The Tokyo Big. A location that hosts many events throughout the year but most importantly, at least in my book, Tokyo Big hosts the Tokyo International Motor Show. One of, if not the most anticipated and awaited for international automotive shows on the planet.Not only did this show have all the futuristic stuff from Toyota and Honda, but most importantly was the debut of the Mazda RX Vision!
The fist car that is displayed inside the show is the Toyota KIKAI, meaning "Opportunity" in English. Toyota has kept anything other than the dimensions of the car under wraps mainly because this is a concept car and more of a vision model to display the ideas they want in the range of their future production cars rather than a car for production itself.
As you can see it has some hot rod themes to it with a very futuristic twist to it.
The exposed engine and exhaust pipes really solidify the hot rod theme. and honestly I wasn't really sure what to think the first time I saw it, but knowing that this is more of a visionary spirit animal of the Toyota company gives me some comfort that Toyota isn't taking this opportunity to seriously... Opportunity...? I make joke. Moving on.
After the KIKAI was an array of other futuristic cars. These cars continued with the ideas of what the future could look like. And while a lot of the world may look at these cars and think less than constructive thoughts, the Japanese people love things like this, showing advanced technology with a new better way of living.
After my first few minuets of wandering around the "future" I was a little bit concerned about what performance cars would look like in said future.. But, I was soon pleasantly surprised with something that had a red
S on it.
The Subaru Impreza WRX STi S207. Besides being a bit of a mouthful this got me excited about the future. This S207 stands on exactly the same platform as the
Standard WRX STi (wich is a bit of an oxymoron) but is jam packed with features. While I would have liked to see a two door version much like the old STi B22 of the golden days of rally I can't complain to much about four because that means you can take all your buddies along for the ride. Unfortunately it will only be on sale in Japan...
The ride that is powered by 323 horspower stopped by bigger six pot Brembo brakes and has Bilstein's DampMatic II suspension.
In addition to some extra goodies the only things that make this so much of a cooler car than the
normal STi
is the outer looks of it and the fact that it will be made in very
limited quantities. Making it an instant collector car for sure.
After the STi there was a few other displays before I got to the the other production car companies.
There was a Potenza booth with a BMW i8. Pretty cool.
Among others that stood out Jaguar and Land Rover made their appearance with their newest.
F-types always look bad. Its good to be bad though right?... Jokes.
Almost every Japanese auto maker had a display of their rally vehicles. I got a quick glimpse of this Sharp looking Outlander before I moved on.
BMW made a production appearance aside from the i8 with a booth full of their best including a few jovial bi-turbos and this B6 Alpina Cabriolet.
Across the Isle from the German metal was some interesting vehicular modes of transportation from YANMAR of all companies.. now you may be asking what in the world is Yanmar. And that'd be a good question. My answer would be along the lines of explaining that is is a subset of John Deer in Japan. My dad actually has a Yanmar tractor. So there's that..
I mean they looked like fun.
But after spotting these I spotted something that looked much more fun.
Radical's RC lineup, namely the RXC Turbo is what I took the most interest in.
I had never heard of these cars.. maybe because I haven't been keeping up to date with the newest but I can't believe I'd never heard of them and that they still aren't a much bigger deal.
These cars are basically a Le Mans inspired production racecar fitted with indicators and a pair of license plates.
At a rough price of $260,000 I have to say it isn't cheap but you are basically getting a full bread racecar for the road.
And with the racecar comes the interior expected, minimalist and aimed at one thing giving the driver the vital information needed to make sure the machine is working at its best ability.
I can't imagine driving this around town its just ridiculous. This thing is no doubt a racecar, but then there's the license plates.
Next was some other slightly smaller Air Pumps with only two wheels. I couldn't not give them some credit. This Suzuki was Yohei Kojima's Bike which he won the 2015 all Japan MXGP. Pretty cool for all the MX nerds out there.
This was a pretty great little bike right here. The Honda Grom. Aimed at the independent newly licensed independently wealthy kid looking for a cool boost but who can't afford a decent car yet...
This is a 125cc bike with all the bigger bike stuff in a
smaller package. Perfect for the Japanese.
One thing I
learned while in Japan is the mass quantities of scooters on the road,
and what cooler scooter than the Honda Grom.
This scooter also caught my eye. Small and has some pretty flaming attitude. But what I was about to see next had probably the most additude of the whole show maybe the second most but a lot.
The real, all new, production ready, Acura NSX. This was one of the things I had to get a glimpse of while I was at the show. I had a really hard time comprehending what I was witnessing as I stood there peaking over my camera view finder to see the NSX in real life. I mean this is a very important car.
Acura has showed the world once again.. much like the original NSX that Japan can make a supercar. One that not only has all the characteristics of a supercar but one that trumps many European counterparts in many ways.
This car takes the spirit of the original NSX and puts it into a competitive format for today's very competitive market. Not only that but it keeps all the environmentalists happy because of its hybriditiy.
Just behind me as I was looking at the NSX was some more great motoring air pumping goodness.
Some more for the Bike nerds out there. This is Marc Maquez's MotoGP bike. Like F1 but for road bikes. This Marquez guy is incredible by the way, two time world champion at age 23. Pretty incredible.
Next to the Bike was a formula car looking good and sitting pretty.
Further on in the progression of the Toyko Motor tour was the new Honda Civic type R. Now this feller is all new and not like any other Type-R before it. Lets just start with over 300hp.
Or maybe a zero to sixty time of 5.5 seconds
(Car and Driver).
I mean besides looking like a star wars ground cruiser this thing is nutz. I mean It might well be the the fastest hot hatch to date. I hate to give Honda to many accolades when it comes to their civics but put a Type-R badge on these with 300hp and I'm happy.
Next in the lineup was some more German Metal..
First was the all new Mercedes AMG GTS. And how I wanted to type SLS because they resemble each other in many ways.
This AMG has two options for trim. The GTS as mentioned and the GT. The S with a 500+ horsepower 4.0 litre twin turbo V8 as the above badge so kindly points out and the GT with a similar setup producing right around 450 ponies. Still nothing to sneeze at.
The new look seems a lot smoother and more modern. Less of a throw back to the original 300SL and more of an evolution into the future of where this platform is moving to.
Surprisingly this car was one of the less viewed at the event I had plenty of time to spend taking in all its intricacies. Check out the face of the guy holding the Phone sideways. Timing is everything.
Overall I'm looking forward to see where Mercedes goes with this GT/GTS. And was still in shock as to why there wasn't more people around it, Because I think it looks gorgeous.
But then I caught a Glimpse of one reason why there was a lack of crowd.
After realizing what was before me I moved in closer.
Initially in seeing this car I was a bit confused. It looked like a racecar but didn't have the raw appeal that most racecars have. No body panel gaps, no dirty and incomplete interior. So I made a note to figure out exactly what I was Looking at.
Turns out this is a campaign model for factory Racecars in GT3 and similar race series around the world. This is mean looking Air Pump is of course based off the GT/S platform but fitted with carbon enhanced plastic overfenders, and just about evertyhig elses...
Turns out this factory racecar can be purchased for just under $500,000 and entered into the GT3 races around the States. Although it comes with the old(er) 6.0L in it, it still produces similar horsepower figures. And according to Car and Driver has a Bulletproof set up to get race teams potentially though two race seasons without having to going through a factory rebuild. Their
full article covers it pretty well.
Despite my initial confusion I was thoroughly impressed with the car, it's level of finish and everything else I could see of it without getting in the cockpit. But that's why we have car and driver journalists.
Next was the Porsche Section..
With their GT3 racer and other coolness. I Didn't spend to much time in this section mainly because the Japanese have and uncanny urge to know everything there is about Porsche and in lue of that the production cars would have been an absolute nightmare to take pictures of let alone get a glimpse of. So I wrote them off and moved onto more Japanese native metal.
One thing that Nissan has done very well on in my opinion within the last few years is the Z Chassis.
The now fading but still very relevant 370 chassis has set some trends and kept me interested. Especially with what Formula drift pro driver Chirs Forseburg is doing with his
"street car".
But more importantly the new Nismo Package has done a good job of keeping the tuners stoked and most importantly Chris Forsberg's Formula Drift Pro-Car looking good.
After walking through the Nissan section and being unimpressed with the concept GTR I moved onto the Mazda booth and their main showcase.
Which was not this pretty looking Mazda Cosmo
Or its clean and well preserved body lines.. untouched by restoration.
But the new Mazda RX Vison... Wich also was very well looked at and crouded around, Like the NSX and Porsche's Pumps. The first glimpse I got was through an iPhone view finder much like what you see here.
And here. Btw This is me holding the camera just above my eye line. This is one time I was very thankful that the Japanese people are short.
Anyways THIS. The most
attitudinized display right after the attituded NSX and the Honda Grom. Mazda's Showcase. I don't know about everyone else but I am
fully stoked for every part of this car except form maybe the name they gave it. I understand its the concept but it sounds to far out with that name and maybe that's what I dont like about it.
Anyways. This thing is awesome. I mean what more could Rotor heads want from a new RX model.
Its got an engine up front, a promised rotary, two seats, and all the right vibes to get some necks broken on the street. I honestly felt so
lucky getting to be one of the fist Americans to view this feller in real life.
You could say a bucket list item was checked off.. "Attend the revealing of a Concept car I'm passionate about seeing become a reality."
I couldn't get enough pictures of this thing. It was nuts..
After spending many moons looking and taking picture my stomach groweld and I knew nature was calling.
I headed out of the very packed Tokyo Big and back to reality, in awe of all the Gloriousness I had witnessed that day.
Joshua Sewell
Instagram: josh_sewell_photo
