Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Past events that the Club & Members have attended. Read-only.
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tmk
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Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by tmk »

This year’s Tokyo Auto Salon was possibly the biggest one yet. It has really become too big. Instead of trying to see everything I ended up just going to the booths I knew I wanted to see, and then briefly see other things while I was making my way between these booths. In short, there were tons of things I didn’t see.

Overall trend is that the show feels like it’s becoming more mainstream. I feel like I see more families and “normal” people visiting than before, and due to this there are more cars than normal people are interested in as well. Nissan, Honda and the like had a lot of family vans and eco boxes on display for people to crawl around inside. The event space had more concerts and such than ever I think and the D1 Drift demos and Ken Block demos were attracting a lot of people too. Also a lot more foreigners are finding their way here now... so you guys should really get yourself over here!

I had expected a bit uptake on the Mazda MX-5 with the new RF from last year, and while it’s one of most plentiful car models at the show, it’s nothing like the 86 or at least nothing like the 86 was during its hay day. Surprisingly quite a few booths featured the newly released Lexus LC500. Another trend recently is the increased use of European cars for tuning. Strangely also a lot of Supras this year. Maybe in anticipations of an announcement about a new one? Still a lot of R35s. The R32 is also quite popular still (Top Secret again showed their R32 with an R35 squeezed inside it). Just a handful of R34s sadly, and even less R33s. I only found 3-4 RX-8s, and one of them had an engine swap so wasn’t even a rotary.

Rotaries are still on the decline at the show, but impressively FDs are still to be reckoned with even if they’ve not been made in ages. Still, it was the smallest RE Amemiya booth I’ve seen so far and they had no 8s on display at all this year. It’s also the first time I’ve seen them having booth babes. Maybe to make up for the lack of interesting builds this time? To be fair, their FDs were pretty nice, but they weren’t as crazy nor as inspired as some of Ama-san’s past creations. While I didn’t see Ama-san this year, the guys at RE Amemiya had some good news for us. I was told they’re going to focus on the 8 going forward with new parts etc. Apparently the 8 is seeing a bit of a renaissance recently with younger people buying them. I guess that with prices coming down (it seems like 8s are super cheap in the UK, but they never tanked like that in Japan) they are becoming a cheap alternative to 86s and such. Anyway, if the big tuners will start putting more effort behind the 8, that’s great. Apart from RE Amemiya, other traditional rotary tuners like Knight Sports and LegSport were there, but without any rotary cars on display (LegSport had a big poster of their 8 demo car though and were promising bringing out new a body kit).

Anyhow, here are some random pics..

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warpc0il (Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:15 am) • brix79 (Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:59 am) • GreySilver Beast (Mon Jan 15, 2018 5:55 am) • PeteH (Mon Jan 15, 2018 8:06 am) • Scartlead (Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:39 am) • Juey (Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:08 am) • Azimuth (Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:03 pm) • Shagrington (Tue Jan 16, 2018 12:08 am)
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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by brix79 »

Shows do seem to end up that way, the Classic Motor Show was huuuge! I barely managed 2 of the 5 halls. :shock:

I did manage to bug Nick about shotgun holsters on hundred year old cars while I was there though.
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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by GreySilver Beast »

A friend of mine was at the Tokyo Motor Show this year and owns a Modified GT86 here in the UK Image

He commented on how busy it was and how big the place was, in fact he spent 2 days at the Show and still didn't see all of it :o

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Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by tmk »

Cool! In terms of size, I think Tokyo Motor Show is way smaller than Tokyo Auto Salon Image

Couldn’t find a map for this year yet, but here is last year’s.. (the outdoor arena is where they have drift competitions and such):

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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by Juey »

Excellent work as ever from our Japan correspondent.
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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by tmk »

Speedhunters have posted their Tokyo Auto Salon 2018 coverage, and naturally they got nicer photos than me (blame the camera :P ) so worth a read:

“Access all areas at Tokyo Auto Salon”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/acc ... uto-salon/

“Lifting the veil on Tokyo Auto Salon”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/lif ... uto-salon/

“Tokyo Auto Salon at 50mm”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/tok ... n-at-50mm/



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warpc0il (Wed Jan 31, 2018 5:58 pm)
RX-8 (2011/PearlWhite) RE Amemiya Redom AType2.0 ECU+Super Intake Box+SportsCat,RMagic TunedMuffler TitanCut,5.125 Final,Tein MonoSport w/EDFC,WedsSport SA55mMGM 18x9.0J,Neova AD08R 245/40/R18,Dixcel SD+IDI GT2 brakes,AutoExe MemberBraceSet, Bride GIAS Carbon,HPI 4pt,MOMO,TRUST InfoTouch+LEG83005,YupiteruGWR53sd,Carrozzeria http://www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/vi ... 04&t=55428
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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by tmk »

Speedhunters have posted their Tokyo Auto Salon 2018 coverage, and naturally they got nicer photos than me (blame the camera :P ) so worth a read:

“Access all areas at Tokyo Auto Salon”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/acc ... uto-salon/

“Lifting the veil on Tokyo Auto Salon”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/lif ... uto-salon/

“Tokyo Auto Salon at 50mm”
http://www.speedhunters.com/2018/01/tok ... n-at-50mm/



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
RX-8 (2011/PearlWhite) RE Amemiya Redom AType2.0 ECU+Super Intake Box+SportsCat,RMagic TunedMuffler TitanCut,5.125 Final,Tein MonoSport w/EDFC,WedsSport SA55mMGM 18x9.0J,Neova AD08R 245/40/R18,Dixcel SD+IDI GT2 brakes,AutoExe MemberBraceSet, Bride GIAS Carbon,HPI 4pt,MOMO,TRUST InfoTouch+LEG83005,YupiteruGWR53sd,Carrozzeria http://www.rx8ownersclub.co.uk/forum/vi ... 04&t=55428
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Re: Tokyo Auto Salon 2018

Post by phoenix11 »

Brilliant :thumleft:
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