A'PEXi took the same route with its PS Revolution Active Valve muffler that also controls the exhaust volume and flow via an adjustable internal valve. The PS Rev is a complete exhaust system available for the Skyline GT-R, Evo VIII, WRX, RX-7 and 8, and Altezza, just to name a few. A'PEXi's Exhaust Control Valve features a cockpit-adjustable butterfly valve that can lower the exhaust note by 10 dB. The new DECS (Dynamic Electronics Control System) line includes a suspension controller (much like Tein's EDFC) and a Wing Controller that allows you to adjust the rear wing angle. By altering the wing angle, you can toy with the amount of downforce in back, but we would just use it to pick up chicks at the mall.
Trust unveiled a few new turnkey GReddy turbo kits. The RX-8 T618Z turbo kit is good for 264 hp, while the T517Z turbo kit for the Civic EP3 and Integra DC5 makes up to 275 hp for right around 3,300 clams. (Our writers do not mean to imply that shellfish are an alternative to US legal tender.-Primedia legal department)
Tein's Hybrid Wagon coilover system offers 50mm of ride height adjustability- way cool! But Tein has no plans to bring the system to the US-not cool at all.
Ravers rejoice. Nitrous Oxide use is on the rise in Japanese tuning circles, as evidenced by GReddy's use of NOS with VeilSide and R-Magic preferring the flavor of Nitrous Express.
Defi debuted a Super Sports Cluster featuring an F-1 heads up display.
Grounding systems are the latest J-spec trend, and right now they're hotter than the leather male bracelet. Sun Auto claimed an incredible 16.76hp gain from its Hyper Ground system when installed on a BH5 Subaru Legacy.
SpoCom is all the rage, as evidenced by doors that open any which way but regular. Big names such as Car Make T&E, Kazama Auto, RE Amemiya, Top Fuel, VeilSide, Varis, and Yashio Factory were, against the advice of mothers everywhere, running with scissor doors.
Things That Made Us Go HmmmSome booths featured the ever-popular American-style pole dancing girls, while others such as Falken, Hankook and Toyota featured massively staged and choreographed dance productions. In most cases, the crowd of worked-up guys were forced to sit through a promotional video or a marketing presentation before receiving the Pavlovian reward, the booty-shaking booth babes.
In the past few years, we've noticed an increasing amount of "gaijin" like us coming from the States. In addition to the tourism element, people come from all over the world armed with cameras for the sole purpose of ripping off design ideas. A common misconception many people hold is that because it comes from Japan the product has to be good, but much like the States, some of this stuff is complete and utter shite.
In keeping with the standard hip hop protocol, C-West established a clothing line (www.c-weststyle.com), and HKS has its own separate Web site for clothing and goods (and the new Altezza aero kit) available at www.hks-style.com.
Those brushed-aluminum Moon Eyes wheel covers are very big in Japan. You know what else is big? Posh and Becks. They're everywhere.
R-Magic presented its Super Street RX-8," Endless has its Super Street brakes, and Tein manufactures Super Street coilovers. Coincidence? Yeah, probably, but it does make us feel like big men to think that these guys were biting our style. Just don't let our licensing department get a hold of this; those greedy bastards will sue over anything.
By Antonio Fargas
Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!