Recently, I found myself heading to Japan at the request of my mum, who really wanted me to climb Mt Fuji with her. Not wanting to disappoint, I decided to join her for a quick 2 week stint in Tokyo. I didn’t take my camera with me, so excuse the potato photos! I thought they were still worth a quick edit and throwing them on the blog anyway.
After doing my family obligations, I decided to try and get up to some car-related stuff, courtesy of a couple of friends in Tokyo, who were kind enough to drive me around.
I was pretty jetlagged the first morning after flying in from the USA, so I woke up early and went for a stroll. It struck me as a little bit odd that the streets in downtown Tokyo (Ginza) were this empty at 7am on a weekday!
Strolling around the streets, I bumped into this beauty.
Wheels could have done with a wash, but otherwise, not bad!
Big kit, decent enough fitment on it too.
Spotted this beautifully clean FD3S later on, sitting on AVS Model 5:
One of many delicious bowls I smashed!
Ok, lets get down to business. I was lucky enough to be introduced to Drift Hunter Albo (@drifthunteralbo) and his mate Ken (@kmelichar) by my buddy JayJay (@jayjaylive), so we decided to catch up for a huge bowl of curry at one of his favourite restaurants in Shibuya, Hiroo’s Curry, owned by a well-known ex-street racer.
Going for a stroll in the area after, I spotted this GT3 with what sounded to be straight pipes, cruising down a narrow pedestrian-focused street! So mint.
But then it was time to pile into Ken’s Subaru GD wagon, and run down the expressway, finally spiralling down into a carpark at the junction of 2 huge expressways, the Bayshore and the Daikoku. Essentially built as a truck stop for the massive industrial complexes of Yokohama and Kawasaki, car guys and girls have turned the passenger vehicle part of it into a nightly impromptu car meet. Amazing.
Funnily enough, I bumped into Yuuki (@streetpage23) who owns this Roadster (MX-5 in Aus), who I originally met on my last trip to Tokyo with Toyota, years ago. As it turns out, I randomly gave him a DS sticker at his event under the Rainbow Bridge, in Odaiba, and he recognised the Downshift brand when Albo told him about it in Japanese!
E92 M3 gang out in force.
As was the S2K crew!
This FC was absolutely mint. Impossible to show with terrible phone pics, but the paint was immaculate, and had a gold pearl through the black. BBS RG-Rs were sweet on it too! A pretty popular wheel in Japan.
VIP styles.
We decided to bounce after a little bit, and check out another carpark, well-known for having more serious racers frequenting it.
This 86 looks fairly stock, but I believe it had some tasty TRD parts, such as the wide front fenders, wheels, brakes and that goose-neck CF wing.
But we come to probably the most impressive car of the whole evening. Luckily it was parked under lights, so the photos turned out reasonable. Check this out:
Carbon everywhere, and serious, functional aero.
I bet this thing destroys the highways on a regular basis.
Monster AP Racing brakes, forged TE37s, meaty tyres.
And then outside was this Aventador S to wrap up the evening.
They’re SUCH a wild shape. Personally not huge on the styling, but respect where it’s due.
See that doily thing on the dash? Can you guess what it is?
It’s a goddamn cat. In a dress. At 1am on the Tokyo C1 loop in a random carpark. Chilling on the dash of an Aventador S.
It was going to be an interesting week…
More stories to come, stay tuned!!