As we enter mid February, before the good times at the Tokyo Auto Salon become a distant memory, lets take one final look back. For this post, I wanted to share all of the builds and sights I came across that exemplify what many of us think about when we hear the term/letters “JDM”.

Starting off with the aero masters themselves, Varis. This was by far my favorite booth of the show. Full of widebody carbonfiber goodness. The new kit for the 370Z, R35 and M4 took center stage. I spent a bit of time here with the owner of Varis, JDMChicago and Bulletproof Automotive crew. I often wonder why more people don’t pick up Varis kits yet drop bank on Rocketbunny, etc. Guess it’s a matter of preference. Would love to see more cars rocking these kits here in the states though that’s for sure.

VERTEX gave me a reason to hope my income tax refund is decent this year as I ended up spending a small fortune at their booth. Ueno’s D1GP 3 series and the new Vertex Edge RPS13 conversion kit were on display. Can’t wait to see what their Lexus RC kit will end up looking like when it releases.

Orido’s Supra spotted with terrible pole next to it. Great job booth people.

Couple of nice builds over at Rocky Auto. VQ swapped S30Z is so practical it’s almost perfect.

Toyota 2000GT spotted as well. I believe these are million dollar cars now. Knowing Rocky-Auto, this will probably have a 2JZ in it in no time. Purists will die if that comes to pass. Maybe get Liberty Walk or Rocketbunny to make a kit for it too, haha.

Instant favorite here! Garage Riseup FD3S in the Proshop SCREEN booth. I must have spent a good hour trying to get some decent shots and admiring the build. Absolutely love the front end design and the overall aggressiveness.

Okamura-san was in town with three demo cars in that unmistakable color and graphic scheme. Really great to see this in person as I’ve only seen Yashio Factory anything in photos and videos.

Garage KA. Haven’t heard much about this company but I loved the look for their clean R35s.

Near by I spotted this awesome Stagea. It was the only one I saw at the show and surprsingly no R34 front end. Though engine wise, that’s another story…

T-Get R34 looking evil. Not sure about the details on this one but it was damn mean looking.

BN-Sports is back with a new kit for the FRS. A bit of a wild look. Part of me wishes they would have made a kit that looked like those 90’s blister style kits. This is pretty dope too though…and not cheap 😉

Garage G-Force now offering the entire catalog of time attack oriented aero. If I see this on an Evo at wekfest or something I’ll cry. This is meant for speed and speed only!

Much like the Top Fuel S2000 time killer.

Phoenix’s Power. Two monster R35’s which I believe had traveled to NARDO Italy along with a third from another company…

TOP SECRET. Great to see Smokey and the entire TOP SECRET line up speed hunting GTRs.

Over to Yokomo. Great details on these kits.

Makes me want to dust off my ER34 Nomuken kit this year and get back into RC drifting.

J’s Racing touge monster. I’m so used to seeing Orido or NOB speed down the gunsai touge on Hot Version. It almost looked tame in the mad house that is TAS.

Any Itasha fans? Working on a few designs this year myself. Check my IG for updates on that in the coming weeks.

Made another stop at RE-Amemiya where I was able to meet Amemiya-San. Legend.

The next generation of car enthusiasts being inspired.

On to the special hall where many JDM Option feature cars were on display. Some of the top speed Wangan beasts along with a few others.

The man himself, Daijiro Inada. Founder of Option, Tokyo Auto Salon and D1GP. Pretty much the reason JDM tuning exists. It was great to run into this living legend. A perfect end to the journey that was the 2016 Tokyo Auto Salon.

I leave you with this final shot. Is he excited or yawning? Haha, well I’d like to think he’s hyped at seeing what could now be his dream car. Pretty sure all of us car people had a life defining moment such as this. Hope you enjoyed my posts on the Tokyo Auto Salon. It was definitely an honor to share my perspective of this event with you on Fatlace! Big thanks again to Mark for the opportunity and to the Fatlace readers. Hope to share a few other stories of what I come across with you later this year. Until then, see ya!