When it comes to taking your precious vehicle to a shop and having minor work or major surgery done, is there one place you can say you are truly loyal to?
Perhaps thanks to the progression of the internet, it seems that people nowadays are more concerned about convenience and price over true craftsmanship.
After obtaining my ER34 Nissan Skyline and driving it across Japan (Okinawa to Tokyo to be exact), I started looking for a trustworthy shop that could help work on the project. When some friends told me I should take it to a place called Veruza, my first thought was ‘how far away is it?’
A quick look at Google Maps, showed it to be anywhere from a one to two-hour drive from Tokyo, depending on traffic. Although it sounded like a bit too far away for a place I’d likely need to frequent on a regular basis, my friends were adamant that I at least go there once to check it out. So that’s what I did.
On my first visit to Veruza in Atsugi I left my trusty camera behind. I didn’t really know what to expect, and I definitely didn’t want to catch the owner off guard by just showing up and taking pictures of everything. The images you are seeing now are from my fourth time visiting the shop.
With a small parking lot filled to the hilt with Skylines, you know this shop means business. Even though I haven’t performed anything major on my car yet, Kano Masahide, the man behind this GT-R specialty shop, always takes genuine care of it.
With 18 years’ experience working on Skylines (predominantly RB26-powered) and at one point owning two R32 and two R33 GT-Rs, Kano-san can be considered an expert on the ins and outs of Nissan’s performance icon.
Since opening Veruza eight years ago, Kano-san has amassed a loyal following of customers. Part of this is surely to do with the personal service you receive; while there are a few part-timers on the roster, Kano-san does the majority of work himself.
TroubleshootingOn this particular visit I was in for an oil change and to get Kano-san’s input on a pesky problem that was randomly occurring at part throttle. After consulting with Dino, we came to the same conclusion that it was symptoms of misfiring, and either the spark plugs were going bad, or the coils were breaking down.
Nissan RB coils don’t have the best reputation, and although the original units have been swapped for Splitfire units in my car, I’ve learned that they too are only marginally better than stock. Starting with the most simple and cost-effective remedy, I picked up a set of new NGK Iriway 7 spark plugs to see if they solved the problem.
On removal, the spark plugs appeared to be in pretty average condition, but most likely not the main cause of the misfiring fault. Though the stumbling has stopped (for now), Kano worked with me afterwards to help troubleshoot the real source of the problem, and point out a few other things that he recommends repairing or upgrading.
This is the look you get when you’re about to be told some less than pleasing news.
After a quick poke around underneath, Kano-san informed me that the power steering rack might need a rebuild in the future as it looked like of one of the seals was leaking. I’d rather know about these sort of things than not though, and it’s that extra care and concern that he always shows me that makes me a loyal customer to Veruza.
Thus I’ll ask the question to everyone again – is there a shop that you are truly loyal to?
Ron Celestine
Instagram: celestinephotography
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Can't wait to see what you do with the car!
My own home garage.
Same here, DIY for life! The things I won't do myself mostly comes down to cost and/or space. Like, I know who to trust with balancing and assembling the short block, where to get an alignment done and what tuner to visit for a map that doesn't kill the engine.
...I might have put the goal a bit high, were only going to replace the main bearings, but now I'm smoothing out the pedal shafts and prepping them for paint
Besides trust issues, it's kinda expensive here in Sweden. One hour at the VAG dealer will set you back 100€ (only for the work), and first oil change on a mazda cost me 240€.
It would be interesting to see how this compares with the rest of the world
Best answer. Home with your own hands is the only way I trust.
Thank you! Yessss.. That is one of the major downfalls of living in Tokyo - no garage space Hell.. no space in general lol.
Just wow.
Yes, my local yamaha dealer. He specialises in the R models and whenever I'm having trouble with something on my R6 the guy gives advice and helps me out, even though I'm still a student and as such do maintenance myself to keep costs down. Nice to see that not every garage is a rip off place :).
Very cool shop and great to see the specialty focus on Skyline R’s.
For small things and normal maintenance, I'm lucky enough to have my brother-in-law who owns a garage 20min from home...
For bigger work, I finally find someone 1h30 from home ( which means nearly at the other side of the country in Belgium :p ) who is passionate by japanese cars and has golden hands.
He had done such a clean job repairing my rusty strut towers that I won't trust any other one for the next steps.
Haymaker industrial earth ruined
Future fabrication
Elevens paint and fiber
Ums tuning
Oh man, that Lotus Europa looks mint. I love when shops have "specialty" cars that don't fit their bread and butter, because it shows they aren't afraid to step outside their comfort zone.
I try to do everything that doesn't require expensive specialty tools, like alignments, at home.
Yeah I haven't found a mechanic I trust but also like working on my own car. There is a wheel / alignment shop here in Auckland I trust 15 min away + a couple of engineers that I use too about 20 mins away. Take into account with the times that apprx 1/3 of the population is within 45 minutes / 40 km (24 mile) drive.
There is one shop in Misawa shi ,Aomori ken I am loyal to. The name is Pinku Style and the owner/operator is my good friend Donald Jackson. If you are ever in the area you should look him up.
Yes, I have one particular shop - or rather a guy, since he runs a one-man-show - which I consult when encountering issues that are too complex for me to solve.
This guy was a certified engineer which was unlucky with sitting in an office.
So he opened a little workshop for motorcycles. However he soon learned you cannot really live of that unless you are very lucky, so he started to maintain cars too.
And this guy, who chose the workshop life over a well paid office job, who prefers to get his hands dirty is still a man that REPAIRS things. He doesn't just swap parts, he repairs things. And he does this IF NEEDED and not just to make a quick buck.
A truly rare breed.
Sounds like a winner!
Advan Performance in Auburn, Sydney. For over 6 years and 4 cars I've been going there and I don't believe I'll ever go anywhere else
hopefully i find a shop like this for mine.
you are very lucky to have veruza
19,000,000 JPY for a used GTR it must be madness!!!
It's a V-spec II Nur!
Anyone know of a great shop near Chicago, Illinois ? Having a hard time finding someone I trust to work on my FD
Nice shop! I’ll have to check it out.
Have you been to Craft Sports in Gunma? They have a massive collection of GT-Rs. A bit far from Tokyo but still a reccomended visit. Ask Yumoto-san to show you their parts garage... it’s also huge.
Since he primarily works on cars with RB26 engines, is it a safe guess that the Europa you pictured has been made into something very special?