Event: Tokyo Auto Salon 2011 v.4

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Alright, I honestly thought that this would be the last post from TAS I would put out, but it looks like that’s not the case.  I’ll be making it a series of 5 for full coverage; one more to go.  Anyway, runner up for best model would be from Gontaya.  I really don’t have anything to say about this one…click past the break for more TAS goodness.

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This crazy Toyota van, and the model above, were on display at the LED ごんた屋 booth.  LED Gontaya is giant distributor of LED parts for automotive and other various purposes.  I like the black Volks on the mustard yellow body.  This thing was decked out in lights; including some programmed motion display in the headlights.  I’m not sure, but the guy in the top right of the pic might be the president of the company.

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The Air Force + FD from Auto-Labo.  Auto-Labo is a Japanese used, tuning car dealership/shop.  This thing was absolutely awesome looking.  The matte black aero on the white was a great contrast, and increased the toughness of the car ten times over.

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The carbon diffuser was awesome.  I like how it curves up towards the top.  The down-turned exhaust is a fav of mine as well.  I think I liked this FD more than the PanSpeed ones!

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This might have been the only FC at the show.  It was done up in typical street drift style.  I usually don’t like convertible FC’s, but this one still looked pretty good.

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A pair of Bride’s complimented the drift/street style interior.  You can see that this car is actually for sale.

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Scissor doors!  D-Max kit looks pretty good.

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UP Garage had their D1 spec turbocharged AE86 on display for all to drool at.

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The interior of this thing is all business.  I was kind of surprised at the size of steering wheel they use; seems a little big.  I like the little car that’s drawn on cardboard that’s attached to the passenger door.  I wonder what that’s all about?

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A shot from the other side of the UP Garage booth.

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The Top Secret booth was right across from UP Garage.  We had the opportunity to meet with Smokey Nagata for a little bit after he was interviewed by some film crew.  Addy, the kid on the right, is who I went to TAS with; he is a Nissan prodigy, it was his first time in Japan and Smokey is his hero.

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Along with the CR-Z and R35 Top Secret had on display, they also brought out a set of each engine that the cars were running.  This R35 engine…

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…as well as this L-series that was equipped with their developmental turbo kit.  I love how tuning companies target the CR-Z as if it wasn’t a hybrid at all.

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The welds on this R35 exhaust are awesome.  I love the coloring of the titanium.  I cringed when I saw the price though.  I guess if you have a brand new GT-R, you’ll have the money to  drop on high end parts like this though.

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As you might expect, the RE雨宮 booth was interesting to say the least.  They had quite a few FD’s on display, as well as their new time attack RX-8.

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I can’t say that I am a fan of the majority of the cars that RE produces, but I will give them respect.  Aesthetically, some of their cars a little too over the top for me.

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I should have gotten a full shot of the RX-8 that was next to this freshly built FD, but it managed to elude me.  You can see it on their website though.  I actually ran into Amasan while I was wandering around the booth.  I’ll be the first to say…he really does look a little like Anpanman! 

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Jun’s display consisted of two R35’s and a plethora of internal engine components.

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They also had this built RB on display that looked like it would produce more power than anyone could ever use.  The custom manifolds were soooo sexy…

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One booth I really ended up enjoying was the Top Fuel one.  The past few years they have been dedicating themselves to tuning truly compact vehicles; like this Suzuki Swift.  They had many parts for sale and on display.

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From there we went over to check out this impossibly cool, widebody S15 built by Lightning.  It was stunning to say the least.  It was fairly similar to Suzuki-san’s Scorch Racing S15; it was even running the same type of rear wing/trunk configuration.

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A little peek at what’s going on in the front.  The gold on the RE30’s match the blue perfectly.  Not sure how I feel about the one windshield wiper deal…

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Blitz seems to have dedicated themselves almost fully to AWD chassis.  I was pretty excited to see that they had already begun on the new STi platform.  I’m so glad Subaru decided to bring back the sedan style WRX.  Not that I didn’t like the 5-door, but the WRX should be a sedan.

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They also had a lot of sweet parts on display.  I’ll publish the last generic coverage from the Salon tomorrow.  I’ll still have some features from the show, and a Super GT special, but v.5 will be the last of the booth and display shots.  Hope you’ve enjoyed it up to this point.

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