email the other day. You know how lovers will send you a picture of their car? I got an email with a picture of 4 cars attached to it. Maybe a whole team loves me?
*really really need to get back to learning Japanese*