After Feed, we had a quick stop by a shop called Racing Service Factor. They race in the one-make Civic series and the Vitz cup, and both cars had won the league races not too long before we arrived.
If you are over thirty, you’ll be well aware of Trial for their epic demo cars and long history with tuning. They have one of the largest shops in Japan and have been around for over thirty years. I was first acquainted with them in Max Power in both the magazine and their DVD Japan feature back in the day called “beast from the east”. Max Power was the most prominent UK tuning magazine in the early Millenium.
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.
We decided to chance Signal Auto. Signal was one of our favourite shops growing up, and after finding in disbelief that their original store is still open and operational, we added it to the list.
One of the coolest Honda shops in Japan, Zero Fighter is packed with Race and Kanjozoku spec Civics. We head to the hills stopping in Osaka JDM and Full Stage along the way before receiving a very warm welcome from the staff at Zero Fighter in Nara.
After the buzz of Car Factory Ai, We decided to chance J’s Racing. J’s is one of the largest Honda shops globally and a household name in the tuning world for years; I’m sure they see a heap of foreigners, so I didn’t expect them to be as welcoming.
Car factory Ai is one of the most excellent ae86 shops in Japan. Its owned by a woman called Ai Koizumi hence the name, and they maintain and run the newer hot version Keichi Tsuchiya N2 Levin you might have seen from time to time.