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 among the autos 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 era I additionally travelled all the way down to Fuji to satisfy with HKS a couple of particular Toyota GR86 challenge. I returned in the course of summer season to verify in on the progress of the construct, and in addition go to another retailers. A type of was Automotive 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 famed RX-7 retailers. Automotive Store Glow is at present most well-known for its customized LED lights, nevertheless it additionally does servicing and full automobile builds from a humble constructing in Nerima-ku close to the guts of Japan’s capital metropolis.
Automotive 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 – supplied Hara-san his ex-Knight Sports activities Mazda RX-7, which he was not driving, at a hard-to-refuse worth. Not eager to move up the chance, Hara-san purchased the FD3S, signalling the start of the Automotive 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, most 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 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 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 Automotive Store Glow flag, the corporate started receiving tail mild orders from Japan and overseas, additional boosting its profile.
On the again of this, Automotive 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 at present offered in Japan and overseas.
Through the years, Hara-san’s FD3S developed by means of numerous time assault seasons, changing into lighter, extra aerodynamic, and extra highly effective. You may 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 elevate some eyebrows, however given TC2000’s monitor format – brief with only some heavy braking zones – it is sensible that balanced and simply warmed-up brakes may very well be simpler than a giant brake package. Typically, simplicity wins, particularly while you don’t wish to spend an excessive amount of time fine-tuning brake steadiness and bias.
At present, the RX-7 is absolutely stripped again, with large plans on the horizon. Once I requested Hara-san about his aim for the automobile, he shared that he’s wanting to push the bounds and go even sooner; a 53-second lap is the dream.
In Tokyo and different Asian cities, bodily area is an actual luxurious, however relating to modified automobiles, that doesn’t imply that construct high quality is compromised. Many lovers construct spectacular machines proper of their driveways or house garages. Living proof, one other Automotive 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, Automotive 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 every other aggressively styled RX-7s exterior Automotive Store Glow, it will be simple to imagine it’s a race automobile, too. Whereas a few of these builds do hit the monitor, most are completely avenue 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 wish to give a giant due to Hara-san and the Automotive Store Glow workers 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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