We cruised by an Enkei’s factory in Nagoya, Japan while we were with Itchy from AME. Enkei if you don’t know is thee largest wheel manufacturer in the world. They produce wheels for almost all Japanese car brands as well as other car manufacturers in the business. You see their wheels in F1 to Rally Racing to your normal daily driver’s stock wheels. So to know that less than 5% of their business consist of “custom & aftermarket” wheels, you can think of it as their hobby.

The specific factory we visited was the multipiece factory. See Enkei produces wheels for many many brands. Weds, Advan, AME are just a few. And although AME started making wheels in the 70’s, they teamed up with Enkei and ran their business side to side. Consider them sister brands while the other brands get their wheels manufactured by Enkei. Anyways, onto the tour.

Our guides who took us thru Enkei’s history with an unexpected presentation that was very informative. Introducing Mr. Asada (left) and Mr. Sato who’s been with the company for 21 years!

After 30 minutes of the presentation, we were ready to goto the tour. Phillip, as you can see is as ready as you can be.

Ill get to the cars in the showroom a little later..

We weren’t able to bring our camera’s in but to say this place was spotless is an understatement. The way wheels are made here is beyond amazing and to compare it wouldnt be fair.

Here’s the multi-piece room.

Cruising thru one of the rooms that makes OEM wheels.

Some older wheels they’ve produced.

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A rim you might know.

The top selling Enkei’s.

The showroom has alot of vintage cars. Someone likes to collect. 🙂

Alot of white cars…

One car that stood out was this Z. It looks like it was built for snow racing. Edit (thanks Kyusha Kai): This Z is possibly a replica or a backup car for the East African Safari Rally that happened in the 70s. Click for more info in that world.

One of their many conference rooms that showcased previous work.

From the room you can see some of their demo cars.

Besides wheels, Enkei makes and manufactures parts for other companies.

Thank you Enkei Japan and Itchy-san from AME. The future looks good.

Next stop… AME Japan

Mark Arcenal

Creative Director at Arcenal
Lived the Agency life for over a decade and then moved to client side and helped in launching the biggest brand Nike has to date, Nike Sportswear as the Global Digital Lead.

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