Iding Power, The Tuning Shop You’ve Never Heard Of

Shikatsu Ide is the last of a very rare breed. He’s from an era when Japan fought its hardest to build up an economy, enjoying unprecedented success in the process; echoed by Japanese tuning of the same period.

Chat to him for a few minutes and the first thing you notice is his energy. A few years away from his 80th birthday, he talks about his projects and future with the sort of passion you’d expect a twenty year-old to ooze. It’s incredible to see, but not as mind blowing as what he’s achieved through his company, Iding Power.

Located in the outskirts of Yokohama, Iding Power first got started in 1974, specializing in race and rally car development for domestic manufacturers. A decade later, Ide-san headed to Germany to study alongside BMW’s Motorsports Division – which is what really kicked off the business as we know it today.

He spent most of the eighties modifying BMWs, making them faster while building up a few demo cars as test beds for his unique way in approaching, working on E28s and really making a name for himself with the E30 M3.

Ide’s motorsport-esque approach to extracting performance out of street cars is what’s helped him sit a notch above the rest in Japan. While most Euro shops were content with fitting exhaust systems and handling upgrades, Ide was in his engine room taking motors apart, developing stroker kits and refining intake and exhaust ports to match his valvetrain upgrades.

In 1989, he even developed an engine package for the E32 750i that hiked power to 402 HP – with a full, lightweight, bottom-end upgrade.

Having made a name for himself in the BMW world with his complete Iding Power cars, his next target was Ferrari. In the same year, he took a Testarossa and transformed it into the Iding F54-S3, getting the flat-12 motor to develop an extra 50 HP with an almost half-liter bump in capacity.

It made headlines in Japan’s auto magazine, beating the F40 by 0.1 seconds on the quarter mile. From then on he shifted into high gear, and in the space of a couple of years had opened a shop in Germany to build cars in Europe.

He set up an R&D center as well as making his Iding Power wheels with BBS and brakes with AP Racing, creating a supply chain that would allow him to build his own cars to the highest standard.

The nineties were a rollercoaster ride of complete car development based on the E36-generation BMW M3, the BMW M1, the Ferrari 328 and 355, but what Ide-san really likes to talk about is his involvement with McLaren.

Ide-san established the only McLaren dealership in Asia selling the F1, and Ide-san was instrumental in the F1 entering the Japanese Grand Touring Car Championship, which spawned some of the most visibly recognizable McLaren F1s in history. He loved the BMW S70/2 V12 that powered the car, but to this day complains that the 7,500 rpm redline was far too low.

He got the nod from Gordon Murray to modify the F1, which led to the Iding Power AMD648, a bespoke, high-revving NA V12 of his own design which took 5 years to develop, and in its highest output iteration revved to 9,500 rpm – churning out 800hp in the process.

Three motors were built, but none made it into an F1. One was fitted to a W210-generation Mercedes E-class as a test bed for a slightly detuned street version of the powerplant, while the spiciest version was supplied to power Ide’s own car – the Iding F648 GT-A – based on a stretched F355 which sadly to this day remains only a sketch.

A masterpiece of Japanese tuning, that engine now sits in his office – alongside a plethora of other parts that he uses on his builds.

The cherry on top came decades later, when he launched the F-07 in 2022; the ultimate Iding Power creation based on the Ferrari Enzo. Bespoke aerodynamics set the car off as something unique.

It’s a different animal from the already rare and prohibitively expensive base car, but the heart of the beast is where things get really wild. The V12 was stroked to 6.3 liters, and its compression upped to a ratio of 11.5:1, with a 112hp gain bringing power to 708 HP.

The car even features cameras in place of the conventional mirrors to help lower drag at high speed. So far two cars have been built: the black development car, and the red customer F-07 I got to see in the workshop during my visit.

That’s Iding Power’s history in a nutshell. Next I’ll be getting into the cars, as we start taking a look at some of Ide’s most impressive engineering masterpieces.