Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

What an amazing but completly overwhelming event! This was a our second time at the Makuhari Messe Tokyo Event Center. You will have to fight your way through crowds to see anything, so show up as early as possible if you want good picutres. I have to apologize in advance, the lighting in this exhibition was insane and messed wtih a lot of my photos.

Right off the bat, there is the RE Amemiya X-Response-7 setting the standard for the rest of the show. This car came in second place for the Tuning Car Award that year.

Click here to find out more about Re-Ememiya and thier awesome builds.

This was the first of many R35 GTRs I came across and it belongs to Kuhl Japan Tuning. This specific model is thier 35R-SS package.

From what I can tell, this is mainly comsmetic/aero upgrades. check our thier build here.

Very clean Supra with something called a Hurtling Solid & Joker Aero kit.

Terrible shot, but very nice interior.

Back end of the Hurling Supra.

This very clean Datsun Z is from Speed Forme, which isn't even close to thier nicest car. Check out thier Hakosuka, which I couldn't get a decent picture of due to the crowd at the link here.

It's so NICE! I want one so bad.

Pandem USA was out in full force displaying thier clean body kits.

They sell high quality body kits, air suspenions and exhuast. More info can be found from thier web site here.

The Second R35, seriously... every tuner had a R35 here. Pandem's was one of the cleanest kits though.

Panda's BMW M2 wide body kit.

KW had a very clean Audi R8 with a APR tune.

It is a shame these shows are inside, I would of like to hear the exhaust on this beast.

This is RKF's AE86 and it had to be the best Trueno at the show.

I managed to track down the build information on this project. The site is in Japanese, but check it out here.

This is GTNet's Super Taikyu R35 (third R35 that caught my eye).

If you havn't lived in Japan, GTnet is online used car marketplace that only deals in performance cars. You can find more detials on thier race cars here.

Didn't catch the name of this vendor, but they had two very nice Lamborghini that I had to snag pics of.

Found the Lexani both with a hundred of there custom rims.

Their show car was a matte black Bently, wish I had enough money to afford anything they sell. Ha Ha.

Another very clean AE86.

Keihin got thier hands on the new front engine NSX-GT and this thing looks insanely fast.

This extact car went on to win the Super GT at Fuji Speedway in 2020 and was driven by Koudai Tsukakoshi.

Overshadowed by its NSX counter part, I snagged a pick of the racing team's STI in the background.

Next we have the Calosonic Impul R35 GT-R, the fourth R35 I came across! Team drivers are Tsugio Matsuda and Sebastian Philippe.

All-wheel drive and they reduced the weight from 3,704lbs to 2,400lbs.

This is Autobach's BMW M6 GT3 with team members Shinichi Takagi, Takashi Kobayashi and Sean Walkinshaw. This was built specificaly for the GT 300 class races in Japan.

Here is the 5th R35 I came across and is the best in show at the Tokyo Auto Salon in my opinion.

Drivers are Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio Matsuda (also the driver of the previous Calsonic Impul R35), very talanted driver and one of the best for a good decade.

This team won the GT500 championship in 2014, scoring a combined 81 points. They gained another GT500 championship the very next year, scoring 79 points in 2015.

The dynamic duo came in third in 2016 with a total of 62 points, despite securing the number one spot in the first two races. Then, climbed back into second place in 2017 with 82 points. That's four total back to back top three finishes!

One of the very few American muscle present at the exhbit, the Nitto Dodge Challenger.

This R34 had a very unique body kit, it was a project between Uras and Shorin manufactoring.

Best shot I could get in with huge crowd. This was a bucket list experience...but will most likely not come back. Way too many people even for Tokyo standards.

Next, I found the Balance It Audi R8 sporting thier new body kit.

Just the rear spolier alone retails for $4,000+ $_$.

This is the Toyota GR Super Sport concept car and won the Best Concept Car Award for 2018 at the Exhibtion.

Also in the GAZOO racing both was thier Toyota 86.

This Subaru Impreza is the 555 and debuted on the Rally Circuit in 1993. It replaced the Legacy as the company's flagship rally car and we all know how successful the brand was all over the world. This specfic model won four champoinships in 1995 alone. The driver, Colin McCrae was the youngest driver to ever win the championship.

Due to some changes in the regulations, Subaru had to retire the orignal 555 and replaced it with the WRC97 555 in 1997.

Finaly found the Novel Racing Lexus at the Gran Turismo both. In 2018 they had a RCF that placed 2nd and a ISF that placed third podium poistion in the 24hr Nurbburgring race, one of the most challenging in the entire world! They have too many dirvers to list, but visit this link to find out more.

I've played every single Gran Turismo since number two on the original playstation. It's the only game series I have more time in outside of RPGs! They had several VR boths setup for gaming, but the line was over three hours long.

This is the K2 R&D Leon Racing's Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo.

For as intimidating as it looks, Leon has used this for almost ten years in the racing circuit without earning a single podium poistion finish.

So many people! It was impossible to get a good shot of some of the cars I wanted to.

Sitting in Tomei's both was the 6th R35 GTR of the day. I'm surpised they went with yellow, becuase that's JUN's color!

TOMEI climbed to fame by being one most world's best RB26 tuners for the Skyline GTRs. Being an owner of a R33 GTR, I was naturally geeking out at this booth.

As the RB26 was sitting right next to thier R35, I was hoping that they did an engine swap. However, after talking to the staff it had the original tuned V6.

Tomei's RB26 Turbos and Exhuast!

The seventh R35 of the day was the NISMO R35 GTR.

Very well done, but for a $100,000 over the base price there is no way any sane person would buy this. What does your extra $100K get you? 35 extra horse power and a DVD player. x_X They better throw in the show girl for that price tag.

The third Hakuska! For a 1970 car, the Hakuska to R35 ratio so far (3 to 7) was pretty astounding.

Ken Block's Hoonigan (v2), an AWD 1965 Ford Mustang with 1,400+ HP! I was not expecting Ford to pull out a booth at this show. This was the biggest surprise off the exhibition.

I didn't see any sign of Mr. Block, hope I didn't miss him! This is his 1,100+ hp race truck as well.

Found the HKS Booth! SO MANY PEOPLE!!!!!

This is the HKS time attack TRB-03 Toyota 86 This car came in second place for the best concept car award.

Equiped with the very popular FA25 coming in at just under a 1000hp. Apparently they just have a couple of these laying around, no big deal.

I honestly thought we were about to see our eighth R35, but I guess HKS missed the dress code memo, ha ha! Still had plenty of R35 Blocks.

Coming in at a meger $70K is the HKS 4.3L R35 Engine. Boasting an agreesive 1227 hp at 6690 rpm. HKS makes thier own engine damper, so it was strange to see an ATI damper here. Anyway, buy a base R35 and save the 100K over the NISMO version. Buy this egine and save your self 30K!

The JUN booth, if you don't know who these guys are please look them up! The guy with the grey hair second from the left tuned my R33 GTR and I've have never expereince a more smoothed power band in my entire life. You can see my blog post about that here.

They built a RB26 that broke a land speed record in 1997 at the USA Boneville Speed Trail. Coming in at 238.4 mph or 383.7 kmph!

Kick myself everytime for not going with a full engine built by these guys.

Next up I found the Army Girl's body kit booth.

Honestly, next to the Rocket Bunny kits...I have not seen anything better on the market.

The Skyline GTR and the Porsche 993 are two of my faviorte cars ever made. I'm saving up for one right now and currently live in Germany. Plan is to pull the trigger if the Dollar to Euro rate over swtiches over in my favor.

Recaro had a huge booth and plenty of seats to try out.

Not sure why, but my son got a real kick out of the race car seats. Ha Ha.

Next was the infamous Top Secret Booth! They were the only ones sporting a R32, R33, R34, and yes our ninth R35 of the day!

The R32 and R34 styling were way advanced for thier time. Not sure why Nissan decided not to care so much about the R33 and the R35's looks. I own an R33 and will admit that this is such a long car and those headlights leave a lot to be desired.

Top Secret did it... an R35 engine inside an R32, so awesome!

The Top Secret front end on the R33 is nice, but I still prefer the Nismo front bumper with the Intercooler and oil cooler cut outs.

The back end on the R33 is the exception, even more so with those rear V-Spec Spats. Absoutley love the design.

The R34 GTR is so iconic, bayside blue is a must!

Top Secret doing what it does best, showing off an amazingly clean engine bay with only the best mods.

Son really enjoyed the R34 as well, this is him posing in front of the Two System's R34 and the tenth R35... which I didn't even bother to get a decent shot of as I was R35'd out by now.

Son was about to die of bordem until we found this VR pit crew booth. He had a lot of fun changing out tires at the race track. It looked like alot of fun, but there was a line of kids behind me so I passed my turn to someone else.

Here is a picutre of what Ben was seeing inside the VR head set.

Eleanor! Just teasing me with all these clean Hakuskas! I really would like to own one someday. No way I'm forking over $200K though.

The classic paint with the black trim and black interior was so nice.

Okay, okay, I know I said I was R35'd out..but I'm just not going to get a pic of the GT3 R35, am I!?.

The Stance Magic R32 was the most unique R32 at the show.

It's a little much for my taste, I like a sleek design that's not to loud or showy.

I wish I would of got a better photo of the black car to the right on the Lambo. It is the the Liberty Walk's LB Works and it one third place at the show for best concept car.

This R33 didn't have a lot of info about it, but It was built for the drag strip. Terrible color, but great build.

I couldn't find any info on the internet about this build, please hit me on Twitter or IG if you have more info!

MF Ghost is the offical sequel to Inital D and the first volume release earlier this year. Even with my long monkey arms, I couldn't get anywhere near the show girls.

Alright, I'm going to close this out with the car that I thought was the best in show. Yes, yes, you probally could of guess from reading through this blog that I was going to pick a Hakuska.

Also, they had the fendor flair kit on both the rear and front. I hate it when some decide to only put these on the rear Or the front.

The level of details on this car was absurd. Those are the orignal solid black rims that came with the car. However, they painted the hub and spokes a nice bronze/gold color and chromed out deep dish lips.

Sorry, picture sucks here. The interior was emaculate and even had some of the orignal wood grain trim.

If you ever come across one of these, no matter the condition, fo under $100K jump on it or at least CALL ME! Ha ha.

Well there you have it, The Tokyo Auto-Salon 2018! Cool thing to do once to knock off the bucket list, but wayyyy too many people to ever think about coming back. Please enjoy some fo the amazing artwork (car porn) that was on Auction at the Auto-Salon below.