Infiltrating the country that brought you the Honda Civic is never easy. Its language, customs and culture can appear foreboding. And yet we annually organize a secret mission to the Land of the Rising Sun to contact Euro sympathizers and lend our support to their cause.
Surprisingly, the easiest way to locate our double-agents is within the heart of the enemy force - at Tokyo's annual tuning conventional, the Auto Salon. Tripping over Skylines and dodging Evos, it's easy to be distracted by the smiling faces and bright lights, but we were able to complete our mission successfully and bring back our reconnaissance report.
One of the most blatant infiltrators was Takahiro Ueno who's built a new car for the 2009 D1 drift series. Ueno-san is famous not only for his drifting skills but also as the owner of Car Make T&E, producers of Vertex body kits. He has a history of choosing controversial drift vehicles and the debut of his BMW E92 3-Series is no exception. Although we didn't see it with our own eyes, it's rumored the vehicle is powered by a turbocharged Mk4 Toyota Supra 2JZ engine!
Another modified E92 - this time an M3 - belonged to the chief designer of Advan wheels. Built by our friends at Studie AG in Yokohama City, it's wearing a full Ericsson M480 body kit including carbon front-end and CSL trunk. Inevitably it also had a set of attractive Advan AVS Model F15 wheels. This car truly had to be seen in person to grasp how breathtaking it was.
Perhaps the most eye-catching E92 M3 in Tokyo (if not the world) was this bright pink example in the KW Suspension booth (featured elsewhere in the issue). It's another concept car from Studie AG. We've previously featured their bright blue 1-Series, orange and green Z4M Coupes, orange E93 M3, etc.
The Japanese tuner is renowned for its bright paintwork and immaculate engineering. In this instance, the car boasted a Flossman widebody allowing 19x10" Advan Racing RS rear wheels with 285/30 Advan Sport tires. Obviously, it was fitted with KW coilovers but also had 380mm Brembo rotors with six-piston calipers and Recaro TS-WS seats. As the new importer for Active Autorwerke products in Japan, the car was fitted with Active's exhaust system, software and power pulley kit.
Old school fans will appreciate the incredible Porsche 930 built by the infamous Nakai-san from tuning shop Rauh Welt. Originally a Toyota Corolla tuner, Nakai developed a love for Porsches and modifies plenty in his shop by hand. This had to be the coolest car at the show and the owner gives it plenty of abuse at the track to prove it's not a show-queen. These cars are built with a hardcore, warrior mentality and definitely aren't for the faint-hearted.
Hankook Tires had also joined the Euro revolution, backing a stunning 911 GT3 RSR in the GT300 class of the Japanese Super GT race series. At the end of '08, the car finished 13th overall, not bad considering it was only the team's third season. This car is also visually similar to the 911 drift car campaigned in the US by JIC.
Our mission complete, we dined on sushi and sake before slipping back behind our own frontlines to bring you this report on the status of European tuning. We can definitely report, the Euro scene is active and vibrant in Japan.
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