POV: It’s January 2010 – though nobody was actually saying “POV” yet.
Smartphones hadn’t fully taken over, social media wasn’t the soul-sucking void it is today, and being an ‘influencer’ wasn’t a career path. What was happening?
Pro drifting was hitting peak status in the USA, ground-breaking engine swaps were pushing builds to new levels of insanity, and Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS) was the absolute mecca for anyone with a serious interest in ‘tuner’ cars. Despite the stigmas created by the Fast and Furious franchise, in 2010, there was a strong level of enthusiasm in America for authentic Japanese car culture.
At this point in life, I was an Infiniti technician in Salt Lake City, having lived in Utah for a few years after relocating from Virginia. After my first year of employment at the dealership, I’d earned a week of vacation.
I’d known all about TAS via magazines and videos for a while, but actually attending the event had only been a dream. However, thanks to a savvy magazine editor who had jumped between a couple of automotive enthusiast titles during the Peterson era, I became aware of a 5-day/6-night Tokyo Auto Salon tour that included hotel accommodation, transfers, show entry, translators, and even visits to Fuji Speedway and Daikoku PA. The cost of doing all these things separately would have been far greater than the total tour price, and that’s before you even factor convenience into the equation.
I had to go. I scraped together every penny and favor I could and booked my leave from work. Before I knew it, I was on my way to Los Angeles to meet with the rest of the TAS-bound tour group.
Fast-forward to our arrival at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, ready for almost a week of things I’d only seen in grainy, standard definition video or delayed print magazine coverage. The hotel was directly across the road from Shinagawa Station, which, to experience firsthand, was worth the trip alone for me. During my time there, I saw more trains than I ever knew existed, from wooden boxes on wheels to the 300km/h-capable Shinkansen.
I can vividly remember arriving at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba for our first day of Tokyo Auto Salon 2010 and being blown away by what I saw in the carparks. I had made a new friend in the tour group – still a friend 16 years on – and we both decided we’d save the last hour of the day before returning to our bus to walk the lots (thanks, Mike Garrett and Dino Dalle Carbonare, for the tip!).
However, nothing could prepare me for the excitement I felt walking into the convention center. After growing up a Chevy guy, before moving to Hondas and then Toyotas and Nissans, I had an ‘appreciation’ for rotary-powered Mazdas, though they were never really my thing. But standing in front of the RE Amemiya booth, which was packed with the best cars I’d ever seen in person, changed everything. If my day had ended here, my trip to Japan would still have been worth every penny.
Before I started putting this story together, I hadn’t looked at my photos from TAS 2010 for 14 years. Amazingly, though, a lot of what I shot is still relevant as ever.
From Ken ‘Nomuken’ Nomura’s latest ER34 Skyline sedan, to the Tommykaira R35 GT-R, the Spirit Rei Odyvia S13, a new Toyota 86 concept car, and many more. Of special interest to me was Takahiro Ueno’s Vertex E92 BMW M3. What made this pro drift car so appealing was its Toyota 2JZ – a cross-platform swap that’s grown in popularity over the last decade. This is where it all started.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the huge GT-R display in the center of the main hall, which one of our tour group members was especially happy to see. Yes, that’s a young Andrew Hawkins, AKA Mr. GT-R Festival.
Our visit to Fuji Speedway included a drift car ride on the then-new Gymkhana Course, but the highlight for me was seeing a black Porsche 993 on gold wheels, which was there for a track day. From a distance, it looked like a car I had only heard about – Akira Nakai’s iconic RWB 930, AKA Stella Artois – but up close and personal, it identified itself as a 993 called Natty Dread. At age 34, I had seen every car I ever needed to see.
I believe that trips like this helped create the term ‘bucket list’, which also wasn’t a common phrase in 2010. Not bad for US$2,200, plus the $300 cash I took for five days in a foreign country.
Check out some of my 2010 TAS carpark shots in the gallery below.
