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May 28, 2010
Bulletproof Canyon Day Ends In Sadness
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Yesterday I had a hell of a good time…until the moment when I had a hell of a bad time. Let’s start with the good: Some of the guys at the office and I decided to spend a day enjoying scenic Malibu and the amazing canyon roads that it offers. Mike in his Voltex aided S2000, me in my S2000 and Jason in his tuned Evo X met up at Neptunes Net on the PCH to start off the day. We then proceeded to have a hell of a time driving our native Malibu beach-side touge roads. I was loving it, I pulled the hardtop off and was enjoying the sun all while getting used to the feel of my new Recaro RS-G Super Stark seats and Keys Racing steering wheel that we installed two days earlier. Continue reading at the Real JDM…
May 12, 2010
Lexus IS Aerodynamic Study – D1 Version and Super GT Designs
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
The Lexus IS still looks great in various modified conditions and takes to re-shaping very well. I happen to like this rendering quite a lot. There are some great ideas in here to enjoy. See more after the jump!
Continue reading "Lexus IS Aerodynamic Study – D1 Version and Super GT Designs" »
May 10, 2010
Evo IV and Evo VI TM Edition Photo Shoot
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Seeing these photos today brought me back to a time when I lusted after the elusive Mitsubishi Evo that was not available in the US. Back in those days whenever I visited Japan and I’d see an Evo on the freeway out there I’d get goosebumps. The car was borderline mythical back then to me and my friends. Although later on the Evo did come to the US and the car became a bit more common to the eyes, the functional beautify and mystique of the older Evo 4,5 and 6s still resonate with me.
Just have a look at these super clean examples of the LanEvo VI Tommi Makinen edition and the LanEvo IV. Maybe these photos will bring back that same feeling for you that they did for me.
Continue reading "Evo IV and Evo VI TM Edition Photo Shoot" »
April 29, 2010
The Best Street Driven BMW Z4
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Garage Studie in Japan always builds some of the nicest BMWs in the world. This car I’m featuring happens to be an incredible demo car for them and it is street legal!
March 29, 2010
Retrosexual: SLS GT3 Race Car
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
When I first saw the new SLS Mercedes I didn’t know quite what to think. If I’m honest with myself, it was one of those cars that I was unimpressed with at first glance and then with each new look it grew on me. Regardless of the SLS growing on me, I never really thought about it in the context of a race car. So when I saw the news that Mercedes was building a race version SLS I couldn’t even begin to imagine what to expect.
The SLS is obviously a very retro influenced car to begin with, paying homage to the classic 300SL gullwing. Most logic would say that mishmashing modern racing aerodynamic design on a retro influenced car would lead to massive style clash and lost identity. Yet the SLS GT3 in my opinion turned out to be extremely sexy! So sexy that it made me make up a new word to describe it, retrosexual. I think you would agree… See more pics at The Real JDM
March 17, 2010
Honda CR-Z Tuning Begins In Japan
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
While the tuning world waits for the release of the Toyota FT-86, the CR-Z is quietly becoming the latest hot tuner car in Japan. Already HKS has outfitted a CR-Z and run the car at Fuji Speedway (I suspect quite slowly). As an old Honda tuning lover, I cant help but get a little excited seeing the evolution of the beloved CR-X with this CR-Z. I never really imagined a CR-Z existing back when I first started modifying my Honda Prelude…and you know what, I have to admit the CR-Z looks pretty cool to me!
At the moment Mugen as expected has the jump on the CR-Z tuning as they already have released a complete tuning package. At the moment Mugen has come out with a full aero kit, suspension, wheels, an intake and a very curious looking exhaust.
March 11, 2010
Ralliart Shutting Down Operations
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Today I saw the following upsetting news from Ralliart Japan. The letter essentially says that Ralliart is suffering from slow sales and that they can no longer continue many divisions of their company. Most notably to us Ralliart fans is the fact that they are shutting down their product line. That means no more production of Ralliart tuning parts and no new parts development.
Some might blame the economy (as Ralliart did in a general diagnosis for their winding down operations)…but having seen how many knockoffs of Ralliart parts have been marketed to the Evo communities over the past decade it does not surprise me that their sales have been down to the point where they need to shut down operations. Companies in Japan rely heavily on international distribution to survive when the Japanese domestic economy slows down as it has. Having handled some sales for Ralliart in North America I can understand just how very few parts were actually sold in the US due to the most desired items such as front carbon lip spoilers being quickly knocked off. I’m not saying that knockoffs killed Ralliart, but it surely did have an impact in times like now where Japanese domestic sports car tuning and spending has slowed and the companies are dependent on export sales to remain in business.
I’d like to leave this post with a clip which is quite memorable for me. For those of you lucky enough to have seen this movie, its one of the very few impressive showcases of JDM tuning. Enjoy Jackie Chan working at Ralliart and racing an Evo III in this clip from Thunderbolt!
February 22, 2010
Visiting Amuse
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
One of the great things about working with Japanese companies as their distributor for a decade is that we get treated so nicely when we visit Japan!
I’ve been meaning to blog about various things we did during our last trip to Japan, and our visit to Amuse has been at the top of my list. I’ve been working with Amuse and importing their parts for 9 years now. I must say my love for Amuse Titanium and Dry Carbon has stayed just as strong now as it ever was. Continue reading at The Real JDM
February 8, 2010
The Tamon Design 370Z
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Today I was talking with a client who asked me what I felt about the Tamon Design RC370Z which debuted just recently in Tokyo. Not only was I happy to answer his question, but I was glad because it reminded me that I’ve wanted to blog about this car for the past couple of weeks now.
On January 5th I put up a sketch here by Tamon Design which showed the concept of the car in early form. At the time I was extremely excited by the very unique image on the sketch and I was prepared to be blown away by a very controversially designed and aggressive car whenever it did materialize in the flesh.
January 26, 2010
Make Your Own Paper Super GT NSX
By Ben Schaffer
The Real JDM
Having been blown away by seeing this thing at Tokyo Auto Salon, I wanted to write another blog post related to it.
By now I think we all know how incredible the cardboard GT500 NSX project turned out. For those of you who saw it in person, it was especially amazing when placed next to other Super GT cars. From a distance it literally fooled me and had me thinking it was a real car that just looked “a little unusual”. For a fan at heart like me, I’d love to one day own a 1:1 cardboard replica like this! But for now, I’ll just dream of having enough space at home to be able to own something like this.
