HKS Custom Car Carnival & Premium Day 2015 Coverage…Part 1 of 2…

By stickydiljoeMarch 4, 2015 ( 4 )

The great thing about traveling so much and getting to know enthusiasts all over the world is building a very solid network of friends. I think I’ve done my fair share to help many of the guys from Japan and I’m happy to say that it has always been a very fruitful, and more importantly, reciprocal, relationship with them. We all work together to help further the automotive tuning community and I’m very proud of that. Many of the shops that I communicate and work with these days have been staples in the tuning world for decades now and its unfathomable to think how much things have grown in the last few years. A group of guys from Osaka who I am grateful to have as friends are the hardworking fellows from Tactical Art. We met back in 2010 and have become great friends since then. I communicate with Yasu almost daily and their group has become so close to us that we have brought them into our Phaze2 family over here in the U.S. I trust Yasu’s judgment when it comes to automotive affairs in Japan and let him handle the Phaze2 side of things over in Japan. He is very good friends with Keisuke Morita from HKS which has also helped to expand The Chronicles name to a much broader Japanese audience thanks to the famed HKS Premium Day event. This event is one of the most well-known throughout Japan because of the popularity and history of HKS and in the last couple of years, they’ve decided to include a car show segment to their event which they have named the “HKS Custom Car Carnival”. This was created to bring in a more diverse crowd to their event and to help unite the dedicated racers with the enthusiasts who are more favorable to car shows. Since 2014, they’ve even brought me on as an official media partner to help bring some attention to the event. I guess The Chronicles has grown into a media outlet that is recognized by the younger Japanese enthusiasts and they provide me with an award to hand out at the show and everything….

The only problem with that is…well…I can’t be there…haha. I always plan my trips to Japan during the second week of January so I can cover the Tokyo Auto Salon event and HKS Premium Day doesn’t happen until the end of January. I don’t have enough money to stay that long in Japan so I end up missing it. Luckily, I can trust Yasu to take care of things for me and provide photos for me to post. For The Chronicles award at the show, he even sends me photos live from the event online so I can pick which car I want to win. That all works out but I would really like to attend the event some day. Maybe next year, I’ll just skip Tokyo Auto Salon altogether and save the time to go to HKS Premium Day instead. The event looks pretty incredible and features many of the cars from TAS anyways so I doubt I would be missing a whole lot if I skipped Tokyo Auto Salon. I’d rather much prefer to be at an event where I am needed so I think I will try go to HKS Premium Day instead. Hell, maybe I’ll somehow manage to find the time and money to stay for both. For now, however, enjoy the photos from the event thanks to my friend Yasu Shimomukai from Tactical Art and Phaze2 Japan…

PHOTOS BY YASUTAKA SHIMOMUKAI
WORDS & POST-PROCESSING BY STICKYDILJOE

The Tactical Art and Phaze2 Japan guys got together early at a rest stop to meet up before cruising down to Fuji Speedway for the HKS event…

Yasu’s HKS GT-Supercharged S2000 which was recently featured in the famed Option magazine from Japan…

Motoki’s K-swapped EK3 Civic…

Eishi’s Honda pearl white AP2 S2000 on CCW wheels…

Masashi’s Sepang Bronze EF9 Civic which you got to see in detail recently in my Japan trip coverage…

Keisuke’s USDM Scion FR-S featuring APRD add-ons and an HKS GT Supercharger….

After a drive that lasted nearly 5 hours, the guys eventually made it to Fuji Speedway to set-up for the HKS Custom Car Carnival, which coincided with the HKS Premium Day event…

This EF9 belonged to a friend and customer of Tactical Art. Looks almost like a twin of Masashi’s EF but without the cage and redressed in white….

Always appreciative of the support I get from all over the world…

A look at the simplistic interior of the EF which featured a K-Tuned billet shifter. I like the gauge set-up and how it fits into the single DIN pocket….

Atsushi Honda’s E46 BMW coupe on gold Work Meister M1 wheels…

Random seeing a Toyota Vitz at HKS Premium Day but this one look pretty good on aggressive two-piece Work Meister S1 wheels…

Another shot of Motoki’s EK3 and a peek at his K-swapped engine bay…

Tomoyuki Sasaki’s orange EK Ferio….

Masashi’s EF9 with a shot of his engine bay and his B16A powerplant…

Eishi’s S2K with the top down…

Toyota Mark X featuring a carbon Final Konnexion aero kit and 2JZ-GTE engine swap…

KUHL Racing Design R35 GTR which was used recently at the Tokyo Auto Salon event as a Work Wheels demo car to display their new Work Zeast ST1 wheel…

Liberty Walk R35 GTR in bright lime green…

USDM-styled Nissan Skyline coupe featuring T-Demand suspension components and flat black Advan Racing GT forged wheels…

My boy Yasu Shimomukai getting on the mic to say some words to the participants of the HKS Custom Car Carnival…

One of the more notable cars at the HKS event was this FD2 Civic Type R wearing a rare M&M Honda widebody aero kit. It is really aggressive and maybe too much for some but I enjoy M&M Honda’s work and all of the stuff that they produce. They are a very small family-owned company of just like, five employees in total, and they are responsible for producing high-grade parts for more mainstream companies like J’s Racing….

Aimgain Jun VIP GT LS that, surprisingly, was boosted via a HKS GT-Supercharger. Interesting how the whole engine bay is shrouded in carbon panels with just the supercharger exposed…

This custom widebody FD3S RX-7 was pretty insane…

Autech Tsukada (ATTKD) BNR32 Skyline….

Autoselect, which is known throughout the world for their “Yellow Shark R34” build, went with a more subtle, darker, appeal for their R35 demo vehicle build….