Right here we’re once more, out within the chilly, wandering round a carpark on the economic aspect of Tokyo, looking for outdated iron and perished rubber. Sounds fairly grim, proper?
Improper. As a result of this isn’t any outdated carpark. That is the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon automobile park on the Saturday afternoon of the present.
Automobile meets are nice in Japan, however consider the TAS automobile park as the final word. Over the three days of the present, automobile fans from throughout Japan will roll via the sprawling numerous the Makuhari Messe parking space.
This being Japan, you actually by no means know what you’re going to seek out.
The TAS automobile park is very completely different to what lays contained in the Messe, the place insane vehicles bedazzle company to the relentless soundtrack of Eurobeat and the shutter click on of promo lady paparazzis. Give me a super-clean Nissan Skyline GTS-R in a chilly automobile park any day of the week.
Final yr, I wandered across the automobile parks early on Saturday and Sunday morning searching for the bizarre and the fantastic. This yr I wished to do one thing a bit completely different, and I’m glad I did, as a result of the mushy afternoon mild was beautiful.
Being such a giant occasion on the annual automotive calendar, there have been many vehicles that I recognised from 2022, so check out final yr’s gallery in case you haven’t already.
As with 2022, so many JDM icons have been in interval right and/or OEM+ situation. No bangers to be seen right here.
Working example, this Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII nestled between grocery-getting SUVs. I noticed it from a mile away.
This itasha pairing was onerous to overlook, too. It’s a fairly daring transfer to cowl your automobile in anime characters, however hey, somebody has to do it. The older I get, the cooler the Stagea will get.
There appears to be a little bit of a black theme rising right here, the GTS-R from a second in the past, and this JZA70 Toyota Supra and Mitsubishi GTO have been all über cool.
However my decide was this gorgeous ST205 Toyota Celica GT-4.
These might not be as wild because the vehicles on present inside the venue, however their simplicity was calming after the depth of the hustle and bustle of Japan’s largest tuning present.
I’ll be displaying you what I discovered contained in the balmy halls of the Makuhari Messe subsequent time. However for now, I’ll go away you with the remainder of what I came upon within the chilly in the gallery beneath.
Toby Thyer
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Gallery
