This year’s Tokyo Auto Salon was not to be missed. Needless to say, the new Evo X, STi and Nissan GT-R took the show by storm. Several of Japan’s high profile companies are already wrenching away and developing hardcore performance parts for the new platforms. We are excited to see the potential of the new vehicles, especially once they hit the stateside.
Exedy continued to impress with their fine line of high performance clutches on display. They also had their championship winning Lotus Exige on display sporting wicked graphics that really caught everyone’s eye.
As we released in a news report on Friday, the 2008 GT500 specific Nissan GT-R race car was on display. We could barely pick our jaws up off the ground when we saw it in person. We anticipate to see great success coming from this race vehicle in the 2008 season.
Honda impressed the crowd with this Mugen RR inspired Civic that was on display. The carbon fiber accents along with the Mugen parts made any US Honda fanatic drool.
Top Secret is known to be on the forefront of any performance vehicle and the new GT-R is no exception. Continuing with their traditional style of decking out their project cars with Top Secret Gold Volk Racing GT-C’s, this new GT-R already had a slight overhaul in both the suspension, exterior and performance departments. We will keep a look out on this beast as we expect it to be another record breaker from Top Secret.
JUN is no stranger to modifying any generation of the Evo. So it was no surprise that the new Evo X was on display in their booth. Sporting traditional JUN colors on the outside, the engine bay looks like it has already received its fair treatment of JUN performance enhancements.
Endless also had a GT-R on display with their famed graphics on the side of the vehicle. Suspension and wheel modifications along with a set of sticky Advans proves that Endless is already on their way to track testing the new beast and fine tuning their own components for the car.
European tuning has continued to grow in the Japan market and several Japanese companies focused on European modifications were on display. It will be interesting to see the influence these companies have on the stateside with European tuners and whether or not it will be embraced. JDM influenced European show cars? We can’t wait to see the results!
This was just one of several of the new STi’s that were on display. Clearly this will be Subaru’s own entry into the race field for 2008. We’re still on the fence about the new look of the STi but we’re excited to see its performance potential and the improvements Subaru has made over the years with their newest chassis.
VIP continues to grow as several decked out big body sedans were seen on the show floor. We’ve already seen this trend rising on the stateside and its Japanese influence continues to grow. In fact, the VIP style of tuning with black cars slammed to the ground with aggressive offset wheels can now be seen carried over to European vehicles and their tuning style.
Last but not least, we take a second to check out the new Chargespeed wide body kit for the ever popular 350Z. Couple of years ago, Chargespeed had an impressive display of widebody vehicles including their STi and Supra. This year they’ve gone away from the orange shade and whipped up this eye appealing green 350Z that we couldn’t stop staring at.
That’s all for this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, but stay tuned as we try to get our grubby little hands on some hot Japanese feature cars to come out of the show. Keep your eyes glued as we try to get coverage of some of the new heavily modified GT-R’s, Evo X’s and STi’s. You’ll see it here first, guarenteed!
Gallery
