One of the things that I really enjoy about the Osaka Auto Messe show is how the individual halls of the event are all specifically categorized based on what you want to see. Where Tokyo Auto Salon is just a huge melting pot of Japanese car culture, it can sometimes get confusing when you’re trying to find a specific tuning shop, brand, or individual vehicle. Obviously this is strategically done by TAS organizers because they want you to walk to the entire show multiple times over because every exhibitor gets the most exposure that way. It makes sense from a business standpoint but if I want to just see for example, Top Secret and their crazy high horsepower builds, it’d be cool to lump them together with other tuning shops like them so you get to see all the Skylines and/or Supras you care to…because that’s what you want to see. Walking a show of this size with this many cars can get tiring rather quickly. Maybe you don’t want to see a Skyline surrounded by a bunch of custom Toyota Hi-Ace vans. I mean, Hi-Aces are cool but still, give me some themed organization…

At Osaka Auto Messe, you’ll find more of just that. Probably the most interesting hall of the Auto Messe show is the one dedicated to Bippu/VIP style. VIP car styling originates from this region, there is little to no argument about that, and at Osaka Auto Messe, they pay tribute to that style with a giant hall filled with cars built with this ideology in mind. Over the years, things have gotten a little bit more mixed so you’ll see some other cars mixed in there but often times they will have a major components and parts from a company that is heavily involved in VIP car culture…so it all kind of makes sense to put them together. In this particular section of my coverage, you’ll see photos from the “VIP hall”. If you’ve followed me for some time, you’ll understand that I have a great appreciation for VIP style cars. I even have one myself even though nobody ever gets to see it. I’ve been into VIP style as long as I’ve been into Hondas, maybe even longer in fact. That’s why I have a ‘built’ VIP car and don’t even have a modded Honda these days. I just really enjoy that particular look and how modified Japanese luxury vehicles are executed…

Throughout the three-days I was at the show, I found myself visiting this particular hall the most. It’s always super loud in there with music blaring and a shit ton of people because this specific type of car building is still VERY popular in Osaka. You’ll see a lot of modern-day VIP builds with crazy metal work, sometimes even obnoxiously aggressive body kits, static or air suspension set-ups, but you’ll also see some traditional VIP builds, or some that blur the lines between VIP and Bosozoku culture. It’s all pretty great and after all, it is Japan where this all originates from so it is always cool to see how things have evolved over the years. A bulk of these photos come from the “VIP hall” but of course I also walked back to the No Good Racing display area to see how things were going and snapped photos. Take a look at what I captured and let me know what you think. Enjoy…

One of the more notable debuts in 2019 thus far is the Garage Active BNR33 Skyline, running their own unique widebody kit, T-Demand air suspension and Work Wheels…

Naoki Nakamura’s Pink Style S15 Silvia wearing Origin Labo aero and N-Style wheels…

If I remember correctly, this S15 is supposed to be heading down to Australia later this year for the annual World Time Attack Challenge event in Sydney….

Apparently the SR20 is coming out of this car during that time in favor of a 1100HP Toyota 2JZ set-up because Sydney Motorsports Park is a track that favors high-horsepower vehicles…

Signature Pink Style colorway represented on the back window of Nakamura’s Silvia…

While I was busy looking at drift cars, the No Good Racing display area was getting a shit ton of foot traffic with their three NGR builds and some models to help attract a crowd…

It’s always great to be well-represented in Japan…

The No Good Racing “Captain America” EK making its debut at Osaka Auto Messe running +50mm front fenders and an Exceed x Mode Parfume FRP front lip…

Ryuji’s “No Good Racing Taxi” EJ1 Civic coupe sitting nice and low on custom graphite Volk Racing TE37 wheels complete with pink decals to match the paint…

K20 engine swap in the engine bay which was prepped, painted, and swapped by Yasu from Exceed…

The “taxi” theme is more thought-out than you would imagine even with custom taxi decals plastered on the rear quarter windows…

Yayo pulled double-duty that weekend modeling for both No Good Racing and Mode Parfume…

Shine Motor/NGR EF9 Civic SiR representing Osaka faithfully on its BP-inspired yellow and green livery…

Can you imagine what it would look like with all three of these ripping through the highway?…

No Good Racing Osaka Glico-Man inspired signage…

No Good Racing in 2019. Crazy to think that it all started in 1985…

Car shows in Japan are typically like this where its 90% dudes invading one another’s space in hopes of getting some form of photographic iteration of female interaction…

UCF31 Celsior with the popular combination of T-Demand suspension and SSR wheels. In Japan these two go together like PB&J…

Toyota Crown Athlete also running the combo sitting on the two-toned green carpet Auto Messe is known for…

Lexus IS with the T-Demand/SSR combo that looks perfect even without aero. This is just stock body and wheel/suspension…

I mentioned this a couple times in the Vlogs but this S15 Silvia is probably one of my favorites of the entire show, built by the talented people from Manz Factory running Rocket Bunny aero and a custom matte SSR-colored graphical livery…

on the trunk it says “As Long As The Stage Keeps Evolving”…

Another of the Garage Active R33 Skyline. Love the lines of the kit and how well it flows with the factory body line. Also note the carbon hood and how its literally just a sheet without an actual skeleton for structure….

After Tokyo Auto Salon this year, Garage Active continued work on their projects, the next being this R35 GTR utilizing T-Demand suspension components and, of course, SSR wheels…

Crystal Garage’s custom Toyota Crown which is radiused front/rear along with a custom floor to get the Crown to optimal low ride height. The flares are all sheet metal as well and done so well you’d think it came that way from the factory…

Look at the radius and how the metal flares line up with the rear door. 3-Piece Work Meister S1 wheels seat snuggly under the wheel arches and behind the spokes front and rear are T-Demand brakes…

This is perfection if you’re into Bippu style builds…

Speaking of perfection, here are some more photos of the Garage Excellent JZA161 Aristo. I made sure to go back towards the end of the day to get more photos of it without people around. Just look how well the car sits on custom  17-inch Panasport G7 C5C2 wheels…

Again, if you missed it, we visited Garage Excellent in January when they were midway through this build and got to see all the insane metal work that went into this chassis, bring the wheel arches up, floor-cut and all, so that it could sit like this STATIC. Also love the detail touches like the trunk and how the inner tails have been deleted and smoothed…

Boosted Toyota Crown from Crystal Garage, this one with just a mild radius in the rear, sitting on the floor tucking SSR Koenig wheels…

I forgot which shop build this 30Celsior but it had some wild interior work that caught my eye and I just had to stop to capture some of it. The outside looks like a one-off kit, Work Wheels with Bold World air suspension…

Check out the inside of it with the custom white/brown interior with marble-look trim pieces…

Even the headliner and Recaro seats have been themed appropriately to match. Interesting how the center console says “Go Ahead Make My Day”, lol…

There’s no more rear seats and the entire rear section of the vehicle has a custom audio set-up with the air suspension components mounted right behind the front Recaro seats…

The audio set-up extends to the trunk with multiple speakers and subwoofers in place…

Just an insane build overall and the epitome of what you’d consider a Bippu/VIP show car….

Interesting to see this Toyota Celica Liftback with custom front fenders and SSR Formula Mesh wheels right in the middle of a hall filled almost entirely of VIP builds…

Candy wine-colored widebody Aristo from Exchange on Work Meister M1…

Deep Navy Blue-toned Nisssan President looking real good with a radiused body sitting on Work Zistance W5S…

RB Odyssey Absolute with a one-off custom front face, radiused and widened, painted a dark green hue sitting on bronze/silver Work T5R 2P wheels…

Wrapping up Part 2 here with a low-angle shot of Naito’s Lexus LC500 coupe wearing the full T-Demand suspension set-up with air and newly re-released SSR Minerva wheels…

There’s still one more section to come so stay tuned! Thanks for looking!…