2010 Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) Coverage – Part 1

Owners of small, compact cars have longed turned to the Japanese for aftermarket tuning advice and direction. If you own a Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki or Toyota, it’s simple. For years, the cars were released in their domestic homeland first and Japanese tuners are notorious for quick innovation and diehard enthusiasm. It’s not uncommon to see sequential gearboxes, wild aerodynamics and magnesium wheels produced by the Japanese for street use. For street use!

So when the annual Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) car show rolls around, we always take the chance to see what trends and cars the Japanese are following. The TAS show is not the only aftermarket car show in Japan but it is one of the most well known and popular. Thousands of show goers descend on the Makuhari Messe convention hall to snap pictures of car and booth girls. Even with hard times, the show had a decent showing. As opposed to last year, the Evo X and new STI seemed to have taken a backseat against a more well spread mix of cars.

Shortly after its two time attack races in the US, 5Zigen’s Honda Accord Euro-R racecar was shipped back to Japan. It saw a time attack race at Tsukuba and was then patched back up all pretty for TAS

HKS Kansai Service had a selection of subtlety-modified cars on display. This Lancer Evo X had some mild carbon fiber accents (hood, wing, lip) but its wheels and engine package were not garishly advertised

Mizuhata’s HPI S15 Nissan Silvia is ready for the next season of the D1GP

Nismo had a Nismo 370Z on display next to a Super GT GT500 car. The Nismo 370’s sloped front end is supposed to be more aerodynamic but, for a street car, we prefer the standard 370 front end

Mugen built this caged Honda Insight racecar. Called the “Honda Green Machine” and plastered with environmental friendly stickers, we’re sure that the car can do relatively well in endurance races. Gotta love fuel economy when you do less pit stops

This car looks downright mean with its mild body kit and big wheels. Flat black BMW M6, anyone?

Knight Sports is one of the most well known rotary engine tuners in Japan. This white turbocharged Mazda RX-8 is a full racecar and campaigned in the Macau Grand Prix Road Sports Challenge. The car has quality wheels, brakes and a properly mounted front splitter setup but what is most striking is the engine. A FD3S 3rd generation Mazda RX-7 turbo rotary engine now sits under the hood. Love that rotary catch can

Final Konnexion displayed this widened R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. The panda car had seemingly impossibly flared fenders and wheels with some deep lips to them. Not an all-out performance car but a striking presence nonetheless

Tomei had their Subaru Impreza WRX STi time attack racecar on display, which we haven’t seen since it ran the 2008 Super Lap Battle event. From the outside you can see the car’s extensive Voltex aero and widebody but underneath lies custom Cusco suspension arms, billet spindles, air jacks, a very nicely constructed engine setup and impressive fabrication. It’s a very well built machine and we hear it will contest the Australian Super Lap event (not the same as the US one)

Varis Lancer Evo X – the body kit may be a bit extreme for a street car but we like its attempts at functionality. Notice the channeling, shape and dive planes on the front bumper? We’ve seen the same design on the front ends of ALMS GT2-class Porsche 911 GT3s

On hand in the Recaro booth were more seats than one man could logically fart into

This just in! A giant kid has run amok inside the Tokyo Auto Salon! Either that, or a scale model of a Super GT GT500 Honda NSX was on display

Underneath all the carbon fiber panels and flares was the Black Racing Honda Civic. This generation Civic chassis never really did seem to catch on with buyers and racers

Not much to say about these twin bedazzled Mercedes-Benzs except that Project Evo IX’s sparkling hood treatment should be done sometime next week

Moving away from zip-ties, drifters are now using stickers to hold their body panels together

As the pony car of Japan, the Silvia is both popular and highly customizable. This S13 Nissan Silvia coupe has a dramatically muscled body and does actually look pretty mean

Continue to 2010 Tokyo Auto Salon - Part 2 >>>