Friday 13 February 2009

Tokyo Auto Salon 2009 Part 1

Well with the global car market currently in freefall, its good to see that tuning is still very much alive. Instead of long drawn out paragraphs Im going to let the pictures do the talking... This is only a tiny oveview of what you can see as TAS

Drifting is still big in Japan and one of the 1st cars you saw on walking in the door was Daigo Saitos 2008 D1GP Championship winning Toyota Mark II...

...along with his 2009 D1GP car, a Ford Mustang, will it be as competitive or as consistant as the Toyota? A supercharger should keep the power up anyway

Another all new D1 car and another import - Takahiro Uenos T&E / TP Checker BMW335i, Id been following the build of this car on Uenos blog, an amazing build but Im not madly impressed with the colour, looks a bit too WTCC for my liking, but as anyone in motorsport will tell you, keeping the sponsors happy is vital

But under the (carbon unsurprisingly) bonnet lies a Toyota 2JZ engine with a HKS T51R turbo, good for 650bhp. Many people have said Uenos driving was held back by the big heavy Soarer he used to drive, lets see how he does in the slightly more lightweight BMW...

Apart from import mania, the return of A'Pexi was big news. With HKS and Trust/Greddy giving the show a miss, A'Pexi picked a good time to relaunch themselves onto the market. A good sign considering the company were rumoured to be on the verge of closing a few years ago and are now back, stronger than ever

Moving on...... (its DAD-Co's crystal clad Mercedes SL, worth $1million)

Evil graphics on J's Racing Honda S2000, a week after AutoSalon I visited J's so a few more photos of this car will be seen

Any Best Motoring DVD fans will know this car, MCR R34 GTR. With the overload of R35's there were not many older GTR's to be seen

The bodykit designs are getting worse it would seem, with this URAS R34 GTT

Or are they? Origin Labs OneVia

Wasnt just new stuff either, this immaculate C110 Kenmari Skyline drew many glances

As did Impulses spotless AE86. Subtle carbon, every nut and bolt replaced, toomuch to mention

Zele 370Z, not many 370Z's at the show but this was probably the best 1 there

Rauh-Welt 's Porsche 930. A lot been done to this 1 as it is the boss's own car ie the testbed. Personally I feel Porsche tuners like RuF, Gemballa,Cargraphic and Techarts stuff is overlooked unfairly in favour of Rauh-Welt. Maybe if Rauh Welt were not Japanese....

Sticking with the Porsche theme, RE-Amemiya had this Porsche nosed Rx-7

and this High Speed Lotus Exige themed example which won car of the show for RE-Amemiya for the second year in a row

TM-Squares pair of Suzuki Swift Sportd, I adore these cars

D1GP demo outside

R35 GTR on the Nismo stand, where the stupidly overpriced R35 V-Spec was announced

And finally for now, my personal car of the show, Mugen NSX RR-Concept

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