Today I saw the following upsetting news from Ralliart Japan:

http://www.ralliart.com/10topics/100310.html

The letter essentially says that Ralliart is suffering from slow sales and that they can no longer continue many divisions of their company. Most notably to us Ralliart fans is the fact that they are shutting down their product line. That means no more production of Ralliart tuning parts and no new parts development.

Some might blame the economy (as Ralliart did in a general diagnosis for their winding down operations)…but having seen how many knockoffs of Ralliart parts have been marketed to the Evo communities over the past decade it does not surprise me that their sales have been down to the point where they need to shut down operations. Companies in Japan rely heavily on international distribution to survive when the Japanese domestic economy slows down as it has. Having handled some sales for Ralliart in North America I can understand just how very few parts were actually sold in the US due to the most desired items such as front carbon lip spoilers being quickly knocked off. I’m not saying that knockoffs killed Ralliart, but it surely did have an impact in times like now where Japanese domestic sports car tuning and spending has slowed and the companies are dependent on export sales to remain in business.

I’d like to leave this post with a clip which is quite memorable for me. For those of you lucky enough to have seen this movie, its one of the very few impressive showcases of JDM tuning. Enjoy Jackie Chan working at Ralliart and racing an Evo III in this clip from Thunderbolt!

Honestly I don’t even know where to start with this post.
I have seen quite a few exotic cars on here lately, so I figure why not add one more to the list? I thought the KTM X-BOW should fit the bill.

The X-BOW is a very exotic car; you don’t see that many around, and not many people have much info about this go-kart on steroids, so I figured, why not share some light?
We all know that KTM has never produced any car in the past. So they didn’t have much R&D when they wanted to produce a car for their lineup. So who did they call to take care of the chassis? Dallara.
Yes, the same Dallara company that used to race F1 cars back in the day. The X-BOW features a full dry-carbon fiber monocoque chassis, making it ultra stiff and very very light; 1738 lbs. light !

So the next step was to take care of the engine. In this case, Audi was called and the 2.0 liter, 240 hp engine from the Audi TT was shoehorned in the back of the X-BOW. What’s more impressing though is its torque; 310 ft/tq. A lot for such a light car.

The brakes as shown above are from Brembo. The same exact brakes that are available on the Lancer EVO. 4 pistons in the front and 2 in the rear. You can only imagine how quickly this thing stops.

The cockpit is very simple; maybe too simple. There is no dash, no air-bags, no radio no heated seats, no nothing ! I love it.

What KTM did though, was putting the money where it counted, on the performance aspect of the vehicle.

The brake pedals are courtesy of Tilton. Since the seats are one piece molded with the chassis, KTM/Tilton had to get a bit creative. The whole pedal assembly is bolted onto a rail, so that the brake, clutch and gas pedal can slide back and forth allowing any driver to drive this kart; but the truth is, KTM wanted to keep the weight distribution of the X-BOW 50/50; thus the pedals on the rail.
The X-BOW is not available in the US-only in Europe, and in some countries in Europe it requires an helmet to be driven on public roads; kind on a given considering there is no windshield.
The base model starts at a little over $75.000 all the way to $125.000
Different choices of coilovers are available, as well as different types of LSD, wheels, body panels, and sequential transmission.
If you ask me, this car is a bargain for the track. And yes, it’s much faster than an Atom Ariel.

Once upon a time car designers were limited to simple sealed beam headlights. These were available in two basic flavors, round and square. Eventually European companies started using a new style of headlights that offered a far greater degree of design latitude. The same basic concept of unsealed headlights with replaceable bulbs has dominated the market since their introduction in the mid-80’s.

The next step in headlight design came with the introduction of HID lights. These lights use electrical arcs to produce light instead of filaments like traditional lights. This design allowed much more freedom in headlight design and provide good lighting. BMW started using “angel eyes” which made for a very dramatic look and improved on the basic design characteristics of the lights. Infiniti further explored the design potential of HID’s with their Q45. Its lights looked more like a gattling gun than a traditional headlight. Both of these ideas have since been adapted to many different platforms in the aftermarket.

More recently though, Audi has fully explored the concept of both the projector headlight as well as LED lights. Honestly, they’re light years ahead of anyone else in this department and manufacturers are starting to realize that it’s time to catch up or they’ll simply be left behind. Enter Honda’s new Super GT contender. This to me is the first real effort by another manufacturer to apply Audi’s concept to an entirely different design language and it WORKS! This whole car’s design is simply amazing and looks and sounds just like a racing car should.

Toyota has also successfully adapted this style to the FT-86. This design language is once again very different from Audi but the headlights fit perfectly. Now, I wonder if the aftermarket can produce similar products to fit cars that are already on the road. Imagine what a well-designed modern headlight could do for a classic but aging design.

Shinichiro Kanayama, the man behind ASM I’ve just learned is in the emergency room after a serious car accident last night. Kanayama-san is a dear friend of mine and is also personally an idol of mine in the industry. I know Kanayama-san has meant a lot to many of you, just as he has to me which is why I write this for your positive energy and support.

Having just learned this and being short on details at the moment, I wanted to ask for everyone’s support with their thoughts and prayers for Kanayama-san’s quick recovery.

There may be something to be said for the positive energy of good thoughts and prayers in times like these. Kanayama-san deserves a speedy recovery and a life full of healthy and happiness. He is an incredible man and an inspiration to many.

(Picture - Kanayama-san, myself and the Bulletproof team at Kanayama-san’s favorite cafe just a few weeks ago in Yokohama)

This blog over the years has become something more than just me and my random ideas and thoughts. This blog has become a community and to some degree a JDM movement. It has become a gathering place for like minded people who appreciate quality, innovation, performance, design…and especially for those who value new perspectives and seek to gain inspiration for their own cars and lives.

In short, this blog has become bigger than me. I’m grateful that the value of this blog has in my opinion exceeded my capacity to single highhandedly feed the thirst.

One of the best things that has happened to me over the past couple years has been seeing this community grow, seeing comments here, meeting readers of the blog (in multiple cases even employing them). The amount of talent represented by the readers that regularly view this blog is mind boggling. So my goal over the past year or so has been to give a voice to those readers. I want to encourage comments always, but I want to take it a step further and find talented commenters and build them into bloggers themselves.

You may notice that in the past month we’ve had a larger percentage of posts coming from other bloggers. This is part of my new role as “curator-in-chief” of The Real JDM. I’m admittedly not an expert in all areas so I’ve taken notice of those who are more talented than I at areas that I feel would yield unique, inspiring and innovative content. Guys like Alex Butti for example…I clicked on Alex’s photo album randomly from the blog comments one day and I became amazed at his eye for detail when it comes to analyzing time attack and performance oriented cars. His pictures and commentary continued to impress me and now I’m grateful that he’s writing here and sharing complete stories on cars from his unique viewpoint! His features so far have reinforced my desire to “curate” the blog just as much as my desire to provide my own content. Finding new guys like Alex to contribute is so important to expanding the passions that we all have here, just as having our past routine long term guys like Patrick is essential to keep us on our toes as Pat routinely comes up with the most random and fascinating topics that make us see things from a different perspective.

My vision for the blog is to continue this tradition of mind expansion and passion and to continue to find great new talent from the very readers who come here and share their comments. I’m intentionally very accessible so if you feel you have something unique to share please feel free to email me at ben@bulletproofautomotive.com. Great content is great content regardless of who or where it comes from.

Everyone here has the chance to have a voice whether you’re commenting and creating a new perspective for myself and other readers, or whether you’re someday writing your own blog posts here and introducing us to the next awe inspiring thing… I welcome everyone’s comments and opinions always!

Thank you all for your passion about this lifestyle that we all love.  Lets keep it moving forward. Please continue to spread the word about what quality is all about, what innovation is all about…and lastly what The Real JDM is all about! Together we have a bigger impact on the future of this industry and lifestyle than you might ever imagine.

Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM Blog Curator-In-Chief

The is the purple unicorn of the Japanese car collector world if you will…

There were 19 Nismo Z-Tunes produced in Japan and they were all Silver. This is the one mythical one which is different from the rest. We’ve just been asked to sell a Midnight Purple (OEM GT-R Color) Nismo Z-Tune. This is the only one in the world and I’m shocked to even see this car in existance, never mind have the ability to help broker the sale of it.

(by the way, we have a Silver Z-Tune for sale as well with 5000km on it)

The car has only 3,000km on it. It is a Nismo full Z-Tune conversion.

The car is for sale FOB Tokyo, Japan.

For inquires please email sales@gt-rr.com

The car can be found here:

http://gt-rr.com/gt-r/r35/nismo_japan/part/bnr34_gt-r_nismo_z-tune_midnight_purple_1_of_1/pid/949

After my Lateral Thinking post, I saw several comments from people who feel very strongly about makes associated with certain countries. This is certainly easy to understand as nationalism has always been a very big part of civilized culture. However, I truly feel we’ve reached a point at which a car’s manufacturer is increasingly irrelevant and there are no longer truly Japanese cars, American cars or German cars.

Not only are actual part origins and points of assembly being scrambled internationally, but design centers and partnerships between manufacturers are increasingly blurring the lines of what country a vehicle should be associated with.

Another interesting phenomenon is perhaps best personified by Toyota. Their management style and quality control processes have revolutionized the way car companies are run and the whole industry has adopted very similar policies. In essence, this moved the entire industry in a “JDM” direction.

Now, while Toyota is certainly still considered a Japanese brand by many, it is becoming increasingly American. The Camry is now America’s best selling car and every nut bolt and washer of the Toyota Tundra was designed specifically for American consumption. Even branding wise Toyota is running carbureted, pushrod V8’s with everyone else in NASCAR and they have factory efforts in the NHRA as well. At this point, the most Japanese thing about Toyota is its risk-averse management which is honestly holding the company back.

So, what makes a car Japanese anymore? This globalization may be disappointing for the purists, but really the general buying public will only benefit from the increased competition and collaboration. What does this mean for JDM? Simply that there’s less reason than ever to restrict yourself to one make or model or even time period. We don’t have to wait for Honda to bring us Type-R’s or Nissan to bring back the 240SX. Other manufacturers are just as capable of filling those voids and I hope the industry sees and exercises all the opportunities.