For the final 15 years, I’ve owned a workshop in Auckland, New Zealand, servicing, constructing, and tuning Japanese race and street automobiles. JTune, and a number of the automobiles I’ve had a hand in creating over the past decade and a half have beforehand been featured on Speedhunters. After just a few busy years, I lastly determined to take a break from full-time on the store and embark on just a few adventures in Japan.
My first journey this 12 months was for Tokyo Auto Salon, at which period I additionally travelled all the way down to Fuji to fulfill with HKS a couple of particular Toyota GR86 challenge. I returned in the course of summer time to verify in on the progress of the construct, and in addition go to another outlets. A kind of was Automobile Store Glow.
Although I missed 7’s Day (7/7) in Japan by every week, I used to be decided to go to and be taught extra about one in every of Tokyo’s most famous RX-7 outlets. Automobile Store Glow is at present most well-known for its customized LED lights, however it additionally does servicing and full automotive builds from a humble constructing in Nerima-ku close to the center of Japan’s capital metropolis.
Automobile Store Glow was established in 2006, with its proprietor, Yukimitsu Hara, initially promoting his LED mild merchandise on-line. By April 2008, he opened a showroom, focusing primarily on customising American and European automobiles.
In 2009, a buyer – who was a supervisor at Tremendous Autobacs – provided Hara-san his ex-Knight Sports activities Mazda RX-7, which he was now not driving, at a hard-to-refuse worth. Not desirous to cross up the chance, Hara-san purchased the FD3S, signalling the start of the Automobile Store Glow demo automotive.
Taking the RX-7 to Tsukuba Circuit in the identical spec he bought it, Hara-san clocked a 1:06 lap time on 17-inch road tyres, setting a benchmark for future upgrades.
At the moment, lots of the different FD3S RX-7s within the Tsukuba paddock had been outfitted with RE Amemiya widebody kits, so Hara-san had one put in and completed the outside off with a recent paint job and a pair of his customized tail lights. The equipment improve allowed for wider tyres, prompting a return to Tsukuba on the earliest alternative, the place Hara-san lower his TC2000 PB lap time all the way down to a powerful 1:02.
From that second, he was hooked on time assault.
As Hara-san continued competing in time assault occasions, proudly flying the Automobile Store Glow flag, the corporate started receiving tail mild orders from Japan and overseas, additional boosting its profile.
On the again of this, Automobile Store Glow expanded its vary to incorporate lights for different fashions – the Toyota Supra, Honda S2000 and NSX, and Subaru Impreza, amongst others – and ventured into aero components, exhausts and suspension, all of that are at present offered in Japan and overseas.
Through the years, Hara-san’s FD3S developed via numerous time assault seasons, changing into lighter, extra aerodynamic, and extra highly effective. You possibly can learn all about it Dino’s 2015 characteristic.
The RX-7’s finest time at Tsukuba Circuit is a powerful 56.4-second lap – achieved with OEM-based brakes and the manufacturing facility ABS eliminated. That setup may elevate some eyebrows, however given TC2000’s observe format – quick with just a few heavy braking zones – it is smart that balanced and simply warmed-up brakes could possibly be more practical than a giant brake equipment. Generally, simplicity wins, particularly if you don’t need to spend an excessive amount of time fine-tuning brake steadiness and bias.
At the moment, the RX-7 is totally stripped again, with massive plans on the horizon. Once I requested Hara-san about his purpose for the automotive, he shared that he’s desirous to push the boundaries and go even quicker; a 53-second lap is the dream.
In Tokyo and different Asian cities, bodily house is an actual luxurious, however in relation to modified automobiles, that doesn’t imply that construct high quality is compromised. Many lovers construct spectacular machines proper of their driveways or residence garages. Living proof, one other Automobile Store Glow RX-7: Tani-san’s wild ‘GT race automotive for the street’ as lately featured by Toby.
To coincide with our go to, Automobile Store Glow organized for just a few customer-owned automobiles to cease by the store after which head out for a drive in convoy.
Given Hara-san’s penchant for time assault racing, when seeing some other aggressively styled RX-7s exterior Automobile Store Glow, it will be simple to imagine it’s a race automotive, too. Whereas a few of these builds do hit the observe, most are completely road automobiles closely impressed by Hara-san’s FD3S. No matter how modified they’re beneath the hood, seeing these automobiles out on the street is fairly cool.
I need to give a giant because of Hara-san and the Automobile Store Glow employees for opening up their doorways to us, and for everybody who introduced their automobiles out. Keep tuned for the evening cruise!
Jacky Tse
Instagram: jtune_nz
Pictures by Ash Bechan
Instagram:Â pixeltoon_media
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