After a nice selection of GT-Rs in the previous post let's take a look at the rotaries that were present at the show. A lot of these cars we all know well and have seen before, others like the RE-Amemiya Super NA7 were quite the surprises...
...much like Mad Mike's FD at the Rays booth.
I found one of my favorite RX-7s on the little cornered off RH9 part of the show, the RE-Wing FD which was recently blasting around Tsukuba at the Super Battle event in December. What makes this car special is that it can pull 57-second laps at Tsukuba, yet remains street-registered and legal.
RE-Amemiya had quite a selection of cars, like every year, starting off with this collaboration built with Super Autobacs in Toda.
The center sections of the hood venting were left unpainted, only a few coats of clear covering the exposed carbon fiber.
This RX-8 that was in the separate Option arena was another RE-Amemiya collaboration, this time done with Video Option.
Here is a look at part of their main stand where previous TAS show cars were on display...
...like the left hand drive, all carbon 20B-powered FD from 2008. This 700 HP monster is one of the most extreme customer commissioned cars that Ama-san has ever created...
...a true one of a kind. Like a few other cars on display it is now up for sale.
Last time I saw this Super GReddy 2 Ver.2 demo car was at Umihotaru PA back in July for the 7's Day. Still, a great looking car.
Yet another FD, this time the Super 2...
...a more street-tuned oriented project...
...which sports a few new carbon aero additions for 2012 like the front fender venting and trunk spoiler slash light surrounds.
The 13B-powered RX8 will continue to be Suenaga's D1 car this year.
A look at the main display area for RE-Amemiya.
I'm sure most people didn't know what to make of the Super NA7, it's a very controversially styled car but one that resembles nothing Ama-san has done in the past.
The wide body conversion has a very modern feel to it, lots of flow with plenty of nice details like the carbon mirrors and those massive 20-inch Enkeis that strangely enough don't look like they are that big.
One thing that you can always expect from Amemiya-san is great things in the engine department. With most of the front section of the car having been cut away to accommodate the design of the hood you are treated to a panoramic view of the motor. Rather than going for big power he preferred to go for a nice and compact solution, a peripherally ported 13B built with lots of nice race components. They haven't had a chance to map the Motec engine management yet, but this little screamer should be good for at least 300 HP.
The interior is very simple, and very red!
The rear end is all custom too, and really looks very special. Ken Amemiya was telling me this might be the last FD show car they built, so what can we expect from them next year?
This RX-8 was also part of the display, a little ignored as most people spent their time around the NA7!
Not quite sure what was attracting attention at the Exedy booth, Takayama's R-Magic D1 car...
...or the girl? I'll let you answer that one.
Another RE-Amemiya car!
Now we are talking! What an epic car the 787 is...
...and I was very happy to finally, not only be able to check it out in detail...
but hear it in action out during the motorsports exhibition.
Right behind the 787 was the Knight Sports RX8 endurance race car that in the past participated in the Macau GP.
The final, limited edition RX-8 at the Mazda stand.
Here is another look at Mad Mike's Total Car Produce Magic built D1 car. The car is running the new GramLights 57Xtreme...
...and a complete TCP Magic wide body aero.
It's the same kit that is fitted to their own demo car, the 4-rotor FD we have been seeing at shows, and the odd D1 event for years now.
I've stopped guessing when we will see this car out in action. This was originally supposed to be Yoshioka's D1 car, but there were a lot of delays in getting the engine set up properly.
This drift-spec FD was built by t-get and on top of the wild body...
...the engine certainly didn't disappoint. Boost is supplied by an HKS T04SBB, allowing the ported motor to crank out 430 HP through the HKS 6-speed transmission.
It was good to see that the RX-8 was getting so much love this year, and when it came to pretty wild body kits for it Weber Sports certainly took first place.
Still loving the brushed metal finish on this car, however the bumpers and the rest of the plastic trim was probably vinyl.
In the Option Tuning Car Gallery I came across the Leg Sport RX8, looking a track ready as ever.
Another car we recently saw at the Tsukuba Super Battle, the recently improved FEED FD.
I only see Koseki-san's Scoot 4-rotor creation once a year at the 7's meeting. It's cool that he has kept the car over the years, it's his baby built as a one off so I can't see him getting rid of it in a hurry.
I have a video from circa 2005 of me sitting in the driver's seat and revving the hell out of this crazy motor. What and experience that was, I'll have to dig it out and upload it to Youtube!
The Tamon kit the car is based on completely transforms the lines of the FD, especially from this angle.
I'll leave you with a picture of the Scoot custom 4-rotor engine that powers the RX-7. The housings are not present so you can see how the actual rotors sit around the eccentric shaft.
TAS 2012 featrues on Speedhunters
-Dino Dalle Carbonare