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 yr was for Tokyo Auto Salon, at which era I additionally travelled all the way down to Fuji to satisfy with HKS a few particular Toyota GR86 venture. I returned in the midst of summer time 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 all Tokyo’s most famed RX-7 retailers. Automotive Store Glow is right now 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 center 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 – provided Hara-san his ex-Knight Sports activities Mazda RX-7, which he was not driving, at a hard-to-refuse worth. Not eager to go 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, lots 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 equipment improve allowed for wider tyres, prompting a return to Tsukuba on the earliest alternative, the place Hara-san reduce his TC2000 PB lap time all the way down to a formidable 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 components, exhausts and suspension, all of that are right now offered in Japan and overseas.
Over time, Hara-san’s FD3S developed by means of varied time assault seasons, changing into lighter, extra aerodynamic, and extra highly effective. You possibly can learn all about it Dino’s 2015 characteristic.
The RX-7’s finest time at Tsukuba Circuit is a formidable 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 observe structure – brief with just a few heavy braking zones – it is sensible that balanced and simply warmed-up brakes could possibly be more practical than an enormous brake equipment. Generally, simplicity wins, particularly if you don’t need to spend an excessive amount of time fine-tuning brake stability and bias.
At the moment, the RX-7 is absolutely stripped again, with huge plans on the horizon. After I requested Hara-san about his aim for the automobile, he shared that he’s desirous to push the boundaries and go even quicker; a 53-second lap is the dream.
In Tokyo and different Asian cities, bodily house is an actual luxurious, however in the case of modified automobiles, that doesn’t imply that construct high quality is compromised. Many lovers construct spectacular machines proper of their driveways or residence garages. Working example, one other Automotive Store Glow RX-7: Tani-san’s wild ‘GT race automobile for the street’ as lately 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 another aggressively styled RX-7s outdoors Automotive Store Glow, it could be straightforward to imagine it’s a race automobile, too. Whereas a few of these builds do hit the observe, most are completely avenue automobiles closely impressed by Hara-san’s FD3S. No matter how modified they’re below the hood, seeing these automobiles out on the street is fairly cool.
I need to give an enormous due to Hara-san and the Automotive Store Glow employees 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
Images by Ash Bechan
Instagram: pixeltoon_media
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