QotW: What tuning house demo car do you want to own?

We recently learned that the Jun Auto Mechanic Honda Civic is up for sale. Tuning houses are small outfits, especially in Japan, and it’s basically impossible for them to keep everything they’ve built. Many once-revered demo cars plastered on the covers of magazines and catalogs have been released into the wild. Let’s say for a moment that you could take any one of these shop specials — even if it’s still owned by the original builders or has since been destroyed — home.

What tuning house demo car do you want to own?

The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What JNC concept deserves to be found or restored?

There are many concepts that should be in museums, but sadly whose whereabouts are unknown. Nico jongeneel chose our lead image Toyota EX-1, but we had answers ranging from Ellis‘s suggestion of the Dome Zero to Lupus‘s Mitsubishi HSR to dankan‘s Mazda Taiki. However, perhaps because of both its beauty and the tragic way it met its end, the Mazda Furai seems like the proper choice to request from our hypothetical genie. In that vein, it is Daniel who takes this week’s prize:

nobody remembers the mazda furai? Would it be a big kick in the butt to everything modern to bring that concept back to life but with a rotary hydrogen engine and electric support? (to comply with emissions) it would be a great “in your face” to all the supercars of the moment and timeless in its design.

Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!

JNC Decal smash

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15 Responses to QotW: What tuning house demo car do you want to own?

  1. Lupus says:

    This week’s Q is too easy…
    Air Breath Reserch Hasoki Z (S130).
    The real-world template for Wangan MidNight’s Akuma No Zetto.
    As bonus points comes the MidNight Club heritage. 😉

  2. Nigel says:

    Anything from Mizuno Works or Biko Works…
    (L series stuff).

  3. Lee L says:

    Oh man, it’s gotta be Smokey’s V12 Supra from Top Secret for me! When I was really starting to get into Japanese cars in the early 2000s I remember reading about this car and it stuck with me. The car doesn’t make sense from a modern perspective, but from a “I’m Smokey Nagata, I do what I want” perspective it’s just fantastic and a real piece of Japanese modding and tuning history.

  4. Hachibrokeyou says:

    The RE Amemiya Lotus Europa. N/A 20B engine, mated to a trans-axle with all the lightweight simplicity of a lotus. Its the perfect car for a wankel and its fun to see a Japanese touch on a European chassis.

  5. RX626 says:

    ART Factory Graphics CR-X Del Sol.

    http://www.artfactory-inc.com/%E3%83%87%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BD%E3%83%AB%E5%8F%B7

    First of all, they are not a tuning house. They were simply a wrapping studio for cars.
    But to me, this car was a hero of the “Tuner Era”.

    Crazy body kits, cool vinyl graphics, and countless monitors mounted inside the fenders and even on the hood.
    Today, some people would call these cars “ricers”, but at least in the early 2000s, there was no greater hero than this car in the Japanese tuner scene.

    Today, this car is no longer in their possession, and I heard that it was bought by a man who dreamed of restoring this car.
    I will never get my hands on this car, but I hope that this man can bring back the sparkle of those days to this wonderful jewel and make it a time machine that will take us back to the crazy times.

  6. F31Roger says:

    I’ve seen quite a few stories over the years of Demo cars getting into the wrong hands and they go to waste.

    Even infamous show and magazine cars end up trashed (LJ Garcia’s Feel’s EK hatch).

    While I can go down a whole list of dream demo cars that I loved since the 2000s era, my goals and ideas in my life… they have to stay grounded and make sense.

    One car that made M30s famous was the Project Car Magazine M30. Which JNC made an article a few years back:
    https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/consider-the-following-infiniti-m30-f31-nissan-leopard/

    The former magazine car was a drift missile for a few owners. One of the former owners (who bought it/sold it in the magazine condition) picked it up sitting under a tree. Banged up, missing parts, blown RB25det that was cannibalized for another RB25det.

    End of 2019, he didn’t want to deal with the project anymore and offered it to me. My original hand in this project was to get bumper covers. But I wanted to see this car survive.

    Interesting enough – an idea in my head was to rebuild an M30 from the ground up (just a thought though).

    When the car was officially in my possession, I brought it to the original builder in the magazine, SR20 Store in Gardena. I also reached out to the original suppliers, Phase 2 Motortrend, Syko Performance and Greddy.

    Anyways – The RB25det is fully rebuilt/forged, addressed the oiling issues and all major components are new. Stuck with JDM companies, but couldn’t ignore the Australian and New Zealand engineering that has improved RB tuning.

    Interior was totally trashed, so I had to redo the whole thing.

    One of my fellow M30 owners in Arizona owns a Datsun Restoration shop and he said he would love to work on the car, so the car is in Arizona getting body work and repainted.
    Fixing all the drift damage (thankfully nothing super major) and most importantly, doing a Zenki f31 leopard front end conversion.
    ————————————————————————————–

    I always wondered if I got something so fine tuned, where would I get the money to fix it (if there were those mechanical issues). We can look at Haraguchi-san’s old FC…
    https://tiremeetsroad.com/2020/09/18/low-style-heroes-gives-up-on-restoring-haruguchis-326power-fc-returns-drift-rx-7-back-to-bn-sports/
    —————————————————————————————-

    When I got the Project Leopard, for me, It was one of those “once in a life time builds”. So I decided to put the effort in to rebuild the car as my “wishful thinking” of rebuilding from the ground up.

    While I am bringing it back to it’s roots (original builders/suppliers), I am not sponsored or anything. This is out of my pocket (and RBs parts are not cheap!). I feel bringing to the car back from the dead, but also adding on my more history to it (A lot of parts are from the leopard community, my fellow F31 brothers in LA helping me and of course an M30 owner painting the car). I feel adds to the history of the car, but a lot of stuff tells a story. Feb 2020, I was in Japan and I couldn’t get the zenki hood, so we went to N-Style Customs (Nagahama-san, Soarer drifter) had a junk zenki hood and he cut it for me.
    https://www.f31club.com/2020/02/10/n-style-customs-and-the-zenki-hood-2020/

    https://www.f31club.com/2021/05/25/project-leopard-update-2/

  7. f31roger says:

    To add:

    There is something about preservation and keeping thing era correct on these cars that I do enjoy.

    These builds were top of the line… nowadays, everyone has an over the top build and the significance can be lost.

  8. Alan says:

    Scoot 4-Rotor. Because just listen to it on YouTube. Also, only good FD bodykit ever, all the others just ruin a perfect shape.

  9. HotWheelsAndFriedChicken ! says:

    I’d have to say the top secret rb26 supra. Looks good, goes fast.

  10. Shaiyan Hossain says:

    definitely one of the RE Amemiya FDs or FCs, they’re the de facto rotary tuner, probably one of the feed fd3s too
    the Spoon EK9 K20 or the 10k RPM EG6 are iconic as well
    but lately I’ve been drawn to the fivemart quint integra and the r31house r31s haha

  11. KiKi says:

    Back in the day, over 10 years now, I purchased an FD from Odula (well before they were as known and the US had faked their kits) that they used to develop their Type 1 aero.

    Red Type X (non sunroof, twin oil cooler, red carpet and half read seats, manual) with gold SSR Type C, Odula Type 1 aero including the Odula raw carbon bonnet and raw carbon GT Wing. TD06, V mount, full titanium exhaust, PFC, the usual mods back then with Bride seat and a half cage. It was an amazing car that made 350rwhp (real, not internets)
    Odula used the car in magazine adverts, on their website and it appears in an old DVD.
    Sadly, when I sold it, the guy did what every FD owner seems to do and went on eBay and purchased fake Feed and ReA kit, painted it white, started to rebuilt the engine and never finished it. Car was left abandoned. That’s my ‘The one that got away’ story.

  12. Hachi_Rogue says:

    That one. That one exactly. The Top Secret fastback celica. I love the car, I love what they’ve done with it. Dream car. Right there. Sooooooooo good.

  13. Ellis says:

    The ‘Mugen Sports Civic Special’.

    http://www.mugen-power.com/common/english/old_timer/image/pics/sportscivic-0001.jpg

    My second car was a third gen Civic sitting on Mugen CF-48 rims. And my biggest regret in life is getting rid of it. Of all the cars I’ve owned since it was my favorite.

    It was a good car. It was quick enough for a 15 year old me back then to hone my driving skills. It was engaging to drive. But most of all it was fun. And despite owning a bunch of different cars since then, I don’t think anything I’ve driven since has left me with such a big smile on my face every time I stepped out of it.

    That’s my honest answer. If you want my drool-worthy JDM Unicorn answer then I’ll take the Mugen NSX Prototype with the Ferrari F40 looking front lights…

    http://www.nsxprime.com/Events/2000/2000Fiesta/2000fiesta15b.jpg

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