Photos & Words by Joey Lee

Remember that one time I went to Japan for Tokyo Auto Salon and never posted photos of it? Well yeah, I totally do…now, looking back five months later, realizing I just never got around to getting this set up for viewing. Hopefully you guys are enjoying the new, cleaner, layout for your viewing pleasure. I liked the old look but I just felt it was a little too busy and made it hard to find updates and what not. This just looks easier. Whatever the case may be, yes, I completely overlooked this Tokyo Auto Salon coverage. It seems like so long ago now but that period of time was pretty difficult being that I had a lot of things going on in my personal life. I wasn’t even at the office for over a month during that stretch so I’m actually surprised this was the only thing that I forgot about. It all worked out though because I recently updated all my software for photo processing and what not and I found some time to go over the photos again, starting completely from scratch. I wasn’t really happy with how the original set looked after I finished it and that’s probably why it just sort of ended-up on the back burner never to be seen again. With better technology and a way better understanding of how to use it, I was able to retouch these shots and finally get them up….

I don’t think Tokyo Auto Salon needs much of an introduction. I always call it “SEMA, but with cars you actually want to see”, lol. Think of it as like, a compressed version of SEMA where you don’t have to run around looking for cars that interest you. You can literally just walk around and enjoy everything, because it’s Japanese tuning and styling at its finest without all the random Camaros, trucks, and whatever else you see in Vegas. I didn’t shoot as much as I used to because I find it to be way too crowded to set the tripod up for photos and everything is so packed together that it just makes more sense to do Vlogs with the wide angle. You get a better sense of the environment doing video too so I really just focused on getting photos of the cars that stood out to me. It seems like so long ago but maybe during that time the web was flooded with TAS coverage so now is a good time to look back at some of the best in the building. Enjoy…

TAS 2018 marked the official debut of the Aimgain GT NSX widebody kit, featuring this full carbon front face, widened front fenders, and widened rear quarters…

Not a bad looking kit at all and I like that it follows body lines, which is so important for doing add-on widened body panels. The Aimgain wheels add a touch of class and sportiness as well….

The original Aimgain GT R35 GTR, wearing its familiar matte purple, bagged and aired-down to the showroom floors on Aimgain wheels…

It seems like Aimgain is into a little bit of everything now, also presenting the crowd with this Aimgain  Sport Ferrari 458 kit made in carbon fiber accenting the bright signature red of the Italian auto maker…

Aimgain Sport Lexus LC500h featuring a set of carbon fiber front fenders, the first of its kind for this particular chassis. Also check out those bright red massive Aimgain big brakes…

The newly debuting Aimgain VIP EXE Lexus LS500 sedan looked stunning in black…

Kuhl Racing Toyota Harrier on air suspension looking quite…Kuhl…

Kuhl Racing went a completely different route this year with their GTR demo car, straying away from the crazy etching of the past two years and bringing in a GTR with an insane amount of striping and paint work. Nice touch reusing the etched side mirrors of the previous GTR demo car…

TAS brought the HKS TRB-03 Tsukuba time attack machine with their new livery for this year. You can see Nobuteru Taniguchi, famed driver and pilot of the HKS TRB-03, standing in the background for photos as well…

Wild Nissan SR20DET-powered Suzuki Jimny race car on display this year minus its crazy over fender set-up that debuted the year before…

Original Runduce Subaru VAB WRX STI wearing Varis Version 2 Type B widebody aero and Advan Racing TC4 wheels…

800 horsepower Varis widebody JZA80 Supra built by Garage Revolver center stage at the Varis booth…

Dry carbon vents on the hood of the Varis-worn Supra…

Here you can see the carbon fiber front splitter and the carbon block-off behind the turn signal lights…

Pretty interesting to see Varis develop a kit for the A80 chassis, seeing that they typically develop aero for newer platforms. Awesome to see though and I wonder if the kit will end up in the States at some point…

Check out the center-exit exhaust coming through the rear bumper of the Garage Revolver Supra…

Not too far away from the Garage Revolver build was this Supra wearing a Hurtling Solid & Joker kit. Hurtling is a subsidiary of Varis so the lines of the kit and design are very similar…

Inside the Rays Engineering booth was this custom S2000 build from Tamon Design. The headlights, taillights, and aero package all the way around are made by Tamon in association with First Molding…

Original Runduce Toyota 86 parked at the Yokohama Advan booth wearing full Varis aero….

Also on display for Yokohama Advan was this Lexus LC500 sitting on their Advan GT wheels…

Lamborghini Aventador featuring a complete aero package by Rowen Japan…

This baby NSX is actually a widebody Honda S660 put together by Aireal Auto Works…

Kei Miura from Rocket Bunny’s personal EG6 Civic build, dressed in white, completely void of graphics, sitting on Volk Racing TE37V also in white…

Check out this crazy wing set-up that mounts to the side of the EG6…

Another angle of the Civic, here you can see how the wing mounts to the over fender of the Rocket Bunny kit…

Pandem widebody BMW E92 M3 coupe on Work Meister M1 with gold faces and high-polished lips…

I really liked the Rocket Bunny/Pandem display with all-white cars without all the crazy graphics and what not. It really helps to bring more attention to the lines of their kits…

Toyota JZX100 Mark II running Car Modify Wonder aero and Work VS-KF wheels. Also can’t forget about the Ganador Super Mirrors…

Car Modify Wonder Zenki S14 Silvia on Work Emotion CR…

Not sure how I feel about the new Endless logo and graphics. Call me old-fashioned I guess…

326power RPS13 180SX complete with their wheels and all…

Absolutely stunning Toyota Crown Athlete in candy orange paint from Rozel…

Mugen Motul #16 Super GT NSX competition vehicle with its door removed to expose the cockpit…

Sometimes you just gotta stand back and take it all in. There’s just so much to these cars that its incredibly difficult to put into words…

A peek inside, along with a closer look at the carbon body of the new NSX race car…

Not too far away was the other NSX Super GT car representing Keihin race team also sporting SSR wheels and matching carbon body…

My boy Robert getting a chance to sit inside the Team Mugen #36 Super Formula race car. He is a pretty tall individual so they actually had to take the seat out for him to sit inside…

Auto Garage HKY Supra sitting on brand new WEDS Sport RN05M wheels…

Only fitting that the most baller air suspension company in Japan be represented this year by a Mclaren 650S in classy black on black…

Deep Lifestyles Supply Co. display area featured a couple Japanese models and the original Rauh Welt “Stella Artois” Porsche 930 build…

Garage Active full carbon fiber bodied R32 Skyline GT-R looked utterly fantastic on Work Wheels…

Under the hood was a built Garage Active RB26 motor running a huge HKS turbocharger…

Right next to it was another full carbon-bodied BNR32, also from Garage Active, covered in a light coat of candy blue which still reveals the weave of the carbon upon closer inspection…

Nearly identical engine set-up also, with the HKS turbine….

R31House widebody Skyline coupe bagged and resting on Work Meister S1 3-piece wheels…

Trust/GReddy had a pretty interesting display car in the form of this 2000HP twin-turbocharged Y61 Nissan Patrol. The Patrol is actually produced by Nissan specifically for the Middle Eastern market, running a TB48DE engine which normally produces 251PS. This particular Patrol was purchased from Dubai and shipped back to Japan where it was build in-house at Trust…

JUN Auto Mechanic R35 GTR with their always-interesting liveries…

Top Secret Japan displaying a clean, orange, R35 GTR on OZ Racing wheels wearing their own aero kit…

Top Secret VR38DETT-swapped BNR32 Skyline GTR that we all became familiar with last year, on display once again for 2018…

The R35 GTR powerplant almost looks right at home inside the engine compartment of the BNR32 coupe…

The cockpit of the Top Secret R32, with retrofitted dashboard and shifter assembly from an R35 GTR…

A more traditional Skyline from Top Secret in the form of this BNR33 GTR…

Liberty Walk debuting its new NSX widebody kit at their display area, filled with plenty of other surprise debuts…

Including this custom Lamborghini Miura kit car wearing custom Liberty Walk aero and classic SSR wheels…

The new Liberty Walk Aventador in matte silver…

Liberty Walk Lexus LC500 widebody…

The “Miura” is actually a Ford GT40 replica that was purchased by Kato from Liberty Walk. They then took the body off and used a custom Lamborghini Miura body to transform it into this wild creation…

One of the reasons why we hung out at the Liberty Walk display for so long during TAS was because our friend Sara Choi was working for them this year and we wanted to make sure we were there to support her while also watching all the crazy perverts hovering around the booth.

Oh shit, that’s all the photos I guess. That’s a wrap on this one. Sorry it took so damn long, haha. Better late than never, I guess! Thanks for looking!!!…