Below are some photos that I took during my visit to Impact Magic in January. Tsuneo Sonoda moved over to a new location and he wanted us to come by to check out his new shop space. Sonoda has been one of the guys that has hung out with us ever since we first started visiting Japan every year so I always make it a point to stop by to support him. He has a wealth of knowledge and has been an important piece in the Osaka/Kyoto automotive tuning community for decades now. He’s since moved on from doing anything Kanjo-related and spends much of his time just building cars for customers these days. I think he’s getting up there in age now and would rather focus on the business side of things so running the streets isn’t exactly the best decision for him. He has a very unique way of doing things where he takes feel and balance into his methodology behind building cars. His EK is near completion and it is good to see him doing well after he recovering from his car accident last year…
On a side note, it’s good to finally be moving on from all this content I collected from Japan. These Wekfest Hawaii 2016 photos have been sitting on my desktop for about a month now and I’d really like to get those up sooner than later. March is still a relatively slow month when it comes to automotive events and what not but April will kick-off a very, very busy season. I’ve been spacing out the content to give you guys stuff to look at but I’m sure there will be a ton of content coming this year. For now, enjoy these shots from Impact Magic….
Even though he’s moved locations, he still has his collection of old Hondas and a few other cars from his old shop…
This 5Zigen-themed EG Civic has stayed EXACTLY in the same condition since anyone has last seen it in an old JDM Insider video from 2004ish. The car still has the same body damage, graphics, wheels, etc. Not sure why he holds onto this car, maybe it belongs to a friend who has been locked-up in prison or it could just be an old car that he plans to revive some day…
On the back window is also the same WHARP RACING decal from back in the day…
One of the other cars sitting in the back lot was this yellow EK9 Civic Type R with fiberglass wide fenders…
This is another car that we have no idea why it sits back here. Doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with it. Maybe just a blown motor or something that requires time to repair…
The front section of the bumper ends have been chopped to clear a big tire. Because of this, the bumper has to be zip-tied to the fender to stay somewhat in place…
Inside the new Impact Magic shop is Sonoda’s EK, a silver EK3 that is currently being built for a customer, and a customer’s Porsche 911 Carrera RS….
As many of you may remember, he actually wrecked his original EK9 Civic Type R last year during testing. It took him some months in the hospital to recover but he soon bought another EK9 chassis after. He has been working on it since then and when we saw it in January, it looked like it was pretty close to being completed….
A look at the engine of the Carrera RS…
DPK David and the legs of Yuta Akaishi checking out the silver EK which originally came over from Tokyo-based tuning shop, Garage WORK…
This EK9 CTR is very similar to his previous build and also has a K-swap…
Tucked away in the back of the shop was a JZS161 Toyota Aristo with a Toyota Crown front end conversion…
Fucking Salem/Travel Grandma snapping some photos for his own collection…
DPK Chuy and David looking at Sonoda’s collection of car parts hanging on his wall…
Right next to that wall of parts was a grouping of wheels that Sonoda has collected over the years. Volk Racing wheels, Mugen RnRs, Advan Racing RGs, and more…
Impact Magic fiberglass vented wide fenders for the EK chassis…
Haltech digital display inside the EK9. He also has a full carbon fiber dashboard…
Love how this shot came out of the Carrera RS under the tarp in-between the EK on the lift and all the tools next to it…
Crazy to see a Porsche 911 with Panasport G7 C8R wheels on it…
The Porsche actually belongs to a long-time customer of Impact and comes all the way from the Shinagawa area of Tokyo (which is easily a 3-hour bullet train ride away)…
Here you can see the custom cut-outs in the front bumper of the EK9. You can also see here how wide those Impact Magic front fenders are…
And with that concludes our content from my trip to Japan last January. Hope you guys enjoyed all the video and photos. Attached below is the Vlog covering our visit to Impact Co. Ltd…
Thanks for the support!…
That so cool ! I Been in Japón but i never see cars like that