TOKYO AUTO SALON
Un grand merci à Claire-Kaoru Royer-Sakai qui est venu voir notre RAVAGE JP sur le salon de Tokyo !! Voici son article paru dans HOTCARS
En effet, la Ravage JP crée en collaboration avec notre partenaire Hatano San remporte le 2nd Prix derrière le Maitre de la préparation Japonaise Liberty Walk, alias Kato San.
EXCLUSIVE: Check Out These Wild Tuner Cars At The 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon
Chopping up an F40? The next Fast & Furious movie car? Here’s a sum up of all you need to see and more from our time at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon.
There is something incredibly exciting about attending the Tokyo Auto Salon to kick start the new year. Just as festivities start to die down, TAS comes just in time to lift our spirits up, with manufacturers and tuners gathering to show us their latest cars and bodykits for JDM and import cars. And this year’s edition of the Tokyo Auto Salon was a successful one, with attendance numbers up by 41% in comparison to 2022. With the pandemic seemingly out of the way, tuners stole the show once again with their stanced, chopped-up, repainted or wrapped up creations. Manufacturers were also here to show everything thrilling that they may have. Nissan revealed their –not so new– 2024 GT-R and Toyota altogether skipped the Prius to focus on their exciting endeavours at Gazoo Racing.
On the tuners’ side, there was a lot of variety and lots to see, from the much awaited unveiling at the Liberty Walk booth to countless modified 400Z and GR86. Out of the 789 cars on display over the TAS weekend, here were, according to us, the 7 “must-not-miss” cars for the 2023 edition of the Tokyo Auto Salon.
Liberty Walk’s Most Controversial Ferrari At Tokyo Auto Salon
The Japanese body kit manufacturer from Nagoya is notoriously known for its extremely widened and lowered silhouettes with pop rivets and bold fender flares. Led by the ever enthusiastic Kato-san, Liberty Walk has often stirred up controversy with their cars, as each modification is – most of the time – irreversible, meaning that once you chop it up, there is no going back. Kato-san and his team have worked on both Japanese and foreign sports cars, but none have attracted more attention than his large catalog of modified Ferraris. That catalog includes the 458, the 488, the 308, the Testarossa, the F360, the F430 and the F355.
For this Auto Salon, Liberty Walk revealed their take on one of the most iconic Ferrari hypercars; the F40. With such a rich line-up of prancing horses with no hypercar in sight, the F40 was an important step for the Japanese tuner. During the reveal, Kato-san highlighted the significance of showing the freedom of being able to do your own thing. And to prove it to the world, Painted white, lowered, widened and with a big red Japanese flag on each door, the Liberty Walk F40 was just the right amount of bold to make the Italians cry “blasphemy!” from the other side of the globe.
Ravage: The Only Modified Alpine A110 Of The 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon Show
The Alpine A110 Ravage almost did not make it to the Tokyo Auto Salon and its presence there is nothing short of a miracle. Ravage, represented by Hatano Cars in Japan, was set to have their very first Japan commission revealed at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon. However, the first Japanese Ravage sustained consequent damages after a fire incident took place in the garage where the car was. “9 months, 500 hours of work gone,” said Hatano Car’s Instagram post.
Chatting with Ravage CEO Mr. Benoit Tallec, we learned that bringing this Alpine back to life was a race against time and the Hatano Cars team was still working on some final details two days before the event.
The Alpine A110 Ravage takes its inspiration from Groupe 4 cars. Carbon fiber panels replace the A110’s original bodywork at the front and rear of the car. There is lots to see, from the completely remodeled, made in Japan, copper exhaust, to the Gruppe M air intake system which you can see through the rear glass, next to the engine. The A110 Ravage also showcased their latest wheels created in collaboration with OZ Wheels. The red interior with blue stripes is reminiscent of the Renault 5 Turbo.
The Ravage brought some uniqueness to an Auto Salon that displayed many familiar bodykits. This was well rewarded as the French tuner won the 2nd prize for the Best Modified Import Car.
