Tatsumi Nights - Where Motoring Dreams Are Real

Tokyo is not known for its car meets; as surprising and bold as it may sound, the tradition of Cars & Coffee barely exists, while official main stream events are rare, too organized, too crowded, and too centered around a certain theme.  This creates a precedence for all car guys to get into their machines and hit the highway in search for similarly minded people.

Naturally, rest stops become meeting spots, bringing a certain degree of fame to isolated Tatsumi PA.  We have visited it before, and will surely do so again, as the rides that can be seen here are out of this world, belonging to car shows or museums!

This is what makes Japanese car culture so unique.  There is rarely any criticism or any of that "import versus local" rivalry, but extremely high level of craftsmanship as well as desire for individuality make owners go out of their way to make their cars stand out, perhaps nothing like anything else in this country.

There is always an unorthodox manner to customize such as this MR2 drop top conversion,

Or you can do everything by the book and make all car fans drool with excitement over such creations as this Nissan Fuga, also known as Infiniti M37 outside Japan, dropped on a set of 20 inch TE37SL's. 

Perhaps a brand new BMW M235i with M performance bits is another way to impress, as it ticks all the right boxes for any BMW fan.  Perfect balance of power, weight, handling, comfort and pure fun all fit into nice, compact and great looking package.

It was good to see a nice 3-series group to join.  The 325i in the center had the same wheels as mine, but I managed to get my car to sit lower than the coupe due the suspension choice.  The black 335i Touring was sporting a perfect fitment of 19 inch BBS LM's, but it was my car that made the Speedhunters feature this time. 

But I could not afford to spend all night at the BMW party as things were picking up and picking up really quick, as well as, needless to say - loud!

All sorts of cars could be seen filling up the lot to capacity.  Some showing off their visual appeal, while some indicating the undeniable racing pedigree.

In exactly the same manner as in my previous post from Tatsumi, exotics were nicely mixed up with awesome JDM rides setting the tone for the night as well as reminding us about the true nature of Japan's car culture.

But since we are on a subject of JDM, I couldn't help noticing the large amount of Supra's being present and modified beyond the limits of imagination.  From this wide body option

to the extremely clean RZ sitting perfectly on TE37's and sporting a full body kit and custom metallic blue paint job.

But then this creation appeared and reminded us about different ways of customizing JDM cars. 

Giant wing, Lambo doors, and vinyl are a bit too 90's, but let's not forget, so is the car itself.  But when it sits so perfectly on the Work Meister S1 wheels, one could only wonder does it have substance to match the style?

After looking under the hood, it became evidently clear that it does!  A custom cold air intake is installed along with redone ignition wiring to improve air flow to that 2JZ, which has been converted to a single turbo.

There were plenty of Skylines as well with this white R34 personifying the generation long gone.  Can't believe it has been 12 years since the last RB26 creation rolled off production line.

Many GTR purists are still preferring the R34, but not Shunske-san (one of the Tokyo Car Parade followers), who proudly owns one of the few imported LHD R35 GTR's in Tokyo. 

The car has undergone a hefty set of modifications under the hood making it capable of embarrassing a few super-cars. 


But let me remind you that super-cars come in different flavors in Japan,

and some get the unique JDM touch, such as having this 930 turbo dropped on a set of Rays TE37SL's.  As you can see, these wheels look good on anything.

However a set of BBS LM's is a good alternative.  Nothing like a classic German design on a classic German car!

But some choose to keep their classic bone stock and are doing it right! 

The custom Lamborghini scene has been on the rise as of lately and usually they can be seen here at Tatsumi.

Love it or hate it, they are here to stay, but custom or not, the sound of Lamborghini V12 whizzing down Tokyo highways is nothing short of of awesome.

There are some things that cannot be beaten.  Seeing an F40 mix up with the street crowd in such manner is mind boggling.  This is the same F40 we saw tearing down Fuji Speedway in time attack event at Motorgames.

It belongs to the same gentleman as this Mclaren 650S, the founder of group "CarGuy", a true enthusiast who is living the supercar dream. He is turning into a motor celebrity of Tokyo as he is not afraid to let his cars out, mix up with the crowd, and hoon around on the track.  Always present at car meets, he also threw a supercar party at Hakone, which unfortunately I could not attend for personal reasons, but I am sure we will see more his involvement in Japan's car life; in the meantime please follow CarGuy on Facebook.

Well, from genuine car guy, to genuine pimp.  When a Rolls-Royce Phantom with Led lights under the bonnet  and all around the car, wrapped in custom leopard skin, with 2 exotic looking ladies in the back seat rolls in, the meet just stops.  So we will leave it here, until next time that is.

Thank you for reading everyone. Please don't forget to follow and share, as well as use comments to tell us what was your favorite car from this feature!

 

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