I’ve been trying to keep a theme going this year with bringing coverage to you guys of all the major shows in Japan. It’s tough because I don’t always have a consistent contact over there who can take photos for me and cover events. Over here, I prefer to do everything myself because I enjoy taking photos and covering shows/meets. I also like doing all the shooting because I get all the shots and angles that I want. If I could I would fly out to Japan for every major event and cover it but that just isn’t financially feasible. It’s been a real privilege of mine over the past few years to meet some great people in Japan and I hope I have the opportunity to meet more of them. Lately, Yasutaka Shimomukai from Tactical Art has been handling the photo-duties for me in Japan, covering big events as well as regular happenings over at Tactical Art, but I didn’t hear anything from him regarding the recent “Exciting Car Showdown” event that took place in Nagoya, Japan. When you see the photos below, you’ll probably remember the venue because it is the same venue where the X5 Nagoya show took place. It’s a massive dome like structure that has a pretty cool looking ceiling/roof. This show didn’t look nearly as big as TAS 2012 or Osaka Auto Messe but there does look to be quite a collection of nice cars in one building…
Today, we are lucky enough to get some coverage of the event from Takahiro Kawamura. Kawamura is a huge car head himself and has a particular fascination with 1/24 scale models. I was looking through his photos and the scale models that he puts together are very detailed and lifelike. He has a blog himself and is also a part of a team of 1/24 scale model collectors. I invite you to check out some of his work and I have attached some links below. It may be hard to understand because it is all in Japanese but the photos should speak for themselves. Thank you goes out to Kawamura-san for allowing me to use his photos from the Exciting Car Showdown 12 event. This will be a two-part series so come back tomorrow for the second batch of the photos…
Now, on with the photos…
BNR32 Skyline drift car belonging to Ryuusuke Kawasaki of Drift Tengoku magazine in the parking lot…
If you’re a true Honda guy, then you should be very familiar with the SS Work’s Honda CR-X….The AE86 Levin you see above, bearing the same livery, is also a product of SS Work’s….
SS Work’s FCR Carb system on a AE111 4A-GE motor….
Pretty rare to see this car on display since it doesn’t seem like it’s been out in public in ages….
Completely custom interior and cage work…
Star Road Fairlady S30Z on Work Equip 03s….They do a great job of mixing modern styling cues, like the projector headlights, with classic Japanese vehicles…
Carb’d L28 motor as clean as you will probably ever see on a S30Z chassis…
Totally random but I believe this is a modernized version of a DeTomaso Pantera…The headlights are kind of throwing me off but it’s pretty wild looking…
I tried looking for more info on it but to no avail…
S15 Silvia Varietta on Advan Racing RS-D wheels…
You probably won’t notice since it’s in a more subtle silver tone, but this widebody convertible belongs to Yashio Factory, which is known more for their wild pink paint and graphic schemes…
This beast of an R33 Skyline GTR drag car belongs to Japanese tuner Auto Active Garage Ito… Man, I love how this thing looks…
Drag car or not, the bay is still immaculate…
A work-in-progress S15 Silvia representing for Option2 magazine…
Not sure what this thing is built for but I like the metallic grey/pewter interior and how it offsets with the brighter exterior…
None-running SR20DET motor seated in the bay…
JZA80 Supra from Wacky-Mate with a C-West front bumper…
Not sure what rear bumper and sides though…
First-gen Toyota Celica on modern Volk TE37s…No motor shots since the hood was closed but you can spot a flat black intercooler up front…
Track-spec Mitsubishi GTO on display…
FD3S RX-7 from Racing Team Junction on aggressive TE37s in two different colors…
Top Fuel Honda S2000 with a complete J’s Racing widebody kit on Advan Racing TCIII….
One of my favorite international builds out right now, the GReddy 35RX GTR wearing Bensopra aero….
Love the brute aggression that this GTR displays… It just looks like it’s ready to fuck some shit up…
If you’ve never seen this thing in action, I invite you to watch the video below…it’s very well put together and I find myself watching it a lot…
Quick shot of the rear…notice the vertically mounted exhaust exits…
The other, slightly more subtle white Bensopra R35 GTR…
A shot of the motor with the front end opened up…Check-out where the Trust/GReddy Airinx filters are mounted…
Mad Mike’s Red Bull RX-7 drift car for the D1 Grand Prix Japan 2012 series…
R-Magic’s Toyota 86 demo car….
S13 Silvia drifter from Boss Japan…
Slammed Mitsubishi-produced Jeep on Watanbe wheels and an SR20DET swap…This thing has been around for years now and it’s still always cool to see it…
A look at the Nissan SR20 motor under the hood…
S13 coupe with 14-inch SSR MK2 wheels…
Naturally-aspirated SR20DE motor with individual throttle bodies…
Loving this Toyota Cresta on 14-inch SSR MKIII wheels….
No swap here…this GX71 Cresta is still rocking the original 1G-GEU motor, although it has seen quite a bit of modification…
I never get tired of seeing old school Japanese imports…there is always just a great sense of nostalgia when you look at one that it’s great shape… I wish there were more clean examples out here in the states, but more often then not, people aren’t willing to take the time and care into restoring one…
This S14 had a military-themed airbrushed livery and is from Hayashi Auto Service..
An interesting mix of themes here. The body has a military theme, but the hood is carbon with a marble-painted overlay….The “6666 Customs” you see on the windshield represents the aero kit that is on the car…
Odd windshield banner treatment with the raised “VOLKLINGER” sign …also note the rear glass and dual hood scoops…I guess it all goes with the fighter plane and military vehicle theme…
The rear glass even has window louvers over it and vents coming out of the rear bumper as well as a center-exit exhaust…Definitely unconventional but you have to respect the amount of work involved to execute it…
One of the most controversial cars at the Exciting Car Showdown was this Toyota Celica and it’s -15 degrees of camber. If the camber isn’t ridiculous enough, you have to see the rear wheel and how a large portion of the wheel isn’t even anywhere near the tire! Apparently the tire is beaded and seats to that portion of the wheel and this car is actually driveable. You’ve probably seen a couple shots of the rear of this Celica floating around on the internet. I first caught an image of it on Facebook and I thought it was either a joke or a photoshopped image…
Stuff like this is when you realize that the whole low offset/stance thing has gone completely overboard…It just looks totally ridiculous. I was reading about this car on Speedhunters and apparently this Celica really does drive like this and drove all the way down to Nagoya from Tokyo. The owner had to stop and fill the tire up because it was slowly losing air…..man, just unbelievable… imagine how unsafe this is on a public road…I don’t know what this guy is trying to prove but this is way too much….
Gonna stop off here for today. Back with part 2 tomorrow… thanks for looking!
My first thought when i saw the celica was “man, that guy dizzle is going to lose his shit on the aggresive fitment thread when he sees this” lmao
Yup, truly going retarded with the stance shit. I wouldn’t be laughing with fools get killed cuz their shit gets all F’ked up on the road and get crashed or some shit you know. It draws attention but some dumb ass attention. Hey, people need attention just like whores.
Reblogged this on AUTOS UNLEASHED.
Hey Kevin T whores are people too
That celica will probably get drifted. Just like his old one.
Reblogged this on mc8ksa.