Carland 86, Rose Auto & Phoenix Power
The following day, we got up early again to hit another few shops on the list. I’ve always wanted to see Carland 86. Carland is a famous shop in Kyoto that built the official replica Trueno for Initial D’s voice actor; I’m sure they made the car for the movie too.
The shop was featured heavily in the Levin & Trueno magazines over the years. They’ve made quite a name restoring and selling OEM style panda Trueno and Levins. After seeing so many 86s on the journey, I thought we were sick of it by now but unfortunately not. The excitement was back as if it was the first day of the trip as I drooled over the selection.
So much to take in!
It was panda paradise! It’s mad seeing all this stuff out with no security, Japan is unique for that, and I can see this friendly atmosphere of shops and shop fronts changing over the next decade as the prices increase on all of these vehicles.
Panda’s Galore.
Some of the cars on this lot were close to 40 grand! Where are the prices heading on all this? That was 2019 prices. Since then, Covid tax has raised the price on JDM imports by almost 30-50% in some cases. Crazy!
Carland is another shop that sees a lot of foreign foot traffic, so they were a little closed off and ignored us and our visit, which was fine; we showed up uninvited, we had a look around and decided to hit the road.
What a view!
We worked out that this was over 40 grand landed in Ireland. Insane!
This Levin was perfect.
Crazy prices, but this might look cheap in another few years.
Any 86 enthusiasts wet dream here.
Sometimes you get lucky with a shop; ideally, it’s wise to message ahead, but this entire trip was unplanned just like the last, and we didn’t have any schedule; we just made it up as we went along using google maps.
Japan is packed with the coolest infrastructure. It had us snap happy throughout the trip.
This truck had a few Loop team stickers on the back.
Speaking of high priced cars, we decided to check out Phoenix Power, a shop we had seen on our way to Tra Kyoto the night before; this is one of those places which had quite the presence back in the golden era. Their clientele is the cream of the crop.
What a beauty.
A lot of customers are part of the RH9 club for high-end Japanese cars and drivers. Everything was no doubt a 50 grand build lurking outside the store. The stuff they sell inside is premium top-shelf Japanese tuning.
Another level altogether for people in Japan who have the cash to splash, with a convenient highway above to test stuff out after a spot of tuning. Cool to see a lot of new-age tech inside the premises.
Aside from all the best of the best parked out front, a Koenig special 500 SE showed up as we were taking photos. What a time capsule from the 80s. It was wearing BBS LM’s in the largest sizes we have ever seen. Crazy!
Phoenix is a reminder of the booming high-end tuning past that used to be everywhere in Japan. It dried up the past ten or more years, and you can see it. Regardless it was fantastic to see a shop like Phoenix adapting to the newer stuff and still pushing out insanely fast powerful cars.
Inside was precisely how id imagines a high-end tuning shop, a GTR VR engine on full display for the customer to look at, brakes, suspension, ECU’s, high-end stock for whoever can afford it. I’d love to cruise in here with a brand new GTR and throw the entire catalogue at it. Come to think of it, a lot of the cars outside looked like they had received the complete treatment.
Although this market has shrunk in the last twenty years, it was very nice to see shops like Phoenix power pushing the limits and building incredible cars.
Seeing all those parts laid out like it was nothing as if it was a shoe shop somewhere else, that’s what I love about Japan. You can cruise in off of the street and view the best Japanese parts of the world. Mental!
In stark contrast to the latest and greatest Phoenix power had to offer, Miura san told us about his friend’s workshop called Rose Auto, behind Phoenix Power; it was an old shop that restored classic cars.
This Bluebird SSS is a work of art.
Those Race arches on the Sunny, I’ve never seen a clean street version of this kit; it’s usually fitted to race examples.
Excellent use for a damaged wheel.
Those meshes…
Unfortunately, the owner didn’t appear to be home. It’s crazy how this little shop is laid out. The entire front end is next to a path on the side of the road; you wouldn’t see that anywhere else over this side of the globe, ultra-rare cars and parts all casually stored right off the road; I bet this shop owner has some epic stories.
Rose Auto was overflowing with treasure.
He also had some N1 March k12s with the gulf livery, which I assume he raced in the March cup; that was a surprise.
This little Gen one de-badged Civic was 12/10
I had a little peek through the canvas tarp to see a KPGC10 GTR sitting there; behind the next fence, you could see the workshop, with all the various project covered over with a few L-Series engines in the back. Rose Auto was a fascinating shop, literally on the side of a city street with some of the rarest machines, both road and race-spec all bunched in together.
This was casually parked behind a canvas tarp.
A work in progress…
What a mad location.
It’s a shame the owner wasn’t about, he might have dipped off to the shops, or he was hiding from foreigners. Rose Auto was a glimpse into another time where things were a lot more analogue, a total contrast to Phoenix power around the corner.
This was a cool little hot rod shop next to Mecha Dock.
Flips having a sneak peek at Mecha Dock.
An X90 in the wild.
On we drove in search of Trial and more Hungry to consume as many shops as we could in one day…