Photos & Words by Joey Lee
The transition back to every day life here in America has been a little more difficult than I thought. My sleep schedule is normally pretty odd but I found myself waking up at very unusual hours since my return…It would make sense that I would be jetlagged seeing as their is a big time difference between the U.S. and Japan but the times I’m waking up at wouldn’t even make sense had I still been in Japan. I don’t know what it is but things have been continually overwhelming since my return. Maybe it is just a combination of everything that is throwing things all out of whack. Anyways, for those of you who have been wondering about the status of my friend Salem, he is actually still in the hospital recovering. As you read in Part 1, he fell ill and checked himself into the hospital the days leading up to our trip to Japan and ended up missing the entire thing. He was in a pretty bad way and was just unable to go home let alone across the world to Japan. He had been doing better and actually checked-out of the hospital last Saturday but became ill once again and had to return to the Intensive Care Unit. We all went to visit him yesterday and he seems to be in good spirits. I’m sure any time you’re in the hospital it is a bummer, especially the length of time he has been in there but Salem is a trooper. He’s been through a lot and just seems to take everything in stride. It is just disheartening to see your friends not doing well in the hospital so we wanted to make sure he at least had some company instead of just listening to the beeping of machines and having nurses come in only to inject your with medication. We stayed for a couple hours and just chatted. He’s doing better and hopefully he’ll be out very soon and won’t have to go back for a while. He still has to see a specialist to see what exactly is going on with his body but I think things are moving in a positive direction….
In any case, sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. As I said, things have been hectic since I got back and I’ve just been trying to figure everything out on top of going through the endless amount of photos I collected during my stay in Tokyo and Osaka. Today, we are going to take a look at some more photos from my adventures in the parking lot of Tokyo Auto Salon and then we will dive into the opening of the actual show coverage. The parking lot proved to be worth bearing the intense cold weather because I found some gems out there that I would have totally regretted missing out. Enjoy and be ready for much more content to come…
If you missed out on the introductory portion of our coverage, please click the link below to view it…
The Chronicles 2014 Japan Trip Coverage… Part 1: An Intro, An RWB Meet, and TAS ’14 Coverage…
Here is some more coverage from Day 1 at Tokyo Auto Salon ’14….
Loved seeing all the FD RX-7s out in the parking lot. I knew that these were still pretty popular in Japan but I was definitely surprised to see how many of them were just chillin’ in the parking lot. Builds like the one you see above are cars you’d imagine would be on the show floors at Tokyo Auto Salon….
Great to kick off Part 2 with two cars with Ganador side mirrors, haha, but this S15 Silvia on Work Emotion XT7s was apparently a D1 Local Champion for the Central Series back in 2009….
This Nissan Pulsar GTI-R looked pretty good on polished Work Meister S1s…
As noted, R32 Skylines on TE37s were everywhere….
…as were JZA80 Supras, which we rarely see out here in California anymore. This particular Supra was on TOM’s wheels…
Here’s another clean example, this one on Volk Racing LE37T…
BNR34 GT-R on BBS LM….
W221 Benz S-Class on HRE 940RL…
I thought this was a cool shot of a bagged Nissan Kei car wedged in-between two vans….
Toyota Aristo on OZ Racing Futuras….
Another FD, wearing the same RE Amemiya GT-AD aero kit as the yellow one you saw earlier…
A variety of vehicles of all makes and models could be found in the lot, including this Lamborghini Aventador which really stood out in a sea of Japanese tuner vehicles…
This Lancia Delta Inegrale Evo II on Volk TE37s was an incredibly rare sight and the first time I’d ever seen one of these in person…
Clean Nissan S15 Silvia on bronze CE28Ns….
Flared Kenmeri Skyline sedan on aggressive, original production, Work Meister CR-01….
Another first for me was seeing a modified Nissan Avenir 4WD wagon in person. These are definitely rare to see in general but I’ll admit, it was cool to see, especially with flares and Work Meister S1 wheels….It even has Ganador mirrors which is never a bad thing…
Speaking of wagons, here was a Nissan Stagea that I spotted shortly after looking at the Avenir. For those that don’t know, the Stagea is essentially a Skyline in wagon-form, RB26-powerplant and all….
Honda Odyssey Absolute bagged on Work Varianza T1S….
Pentroof-prepped Toyota Cresta on BBS LM. Note the side exit exhaust coming out of the driver’s side…
Another R34 Skyline on TEs…
Caught a glimpse of the Brightning NC Roadster in the parking lot…
Toyota Aristo with huge front-mount intercooler and Volk Progressive wheels…
Honda Accord Euro-R with Mugen front bumper….
Fujita Engineering (FEED) Afflux Ver. V FD3S RX-7 on silver Advan Racing RZ…
NA1 Honda NSX on gold Desmond wheels…
Turbocharged Toyota Crown on rarely seen Enkei Racing RPF1 Type RC wheels…
Everything seemed to have TE37s on it, even this Peugeot S16 hatchback…
Can’t say I’ve ever seen an Honda Torneo Euro-R before…
Junya Nakata’s ER34 Skyline wearing a rare shade of Millenium Jade Metallic originally meant for the GTR V-Spec II Nur model….
Nissan Elgrand wearing complete Skipper aero…
Probably the craziest thing we ran into during our parking lot adventures was this time attack Nissan Pulsar. This thing had a ton of custom aero on it and looked like a serious race-prepped vehicle. The rear quarter glass has even been replaced for custom air ducting….
The gas filler was on the roof of the Pulsar which was pretty unique…
The interior was gutted and caged with the dashboard featuring a host of electronics and gauges….
Huge front splitter and canards… Pretty wild to think that the owner would just dip this around in the streets of Tokyo, haha…
After staring at the Pulsar for a good 15 minutes, we realized that it was well past 1 pm and would finally be allowed into the Tokyo Auto Salon event. I packed up my gear and we walked over to the Makuhari Messe for the show. The two Ryans set off on their own way and I started covering the show on my own. I find it hard to do coverage while having people with me most of the time, especially at a huge event like TAS, so it just works out better for me to just run through the show on my own. Otherwise I’d be stopping to chat or talk to them while slowly going over every car that we saw. I figured I’d just get the show covered thoroughly first, and then save the shopping and chatting after…
The first car that I encountered upon entry into TAS ’14 was the Panspeed RX-8. I became a fan of the Panspeed cars a couple years ago when I was playing Forza on my Xbox 360. I’d replicate the graphical livery of the Panspeed cars in the game because I really liked the way they looked…
Mazda RX-8 built by famed Mazda tuner RE Amemiya…
Amemiya always has a huge presence at Tokyo Auto Salon and this year was no different. Above is the RE “ThreeRotor NA Special-7″….
The world famous RE Amemiya “Hurricane 7” time attack build…
Overdrive M-150 RX-7 drift car wearing RE Amemiya GT-AD aero…
The Blitz section was really crowded and the cars were really hard to capture so the only shot I could get was of their Toyota FT86 drift car with their new Blitz aero kit…
You could even buy wheels at Tokyo Auto Salon. These wheels were in the UP GARAGE booth and were available for purchase. The RS Watanabe wheels went for around $500 USD and the SSR MKIIIs next to it were around $800…
Loved the simplicity of the R35 GTR from Rush Motor Sports….
Anything but “simple” was the debuting Ben Sopra aero kit for the Z33 Fairlady chassis….
Sarto Racing and Rocket Bunny debuted their new Mercedes CLK coupe project on Enkei Racing RS05RR…
J-Unit Toyota Crown on Superstar Leon Hardiritt’s new “Jager” wheel…
One of my favorite aero kits from the entire TAS ’14 event was the Forzato kit for the Lexus 3GS. The kit is very simple, which I love for VIP-styled builds, but the best feature of the kit is the front fog light and how the L.E.D. sits slightly over it. Such a great streamlined design that really adds a different look for this chassis. This black GS with T Demand suspension looks incredible just planted to the floor…
Here is the Forzato kit in white so you can see the lines better. I just think that the VIP community needs more stuff like this because kits lately have just gotten way too overboard. The new generation of VIP cars have all sorts of crazy vents and grilles and what not everywhere and it just makes the cars look incredibly gaudy. I miss the days when kits used to have simpler, more sleek lines, and the Forzato kit is a throwback to how VIP styling used to be with a touch of new, modern day, appeal…
Overtake’s dry carbon-bodied R35 GTR on brand new 20-inch Volk Racing TE37 Ultras. For those unfamiliar, the 19 and 20-inch TE37 wheels have always had a different look to them compared to the smaller TEs because of their narrow spoke design. Well, Rays Engineering finally decided to release a new line of TE37s in bigger sizes with the classic look of the concave face that we’ve all come to love. They call it the “Ultra” and I call it the “It’s about time”. Maybe they got tired of their 19 and 20-inch TE37s always being mistaken for shitty Varrstoen copies…
Also newly announced alongside the TE37 Ultra was the new Volk Racing ZE40 wheel, which looks to be the next big thing from Rays Engineering. These wheels were on a number of different builds at Tokyo Auto Salon ’14 and I must say, I absolutely love how they look. It’s like a mix between the classic SSR Type-F wheel and a Work 11R…
Well, that’s all for today. It’s a lot to look at so I hope you took the time to read through all of it. Thanks for looking and more to come tomorrow!!….