ASI Japan has released this image of what their Prius aerodynamics package will look. According to ASI, this is the confirmed final version of the design. In other news, ASI has launched a sub brand called ASI Green to release this Prius kit. More at The Real JDM

There has been some buzz about this car ever since the rendering came out. After looking at the above picture, I think you can understand why the buzz is so strong. This car is hot!

So the deal is that Original Runduce came to Varis with a collaboration idea on this upcoming demo car. Since the Varis full bumper (pictured) is offered in two pieces already, this project is relatively simple to produce. The standard Varis aero kit is retained and an original Runduce front diffuser is added to the Varis bumper to create an aggressive new look (reminiscent to the R35 GT-R Amuse front diffuser).

Continue reading "Varis X Runduce CZ4A Evo X Collabo!" »

There is one thing about Japan that you’ve just got to love. No matter how many tuning shops and modified cars there are out there, finding something very special and most importantly of all, different, is not as hard as some may think. It all comes down to a need to be unique and stand out from the crowd, something that becomes very evident if you spend a little time in Japan. This need to be different is precisely what drove the owner of the exceptionally clean JZX80 you see here to go out and create something very special, a car that would satisfy his personal tastes and objectives without following any preset guidelines. From the outside it might just look like your regular twin-turbo powered JZA80 Supra, spiced up with some nice touches like these TRD Sports T3 5-spoke wheels. But one turn of the ignition key is all that’s needed to reveal that there is something a little strange going on under the hood. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

What makes a classic car? Is it a pre-war Bugatti, a ’57 Chevy, ’32 Ford or perhaps anything slathered in British Racing Green and stuffed with a rat’s nest of Lucas electronics? But what about our automotive brethren across the Pac Rim, from the island nation most known for the Camry and Accord? There’s some deep history here such as Honda’s S600, Toyota’s 2000GT, Mazda’s Cosmo or this – Nissan’s OG “Hakosuka” Skyline spotted at the Japanese Classic Car Show held on Saturday, October 3 at Irvine, California’s Hidden Valley Park. This was the fifth anniversary of the show, which is open to any pre-1985 Japanese car. This particular PGC-10 is a 1971 model owned by Mickey Castillo. JDM urban legend says that of the handful of C-10 Skylines in the States only a few are authentic GT-R models. I really don’t care if Mickey’s car is an R because it’s chock full of sick Sonny Chiba style. Hit the jump to see more tasty morsels from JCCS.

Continue reading "Suntory Times! Classic Car Show with a Japanese Twist" »

I was talking with fellow blog reader Jay Hundred about the variety of JDM tuning recently. Jay brought to my attention a curious new release by Toda Japan. I call it curious because I really wonder how many people are buying a 2,355,000 JPY stroker kit (26,500 USD before wire losses, shipping, etc) for their aging Ferrari F355. On one hand I’m not surprised because for as long as I can remember Toda has had a hand in F355 tuning, but I’m just surprised that by now they didnt release a stroker kit for a F360 or F430. I just dont see many people racing and modifying F355s. Most that have this kind of coin to drop on a pricey stroker kit seem to have moved on to F360s and newer. Although I’m guessing Toda can and will prove me wrong since they just released this comprehensive kit.

Regardless, the Ferrari F355 must really move nicely with nearly 500 horses and a redline near 9000rpm coming out of this 3.9L V8. Thanks Jay Hundred for the lead on this.

With all news being GT-R related around here lately, today I looked for something as far opposite as possible to post. So here we go, a customer car of the most unique kind…a UKDM widebody Range Rover Sport! And not a GT-R. Check.

This is a cool story to me and is something I think a lot of readers can relate to that are in my age bracket. My client Rob started working with me almost five years ago on his Honda S2000. Over the years we worked together and he ended up putting together one of the cleanest and nicest S2000s I’ve still ever seen. It is absolutely a flawlessly executed street car build, top notch 100% (another post will come on that). Continue reading at The Real JDM

I find myself to be in the minority when it comes to the use of car pictures…I almost always find the rear of tuned cars more fascinating than the front. Despite knowing that is wrong from a media perspective, (magazines almost always feature the front of the car primarily), I rarely care about convention and I find myself almost always featuring a rear shot first and a front shot later on. Most of the cars I’ve had a hand in building I also prefer the rear to the front as well (my S2000 for certain I prefer the rear profile over the front).

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Honda Insight Aero Tuned" »

Import Showoff is arguably the OG import car show, precluded only by the Nisei Cruise of the late Eighties and early Nineties in LA’s Little Tokyo District. And for Showoff architect Ken Miyoshi it only made sense to bring his car show to the Nisei Week Japanese Festival a few years ago as the Nisei Week Showoff thus reuniting real import car flava with the Nisei Festival.

Back in the day the car quality at Import Showoff was second to none. The fake wheel and knock-off body kit crowd needed not apply. The shows were all about the cars. But in ’98 Hot Import Nights seamlessly blended the club kids with the car clubs proving it’s not all about the cars. Yet for some of us it was always all about the cars. While Ken may have diluted his original recipe with a few grains of rice over the years the Nisei Showoff has basically maintained the quality of one of Mr. Miyoshi’s old school Mainstream Productions. And one recent trend Nisei showcases is the resurgent Honda movement. For example, the engine bays of these Civics feature nothing fast nor furious, just shaved and filled sheet metal, tucked wire harnesses and built motors. Hit the jump to see more random observations from what might have possibly been the final Nisei Showoff. Say it ain’t so, Ken!

Continue reading "Goodnight Nisei Week Showoff, There Will be no Encore" »

Following up on the popular garage life post from a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to share pictures of one of Nigo’s homes and specifically his garage (pictured above). Nigo is of course the founder of A Bathing Ape clothing in Japan and owner of the hilarious pink BAPE camo’d Bugatti Veyron featured years ago on this blog (as well as a BAPE camo Phantom and camo classic gullwing SL Benz).

I think Nigo’s goal in spending is to singlehandedly keep the Japanese economy afloat. With the mass of stuff he manages to accumulate, he might be pulling it off. Next time you blow a couple hundred on some Bapestas, you’ll clearly know where a bulk of your money is going… Continue reading at The Read JDM

I’ve been down to the Daikoku Parking Area rather often this last month. First it was the RX7 annual meeting in July, then the AE86 gathering last week, but last night it was more of a small get together with a few car-otaku friends of mine. I wasn’t expecting to shoot anything as it was just our monthly meet, but I brought my camera gear in the back of the 34, just in case. It’s a good thing I did, as there were quite a few interesting cars that dropped by over the course of the night. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

After slowly setting foot onto my doorstep, I felt the sun glare onto my body. I had to shield my eyes to take the twelve steps  to greet the beleaguered and somewhat shy fellow beside my garage, with the extremely common name of James. What James drove, however, was not common. James didn’t know much about what it was that he was driving, besides the fact that he loved it with a passion, and that he was proud to call it his own. He didn’t know that what sat in my driveway held many mysteries, and my day was about to be filled with surprise, and disbelief, all at the same time. What he was driving was a Nissan Skyline BNR32 GT-R, but not your everyday average GT-R. This one was quite special indeed.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "No Price For Knowledge: the Story of a GT-R" »

This is a random snap I took a day before Tokyo Auto Salon started in 2009. I was in there the night before helping out our friends at Top Secret and it was a nice time to snap some pictures before the madness of the show began.

I think this is a cool picture because pretty much the best of the R35 GT-Rs in 2009 are all represented here. Plus I’m really proud that we also happen to be the authorized distributor/agent for all of these companies with GT-RR.COM.

R35 GT-R’s left to right:

Garage Defend

Garage Saurus

Esprit

Powerhouse Amuse

Note: These cars were all chosen by Daijiro Inada, founder of Tokyo Auto Salon to be displayed as the leading GT-R tuners within the Option booth. The reason Zele and Mines are not in this picture is because those cars were in their own booths (Zele booth and Mines booth respectively)

As I stood among the group of cars, the smell of strained oil and engine heat climbed up my nostrils, searching for the road to my brain. Instead, I felt the smell go deep into my soul and through my heart. I’d only been to this establishment, what, two or three times before? Something about the owner kept me coming back. His mysteriousness, his silence and his poise all made me think that he knew something, that he had a secret. His cars sat in front of his shop, some of them in not the greatest of shape, but it wasn’t so much how they looked, but what they stood for. They stood for strength, and soul, and with each one, I found a small story. All it took was a simple look and a glance to figure out that they all had a history.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "The Forgotten Man of Chiba’s Shop" »

I’m extremely grateful for the support of this trunk project from MOST of the community. As readers of this blog already know, this trunk was one of the first products that Bulletproof invested in to develop. This trunk was never going to exist but we paid Do-Luck Japan’s R&D costs to build this trunk for us because we felt that the US market would enjoy it. And so far many people have!

At the same time there are still some people that just don’t get it…I just read 11 pages of posts on a message board about this particular client’s car and the trunk in particular. There were at least 5 people asking for someone to make a knockoff of the trunk. Are you serious? This trunk was not going to even exist because Do-Luck is already hurting from the knockoffs and they obviously don’t have the R&D budget to do so many new projects these days. I went ahead and helped them pay the expenses (removing their risk to make these trunks) just to have people ask for more knockoffs!? The Evo community needs to become more aware of what is going on with this industry and what these particular people are doing to it. Continue reading at The Real JDM

I’ve just worked out an awesome deal with a photographer friend of mine, and I’m going to be starting a new series of articles not just about cars from Japan, but about some of the nicest and most beautiful landmarks in and around Tokyo. We’ll visit Shibuya in an R34 GT-R, check out the mountains in and around Tokyo in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and see all sorts of other unique areas from the general viewpoint of a JDM historian. My good friend Colin is to thank for all the wonderful pictures that will be provided. Here’s a hint of what is to come.