Style is a funny thing, but more so is the speed at how people judge various interpretations of it. I think Nagano Koubou serves as the perfect example here, in particular the pink Onevia I posted last month following a quick tour of the little Kansai-based bodyshop. Over the last few years Masayoshi Nagano has been [...]
After checking out the 5Zigen time attack FD2 last week during our special “FF” theme, I thought it would be interesting to take a little tour of their main factory and HQ in Osaka. 5Zigen – pronounced go-jigen in Japanese (meaning “fifth dimension”) – was founded back in 1987 and quickly became one of the [...]
Front wheel drive is, wrong wheel drive. Bold statement, but technically speaking it just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you want to subject the front wheels of a car to so much abuse? They’re already trying to steer the car and in the process attempting to return some kind of feedback to the driver, [...]
In Yesterday’s Kanjo post, I provided a little glimpse into a fascinating and notorious piece of Japanese car culture grown on the streets of Osaka. Today we’ll stay in Japan’s most colorful city for a visit to Tactical Art – a shop where a group of very passionate individuals have blended their Kansai roots with [...]
From a distance, Japan might look like a pretty uniform nation. It doesn’t matter what area you visit – everyone pretty much speaks the same language, the buildings and streets look similar, the trains always run on time, and the toilets wow with their high tech features. As with any country though, you look closer [...]
In yesterday’s post I tried to give you guys a sense of the madness and sensory overload that was the 2013 M&L Party. Today I’d like to continue with some additional scenes and observations from this late night extravaganza on the Osaka harbor front. Because I had spent the entire day beforehand shooting at Osaka [...]
For me, visiting Japan is an exercise in constant amazement. Wherever I go in the country, I’m greeted by incredibly passionate people doing incredible things with incredible cars. During the 35 days that I spent there on this most recent expedition, I was able to see an unprecedented array of Japanese car culture. Picking a [...]
Tokyo Auto Salon might be the place where the world comes to see the latest and greatest in Japan’s tuning and custom car scenes, but one month later there’s another event that I find just as, if not more fun than TAS. That would be Osaka Auto Messe. I first had the chance to attend [...]
VIP style continues to evolve and as we have seen over the last couple of years it is spreading like wildfire, not only being applied to the vast array of new and old sedans that Japan has on offer, but even more everyday sort of cars. On my last visit at K-Break, which has to [...]
The time attack scene in Japan is just about to begin. As the summer’s scorching temperatures begin to fall, as hazy humidity gives way to crispy blue skies, race tracks begin to populate with a special breed of enthusiasts. Shooting for the ultimate lap has become somewhat of a way of life for some, Scorch [...]
Sometimes feeling confused is a good thing. Let me elaborate; for us Speedhunters feeling a little disoriented at events or shops means we are usually surrounded by a lot of goodness, goodness that plays havoc with our brain making it hard for us to decide where exactly where we should begin our coverage. This is [...]
Staying true to your roots is something very important but at the same time equally hard to do. When it comes to cars, the lure of modern machinery, new technology and the ever-increasing levels of performance is very difficult to resist. But for the guys at Osaka JDM this is more like a way of [...]
My Speedhunting adventures had to sooner or later take me to a little special garage nestled in the Sakai-area of Osaka city. I hadn’t heard of Osaka JDM up until that warm autumn day in Fuji Speedway last year at the Hellaflush Japan show. One of the first cars that stood out were a pair [...]
Taking inspiration from the past is something that car manufacturers have been doing for years. Call it retro styling or tapping in to the bloodline of the brand, let’s just say some do it better than others. When it comes to Mercedes Benz and AMG however we can safely say that they have created nothing [...]
There is a reason I find myself driving down to Osaka every other month. A few hundred kilometers sure make a difference in Japan, and while every city from Hokkaido all the way down to Hiroshima looks exactly the same, it’s the people and their attitudes that change. This is especially the case in Kansai, [...]
