Photos by Yasutaka Shimomukai & Words by Joey Lee

Back now with part 2 of the 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon coverage… In the first section yesterday, a big chunk of it was Honda-related but in this part today and tomorrow, there will be more of a mixture of different cars. Even from looking at coverage on other sites, I noticed that there isn’t that much Honda content. It’s expected though, the tuning community is so vast over in Japan and Hondas aren’t nearly as popular as Nissans and Toyotas. The coverage today will reflect that though as a majority of the cars at Auto Salon were Nissans, Toyotas, Mitsubishis, etc….

Alright, let’s get on with it…

An overhead shot of another portion of TAS 2012…If you look over to the middle right section, you’ll see the Rando Sports Evo X. It’s still sporting the same colors and overall scheme of the Rando DC2 Integra from years past. I’ll have a photo of it later…

13th generation Toyota Crown from TRUE….if you wanna talk about a vehicle with a long storied heritage, you have to take a look at the Toyota Crown family line…

Toyota Celsior with a Black Pearl Jewelry Line aero kit…What I’ve noticed about the VIP scene over there the last two years is how aggressive the aero is starting to look. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing but I personally am more of a fan of the traditional VIP style. The stuff that is coming out nowadays  has all kinds of crazy aggressive lines that don’t really flow with the rest of the car…

E92 BMW M3 with a matte, brushed finish and blue Volk TE37 Super Laps…

Maserati Gran Turismo MC on Hyper Forged wheels…You can tell that there are too many companies making forged wheels these days by seeing all the uncreative names…

Liberty Walk Lamborghini Murcielago sitting on a lift under some dome light metal structure…

A couple of Japanese models hanging out by the Liberty Walk Hummer limo…

Vitt Squalo Lamborghini Murcielago…

Wild, slammed and bagged Hummer H1…also note the fancy Louis Vuitton man purse to the right…

One of my favorite cars of all-time…the Junction Produce Rolls-Royce Phantom…so much overkill but sooooo good, haha…

Junction Produce 2nd gen. Toyota Century limo…In the Toyota lineage, the Century sits at the top above all other Toyotas, including the Lexus line of vehicles. When it comes to being a true “flagship” vehicle, the Century is the king of Toyota’s castle… It’s exterior appearance has remained unchanged throughout the year’s of it’s existence because it’s such an iconic vehicle in the Japanese culture…

Work wheels looked like it had one of the best displays this year over at TAS 2012…

F10 BMW 535i sedan on Work Gnosis HS203 wheels…

The 2012 Work wheels line-up…

I am personally a huge fan of the Work Meister CR01 wheel…this one features a matte carbon face and “Black Alumite” rim…

The new Work Meister M1R in matte black…

Another favorite of mine, the Meister S1R, particularly in this Fein Heit Silver and Bronze Alumite finish…

The talk of TAS 2012 had to be the BenSopra R35 GT-R… There were three of them at the show, the two you see here along with a red one that was a part of GReddy’s display…I have a shot of the GReddy one from another source but I’ll post it up later…I wish I had seen more photos of the white BenSpora car though. From what I’ve seen the GReddy one looks the best by far…

Artis Honda Odyssey with an intense paint job…

Another Artis-painted masterpiece was this 60 Chevy Impala…Pretty crazy to see one of these built to this level over in Japan. I remember when I was over in Japan about a decade ago and spotted some lowriders cruising around and they were beautifully done…

The brushed metal-look blended into the black paint is just crazy….

Check out this Fit…the brushed metal work looks so intense that the Japanese guy was touching it to see if it was real…

Well, this is a little awkward…While I would like to believe that this Japanese men are all huddle around the Toyota Camry and taking photos of the Asanti wheels and big brake kit, I can’t help but think of all the perverse things these guys are thinking of doing with their cameras while under this girl’s skirt…I’m a glass half full type of guy but I’ve seen some Japanese porn and whatever they are looking at in this photo is probably censored in scrambled blocks…

While that was going on, the Tactical Art guys were checking out these custom sound system set-ups…

Being that this is their normal every day field of work, it’s good to check out the competition…

Back over at the upskirt party, the model now seems to be bent over on the hood of the car while the guys continue to film whatever is going on behind her…

Beet Racing Spirits custom Honda CB motorcycle…

Orange R31 Nissan Skyline on TEs…

Auto Veloce Ferrari 458 Italia…

Maserati Quattroporte from Fairy Design Inc. from Kyoto, Japan…

GoldRush Mercedes SLS AMG featuring Art Factory Japan graphics…

Subaru BRZ in stock form…

BMW E36 M3 from G-Corporation and what looks to be Wedsport wheels…

GRX130 Toyota Mark X from ST Garage featuring their Axcent aero kit and sitting on some Wedsport SA60Ms…

S15 Silvia from Cockpit Tatebayashi…

R34 Skyline GT-R also from Cockpit…

Not really sure what this was but it looks uncomfortable…

Nissan Leaf Nismo RC all-electric race car with a carbon fiber body…

Motul Autech R35 Super GT race car in the Nissan section with full display and all…

FD3S RX-7 from T-Get Works…

Phoenix’s Power SPL R35 GT-R…

…sitting on 20-inch gold-faced BBS LMs…

From the spec-sheet, it’s basically all Trust engine components, SARD fuel upgrades, Alcon brakes, and the motor makes 770PS, which is just around 759 horsepower…

Another R35 GT-R from Phoenix’s Power, this one a little simpler but also on BBS wheels…

Speaking of BBS wheels, they also had a full display at TAS 2012…If you notice at the bottom, you’ll see that it says “Made by WASHI BEAM”… Washi Beam is actually a Japanese company that manufactures all of BBS’ magnesium and aluminum wheels. The original BBS company is German but all their forged wheels are made in Japan by Washi Beam. BBS actually went under back in 2007 and were bought out by another company, but the general public wasn’t really affected by the move because BBS has always been a customer of Washi Beam and they continued to produce BBS wheels to this very day…I often see Euro guys complaining that Japanese car enthusiasts are “biting their style” by rocking BBS wheels, well…for all intents and purposes, BBS wheels are Japanese, haha…Even the wheels used for Formula One and for all these OEM applications, whether they be BMW, or any other company… it’s all made in Japan… Next time somebody tries to be internet tough guy and bitch about Hondas with BBS wheels on them, tell them to look up “Washi Beam”…

That’s all for today…back with part 3 tomorrow…