My JDM Shops Trip (non FR-S/BRZ/86 related)
 

I thought I could create a separate thread for my visits I did while in Japan. Can always be great inspiration for you guys... I have TONS of pictures, will update it often.

My visit at Odula in Japan:

I always loved Odula products. They make so many of them for so many Mazda vehicles that I wanted to visit their shop. Pretty far from Tokyo, it's a 8 hours bus drive (took the night bus) and rather close to Kyoto (~45 minutes Train).

When I leave the train, I find myself in a far, far, far city with absolutely NO english signs anywhere. Just explaining the taxi drivers that I want to go to a specific address took me 3 different persons to finally find one with an iPhone who basically scammed me as the 1.2km drive was supposed to cost ~$5 and ended up at ~$15.

Well, now I'm at Odula, in a semi farm/industrial area, and this is my first sight (badass delivery truck content):

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psb1c19b80.jpg

Reminder to myself, Odula = Over Drive. I was a bit confused at the beginning, but at least I found the place!

Then, the owner does not let me look at the cars, he wants to discuss business a bit (I like that), and he shows me his office. There was plenty of trophies showing that Odula is not only making cool looking items, they race using them:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psbcc50df5.jpg

He then showed me his best selling items and gave me some explanation about them:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps981d20d5.jpg

I asked him about the super-wide SSR wheel and he told me he used this wheel while doing GT(?) Races:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9977f91f.jpg

He took a picture of me and sent it over the Japanese internet: http://odula.blog85.fc2.com/blog-entry-1373.html

And my visit continued to the garage.

He first asked his mechanic to bring his FC3S and show it to me:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps31fb3cb5.jpg

What a nice looking car. It had Odula's Original Front Lip in Carbon Fiber and the car sounded pretty solid. Here's the ass shot:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psb2ff52cb.jpg

After that, he showed me his demo car (RX-8 R3) rocking all their aero parts:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps36f6eb9a.jpg

Since Odula is sponsored by RAYS, it was on very nice RE30? in special blue finish:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psbe1e0375.jpg

I'm really starting to dig GT Wings. They are not the cheap, ricer versions we saw in 2000s. They are now very nice, wide, perfect height and not made of aluminum, but carbon fiber:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...pse6ed0b48.jpg

He then showed me his RX-8 Race Car (I always thought it was the same car... but they just share the same color!), with around 300hp:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps521ea23c.jpg

It had this cool ram intake that brings air directly into the airbox:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...pscddfbcfb.jpg

Around the race car, there were plenty of awesome wheels and tires:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psb46cad41.jpg

And these tires were dedicated for the race car, never enough(?):

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps16a18c50.jpg

It's so nice to see such a shop develop so many products just by passion of Mazda. He told me that over the years he saw many counterfeit versions of his items and was always hesitant to sell oversea. I told him that many people had the mentality of doing big bucks instead of offering original products... sad. I just want to tell you guys that when you encourage original items, you help them create new products which create diversity!

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps113891c9.jpg

It was time to leave to another JDM shop... so he washed the car... looks so nice!

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5f648a33.jpg

Bonus pic; delivery van on JDM wheels!

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4f83a48d.jpg

Very cool, thanks for posting!

I love shops like these, they can make certain cars very unique and offer more than most major companies really can.

My visit to JoyFast

Here's my first coverage for a roadster shop; enjoy! More to come!

Joyfast is a very cool, small and relaxed shop.

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8bc2ce11.jpg

When you enter the shop, you can see cool parts everywhere:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psf8cb58ab.jpg

Their collection of original shift knobs (the wood shift knobs are the secret items they don't show on their website, but we can get them) :)

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0121a377.jpg

You know someone's really into Miatas when he sit ALL DAY LONG in a NA seat hahaha:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6d9db110.jpg

He's also got a wall of all of the race cars he's owned or worked in collaboration:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psf7efbc2c.jpg

Enough shop pictures, let's see the beasts he's working on...

When you enter the garage, all you can see is 2 bright yellow cars, but let's start with the most popular and known NA shop car:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...pseb18c780.jpg

You can see he's working some cool deep-dish 16'' TE37 wheels. Those side vents actually are Honda Accord fog lights inserts... pretty cool !

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psd35a93fd.jpg

JoyFast sloggan is Lightweight Sport Car, his car has fiberglass doors, most of the panels also are fiberglass, not much of OEM items can be found in the interior and he's running acrylic windows (even the hardtop one) and fiberglass trunk:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psbc1ac934.jpg

It has a very functional interior:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3c6b7a2.jpg

And some RARE Mazdaspeed racing seats some people would sell their kidneys for:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps739066a3.jpg

But all that car is nothing without a cool engine ;)

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps04320120.jpg

Wanna hear it ? Click here.

Then, we can see his NC shop car, running the same yellow paint and gloss black TE37 wheels + Garage Vary hardtop:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps849a6dae.jpg

It also has a nice VOLTEX wing:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...pse2b1c79b.jpg

It will also be running soon the Jet Stream induction chamber for NC, as many shops start running it, it seems it's pretty efficient modification:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4c59efd1.jpg

Some parts laying around...

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps04f7237c.jpg

Here's another racing car for their 185 cup (only 185-60-14 tires can be used):

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9bc73283.jpg

And a customer car having a complete restoration:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psc77cd5d6.jpg

Pretty clean with those BBS RG-F1 ...

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps42db2a44.jpg

A customer NC car being worked on, too:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps12bf5688.jpg

And the last car I'm showing in this post will be a customer mariner blue NA...

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps060200ab.jpg

... having a heart transplant:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps23f01837.jpg

BONUS PHOTO: While I was driving around, I saw this MINI-only shop that seemed to have gotten themselves this NA with front-end conversion... pretty cool!

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psad461375.jpg

For more photos, please follow us on Facebook!

My visit at RE-Amemiya

I still have a few more features to show and I'm keeping the bests for the end :)

So, I arrive at 8:00 AM to RE-Amemiya because I have quite a few other appointments during that day.

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1f43f5f9.jpg

Not many employees working, it's a National holiday, but still, some have time to do some tuning!

First thing I notice is that there are plenty of cool cars for sale at the shop, like this clean FD3S on Advan Wheels:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psbcc071d3.jpg

Or this black one on Rays SE37k and AD Facer front bumper:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4371d52b.jpg

Also, looks like someone came before me and left their signature...

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps331b8483.jpg

There's another row of cars for sale (mainly older demo cars), like this flat gray WIDEBODY RX-8:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2694afe0.jpg

Or this FD3S rocking Super GReddy3 Body Kit:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps90274d74.jpg

Another nice looking RX8:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psab0369f3.jpg

This funky-looking very detailed paint FD3S:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psef02be4f.jpg

So much details, even painted the wheels!

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1a2045d8.jpg

Now, some of you may wonder why many are missing top of their GT wings ? Well it's because they're VERY expensive to make and they keep them for their actual demo cars (or sell them to customers to upgrade from older to new).

And now a more "RE-Amemiya" normal FD3S which still look so AMAZING:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps08bd2999.jpg

So, as I'm good at teasing people, I just showed you their cars for sale, but during all that time, I was next to their actual demo cars (which just came back from TAS2014):

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps347b95b6.jpg

Their blue demo car is so amazing in person, all the details, the wide-body, the perfect carbon fiber touches, creates an awesome vehicle worth looking at for hours:

Front end = perfect
http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75e92f30.jpg

3/4 shot from rear = perfect
http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps614a8a3d.jpg

3/4 shot from front = perfect
http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0ef7b683.jpg

Tail lights & GT wing = perfect
http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6977eb58.jpg

Dolphin-tail exhaust = WOW
http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psa68e7ea5.jpg

Now, they ask me for a last shot of their GT300 car before going on towing:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps456060ca.jpg

Okay, so the shop had a nice dyno room (they were working on a customer car):

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9c0bf6e5.jpg

And in the garage, they had another demo car which was pretty weird looking. Still rocking a Super GReddy3 Kit:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psda42b0f3.jpg

And some funny looking paint sheme:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps447c45fe.jpg

As I always say to people, Japan is all about D E T A I L S :

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps439d2dea.jpg

Then, I had to talk business with them, so I went inside and took a few shows; they had many trophies:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps07e493ed.jpg

They did not stock as many parts as I thought:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps53c4b350.jpg

But had something cool to show in their waiting room...

Very cool...

It won Tokyo Auto Salon a few years ago:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps37581004.jpg

And really does not look like a FD3S anymore, but it really is:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...psf642b388.jpg

We gotta give credit to RE Amemiya for creating such designs, it's pretty cool looking and looks like it's built with quality in mind:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4367db8c.jpg

Mirror was neat, too:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6a27b8aa.jpg

Purists will hate it, but I really enjoy seeing something new instead of the usual drop+lip. I gotta admit that the rear end was EXTREME:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps78874069.jpg

Now, I gotta work on my pictures as I have way more to show in the next days/weeks. Thanks for looking :)

BONUS:
Another shot of the amazing demo car:

http://i1031.photobucket.com/albums/...ps202b290c.jpg