Your Japanese word of the week is...

"shou". It means "award". Although I'm sorry about being late, it's time for the Tokyo Auto Salon awards.

But before that, this past weekend I went to a Wadokai training camp at the Tokyo Agricultural University in the SE part of Tokyo. It was a pretty good work out although the dojo was pretty darn cold. The Japanese National Team is getting in gear for the World Wadokai Championships this August in Vancouver, so it'll get pretty interesting pretty quick. There's another camp (and qualifier, I believe) for the National Team next month in Nagano.

Anyways....... on with the awards-

Worst Colour Combination

We might as well start with the bad and work our way up. In this case, I think the picture is worth more than a thousand words. I know being "different" is important, but really, when is Regurgitated Eggplant Purple and Kangaroo Hide Brown a good mix??

Most Under-Appreciated Car

The Top Secret RA25 Celica 2000GT. It's hard to tell from the picture, but this car simply oozes quality. But the most surprising part was that there were so few people around it that I could take a picture from rather far away. There was a 240Z that was rather well built next to it and it was drawing quite a crowd though. Really, for all the mega-buck supercars and high dollar mods at the show, it's really easy to overlook this simple, clean, subtle, and pragmatic approach to car building.

Best Booth

Mitsubishi, without a doubt. The Lancer Evo X was one of the most anticipated cars of the year and they were out in force at the Auto Salon. Nearly any shop worth its weight in horsepower had an Evo X. But Mitsubishi wins because it managed to essentially create near darkness within its booth (in a fully lit convention centre!) and had 15min long music/song/dance shows running round the clock. They had the biggest stage, the biggest screen, the most smoke, the brightest lasers, the most dancers, and lots of Evo X's. In fact, it could've passed for a night club if your replaced all the people taking pictures with club-goers.

Best Model

These shows are as much about the cars as they are about the girls next to them. But models need to be paid. And fed. And given breaks. But not this one! I will admit it's not going to fool anyone with its lack of arms........ and legs........ and head..... but hey, if you're a struggling tuning shop with a limited budget, you make do with what you got.

The "What The Deuce" Award

I think it started life as a Daihatsu Midget. And then I have no idea what the hell happened to it. The "frog's hand" fenders look like sleeping slugs and the "mouth" makes it look like Darth Vader's pet. But I give points for the guy dressed up to match (with dress shoes!) as well as the lily pad underneath. It's all about the details......

Most Unbalanced Ratio Award

Let's see............. that's one person interested in Tein's brand new coilover suspension for the Evo X and a billion people who are interested in Tein's brand new spandex clad model........ She was actually very attractive though......

Coolest Detail Award

This is the Mugen Civic RR Experimental Spec. It's got pretty big power for its engine and tons of carbon fibre. The best part are the pieces of carbon fibre they've put along the bottom of the door frames. It says "Monocoque Reinforcement" on it and it works by basically bracing the entire lower door area and acts the same way as a roll cage would in a race car. But race car cages cut across the door frame, which they should ideally, but makes getting in and out a pain. This one, however, is integrated with the bodyshell and low in profile which should be almost as strong yet be as easy to get in and out of as a regular car.

And finally...

Car Of The Show Award

This one isn't easy. It's not easy partly because of the number of great cars present. I mean, it's easy to pick a car with massive global importance like the Nissan GT-R. Or pick a Lamborghini or Ferrari simply because. Or even the Mach 5 for the upcoming Speed Racer movie in Yokohama's booth. Then again, even if I picked a car, the modified nature of the show means some versions of the same car are better than others, even if that is subjective.

I will be honest and admit that I really want to give it to the Lancer Evolution X. Every single Evo X I saw looked nice (including the Blitz one above), I love the entire Evo line way back to the mid-90's, and there were some really wild older generations of Evos there, too (see two posts before for a wicked dark grey one). But this time, they only get an honourable mention. All of them.

Instead, I'm going to give it to the Nismo Skyline GT-R Z-Tune in Brembo's booth.

Why?? Because this is beyond just some company tuning a car. Nissan Motorsports (Nismo) actually purchased 30 used Skylines with less than 15,000km on them. They stripped them bare and rebuilt them from the ground up with tons of exotic hardware. Things like a 500+bhp engine nearly identical to one that won them 24hr endurance races; lots of titanium and carbon fibre bits; re-calibrated electronics for its AWD and new brake system; and lots of subtle but functional aerodynamic tweaks.

But the most important thing about the Z-Tune is that this is the Skyline's swan song. It's a car I grew up idolizing and as great as the new one is (and it is very VERY good), I think it's a more than fitting culmination of the past three generations of Skyline.