Tokyo Auto Salon - The Land Of The Odd

Horse power, suspension, engine swaps, bikini clad girls; believe me, when you spend a few hours around this, it can get a bit repetitive, maybe even boring.  Everywhere you go there is either a GTR with 1000 horse power, A 86 with wide body, or a slammed Audi.

But Tokyo Auto Salon always brings this extra something, something that adds substantially to the variety and quality of the whole show.  To me it's an analogy of comic relief in Hollywood blockbusters. 

Exhibits like this just show that Japanese mechanics can take their incredible skill and limitless imagination and direct them towards creating something completely different.

And they will go all the way to create it out of anything, such as making a drift car out of a Beetle by doing a full RWD conversion,

and fitting an SR20DETT from Nissan Silvia, tuned to push over 300 horses, perpendicular to original position of the engine.

In true JDM fashion an air filter popping out of an eye socket is a must.

Challenge accepted!  Who says that the Japanese cannot push the all American approach of bigger is better to the limits?  We witness this being done by smashing a Lexus GS on a set of 37 inch chrome rims.

As usual the center stage was taken by Japan Automobile College where young minds create some of the most outrageous rides usually swapping body panels or engines.  In the past their most memorable creations were a pickup truck made from Toyota Century and Nissan GTR made out of Suzuki Cappuccino. 

Outrageous they may be, but not as bizarre as the ultimate J-gangsta wagon. 

From big to small, since land is a scarce resource in Japan little k-trucks with 660 cc engines are to Japanese farmlands what pickup trucks are to American countryside.  They are absolutely everywhere running around transporting crops and goods.  Now, however, they can do it in style.

Little box cars are dominating sales in Japan, so now they can be cool too! 

And who says that going to school ain't cool?

Or how about some insane positive camber?

Sometimes however, credit has to be given to not just "how did they do it",

but also to how did they get it, as natural oddities like Reliant Robin never been sold at this part of the world before.

But when it comes to utmost international bizarre competition, nothing beats the Lada 2101, also known as Kopeika to common Russian folk.

The most remarkable part is that guys at Auto Garage Red K did not stop at importing this car, but went as far as dropping it on set of Rays wheels, gave it a Ferrari Red wrap and are planning to through process of adjusting emissions and passing Japanese registration so it can run around on the the streets of Japan.

As you can see there is a lot more to Tokyo Auto Salon that the usual gimmicks of after-market world.  I hope that the insanity behind these projects will be more visible and that the Lada will get that Japanese license plate!

Thank you for reading everyone, please don't forget to share, comment and follow.

Special thanks to Andrei Kolochine for supplying some of the shots for this post.