Tokyo Auto Salon 2014 Part 2
Friday 24 January, 2014 | By Edo
Hope you enjoyed part 1 of our Bulletproot Automotive X SNTRL Tokyo Auto Salon 2014 coverage! We’re getting right back into it with part 2 starting off with a car that was a bit of a surprise, the Sarto Racing CLK! I’ll be honest, at first I thought, “ANOTHER Rocketbunny car? Come on already!”. However, after a while, this car grew on me quite a bit, I kinda love it now. First off, you don’t really see a Benz with a JDM touch too often at all. Secondly, the car just looks bad ass. I hear they have plans to go drifting among other things with this tough looking machine. If that’s the case, this probably wont look this clean ever again. Miura’s design along with those sexy Enkei RS05RRs made this a winner in my book.
Liberty Walk. What can I see that hasn’t been said? Kato-san is owning the Japanese tuning scene right now. I remember a few years back, not many outside of Japan/the automotive industry knew who Liberty Walk were. Now they’re a somewhat “household” name (if there is such a thing) in the scene after that infamous video was released along with their incredible builds that followed up the hype!
Love their take on the Aventador. No wide-body here, which is not needed really, though I wont be surprised if Kato-san already has a wide version in the works.
Talk of the town, LB458! This is a thing of beauty. Very well executed, love the colors and overall look. Sometimes you just look at this and think, damn I really can’t believe he cut up a 458! Walk free without a care in the world.
The original LB R35 displayed at SEMA was also in the house to say hello to Japan.
Lets visit the Option booth. If you haven’t been to Tokyo Auto Salon, the Option booth is where you’ll find all types of special builds that have been featured in option or cars that are popular in the scene. Marked by the orange carpet, don’t ever miss it if you visit TAS in the future!
CLEIB BRZ. While the world is making all ZN6’s widebody and wild, CLEIB is busy developing excellent aero parts that focus more on a clean and sporty look. This is definitely a lot more my style.
FD, what are you doing up there? Oh, I know, being awesome! Love this.
Sexy VERTEX D1GP S14. While I am a Formula D fan, D1GP cars have style that is 2nd to none. Imagine this same car with no stickers. It would look like a clean and cool street drift machine
ZELE’s FRS, another winner in my book as far as style points go. Look at how clean this aero is. Even the wing flows well. Nice job ZELE.
You’ll definitely find a few exotics scattered about the show for of TAS. All with that Japanese touch that you don’t really see in the states for obvious reasons. Always great to see more than just a set of wheels on an exotic machine.
This F40LM from ROBERUTA, beautiful.
For fans of stance! Check the fitment out on this CIMA.
Couple of nice looking Benzs. Not as wild as Sarto’s but still clean and cool.
Things that we can only describe as “Because Japan”. Honestly really like these Kei trucks. Wouldn’t mind have these as SNTRL haulers for our gear. I’ll take the mascot and all!
^ This falls under the “Because WTF Japan!?” category.”The Batmobile”, funny as it sounds, the owner is pretty well known in the “vanning” scene in Japan. That is, the scene that customizes these normal vans to the point where you can’t recognize the original body. I believe this is the version 3, which uses a Velfire as a base. The owner is just huge fan of batman and I guess he had a van, that he wanted to customize, and this is the result. Don’t ask me why I know about this though, just being a JDM nerd. If you want to see the front and all the wild shit this thing does, check this video out (no subs!)
This front end of the JUN auto Z34 seems tame compared to “The Batmobile” above.
Now this Z, awesome. Varis’ latest entry to the 370Z scene. Loving the new design! Subtle yet aggressive.
Loving the rear profile as well. Really good lines on this design, rear bumper and wing look great.
One more quick detail shot. Runduce brakes? Yes please.
And how ’bout another shot of the Varis STi sedan just because?
Ings+1 are also offering aero for the 370Z. Liking this as well. Lets see what else that had at the show…
Their EVO X kit hasn’t really been a hit amongst CZ4A owners. I can see why. While it’s pretty clean, there are many sexier options that seem to always win for EVO X owners looking to style it up.
They’ve also developed aero for the FRS/BRZ. Another great option for ZN6 owners looking to differ from the Rocketbunny crowd.
Combo breaker! Odd looking S2000 faced FD here. HIN points!
On the other side of the RX7 spectrum, RE-Amemiya Hurricane Time Attack FD.
Back to the option booth! Supra fitted with the classic TRIAL aero, one of my fav’s for this platform. Also, looking towards the rear end, you can guess what the primary focus of this beast is…
BenSopra 380SX, last year’s talk of TAS made an appearance this year. Lots of chatter in the internet lately on this build. Hopefully they’ll be able to take it over to Nardo for that top speed run everyone was anticipating. Either way, still probably one of the most insane 180sxs ever built…
Until this year! Yet another 180sx debuted this year. Same Rocketbunny kit but powered by America. The infamous LS swap hits Japan! I actually like this version much better than the 380SX.
Time to wrap this post up with a couple of nostalgic beauties from Rocky Auto. Always refreshing to see older generation cars are still being appreciated in a modern show like TAS. Not sure what the specs on these are but I’ve read the Kenmeri is actually a R32 GTR underneath, which makes sense since this type of build is what Rocky Auto is known for. Taking vintage cars and modernizing them a bit. These classic tails give us a preview of what we’ll highlight in the next and last post of our TAS coverage, stay tuned!
Words by Edo | Photos by Derek, Jonny, and Avi from Bulletproof Automotive / GT-RR
About the author
Co-Founder/Creative Director, Edwin has been applying his years of experience in the graphic/web design + development to SNTRL since day one. Highly interested in all forms of sub-culture, especially JDM cars, fighting games, street art, street wear, and the fascinating world of Dubstep. Follow @yo_edo to keep up with his quirky tweets about daily life in NYC.
