It seemed like I had just visited ACROSS not too long ago but since Ryan Der was returning to Japan with me for the first time in what seems like forever, we had to go back to one of his favorite shops in Osaka. Joe’s a bit of an enigma so I just never know when or if I could even visit him but the last time I was there in January, I told him I’d come back to give him one of my old Volume 1 Chronicles books because I dedicated a chapter specifically to his shop and cars. He didn’t even know I did that so he was surprised to know that he was even in a book in the first place. We weren’t sure when he was going to be around so I just kept a fresh copy of the book in the trunk of Yasu’s car so whenever we did go there, I’d have a nice little gift for him…

After Osaka Auto Messe, we had some shops to visit and we also had to take Yonas to the airport so he could fly back to Sydney, Australia. His trip was pretty brief but I think experiencing Auto Messe and the Osaka Night Meet the previous weekend was already way more than he expected to see during his visit. We also weren’t going to stick around in Osaka much longer because we had to take a bullet train to Tokyo so we could attend the Attack race event at Tsukuba. Der also wanted to make a stop in Sendai before Attack so we wanted to make sure we had a few days to spare on the Tokyo side. The night before our journey, Yasu made a call over to Joe to see if he was around. I guess he hadn’t expected anyone to come by and was going to take a day off, but when he found out we wanted to come by, he told us he’d open-up the shop for us. I didn’t want to trouble him and stay too long so I thought we were just going to stop by for a few minutes and then go back to Yasu’s house to pack. What ended-up happening that night was so much more than any of us anticipated…

Joe’s black EK9 Civic Type R is far and away Der’s favorite EK of all-time. The car just has so much history and is just so incredibly raw that it became a favorite of both of ours years and years ago when we first spotted a photo of it in a parking lot of some car show. It hasn’t changed much over the years, which is great, but Joe has tinkered with it some and added some new aero pieces here and there…

The last time I went to ACROSS, the car was stuffed in the back corner of the shop so I couldn’t even get a good shot of it. This time when we stopped by, the car was front and center loaded onto his trailer which is stored inside one of the unit’s within his shop space. If you remember my photos from last time, the white EK9 was sitting in this spot…

That same white EK9 was parked in the adjacent spot this time around. It was nice that the car was just parked inside and nobody else was around because then we were able to move the car out to get some more photos of it…

If the black EK9 was the raw and gritty one, the white one could be considered the opposite. It’s still got a presence about it that gives it that “ACROSS” gritty feel but its much more refined in comparison. The exterior is just a factory CTR lowered on Crux suspension and 15-inch Volk TE37 with some decals and a number plate added…

The “Falken” inspired ACROSS logo across (no pun intended) the hood was likely a logo that was created for the EG6 which wore a full Falken-style livery that was crashed and under a car cover that I showed you guys the last time I was there…

I always love how rough Joe’s shop looks and how the surrounding buildings are equally as weathered and cluttered. The environment just creates a great vibe for photos, especially with a clean white CTR as the focus…

I really liked this angle with just half of the CTR poking out past the wall of ACROSS…

On one of the pillars of the building you’ll find old Advan tire labels affixed to the rusty beam as well as a “CLUB WHARP” racing team tire stencil which was likely sprayed as a test…

The ACROSS EF9 race car was moved out of this section of the shop on this particular visit. With the chairs there I assume Joe just wanted to use the space as a hang-out to chat with friends on one of the many cold winter nights in Osaka…

Again, the surrounding environment at ACROSS just makes for some awesome photos. Eventually Joe moved his black CTR out and I captured this shot of the white CTR before he moved it back inside…

What was completely unexpected about this visit was that we just wanted to see the black EK9 to get photos of it but then Joe asked if we wanted to go for a ride in it. I guess he’s been itching to drive it and since he knew Der loved the car so much, we could go for a quick Touge run in the mountain areas nearby. Der was a little nervous at first since he hadn’t experienced Joe’s driving before. Over the years, we’d heard some pretty amazing stories about his driving abilities and this was seriously one of those “bucket list” type of opportunities that we knew might never happen again—so of course we had to go…

Der hopped in, I handed him the GoPro, and told him to record everything that happened. Yasu and I would follow closely in his FK7 Civic but we knew there was a strong chance we’d lose them since that area was so dark…

I tried to get some rolling shots of it but we weren’t offered too much light on the highway so this was the best I could do…

There’s just something so incredibly surreal about seeing the ACROSS K-swapped EK9 on the streets. The last time we went out back in 2015, we definitely made some memories. To this day, it is still one of our most viewed YouTube videos and we didn’t even know how to film anything back then…

We weren’t on the street very long before they just disappeared into the night. Joe was on the move and we quickly lost him and Der at a turn and just waited for them as they went up the mountain. If you haven’t seen the Vlog yet, here’ it is so you can see exactly what happened…

It would have been nice if they had stayed up there longer but it started raining soon after and it was a little too sketchy to drive so hard with the roads getting damp…

We reconnected at a Family Mart parking lot after they came back down. Any time you have a modified vehicle parked in front of a Family Mart, Lawson, or 7-11, its an absolute MUST to take photos. I mean, it’s basically an unwritten rule of Japanese car culture, lol…

Joe’s EK9 just looks fantastic in black, with the blacked-out headlights, Tactical Art front lip and carbon doors…

The 17/16-inch staggered Volk TE set-up also helps to give it this menacing stance wrapped in Yokohama Advan A050 rubber…

Here you can see his rear bumper cut-outs as well as the concavity of his 17×9 +22 front TE37 wheels…

We spent almost 30 minutes at the Family Mart just taking photos of the car because we weren’t sure when we’d see the car outside again. Der was shooting film with his Leica, I was shooting my usual Canon digital shots while Joe and Yasu were just hanging out and drinking coffee…

At one point, a car pulled-up to the Family Mart and blocked my shot, not realizing that I was even taking photos of the Civic. Joe and Yasu asked them if they could move and it turned out that they were car guys as well and knew of Joe and ACROSS. I don’t know if they were intimidated or what happened but they jumped right back into the car and just drove-off without buying anything…

I wanted to take a close-up of the widened front fenders and the 17×9 TEs up front because I know it is always a topic of conversation online with people constantly inquiring about the FRP fenders. Just last week I made a post on Instagram to provide some more details on them just because I was getting so many messages about it…

Here’s the caption:

I’ve been getting a ton of DMs and questions in my comments section about the fenders on the @carmakeacross EK and I’ll try to give you as much information on them that I can, based on my experience with them, so that you guys can stop wondering. These fenders are essentially OEM style fenders which have been cut and extended to about 50mm in width. They are WIDE. A company in Japan manufactures them and they have been around for ages. I first encountered them years ago on the original LAW BREAK/Impact EK9 before that car was wrecked. You know them more commonly as “ACROSS” fenders because they have become popularized based on the Black EK9 from ACROSS. They have been private labeled before and are available via Yahoo Auctions and at one point, we even decided to try to bring them into the US to make them available here. You’ll hear some people claim that they are the first to have them on their Civic in the US but we’ve actually had a set on @studytuned’s Civic for about two years now. You just don’t notice them as much because there is a livery covering it. @latommyla is trying to get his set to fit right now and he’s making good progress but the main reason why we haven’t brought more sets in is because of fitment issues. Yes they are wide but they are OEM style which means they still use the OEM mounting points. The problem with that is that you cannot turn if you wish to run a 17×9 +22 wheel as seen here. The tire will hit on both ends. To alleviate this issue, custom brackets have to be made for clearance and that means the bumper and headlight fitment will be compromised. That and not a whole lot of people are willing to put in the time to massage these to fit. There’s actually quite a bit of trimming and cutting involved around the wheel arch. Tommy and @wil1ywonka are currently doing that from what I’ve seen. They are your run of the mill FRP fenders and also don’t fit true to OEM even with stock bodyline. You can probably clear them if you raise your car up but who wants to do that? Joe’s Civic is the perfect example of how to make them work and his car is great because of how rough and unpolished it is. I hope that clears up any “mystery” behind them.

After we finished getting photos, we said our goodbyes, thank yous, and then we parted ways. We had to get back to pack for Tokyo and Joe headed back to drop his car off at ACROSS. What an incredible night it turned-out to be and completely unexpected. Just another great time in Osaka where you never know what will happen on any given night. As always, thank you to Joe from ACROSS and thanks to all you guys for looking. I hope you enjoyed another rare glimpse into Car Make ACROSS…