Tokyo Auto Salon 2017 Coverage…Part 1…

By stickydiljoeJanuary 30, 2017

No matter how many years I go, I never get tired of going to Tokyo Auto Salon. I’ve had friends go with me for multiple years and they just get over the whole idea of attending. Maybe it is just too much for them to deal with the crazy crowd and hoards of old perverts running back and forth. I don’t know. The thing I often hear the most is that it is “always the same shit every year” but that’s honestly more SEMA than it is Tokyo Auto Salon. I like TAS because it gives the world a good glimpse of what is to come in Japan. So many new builds debut at Tokyo Auto Salon and you really get to see some amazingly well-done builds by tuning shops throughout Japan. It is everything I could ask for. I mean, these are cars that I would normally only see in magazines and Japanese bookstores are starting to get more and more rare out here in California. Now with the Japanese getting more involved with social media, you really have a good idea what cars are going to debut and as such, you don’t have to waste so much time looking hoping that there will be new stuff at the show. These companies know how to use social media and they literally tell you what is coming and where to look for them at the show. It’s great…

This year, I had some cars in mind that I already wanted to see first, which helped to streamline my entire Tokyo Auto Salon experience. I made sure to go see these cars first, shoot them, do some video, and then walk the rest of the show. Friday is the first day of the show and also the “media” day where you get to see the show before it opens up to the public later in the afternoon. What I found out is that everybody in Japan is apparently media because the show was super crowded already by the morning time. Still, the old perverts don’t come that early because maybe the models aren’t working yet, so you still get a little bit of breathing room to take some photos or whatever media coverage you want. I didn’t even bother shooting photos on Day 2 this year. I just shot as much as I could on Friday and then did video the rest of the time. Tiffanie came along with me and she put in work! This was her first Tokyo Auto Salon so she didn’t know what to expect but I warned her that it could possibly be a little overwhelming with all the people that are there. She used her wide-angle lens and ran around the show with me shooting whatever she could or whatever I asked her to capture. You have no idea how useful that wide-angle lens is when you have thousands of people breathing down your neck. She did more lifestyle shots as well which I will include in the posts to come. I didn’t want to just have shots of the cars that I shot with a tripod so her photos help to had a bit more of a dynamic feel to the show coverage. Most of you guys saw some of the cars that stood-out to me in the Vlog series already but the photos will provide a better look at some of the finer details of these great builds. Enjoy and make sure to stick around for the rest of the photos. There are still a lot of great shots coming…

Tokyo Auto Salon 2017

Photos By StickyDilJoe & Tiffanie Marie

Words By StickyDilJoe

No better way to display your opulence than by cutting up your Mclaren 650S and installing a Liberty Walk widebody kit on it. You saw the MP4-12C to 650S-converted LB Works build here in the U.S. during SEMA and above is the freshly completely LB Works Japan democar…

Loving the livery on this one. The brighter color tones help to show-off the kit better…

A few steps away was Liberty Walk-owner Kato’s personal Mazda RX-3 build appropriately equipped with over-fenders and a matching livery to that of the 650S Mclaren…

Ferrari 360 Modena wearing a full Liberty Walk aero kit bagged on Airrex air suspension…

Kato’s personal widebody Liberty Walk Lamborghini Aventador…

Work Wheels Japan always has a huge display but this year, they debuted two new wheels that pay homage to classic Work Wheels of yesteryear…

This GWS14 Toyota Crown Majesta was parked center-stage to debut the new Work Emitz wheel. For those of you in the know, the Emitz wheel was a wildly popular wheel back in the day thanks to its unique face design…

The new Emitz follows a similar, peculiar, design that looks like the classic Emitz while also having its own unique face design…I can’t help but wonder what it would look like with a deeper lip and more aggressive format…

The other debut is a really good one. We had heard rumblings of a brand new wheel coming from Work a few months back but really had no idea what it was. They did a great job of keeping it under wraps and it turned out to be one of the most talked about topics of the 2017 TAS event. Meet the new Work Equip 40, based on an original 4-spoke race wheel that Work produced which was purely a center-lock design. They altered the design, created the face to mount on a Equip barrel and what you have is a beautiful retro-styled wheel for the new generation. ..

The wheel is a labor of love for my friend JC Pepino, who came up with the idea to create this wheel and has spent the last few years putting this entire project together. He was nervous and hopeful that the wheel would be a hit and as the Tokyo Auto Salon event unfolded, the Equip 40 was met with astoundingly great reviews. Good job by JC and I can’t wait to see these stateside…

Recaro always comes out with one of the best displays of the entire event and this year, they created an entire showroom for people to stare at their seats in an art-gallery like fashion…

Vellano Forged Wheels is a company that I don’t know too much about but Tiffanie did a great job of capturing their display set-up with a Corvette and Aventador…

VIP interior parts company L-Tide displayed this nicely done UCF30 Celsior which is featured in the newest issue of VIPSTYLE magazine…

One of about a handful of customized 2017 Acura NSXs on display at TAS ’17. This one was parked in the Forgiato wheels display area wrapped in a gold chrome livery…

Glanzen-kitted Toyota Prius on Favore Tigre wheels. Yup, I’ve never heard of that company before either…

Y32 Cima with widened and radiused fender work, draped in a bright red hue with a custom kit shaped for the Y32 body…

Newing Audi R8 RSR widebody on their own line of Alpil wheels…

Newing Audi A7 which was produced in collaboration with Liberty Walk Performance…

Wild custom widebody RB1 Odyssey Absolute on Work Meister M1 wheels. Interestingly enough, I think my Y33 is going to look similar to this color scheme-wise very soon…

Roberuta, one of the premier air suspension companies from Japan, always comes out with the craziest displays with the most exotic of vehicles. Last year, they brought out a Ferrari F40 LM and this year, they brought out a bagged Aventador and a Lamborghini Huracan LP620-2 GT3 BLANCPAIN PERTAMINA race car also on their air suspension system…

Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4…

Porsche 997 GT3 at the Hapro booth rocking on eof their roof racks which interestingly enough, mounts to the rear spoiler…

Silk Blaze display with S660 demo vehicle and model…

Garson D.A.D with their usual display showing-off their two bedazzled Benzs…

Honda’s massive display area housed a number of brand new NSXs in different colors…

…but the center of that display has to be the EPSON NAKAJIMA RACING #64 NSX-GT which will compete in the Super GT GT500 series…

Crazy to see the entire carbon body of the NSX-GT since it doesn’t have a full vinyl livery covering it…

Carbon fiber mirrors mounted to carbon fiber doors using carbon fiber arms…

AP Racing brakes behind the spokes of the center-lock wheels…

Details of the dry carbon front end…

I just stood there and snapped as many photos of this NSX-GT as I could knowing that most likely, I will never see it again…

Mugen decided to go with a really avant-garde display and stood their Mugen Motul Super Formula race car straight-up with its nose to the sky…

Pretty awesome idea which just helped bring a crowd all day to their area. It also saved quite a bit of space, haha…

Towards the wall, their display looked pretty dramatic with the spotlights shining straight down on their other Super Formula race vehicle…

Aimgain International always does it huge for Tokyo Auto Salon and this year, they even displayed their new Aimgain GT kit for the 2017 NSX…

This year, they worked with Savini Wheels and all their vehicles were paired with the U.S.-based company’s wheels…

Aimgain VIP W222 Mercedes Benz S-Class…

As mentioned, the brand new Aimgain GT NSX aero package…

One of my current favorite VIP builds is this Aimgain VIP GT LS460 F-Sport owned by Kouichi Kawamura from K-Produce Japan…

Aimgain GT R35 GTR in matte purple…

The new Aimgain GT kit for the FT-86 Kouki model…

#19 WedsSport Lexus RC Super GT competitor in Weds’ display area. Always nice to see a race car that’s been driven hard being showcased on white floors…

K-Break usually has a pretty massive display. This year, things were slightly less cluttered and in the center of it all was this Lexus LS demo car showcasing their new kit…

…which was done in collaboration with Liberty Walk Performance, because you know, who isn’t working with them these days. Strangely enough, however, this kit sort of makes the LS a coupe because the rear doors are no longer accessible due to the flares overlapping them…