The inaugural Stancenation show at Fuji Speedway was a bonus stop for Jamie’s Japan trip last week. After missing the Fatlace show at Fuji back in October he was pretty excited to get a second chance. I’ll leave it up to Jamie to give his thoughts on the event;
The drive from Tokyo was fairly uneventful, just a little slow due to the traffic. However the roads are amazing in Japan, they are smooth and very well maintained. However at a cost the drive from Tokyo to Fuji Speedway was about $60us round trip for a 190km journey. Still worth it in my book. Ha! As we left the smog of Tokyo behind and neared Fuji Speedway, the famous Mountain bearing the same name became clearer which made for an amazing back drop as we drove. As we got closer the frequency of impressive rides increased which added to the suspense of what we were about to see; Lots of eye candy.
As is usual with cars shows, the parking lots can be just as impressive as the show, and today was no disappointment. As you can see from the following images the Japanese tuners and car enthusiasts know what they are doing, they are inventive and maybe even sometimes a little extreme in what they do. Some styles are very extreme and are not always to my taste, but you can never deny the hard work and dedication put in by their owners.
I have always loved the Japanese focus on quality. They just do it right. A few of the standouts for me included the Blue Rocket Bunny S13, the Rocket Bunny kit just turns the S13 into a piece of art. I love it!
The Liberty Walk cars were of course impressive also. Unfortunately the GT-R, Ferrari 458, and Titanium Lamboghini were still in the US touring following this years SEMA show so they only had a couple of cars on display. Their feature car being another of his Lamboghini’s dressed in a sexy matt white finish adding to the classic extreme LB-Performace bodykit and stance setup.
Other standouts were some of the classics like the dark Green MizunoWorks Nissan Z that we had seen at his shop on the Friday. It truly is a piece of historic art beautifully maintained and enhanced.
There were a few things that I thought would be terrible but turned out great, for example the White EK Honda Civic with the white Steel wheel with some mean camber. It tidy and tasteful even with the ridiculous camber.
Of course the widebodied Matt Army Green GF8 Impreza held my attention for longer than most of the cars. It has been converted to a drift car with a full GDB engine drive train swap giving it a wider wheelbase, a 6 speed (converted to RWD) and of course the desirable 5×114.5 stud pattern making wheel choices much cheaper and easier to get. I will do a feature on this car on my next visit to Japan. Keep an eye out for it in January! Lastly some of the boxy Kei Cars were pretty cool.
So go check out a selection of images from the HardPark!
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