2010 Osaka Auto Messe Part 2: Osaka VIP
February 19, 2010 by Adam Zillin
Filed under Car Shows, Events, Latest Articles
Toyota… They might be going through a rough patch at the moment but as far as the aftermarket underworld in Osaka is concerned, the big sedans from Aichi reign supreme, with Nissan’s line up coming a distant second.
I figured less text and more photos would be better for this part of the 2010 Osaka Auto Messe, there’s only so many ways you can describe how these VIP cars look and that usually means peppering descriptions with words like ‘awesome’ all too frequently. The real pleasing thing for me this time around was the emphasis some companies put on engine tuning with their crazy bagged, cambered and slammed rides. I was expecting to be greeted with hoods tightly shut and maybe a few scattered cars with the drivers door open to show off some luxurious interiors and audio installs. No, there were a few VIPs with some serious (2JZ-GTE/1JZ-GTE) firepower in the engine bay to go with the seriously tough looks. At any rate it’s been quite a long time since I’ve enjoyed touring the VIP hall as much as this year’s OAM. My only complaint was the lack of female VIPs to go with the machinery! I was able to track down one or two hiding between the odd Celsior and Aristo though. Check it out:
Car Sense JZS160 Aristo. Just jaw-droppingly tough at every angle.
The mannequin was just there to give the real life Car Sense girls a break. Here they are up on stage. It’s weird how small the Crown Athlete looks in this photo when it’s been slammed like it has, it fooled a few people into thinking it was an Altezza for a moment.
A Toyota Celsior with a Century face? It's also had some serious work done to the fenders to get that low profile.
JDM Inifiniti Q45 with real subtle, but expansive, widebody treatment.
WALD girls
It was pretty much like this all day whenever any companions (promo girls) came out.
More pink on black (or black on pink as I mentioned in Part 1) for this Aristo, it quickly became apparent that some of the girls that are into VIP and Kei car tuning have cars that simply must have pink on it somewhere to alert people to their gender.
It's good to see some engine tuning appear in some of the cars, this one apparently put out around 500PS.
Toyota Crown Estate. This one had every square inch of it modified in some manner which also included some slightly strange orange paint in the engine bay which detracted somewhat from the otherwise tough powerplant.
The owner was happy to be one of only a few people with an engine modified enough to warrant opening the hood.
Brad Pitt's stunt double from Ocean's 13 was on hand to open doors for us. Thanks bud.
If you don’t know what the stuffed thing is, it’s Gachapin, the buck-toothed dinosaur.
One of the few companions that wasn't being hounded by hundreds of photographers and I could actually say hello to without a 'minder' to move her on after only 5 mintues.
Yet another tough 160 Aristo. Wheels with satin black spokes and high gloss black rims where everywhere in some shape or form.
The Aristo shape lends itself to road scraping stances as if it were designed for such a thing from the factory.
More matte carbon treatment for the roof of this Y32 Nissan Cima.
More pink on black too... VIP style Suzuki Carry truck.
Uras Nissan Laurel had a kind of drift/VIP car theme mixed into one.
Uras Daihatsu Mira was strangely cool...
This is Ken's 'sick Tanuki' look. The Uras stand was quite small and only had Kei cars and the lone Nissan Laurel.
Yes, we've seen these cars already in our Tokyo Auto Salon coverage but the paint was just so mind blowingly incredible that I have to post them again from the Osaka show.
A stray Junction Produce Aristo in another hall in amongst the performance cars.
That’s all for now, don’t forget to check the gallery below for some bonus photos. Part 3 is coming up shortly so stick around!
Words/Images: Justin Karow
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