Feast your eyes on Tokyo Auto Salon 2008, a show that eclipses SEMA in every way possible. This annual auto show held at the Makuhari Messe of Tokyo’s Nippon Convention Center (located about 1.5 hours away from Tokyo Station) draws the biggest and baddest tuners in the Japanese aftermarket car industry.
If you manage to weave through the hundreds of thousands of visitors and Japanese men with mini-ladders trying to take photos of the cute models, you’ll find the quality of tuned cars and beautifully designed booths are unrivaled. Other auto shows really need to take a cue from Tokyo Auto Salon’s insanely nice setup.
There was no question the feature car of the show was Nissan’s GT-R (variations of this new beast were available from Blitz, HKS, Work Wheels and many other tuners), but my heart was set out to find it’s German rival — BMW’s E92 M3.
About 15 minutes into the show, my eyes shot wide open as I discovered a slammed Alpine White AC Schnitzer BMW M3 on 20-inch step lip LM-R’s from BBS. Words just can’t describe how insanely clean this car is, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, two minutes down the hall I find two more highly tuned BMW M3’s from Japanese tuner’s Ericsson and Power House Amuse. Their integrated carbon fiber pieces blended together with BBS LM-R rims were simply perfect. Anyone else love Alpine White as much as I do?
Tokyo Auto Salon is simply automotive eye candy heaven. It’s a show no car enthusiast should miss. For those who weren’t able to make it out to Tokyo, below are two galleries with over 500 pics from the show. Enjoy!
Tokyo Auto Salon 2008 Photo Galleries
Tokyo Auto Salon 2008 - Part One Gallery
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Posted by heartofjosh
So that’s where you were this past week! Great pics. Do anything else in Tokyo?
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Posted by Chan2k1
I was at the event too last week. And last year too. It’s true you can see awesome cars and tuners over there, but there’s something that I noticed. There’s more girls than cars and I thought it really hide the real purpose of the event. Hafl of the people who were there were here too see the girls… Sure they’re really cute and I love them, but there’s too much of them. I think it’s a waste beacause the event is somehow becoming more a Booth babes salon than a Tuner one…
Thanks for the great coverage. Were you there with the press on Friday morning ? What camera did you use for those pics ?
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Posted by Terry Ng
At least the girls are classy compared to their American counterparts! ;)
I was there during early Friday afternoon with a Press Pass. I noticed that once it opened to the premier ticket holders at 1pm, the place got packed extremely fast. I don’t even want to imagine what it’s like during regular hours!!
I shot the pics with a Nikon D200 and 17-55mm F2.8 lens. All the shots were done at 17mm since my lens somehow got disconnected from the body my first day in Tokyo… fell on the floor… and the zoom ring broke. :( I was fortunate that I was still able to take photos with it since I didn’t bring a backup camera.
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Posted by Chan2k1
Wow your lens fell on the floor ? You must have been near the heart attack by seeing it slowly falling down !
I was there on Saturday and it was packed. Heard Sunday was crazy… Next time you come in Tokyo, don’t forget to tell your readers ; ) Would be nice to chill out a bit.
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Posted by JustAZN
Wow, pure sex look the cars have. Kick-ass picures also. I’d so put one up for my wallpaper if it came in a bigger res.
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Posted by AllaN
I paid $30 to visit Importfest, which featured import models like Stephy Ly. But the girls were the only part that made it interesting. As interesting as it gets, you can only get a photo with the models under one condition, you buy their posters, which come personally signed, for $10. Other than that… The cars were NORMAL CARS, that only have for the most part aesthetics modifications, which were not that pleasing. I really like the Alpine White AC Schnitzer BMW M3, it’s very sleek and clean, and just keeps the M3 looking classy. The M3’s cousin with the fiber carbon top wasn’t as appealing due to the overuse of Carbon fiber now adays. Most importantky, the Tokyo Auto Salon looks family friendly, as compared to Import fest where there are half naked girls around each corner and the ASS CONTEST(not that its a bad thing), but families wouldn’t be able to attend.
-AllaN -
Posted by Chan2k1
Most importantky, the Tokyo Auto Salon looks family friendly, as compared to Import fest where there are half naked girls around each corner and the ASS CONTEST(not that its a bad thing), but families wouldn’t be able to attend.
I’d prefer the cute and stylish japanese models to those b****es you’re talking about.
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Posted by glimmerish
I don’t know much about the cars, but those girls are really cute!
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