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.
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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Great coverage so far.
that yellow van looks like a toyota alphard to me. could be wrong.
you know what? That is an Aplhard. My brain was thinking one thing, my fingers typing another. Good find!