Automation Virtual Car Meet (AVCM) @ 2020 (ENDED)

Amongst the unique, eye-catching rides shown off at this event, a married couple with their comparatively mundane car watch on tentatively as the show goes on in front of them. For me; as an aspiring journalist interviewing people with their cars, this day in particular will go down as one of the strangest in my life… not least because the person who owns this car is far more interesting than the car that he showed up with.

The owner in question; Simon, is non-verbal. His wife Adele does the majority of the talking, but she explains that he can answer questions, but without speech his way of answering questions results in an almost comical charade of gestures and hand signals. Here’s a truncated transcript just to show you what we’re working with here. It’s seriously hilarious how animated he is.

“So, this is your ride, correct?”

[Simon nods.]

"If you don’t mind me asking, what made you buy this car?

[Simon’s eyes narrow slightly, as if stumped by the question. He holds up a finger telling me to bear with him, and he procures an image of a Skyline from his bag. He shows it to me with his left hand, then holds up his right hand and rubs his thumb in a circular motion across his fingers to symbolise “money”.]

[Simon turns towards his car and opens the bonnet. He then points towards the engine, and makes 6 rising and falling motions with his index finger across the length of the engine, indicating the six cylinders that the inline 6 engine possesses.]

“So does this car have the same kind of power that the Skyline does as well, or is it just the layout that bears a resembelance?”

[He nods, then walks over to the back of the car, opens the boot and reaches into a box, revealing dyno results that show that the engine is 3 liters, was rated at 360 horsepower and 520Nm of torque, and revs to 8000rpm… a redline that is nearly 2000rpm higher than the peak power point.]

“Lots of revs to play with there. I noticed beforehand that the car’s been through some pretty extreme weight reduction. If performance was what you were looking for, why didn’t you get rid of the back seats in that case?”

[Without even batting an eyelid, he looped back around to where he was (directly next to his wife), pivoted towards her and pointed to her belly.]

“Right-o. That’s pretty clear. Thanks for your time, Simon.”

[He smiles and shakes my hand.]

Upon researching this car for myself, the figures put out by this car took me by surprise. Manufacturer figures indicate that as new, this car could accelerate from 0-100km/h in less than 5 seconds, and could nudge the 300 barrier given a long enough stretch of tarmac and of course a disabled speed limiter (which is set at a rather brisk 280km/h).

It’s also just under 3000lb, and this particular model came as standard with bucket seats, 2+2 seating and strangely was optioned as a hard-top convertible. Closer examination during my time at the event showed that aftermarket brakes and tyres were fitted, as well as a slightly less restrictive exhaust to boost power. Some quick maths and an inflation calculator showed that it was available for around $48,000 in today’s money; not bad for a car as quick as this. It was super fun chatting with Simon, and his car really threw in some surprises along the way. I hope you as the readers enjoyed this section as much as I did making it!

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Here they come!


The Iramitsu International Club is here, and they came with some cool cars, like this tuned 1974 Iramitsu Aichi 1.8 and this wonderful 1957 Iramitsu IR360 Sport, the sporty version of Iramitsu’s first car and one of the only 694 ever sold.
The owner of the 360 Sport, Yumiko Matsuyada (the daughter of Iramitsu’s current president), said that, if you are careful enough, you can have a drive with the small Kei car
Iramitsu_IR360_(IR-1)_-_Sport.car (27.5 KB)
We also have this tuned 1978 K-Motors Deliverion, powered by a more powerful version of Iramitsu’s K-Series 3-cylinder

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Erm…

Oh, sorry. I’m gonna fix this real fast

Reminder:

The event will end at 11th August, 11:59 PM (MYT GMT +8), so if you still want to join the event, please act quickly. Thanks.

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Hey, my name is Mike and i am from Ontario, this is my Auxuras ETL Spec-V that i bought 6 months ago and i did a little modification, well it does cost a fortune but a man dreams is what it’s isn’t it?

This was my first Auxuras, i used to own several Maesima and Tanaka and did not have any experience on owning a luxury car, so you may consider this as my most expensive purchase ever. The reason why i bought the ETL Spec-V was because it’s quite rare in Canada, it’s cheaper than a M3 or C63 AMG by only a few grand so i think people rather buy them instead of this. And not to say the ETL is larger than them.

The original colour was white in colour and it look rather mundane so i thought of wrapping it in matte grey. I have also stance my car a little and my wife isn’t really happy about it, whenever she sits on my car my ear drum will definitely going to explode because of her nagging. sigh

I have also changed my exhaust and this was the best decision of my life, the car sounds so amazing but it cost me roughly $2000 and yes my wife isn’t happy about it too. giggle

Otherwise, most of my car are in stock condition. I really do recommend this car, it’s definitely very underrated and overall i am really very happy about my purchase. How can you go wrong with a 500bhp car with 4 doors am i right?

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PSA:

Since there are complains that some entries aren’t possible due to the forums having a server error, the show will end on 11:59 PM (MYT +8 GMT) on 12th August instead.

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fashionably late as ever…

On the penultimate day, a Lolvo FH16 shows up to the meet, hauling an unmarked white trailer…


This isn’t just any stock FH16 though…

2020 Lolvo FH modified by FB Trucks

This truck has received some aftermarket goodies courtesy of @Fletchyboy100’s FB Truck Products, including front and rear lightbars, aux lights, antennas, horns, and fancy new chrome wheels. Performance is kept the same however, with a 16-litre inline-6 producing 750 hp and 3550 Nm of torque powering the massive chonker.

Details


But I know you all are eager to see what’s lurking inside the mysterious white trailer…

Poolstar X

Since its inception, Poolstar has never forgotten its roots in high-quality, high-performance cars, and with the Poolstar X, it’s pushing it into the future. Poolstar X is where world-class engineering and high-grade components meet uncompromised design. Every detail and each and every part is there for a reason. Powered by a hybrid powertrain comprising of a twincharged inline-4 and an additional electric motor per wheel, Poolstar X definitely has the go to match the show, making upwards of 800 hp and 1000 Nm of torque.

However, make no mistake. Poolstar X is not a concept car. It’s a commitment car. A declaration of where we plan to go and what we plan to do. Watch this space.

the show


Bonus Pic

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Eh, nice lineup, but since there’s the yada yada legal jumberino issues, actual brands are not allowed nor recommended in the scene.

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oops, i’ll fix that right up. as long as it doesn’t use the actual name it’s fine, right?

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I had some actual proper tuned cars lined up for the event but I was hit with work and a power outage so these are the only photos I have, which were meant more for world-building.

Although Rigore sales are limited in Japan, there’s always a solid gathering of Angeles MT-R’s at these shows. Here you can see a few lightly modified ones from a 2016 sedan, 2012 sedan, 2003 sedan, and 2003 coupe, respectively. The owners of these arrived together and are the leaders of Japan’s Rigore Owners Club (リゴレーオーナーズクラブ).


You always see an assortment of supercars at Daikoku, and this year is no different. The Mjölnir is one of Rigore’s longest-running nameplates, and the 2016 model is just as stunning as ever, especially painted in this classic shade of Cavansite Cerulean. Among the other Italianites here you can see the bright yellow Ridgewell-Jeong 45 Supersport, one of their prominent 90s supercars.

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Not far away from the Rigores, there are a couple of Hakuryūs that attracted many eyeballs.
Well, one of them at least.

Background cars by @Be_gone_thot and @Sky-High


Yahallo! My name is Haruno Hiroyuki. I am an ECU tuning specialist at Overkill Engineering, and my father is the legendary tuner Jun Hiroyuki. I heard this year’s AVCM is really big, so today I brought something really special.


Overkill Engineering SRB-01 Top Speed Trial Car
cue the cheesy story

You guys might remember the Yatabe speed trial craze back in the 90’s, and this car you see here, was the car that ended it. The year was '93 I think, and my father was a senior engineer at Hakuryū. He was quite interested in snatching a speed record, so he gathered many of his collegues and created Overkill Engineering. Since the 280BX was the highest end sports car Hakuryū makes back then, that’s what he has to work with. However, there was this unspoken rule in the Yatabe scene back then, which is that an engine swap from another car were not allowed, you have to work with the original engine. If you ignored that, you will be more or less considered “cheating”. While many other Japanese sports car engines from that era has amazing tuning capability, the BR30-TT from the 280BX was fragile and unreliable. Fortunately, my dad had a lot of internal connections in the company, and his team was given permission to use many development facilities and tools, including a wind tunnel, for his top speed project.

The team developed a full carbon body kit for the car that not only reduced the weight to under 1 ton, but also significantly reduced drag on the already slippery 280BX body and gave it the slantnose look. The open undertray of the car is also covered up with a full-cover venturi tunnel that makes the car far more stable at high speeds than its competitors. Compared to the “tuning cars” that this thing was up against, it is almost like a purpose-built prototype, but with the original chassis. About a year into the development, the car performed its record run. It could have gone faster, but a conrod blew on the second run. I actually kept a photo of the car during its run.

takes out a picture from her pocket:

Still, it pretty much obliterated anything else at the time. Maybe it’s because how weird this thing looks, there were a lot of rumors about it. Some say that it has formula 1 turbos on it, some say it is actually a prototype with a shell that looked like a 280BX, some even say that my dad used his personal connections to get a group C engine for this thing. Nope. It still has that BR30 that only made around 600hp, compared to the opponents’ 800-900hp. After that there were many attempts at beating this thing. None of them succeeded, and they drove up the development cost so much that many groups turned their attention to circuit time attacks instead. Only very few groups are competing, and the Yatabe craze died soon after. Since then, Overkill slowly transitioned into a tuning company, and the SRB-01 has been sitting in our storage since then. You know that Hirochi Prasu GT that went on sale recently? We discovered that the R20BLM 3.8L flat 6 in it has a lot of tuning potential. To celebrate our company’s anniversary, we now have plans of swapping a highly tuned version of it into the old girl that you are seeing here. With the power output more than doubled, our computer simulation suggests that it is capable of more than 500km/h when it’s finished. As it is right now, it is not quite roadworthy yet, so I trailer-ed it here with my minivan instead. I dunno about you guys, but I’m super excited about seeing her going again at bonneville salt flats this year. Oh while you guys are here, why don’t you check out my new daily?


Haruna’s Hakuryū Ryuo 300 Executive
Automationverse people are actually anime girls

I used to daily a kei car, but sometimes I need to carry family members and clients around, so I bought this thing. Yeah… I know this is not really the kind of car for us petrolheads, but when you compare it to other cars, it’s a pretty good deal, and I also want to try some new things, you know? Even if you’re driving, this thing is insanely quiet and comfortable. Although the steering wheel feels like it’s connected to nothing, and the throttle response is non-exisistant, it’s quite easy to drive around despite its size, although parking with this thing is a real headache for me. I bought it not long ago, so it’s stock for now, but you can bet that I’ll give it some magic touch in the future.

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Sorry to nitpick, but “リゴア” is actually pronounced “ri-go-a”, as in “rigor”. The pronounciation “ri-go-ré” would be translated into “リゴレ” or “リゴレー” depending on if the last “e” is emphasized.

That aside, those photoshops are unparalleled, and the designs are nothing to turn one’s nose up at either!

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1992 Cascadia Hariken ST A&A

An expected sight at many car meets: a replica of an Agile & Angry star car, in this case the 1992 Cascadia Hariken ST seen in the first movie. These early 2000’s custom cars may be tacky these days but they’re part of an important milestone in the history of the car customisation scene.


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Yakaza Azure Track Tune

Some guy pulled up with an Azure with some racing bits on it, is it an actual track car? Who knows.

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This post will be updated at a later post.

archives

https://www.flickr.com/photos/142842562@N02/albums/72157715453997176/with/50216982496/

EDIT IN PROGRESS

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Try using a image hosting site like Imgur. Since the Automation forums has some limits when it comes to uploading pictures.

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Yep I am in the process of something similar

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足の長い女の子の夏の健康的な遠出車ショー

Mina Minatozaki

11 August 2020, 23:00

Filed to: BAYSHORE


Tucked away in the depths of Yokohama's Tsurumi Ward, there is rumored to be a mythical city disguised as an otherwise inconspicuous parking area. It is a legend as great as that of El Dorado, a grand city emblazoned in a gold that shimmers under the Columbian sun. But you won't find any precious metals here, for this city is one of steel, high octane gas, and labyrinthine roads scorched by burnt rubber. This is the legendary "city" of Daikoku Overpass.

Originally, the overpass served as a checkpoint for illegal high-speed racing teams who would often undergo top speed test runs along the Bayshore Route of the Shuto Expressway. Over time, its scope of interest extended beyond the underground racing scene and into the more general sphere of influence of car enthusiasts in general. Nowadays, car meets at the overpass have become diversified and plentiful enough for even the most well-developed palates.

Left to right: 2004 Seikatsu GR20 SPEC AX Turbo, 2018 Farox Tesora RF8 @On3CherryShake , 1974 Grifone Vistosa V12 @Boiled_Steak , 2020 FWM Senso @Vena.Sera423

I arrived at the overpass during its peak of activity. Have a sampling of what I found: a twin-turbocharged yellow panel van, a dark beige Harris 1800GT cabriolet in impeccable quality, a well-kept example of the polarizing Kadett Beatbuggy, and even a heavily modified Kuma GP-R with an expertly-executed itasha livery. Cars from all around the globe lined the parking spots as they sung a cacophony of bangs, pops, growls, and shrieks from their engines.

As I wandered the Daikoku overpass, one particular specimen stood out above all the other entries. Quite literally.

The 25K is a sight to behold especially on Japanese roads; these were never sold outside of North America, and it’s evident why. Here’s me for scale; I’m 165cm.

It was a Seikatsu 25K, which was the company's foray into the North American pickup truck market in the late 70s as part of their brand expansion. Wanting to break out of their predominantly frugal and boring image that had been established by their "Esper" compact car, Seikatsu released their "GR" and "MR" FR sport coupes in the early 60s. The 25K, released in 1978, was based off a heavily modified Seikatsu cab-over truck chassis and used license-built V8 engines from Athena Heavy Steel Industries based in Los Angeles.

The owner of this 25K is Yoona, a Korean-American transfer student from South California. "Why did I do it? Because I could," she responded to a question many of you share: why did you bring this here? "It's 20 feet long, weighs nearly three tons, and it has a ground clearance of 20 inches. There's a 7-liter V8- yes, 7 liters- under the hood. I think it gets like... 7 miles per gallon highway. And a Japanese automaker actually built and sold these. There's really nothing else like it."

Despite being wildly impractical on Japanese roads due to engine displacement taxes and its monolithic presence, there still remains a cult following of these massive American pickups. "It's actually fucking wild how popular these, um, old trucks can get here," Yoona explained cheerfully. "Diehard American weeaboos- yes, they exist here- will pay top dollar for your typical run-of-the-mill Sisten. The bigger, the better."

Parked right next to the 25K was a coupe in metallic white I had never seen before.

The badging gave its identity away as a Seikatsu, but I didn't recognize any model that even looked remotely like it. "It's the new Seikatsu GR," Yoona explained. "Its debut is supposed to be, uh, in about two weeks from now. Set to go on sale in early 2021."

I know what you're thinking; didn't they stop producing the GR in 2010 due to the financial crisis? According to Yoona, "They did. But now they're making it again." If you're wondering (like me) how this brand new, unreleased sports coupe from Seikatsu happened to be sitting out in the open in a heavily populated car meet, I don't have an answer for you. But Yoona does.

According to Yoona, this new generation of the Seikatsu GR comes with two engine options; a 3.5L turbocharged inline 6, or a 4.0L turbocharged V8. This particular example has the latter.

"I mean, it was a pretty damn easy job," Yoona remarked as she reclined in the driver's seat of her 25K. "One of my friends got an internship at their nearby manufacturing plant and according to him, there were rumors that the very first new GR was being kept in that same plant. In addition, one of the loading bay doors was busted and the contractor they hired to fix it was being a pain in the ass. I just got a trailer, busted in at about 4 in the morning, loaded this bitch up, and hauled ass. Well, not really hauled ass, since this [25K] tops out at 99 mph. I bet Seikatsu higher-ups are losing their shit right now."

In an unexpected act of kindness, Yoona handed me the keys to the Seikatsu GR. "This thing's actually really fun to drive," she said. "It's AWD, so don't worry about running over an entire class of kindergartners like you're in a Mustang." Yoona only let me drive in the general area adjacent to the overpass due to an overwhelming police presence on the highway, most likely in response to the missing car that I was driving.

Despite weighing just under 2 tons, the GR carries a certain swiftness to it that would make you think otherwise. The twin-turbocharged V8 paired with the 8-speed automatic made acceleration effortless at all speeds, and combined with what I assume is Seikatsu's improved QuadraDrive AWD that made its debut in their new generation of the JX, the GR flings itself through corners like meticulously calculated gravity-influenced slingshot maneuvers performed by spacecraft.

But more importantly, the GR held its composure no matter what corner I threw it into, inspiring a confidence within me to push it further and closer to its absolute limit. The GR lacked the sterile, overly-isolated feeling shared among other newer Seikatsu models I've driven, but instead delivered a much more raw, engaging driving experience. The rigid chassis and responsive, nimble steering lend the GR its fun yet incredibly capable handling qualities that responded well to even an amateur driver like me, seeing as the fastest car I've driven before today was a 130hp Kimura.

I enjoyed my visit at Daikoku Overpass, but it was soon time for me to leave after the test drive. Yoona kindly offered to drive me back home in the 25K, which proved to be easier said than done as she ended up having to take detours through anxiety-inducingly narrow alleyways. But on the drive back home, a question lingered in my mind; why was an otherwise normal, uncharacteristic parking area revered as a legendary site, a sort of holy grounds for the Japanese car scene?

Maybe it's the same reason why some people keep what would normally be undesirable cars; sure, they may be slow, unreliable, and may maim you if you crash in it, but what matters to them is not the physical value of the car, but the value of the memories ascribed to the car. Maybe it was their first car, or it was a car they saw in their childhood that they've always lusted after. What would be worthless to anyone else may be invaluable to them because of what it means to them. Perhaps the memories people have of flying down the Bayshore Express Route at over 300 kilometers per hour in the dead of the night inevitably draw them back to the overpass, where they can relive their experiences lost to time. Perhaps some may recall friends they made during a previous meetup at the overpass. No matter their reason, the respect garnered by the Daikoku Overpass can be traced back to these memories shared by the Japanese car scene, ultimately giving it its legendary status that we all know about. As spoken by Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid, "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit." Perhaps one day, we will look back on these days fondly.


Mina Minatozaki is a copy editor at "NXT," the student-run publication of Tokyo's University X. She is an undergraduate student studying Global Health.
Pictures without Mina



COMMENTS (4)

34AD2 Anonymous | 7:31pm
slow piece of shit…i can smoke the fuck out of this in my 1994 EG hatch with a couple of simple mods:

10 point cage with Parachute

3 piece discontinued JoJo frontend

spec-R full drag suspension

Fuel cell with -8 lines from tank to motor

1 044 bosch pump

1200 rc injectors

golden eagle sleeved block

cp 10:1 pistons

Eagle rods

arp headstuds

oem h22 headgasket

Balance shaft delete

competition clutch twin disc

Port and polished head

skunk2 valve springs and retainers

Str cam gears

crower stage 1 cams

aluminium radiator with slim fan

gsr transmission with itr lsd.

qsd h2k intake manifold adapter

k20 rbc manifold

qsd throttle body spacer

blox 70mm throttle body

4bar omni map sensor

6al msd with coil and cap. 3 step launch control

hks bov

Garret 102mm turbocharger.

Custom t4 front facing turbo manifold with 44mm flange

44mm tial wastegate

Custom water to air intercooler set up

aem eugo wideband w/ gauge

tuned on chipped p28

13 inch volks drag rims

2 15 inch volks rear rims

arp extended wheel studs

si cluster

150 shots of nitrous im making 348 horsepower to the FRONT WHEELS because thats the only place the power should ever be

★ 43

847513_1 chiefzach2018 | 10:00am
Knowing Seikatsu’s model naming scheme, why isn’t the GR shown in the picture badged as a “GR40” due to its 4L engine? I wonder if there’s any particular reason it’s a “GR3” instead.

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m1 MrChips | 8:51am
It’s absolutely appalling how Seikatsu managed to get their pre-production prototype of the new GR stolen, and by a college student no less. Clearly there must be a signficant degree of corruption or mismanagement along the chain of command, and I wouldn’t be surprised if even the Japanese government stepped in to investigate. This is a massive breach of security that will take a long time for Seikatsu to recover from.

★ 29

887706_1 Tzuyu_main | 04:20am
Is that a… a… FEMALE GIRL??

★ -6
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Here is a 2002 Charge Ferndale C5 Sporting. The car was named after the town in Washington Charge was founded in, and was their most luxurious model of the time. Most models were 4 doors. The Sporting was the only 2 door trim. it used the same 5.1l V8 as the 4 doors, however it was tuned up to make 264BHP, making it the fastest ferndale by far. the power went to the rear wheels through a 5 speed advanced auto gearbox. Being a luxury car at heart, it had a high end CD player however it did use sport interior. This model is extremely rare, as only just over 2000 were built and around 1500 are still on the road.

Here is a 1982 Yotata Shuto Fazer project 170. It is one of only 2 project 170 cars. in the early 80s, the Shuto saloon, which was designed to be a high end family car, was mainly selling to richer people or couples with no children as it was powerful and smooth, so a completely new car called the “Shuto” Fazer was introduced to sell to those clients. Most models were the 3.0 i6 or the 4.0 v8. A rarer 2.5T boxer 4 was introduced with the ZXR-T package, however even that is more common than the project 170. It uses a twin turbo version of the 4.0 V8 making a 245BHP. it also received aerodynamic wheel covers, lower suspension and only one mirror. This made the project 170 very fast, with the aim of being able to hit 170MHP. the car succeded, becoming one of the fastest japanese cars of the time. It didnt go into mass production due to fuel economy issues, returning only 15mpg.

This is a 1989 Krieger LMR. It is an uprated version of the OMW Roadster P, built by an external company for official use. It used a highly tuned version of the twin turbo 2.3L V6 found in the Higher end turbo Roadsters, pushing 210BHP. It wasnt only the engine that was upgraded though, the LMR received a closer-ratio 5 speed manual with a gearerd LSD, bucket seats, an optional roll cage (this model has it fitted), wide sports tyres (265s in the rear) and a huge spoiler giving almost 200KG of downforce in a road car. Most of these were sold to racing teams who used them at many sports car racing events. With a sub 6 second 0-60 and able to pull over 1.2G on both 20 and 200m corners, it was certainly quick around the track. It was still relatively well equipped, with a middle of the road cassette player and a sports interior. this wasnt the most extreme model, so it kept some of the creature comforts. This car is rare but not unfindable, however nice models can sell for almost $150,000.

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