Anyone Got Any Pics Of Old School/nostaligc Workshops?

[NZM.031]

Hey fellas..

has anyone got in any pics of some original or nostalgic japanese workshops... the kind that a hakosuka would look right at home in, that havent been changed since the day they were built back in the 50's, the kind that you walk into and think, "you're kidding me" but after spedning 5 min there you realise it has an old world feel that these new, shmick workshops just dont have... with their painted floors and immaculate walls... feels like a doctors surgery or hospital or something.

im looking for the dark, dusty ones, with shit and corruption everywhere, where funny little men build top notch engines on the floor, the ones that would be lucky to fit 2 cars in there if it was cleaned up and a person 6' would have trouble standing up straight.

where did HKS start?? or nismo?? or TRD?? what were their original workshops like back in the 'happy days' era?? where some like fonzie would be tinkering with a set of carbies on kpgc10

cheers

Linton

[HOSTILE]

This is a good one near Crystal in Chiba...

[HOSTILE]

some more...

[NZM.031]

thanks hostile

i found these just on speed hunters.. almost fonz.

[Beer Baron]

prime garage is like that. engines everywhere. cars stacked. a special one off (well he had 5 made) super duper 4AG crank that is used in yoshioka's mega hp, mega rpm AE86 just lying on a towel on top of a stack of parts etc (it would be worth over $10K if you could even buy one). an old bosch dyno that prints your dyno graph on actual graph paper with one of those little arms like on a polygraph machine or a seismograph! cats all round the place, etc. junk everywhere (like I said do you have a spare RB26 plenum and throttles and tono climbed up the wall like a monkey and there was a set hanging off a nail about 10 feet up the wall!). Tets ports RB26 heads on a milk crate sitting on the ground, but they are works of art. and yet they build and tune Super GT cars, D1 cars, and my cars... and the tiny lot outside holds some awesome cars. a big chaser sedan with a 550HP SR20 in it!, a r32 GTST track car running a 2.2L SR20 and motec! a togue Civic running some built honda motor (might be K20A?) and completely gutted to get it's weight under 1000kg etc.

I'll find some pics.

[Beer Baron]

ok, my 26 head being ported!

the engine 'room'. it is at least a sealed off room from the rest of the shop, but it's crammed full of customer engines. that my RB26 N1 Nur engine in the foreground (upside down) getting the Prime Garage treatment, and behind it is a serious 2JZ... background, assorted parts...

bits of my disassembled engine on it's accompanying stand. every engine he's building is on it's stand with a car like this beside it for all the parts so nothing gets lost in the chaos and mess in the place.

The crank I was talking about. 1 of only 5 ever made. Tets at prime used one in the engine he built for D1 driver yoshioka (AE86). It's 20 valve 4AG puts out 357ps at the wheels and it's NA!!!! The HKS crank (bottom of pic) tets said 'is like rubbish' in comparison. lol, most AE86 owners would kill just for the HKS one, he just has it lying around...

Tono, mechanic at prime garage:

RB26 N1 Nur motor arriving at Prime Garage. anywhere here people would be all "wow check it out" at prime they are more like.... "meh"

At this point I'd like to say fck imageshack. I've uploaded so many photos there, spent so many hours doing it and I'd say at least 20% are now fked. they either don't appear, or get 404 or are just plain gone. fkers.

pic of one of the engines they built for me. This car was bought with a dud RB26 but the car was immaculate. the guys at prime built up a new engine for it using a brand new crate motor as a base. it got headwork, cams, injectors, HKS GTSS turbos, tomei manifolds, tomei dumps, 8 hours of run in and tuning on their ancient dyno etc. awesome set-up. so responsive. I ended up selling it to a really good mate of mine and he loves it.

nice little detail touches

when I had it run up on the dyno in aus on low boost it made this power, but more important than the peak power, check out the curve and how much power it makes at 4,000rpm, 5,000rpm etc. fat mid-range is what this car has.

engine sitting at prime waiting to go in.

the finished engine bay. lovely work from a very old school flavoured shop.

Tono slotting it in.

front of the shop.

Their tuner. I swear he looks just like the guy in the initial D movie (the chinese made one) who plays Takumi's Father. Dead ringer for him I reckon.

nothing fancy here for tuning. they set the car up with an EGT gauge in the dump pipe, a wide band 02 meter and display (they weld a bung for that in the front pipe) and add fuel pressure gauge as well. then use the ECU and the jap Apexi Pro software to tune the power FC.

the old school dyno.

even the laptop looks old school. the headphones are for connected to a knock meter, not a ipod full of J-pop!

The main man Tets porting a RB26 head for me. No CNC programs of 5 axis machines here. it's all in his coconut and done by hand.

the intake gets ported too. also on the sophisticated milk crate 'head porting room'....

tets is at it for hours. there is days of porting in a RB26 head to do intake, exhaust, combustion chambers, then the intake manifold etc.

Tets putting some touches on the donk.

the exhaust side. so very nice.

[Beer Baron]

The did this trust sump extension for me. welded onto a brand new sump. excellent work.

The N1 Nur engine for my current R32. sitting at prime garage

a Super GT car in their workshop for race prep for the next round! It looks funny squeezed into their old workshop. but they are the best.

My N1 Nur motor again packed in amongst the gear.

the headwork on it.

The R32 GTST with the 2.2L SR20 and motec ECU etc that is just sitting outside. I've been trying to get Tets to sell it to me for about 2 years now! he will cave any moment. I'm sure of it. lol.

The Togue/Circuit Civic sitting outside. It's absolutely mental. I'd love to own it too. Hard to imagine both the R32 and the Civic are street registered in Japan!

One last shot of the front.

I have been to lots and lots of workshops in Japan and Prime by far has the most old school kind of feel. Like you can drop in for a drink and a smoke and have chat about plans etc. and stuff is everywhere, but the mess and chaos works for them. and out of this grubby packed workshop they produce immaculate work. and it's always crammed with hot cars and engines.

If you like by way of comparison I can post pics of say Garage Saurus which is very different.

[Gts-t]

Hey baron

do you have any details on the rear overfenders on the black 32 with the sr20?

Know anyone that makes good quality ones?

Cheers mate

[Beer Baron]

bugger all unfortunately. they are nice quality though. don't worry, one day soon that car will be mine, and when it get's here I will take a look under them and find the makers stamp for you.

If I remember next time I'm talking to Tets I will ask if he knows/remembers what brand they are. The car looks so cool in real life. just a shame I couldn't get any good pics of it as it was parked in that day.

also in the last pic is the 350Z (sorry Fairlady... lol) i was driving and next to it is an unassuming looking white chaser... well it has roll cage, brakes and a monster 550hp SR20 conversion and had just recently won a circuit event at their local track. it belongs to Tono the head mechanic at Prime.

[NZM.031]

thanks baron.. lurvly motor you have/had there.