For the final 15 years, I’ve owned a workshop in Auckland, New Zealand, servicing, constructing, and tuning Japanese race and street vehicles. JTune, and a number of the automobiles I’ve had a hand in creating during the last decade and a half have beforehand been featured on Speedhunters. After a couple of busy years, I lastly determined to take a break from full-time on the store and embark on a couple of adventures in Japan.
My first journey this 12 months was for Tokyo Auto Salon, at which era I additionally travelled right down to Fuji to satisfy with HKS a few particular Toyota GR86 venture. I returned in the course of summer season to test in on the progress of the construct, and likewise go to another outlets. A type 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 among Tokyo’s most famous RX-7 outlets. Automobile Store Glow is as we speak most well-known for its customized LED lights, but it surely additionally does servicing and full automobile builds from a humble constructing in Nerima-ku close to the guts 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 vehicles.
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 value. Not desirous to go up the chance, Hara-san purchased the FD3S, signalling the start of the Automobile Store Glow demo automobile.
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 avenue tyres, setting a benchmark for future upgrades.
At the moment, lots of the different FD3S RX-7s within the Tsukuba paddock have been geared up with RE Amemiya widebody kits, so Hara-san had one put in and completed the outside off with a contemporary paint job and a pair of his customized tail lights. The package improve allowed for wider tyres, prompting a return to Tsukuba on the earliest alternative, the place Hara-san lower his TC2000 PB lap time right 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 elements, exhausts and suspension, all of that are as we speak bought in Japan and overseas.
Through the years, Hara-san’s FD3S advanced via varied time assault seasons, turning into lighter, extra aerodynamic, and extra highly effective. You’ll be able to learn all about it Dino’s 2015 function.
The RX-7’s greatest time at Tsukuba Circuit is a powerful 56.4-second lap – achieved with OEM-based brakes and the manufacturing facility ABS eliminated. That setup would possibly increase some eyebrows, however given TC2000’s monitor format – brief with only some heavy braking zones – it is smart that balanced and simply warmed-up brakes might be more practical than an enormous brake package. Typically, simplicity wins, particularly while 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 huge plans on the horizon. Once I requested Hara-san about his objective for the automobile, he shared that he’s desirous to push the bounds and go even quicker; a 53-second lap is the dream.
In Tokyo and different Asian cities, bodily area is an actual luxurious, however in relation to modified vehicles, that doesn’t imply that construct high quality is compromised. Many fanatics 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 automobile for the street’ as not too long ago featured by Toby.
To coincide with our go to, Automobile Store Glow organized for a couple of customer-owned vehicles 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 every other aggressively styled RX-7s exterior Automobile Store Glow, it could be simple to imagine it’s a race automobile, too. Whereas a few of these builds do hit the monitor, most are solely avenue vehicles closely impressed by Hara-san’s FD3S. No matter how modified they’re beneath the hood, seeing these vehicles out on the street is fairly cool.
I need to give an enormous due to Hara-san and the Automobile Store Glow employees for opening up their doorways to us, and for everybody who introduced their vehicles out. Keep tuned for the evening cruise!
Jacky Tse
Instagram: jtune_nz
Pictures by Ash Bechan
Instagram:Â pixeltoon_media
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