We pick up right where we left-off in the ongoing Japan Photo Series. After we left Factor Racing Service that afternoon, we decided to make some more shop visits in the city of Sakai. Yasu wanted to stop by CHARGE, a shop he was sponsoring some product for, but on the way I asked him to stop by at Trial so we could see if there were any gems floating around in their parking lot. There are some pretty good shops in that area. Trial is right on the main street, Speedforme is around the corner, and you also have Auto Select and Charge. I’d like to go to Auto Select some day, but I’ve always heard that they aren’t exactly the most welcoming when it comes to having foreigners visit. I’m not trying to invade anyone’s space or be a nuisance so I’ve never really pushed to go there…

One of my favorite things to do in Japan is visiting various shops. You never know what you’re going to find or what cars you’ll see. For the guys that actually own these shops, they may have something put aside that they don’t consider to be necessarily “cool” to them but for visitors like me from far away, it could be a mind-blowing discovery. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, as the saying as been uttered many, many times. And that’s how you gotta go into these shop visits. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been surprised by seeing a car tucked away under a car cover and the shop owners just laugh, thinking that it’s nothing special. I appreciate these guys for letting a fellow car enthusiast explore. These shops are literally all they have most of the time and they deserve their privacy. I’m super thankful that they allow a stranger to just walk around and take photos/video of their most private of spaces…

I’m currently in Hawaii and have spent much of my down time putting this post together. I should probably go outside and enjoy this beautiful scenery and walk around on the beach or something, lol. If you guys are going to Wekfest in Oahu this weekend, I’ll see you there. For the rest of the world, enjoy these photos below. I’m sure you’ll see something you like…

Any time we are in the Osaka area, I try to make it down to Trial to see if there’s anything new. It’s one of the older tuning shops in the area but they’ve always had a great reputation for producing some pretty great builds. They recently went through a makeover inside their storefront but not much else has changed. In the lot you’ll often find some of their old democars from year’s past that no longer are in use as well as some customer cars that were being worked on…

This R35 GTR was most likely a customer’s, looking pretty subtle on Advan Racing GT wheels and what looks to be a full Top Secret aero package…

One of the more interesting cars that was being worked on there was this Z32 Fairlady Z with some custom taillights and aero I am a bit unfamiliar with. Whatever it was it stood-out to us immediately when we pulled-up…

A full FEED Afflux-themed FD3S RX-7 was sitting in the rain with a pair of Ganador mirrors and Volk TE37SL. Pretty common to see FEED aero in these parts since Fujita Engineering is based out of the Osaka region…

This R33 GTR has not moved since I last visited a year ago. It’s one of those old Trial democars that is no longer of use to them anymore and just sits out there all year long with its mismatched hood. It’s still very much a complete car with the Trial aero and GTR-spec BBS LM wheels so I wonder what is actually wrong with the car for them to not sell it or make use of it…

Another angle of the Fairlady Z with its rear over fenders and what looks like Origin double-vented front fenders. The rear looks like Abflug but the additional piece that attaches to the rear bumper makes me feel otherwise…

I always feel like I don’t see enough Altezzas floating around Japan so when I saw this one in the Trial parking lot, I made sure to get a good look at it. This Altezza had an Elixir front, JBlood grille, BN Sports sides, and Shift Sports hood…

This Mitsubishi Evolution is yet another Trial democar that has been decommissioned and has seen its glory days pass it by. It still has most of its aero intact including the Varis rear over fenders and carbon doors, but the wing looks like it has been re-purposed. It’s also another car that hasn’t moved since the last time I visited trial a year before…

This BNR32 Skyline GTR with a Top Secret front lip and hood may belong to someone that works at Trial or it could be one of their company cars. It was also in the parking lot when I was there last but I remember back then it had just had the Volk TE37SL wheels freshly mounted. It hasn’t changed much or at all since then…

As we were about to leave we saw some of the mechanics at Trial finishing up some work on this customer’s R35 GTR. It looked like it had a considerable amount of money invested into it with a complete Varis Kamikaze kit, BBS LM wheels, and a complete candy red paint job…

After stopping by at Trial, we wanted to stop by at Speedforme to say hi to our friends over there and see what was new. On the way there, we spotted this EK race car from CHARGE sitting on a lift outside of another shop. Not sure why it was there and the people working didn’t seem to keen on me taking photos so I snapped a pic and moved on…

Parked out front when we pulled into Speedforme was this FD2 Civic Type R race car. It looked pretty simple on the outside with just OEM aero and front-staggered SSR Type-F wheels but a peek inside revealed a fully-gutted interior with a full Mugen roll cage and Mugen carbon door panels…

Inside, I was able to get another look at the Speedforme S30Z which was presented at the Tokyo Auto Salon event this year with new Wald Classics Fin wheels…

The rest of the car is outfitted with a full Speedforme kit and their carbon fiber over fenders. In the background you’ll notice the green S30 which we spotlighted last year when we stopped by…

The Wald Classics Fin wheels feature a matte gunmetal face with black anodized step-lips and gold hardware…

Had to get one more shot of the inside of Speedforme with both Fairlady Zs. The only one we were missing was the orange one and that one is parked in their personal garage…

After we Speedforme, we assumed that would be the end of our car adventures for the evening. I hit up my buddy Terry Suvonnarith who was visiting from Washington to see what he was doing. While scrolling through Instagram earlier that day, I noticed he was also in Osaka so I wanted to see if he wanted to hang out for a bit. He said he was down to do just about anything and Yasu suggested we stop by over at Car Make ACROSS to show him a little bit of Osaka car culture. ACROSS is one of my favorite shops in this area but Joe from ACROSS is such an enigma that I never know if he actually wants us there or not so I never ask to go back. Yasu gave me a call and he gave us the green light to stop by. Joe and his friends were just working on one of their Civics because they were trying to drive in the mountains later that evening so we had some time to see his shop…

ACROSS is one of those spots that many people know about, but few have actually seen with their own eyes. It’s never open during the day time and I wouldn’t recommend coming here by yourself in the evening…

We arrived to see the guys working on a B-series engine in a Civic that was experiencing some TPS issues…

I absolutely love this view of ACROSS. It just exudes this vibe that is so “Osaka”, if that makes sense. Everything in there has a story, you know what I mean? The decals pinned to the walls, all the parts laying everywhere, the boxes of wheels up top, hell, even the EF9 that seems so perfectly placed under that bright LED light…it’s all placed there randomly but it all just tells a story visually…

There’s a similar view in the second unit with a white EK hatchback propped-up on a trailer. Parts are just scattered throughout with some of it even on the outside. It is an endless collection of parts and old race tires that’ll continue to build…

The “ACROSS” logo which is an obvious play on the easily recognizable Falken Tire insignia applied across the hood of the Civic. There’s a backstory behind this homage which I’ll get to further down in this set…

Fuel cell with hard lines and -AN fittings in the trunk of the white Civic hatchback…

The black K20-powered Civic that ACROSS has come to be known for over the years is now stored in the back of one of his units, still unchanged from the last time we saw it. Good to know that the car is still in great shape and just residing in the shop…

Not much to this EK9, just suspension modifications and some black Volk Racing TE37…

Original “30th Anniversaly” Wharp Racing decal on the back of the EF9’s hatch glass…

Got up close so you guys can see how the OEM taillights have been modified with an LED reverse light and turn signal…

White EK9 Civic Type R that was a customer’s car which was at ACROSS for a Bride seat/seat rail install…

Really clean two-toned EK9 CTR parked outside of ACROSS. Rare to see a Civic this clean in Osaka these days…

Joe eventually brought us over the a car that had a tarp draped over it and roped-up tightly. He untied it and pulled the cover off revealing one of his current race cars that was recently wrecked at a race track…

For some context, this is what the Civic looked like before it was mangled…

This was around last year when he first completed the car, painted with a Falken-styled livery with a FRP front bumper, FRP wide fenders, and an aggressive set of Volk TEs…

The car looked pretty good and he’d sometimes switch to different wheel set-ups wrapped in new Yokohama Advan rubber…

Unfortunately, the car didn’t last very long as it rolled over at the track around September of last year. The damage looked pretty extensive and I believe his son was driving it at the time, but escaped with no injuries…

As you can see from his Instagram posts, the car was pretty fucked. I thought that they would have gotten rid of the car but the engine was probably good still so Joe decided to keep the car at the shop until he figured out what to do with it…

Once the tarp was peeled off, we got to see the extent of the damages. From what we saw, it didn’t look like the Civic has not been touched since they brought it back that day…

The front bumper was destroyed already so it was stuffed into the cabin of the vehicle so it could be pushed onto a trailer. The wheels appear to be okay, which is a good thing, but the car doesn’t look to be salvageable with the roof partially caved-in…

The K20 looked okay just at a glance. The core support had been pushed in significantly from impact but the RRC manifold looked fine and the motor had shifted more toward the firewall…

From this angle you can see just how much the engine had been tweaked…

The front passenger-side headlight and core support area saw most of the front-end impact…

The reason why the motor was angled the way it was is due to the rear engine mount snapping on impact. It completely separated at the mounting point and the engine is now only held up by the other two mounts…

I looked inside the trunk area to see the broken front bumper which still had a Chronicles decal affixed to it…

The rear end shows more structural damage, looking twisted at some points with the rear tailgate appearing as if it were being pulled away from the rest of the car…

Caught a glimpse of one of the EK hatchbacks from LATE RISER as we hopped back into the car to take Terry back to his hotel in downtown Osaka. Thanks to Joe from ACROSS for allowing me to walk around and take photos of his shit. Much appreciated as always. I love getting glimpses into the darker ends of the Osaka car community. Hope you guys enjoyed it as well. Still more content from Japan to come so stay tuned in!!…