For the last 15 years, I’ve owned a workshop in Auckland, Latest Zealand, servicing, constructing, and tuning Japanese race and road cars. JTune, and a few of the vehicles I’ve had a hand in creating during the last decade and a half have previously been featured on Speedhunters. After a number of busy years, I finally decided to take a break from full-time on the shop and embark on a number of adventures in Japan.
My first trip this 12 months was for Tokyo Auto Salon, at which period I also travelled all the way down to Fuji to fulfill with HKS a couple of special Toyota GR86 project. I returned in the course of summer to check in on the progress of the construct, and likewise visit another shops. One among those was Automobile Shop Glow.
Though I missed 7’s Day (7/7) in Japan by every week, I used to be determined to go to and learn more about one among Tokyo’s most famous RX-7 shops. Automobile Shop Glow is today most well-known for its custom LED lights, nevertheless it also does servicing and full automotive builds from a humble constructing in Nerima-ku near the guts of Japan’s capital city.
Automobile Shop Glow was established in 2006, with its owner, Yukimitsu Hara, initially selling his LED light products online. By April 2008, he opened a showroom, focusing mainly on customising American and European cars.
In 2009, a customer – who was a manager at Super Autobacs – offered Hara-san his ex-Knight Sports Mazda RX-7, which he was not driving, at a hard-to-refuse price. Not wanting to pass up the chance, Hara-san bought the FD3S, signalling the start of the Automobile Shop Glow demo automotive.
Taking the RX-7 to Tsukuba Circuit in the identical spec he purchased it, Hara-san clocked a 1:06 lap time on 17-inch street tyres, setting a benchmark for future upgrades.
At the moment, lots of the other FD3S RX-7s within the Tsukuba paddock were equipped with RE Amemiya widebody kits, so Hara-san had one installed and finished the outside off with a fresh paint job and a pair of his custom tail lights. The kit upgrade allowed for wider tyres, prompting a return to Tsukuba on the earliest opportunity, where Hara-san cut his TC2000 PB lap time all the way down to a powerful 1:02.
From that moment, he was hooked on time attack.
As Hara-san continued competing in time attack events, proudly flying the Automobile Shop Glow flag, the corporate began receiving tail light orders from Japan and abroad, further boosting its profile.
On the back of this, Automobile Shop Glow expanded its range to incorporate lights for other models – the Toyota Supra, Honda S2000 and NSX, and Subaru Impreza, amongst others – and ventured into aero parts, exhausts and suspension, all of that are today sold in Japan and abroad.
Over time, Hara-san’s FD3S evolved through various time attack seasons, becoming lighter, more aerodynamic, and more powerful. You’ll be able to read all about it Dino’s 2015 feature.
The RX-7’s best time at Tsukuba Circuit is a powerful 56.4-second lap – achieved with OEM-based brakes and the factory ABS removed. That setup might raise some eyebrows, but given TC2000’s track layout – short with only a number of heavy braking zones – it is smart that balanced and simply warmed-up brakes might be more practical than an enormous brake kit. Sometimes, simplicity wins, especially once you don’t wish to spend an excessive amount of time fine-tuning brake balance and bias.
Currently, the RX-7 is fully stripped back, with big plans on the horizon. Once I asked Hara-san about his goal for the automotive, he shared that he’s desperate to push the bounds and go even faster; a 53-second lap is the dream.
In Tokyo and other Asian cities, physical space is an actual luxury, but in relation to modified cars, that doesn’t mean that construct quality is compromised. Many enthusiasts construct impressive machines right of their driveways or home garages. Working example, one other Automobile Shop Glow RX-7: Tani-san’s wild ‘GT race automotive for the road’ as recently featured by Toby.
To coincide with our visit, Automobile Shop Glow arranged for a number of customer-owned cars to stop by the shop after which head out for a drive in convoy.
Given Hara-san’s penchant for time attack racing, when seeing every other aggressively styled RX-7s outside Automobile Shop Glow, it will be easy to assume it’s a race automotive, too. While a few of these builds do hit the track, most are exclusively street cars heavily inspired by Hara-san’s FD3S. No matter how modified they’re under the hood, seeing these cars out on the road is pretty cool.
I need to present an enormous due to Hara-san and the Automobile Shop Glow staff for opening up their doors to us, and for everybody who brought their cars out. Stay tuned for the night cruise!
Jacky Tse
Instagram: jtune_nz
Photography by Ash Bechan
Instagram: pixeltoon_media
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