About 230,000 Japanese car enthusiasts got
a great start to the new millennium at the TAS 2000 Aftermarket performance
car show.
This years show was in the massive Makuhari
Messe Convention centre, 30 minutes east of Tokyo by train.
The show opened with a trade day (Press
and Industry) on Friday. The public were able to enter trade day by paying
$70.00 for a premium ticket. The standard weekend tickets were $36.00 per
day.
There were about 300 trade stands and over
700 performance cars on show. That’s a lot to see, specially if you count
the 400 “car companions”.
This year I went with Anton: “hard driving”
(should rear “partying”) Targa FD RX7 guy, Peter: APEXi, hard selling M’s
racing guy and Kevin hard drinking, pup trashing, crazy VTEC guy.
We drove to the show on Friday, (I borrowed
my Father inlaws car). The car park is a show in its self. There was everything
from race cars to street drift machines. If you go to the show by train
it’s worth having a look in the car park, specially on Sunday.
Once we entered the hall it was every man
for himself.
I started of at APEX in Hall 1 (of 8).. They
had their new Integra drag car on display. The engine (H22A 2156cc) has
been turned 180 deg which allows the twin APEX AX53B70-P18 turbos to draw
cold air directly from the high pressure point at the base of the windscreen.
There weren’t many details available because
the car is still under development. I think the chassis was built in the
states for competition there and the power plant etc built in Japan. Engine
management: APEX Power FC, Boost control: APEX AVC-R (1.5 bar).
You can see from the photos that APEX is
taking the U.S. drag scene very seriously.
Next was Veil side, always good for a laugh!
Fortunately on the way to Vailside, I bumped into Mines. They had a wicked
Evo and a new Toyota MR-S, but no time for them as I spotted the car of
the show...HKS’s Carbon fibre Altezza. Super trick Inboard suspension.
Twin CNC machined Aluminium beam, I couldn’t believe it!
The HKS product show case car has a 2.2l
engine with 3S turbo which put out a massive 700hp in testing. With the
smaller GT3037S turbo, for the circuit, the engine still produces a more
reliable 500 hp.
The engine uses an HKS Altezza kit that
includes new pistons, conrods and even a clutch.
If the car does as well as it looks it might
spark a comeback for HKS Japan.
I did reach Veil Side, eventually. They had
two new body kits on display. Their silver supra and their Honda S2000.
They also had, Fresh from it’s N.Z. speed
run, their BNR34GT-R. It set a N.Z. 1 km record (Class 9 3000 ~ 5000) at
341.296 km/h.
>>There were a number of cars at the show
that had been playing in N.Z. so I checked out the program and searched
them out.
Top Secret: 2.2l Supra. T88 turbo and 650hp.
Managed 290.4 km/h.
Scoot: FD3S RX7. T51R turbo 650 ~ 750hp
(depending on who you talk to) 13B stock primary PP Secondaries. 327.3
km/h.<<
Veil Side wasn’t the only tuner with an S2000.
Value Sport had one and Mugen had two (as you would expect).
Mugen’s first S2000 was sculptured in RED
and showed of their after market bolt on parts. Very nice Carbon cold air
box. Their second S2000 had a love it or hate it “Spider” kit (Very Japanese).
Mines wasn’t the only stand with a new MR-S
either. There was a yellow one, Sard’s blue one and Blitz’s turbo one.
I heard they were 145 hp and Blitz had about 200 hp from their single K1-300v
bolt on turbo kit.
There was another new Toyota on show over
on the Dspeed stand. The new Celica.
Looks pretty cool to me.
Next was a walk down “TRUST STREET”. Trust
had the show sorted with a new Altezza, lots of dancing girls and Stephan
Papadakis’s Honda drag car. Stephan’s Honda was another American car brought
over just for the show. It has done a 9.21 @ 164 mph.
VTEC turbos seem to be the front wheel drive
weapon of choice.
Japanese 4WD drag racing was well represented
with at least 20 GT-Rs scattered around.
RS Feast, Bee*R, the current class champ
Saurus, AVS and Zenitani.
There were Two All Japan GT cars, The GT300
winning Momo corse MR2, Okura GT300 RX7. (this is Mark Porters past team
mate, but it isn’t Marks old car…that was totaled last season).
I think the Mclaren I saw was from Europe
but owned by a Japanese team.
I also found a F1 Jordan-Mugen which I think
was a ’98 car (could have been ’99).
Endless had a very big stand and the best
“car companions”. Natsumi Yazu was there and I got busted by Kyoko Takano
while taking a “candid” shot J.
Next… I found myself at R-Magic. Mr Ohara
has been very busy since I last saw him. He now does Apex Power FC tuning
and uses them exclusively. He had his new body kit on his blue FD and has
just finished a 13B pp, to be used in his twin turbo drag FD. The power
plant looks a lot like Scoots but he wouldn’t tell me whose came first
(although Scoots is obviously already going). Again with the 650 ~ 750hp!
Cool hollinger 6 speed and CNC Bellhousing.
He Joined FD-Kai and wants to come down
to N.Z. I hope he brings his FD!
Mazda speed, Nismo, RalliArt, STI, and TRD
all shared the same area at the show.
Collectively they use the name Poweraxel.
“Based on cutting edge technologies developed
through our racing experience, we realise truly well balanced tuning for
speed. The first-class expertise of the Works Tuning fully caters to various
drivers' needs, including the development of car parts necessary to optimise
the performance of each car.” Japlish…couldn’t have said it better myself.
Mazdaspeed showed they are still alive, (they
have closed their two Tokyo branches and gone back home to Hiroshima),
They had last years FD3S RX7 and another car which I wasn’t inspired to
take a photo of (sorry).
Nismo had a lot of parts and so did TRD.
RalliArt had an Evo with their newish TM-V4
kit and bolt on parts.
STI had a new legacy and a new WRX.
There were plenty of wacky cars too.
About 25 new VW beetles.
Check out the 180SX ute. I hear there are
at least two GT-R utes and another GT-R wagon being made for future shows.
Maybe Nissan will put them into production? Japan! You just never know!
If you go next year and it’s your first time
at TAS, you’ll need to set aside two full days.
It’s worth getting a premium ticket and
going on Friday because the show will be absolutely packed on the weekend.
Japan has a population of 120 million, so when I say packed, I mean packed,
like the big day out!
http://www.tokyo-autosalon.net/
http://www.veilside.co.jp
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/ha/hks/
http://www.endless.ne.jp/users/queen/wall/index2.html
http://www.poweraxel.com/