This place has a bit of everything, from daft stuff like crazy air fresheners with rabbit ears, to steering wheel covers, sat nav systems, wheels, tyres and more serious tuning parts like coilover suspension systems, exhausts and even aftermarket ECU's and the like.
All the major Japanese brands like HKS, Tein, TRD, Cusco parts are there to see.
It's a bit of a treasure trove in all honesty and an almost heady experience for those keen on modifying their cars. So we went to this alladin's cave of tuning parts to see what we could find!
First off, loads of wheels, so much stock and so much to choose from. I was dissapointed not to see any Rays TE37's like my wheels, but Rays Engineering were present!
A wall of wheels!
Then there were the aftermarket, oils and the like which you'll never see in Halfords in the UK!
TRD items were present of course, again such things are only available to order in the UK if you're lucky and the wind is blowing in the right direction. Realistically such things have to be shipped to order from Japan which makes the cost prohibitive for these kind of items.
Yes, there was 86 specific oils, it was lovely to see so much stuff for the car on show. Two aisles were dedicated to it. This says to me that this car is big business in Japan and will have a healthy tuning market for aftermarket parts for many years to come. If you can get the parts it's great! :)
There was a lot of stuff for manner of Type-R's and rightly so, this is a highly desired marque of Honda's. We loved our DC2 (Integra Type-R) when we had it.
Yes, TEIN on display and not only that the new (released in January 2014) TEIN EDFC Active Pro (which stands for Electronic Damper Force Control), think damper rates that alter according to G force in three planes, lateral, longitudinal and speed. I have all this kit on my car and it really is briliant.
HKS had a good showing too at Super Autobacs with their Hyper Max IV (I hope I've got that right, Maz!) Coilover setups.
As you can see there was just so much choice and this was all for the GT86!
There were tuning parts magazinse fo the GT86/BRZ too.
Not the best picture but glass causes problems when it comes to reflections, but here are some lovely Defi gauges that were wired up of course and in demonstration mode.
If that wasn't enough there were videos of the GT86 in action on track as a demonstration of the products available.
Blitz had their section too of GT86 tuning parts.
Toms rear lights. These are very nice to be fair and a lot cheaper than in the UK, but by the time you've shipped them and paid VAT they'll only work out about £70 cheaper.
Also there was a garage attached where tuning parts were being fitted, tyres and brake pads were changed and I took this picture from the cafe that had a window looking down to the workshop. Pretty little MR2 Roadster here.
Obviously there was no way I could leave without buying a thing or two and I opted for a TRD engine start/stop button. Now I know this won't make my car any faster but I wanted to get a present for my car so as to speak and seeing as this was literally half the price it is in the UK I had to have it. Also I only know one other person with this fitted, so it's rare in the UK due to it being pretty expensive at around £125 for a switch that lights up basically.
I also bought a couple of DVD's as these are the kind of things you just can't buy at home.
Overall it was great fun and the car park was worth a look with some pretty serious cars about. When we drove in I noticed a Subaru WRC blue BRZ so had to park next to it. I left a postcard for the GT86 BRZ Drivers Club under the wiper of course!
I totally understand that this is very focused on my interests, but any Japanese car enthusiast will tell you that they dream of going to Super Autobacs so it was great to finally get there. Oh and in the above picture you'll notice a 3.5mm jack lead, this is so we now have an alternative to Japanese radio and can get the iPod etc connected!
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