Busy Day! ItalDesign Event, Nismo Omori, and Daikoku PA

at Daikanyama T-Site

So since my GT-R normally lives on top of the car lift, and it is somewhat of a hassle to get it out of the garage (move my Elgrand; move my Lexus IS-F; move my Skyline Nismo), lately for me it has to be a special occasion before I can be bothered to do so.

But today was such a day!

My friend Andrea Porta at ItalDesign had invited me to his company's world premier of their newest book which has the theme of engineers with ideas: "ItalDesign Engineers of Ideas"

The event was at the gigantic Tsutaya store/parking lot in Daikanyama, Tokyo, called Daikanyama T-Site.  Longtime readers will recall that I was on hand with my R33 GT-R when ItalDesign launched the GT-R50 in the very same parking lot back in 2018. 

Anyway, this time Andrea reached out to me (probably because he knows I don't drive the R enough) and gently asked if I could make time for this event - but I had to bring the R. A bit confused, as I heard that all the other cars were going to be ones that were actually designed by ItalDesign, but I figured it was a great excuse to get out and hang out with fellow car nerds but of the non JDM variety.

After checking out the cars for a couple of hours, we headed inside for an hour long presentation of the book's contents, as well as an update on what we can expect ItalDesign to be doing going forward.

As I was learning that ItalDesign had been influential in the design of objects other than cars, such as Seiko watches and Nikon cameras, I got a text message from a fellow R33 owner, SHOHEI.  He asked if we could meet up at Daikoku, since last I saw him (at Mine's and then also at Umihotaru) he had been itching to take photos of my car.  I was agreeable, but he proposed meeting up at Daikoku at 1400.  But the ItalDesign event ended at about 1230... what to do, since it was only a quick 30 minute drive from Daikanyama to Daikoku?

Well, why not go to where I always like to go - Nismo Omori? Maybe I could kill some time there...

When I arrived, some kids from Finland saw my car and got excited, so I talked to them for a bit... (Eetu? Sorry...)

Inside Nismo Omori Factory, I found this Tomica display

I need to talk to someone about putting a Tomica of my car in here...

And then a couple of mildly interesting cars:

But sadly nothing R33 related. Luckily, SHOHEI volunteered to stop by Nismo first before Daikoku...

SHOHEI in green about to take some photos of our cars

I think this is the first time I have compared a KL0 v KR4 silver car in daylight!

Both silvers are awesome! Especially as both have the new Veleno LED headlights!

After talking to some guys at Nismo, it was off to Daikoku, finally.  I took this photo of SHOHEI taking some photos but he was also kind enough to later send me some samples of his work as well.

Yeah ok but WOW check out his photos:

I guess he likes using filters, or Photoshop, but heck they look good. Thanks SHOHEI!!

Also thanks to SHOHEI for giving me a couple of new ideas for future mods....!!!! 

OEM Look LED Series 3 Headlights by VELENO! (@Tokyo Auto Salon 2024) - Part 1

Happy New Year friends!

Having seen some social media posts (and an advert in last month's GT-R Magazine) about a new product from LED specialist Veleno (working together with Nismo Super GT racing driver Tsugio Matsuda) - namely a completely new Series 3 (kohki) headlamp unit incorporating LEDs for both low and high beams, this year I decided to make the 90 minute train ride from Yokohama to Makuhari Messe in Chiba where Tokyo Auto Salon 2024 is being held this weekend.

I quickly made my way to the Veleno booth, and finally saw Matsuda-san's R33 GT-R in the flesh! I've seen this car in GT-R Magazine, as well as on YouTube (with Matsuda-san driving in it) so it was cool to finally see it in person.

But looking more closely, I was really surprised to see that IF this car had the new LED units, it did not look like it had LEDs in there at all.

Ok here is a close-up. 

I asked around and was introduced to Nakakuki-san of Garage Chikara, who was co-hosting the event (turns out that Nakakuki-san owns a Series 1 R33, is an R33 GT-R fan, and has long been itching to upgrade the headlights on his 33 to LEDs - so this project made it happen!) with Reiz Trading (the company that sells the Veleno brand bulbs). This answers why Veleno did not come out with LED headlights for the 32 or 34... 

So - and I will update in a future blog post with more on the back story about how all this happened, but meanwhile, here are the particulars that Nakakuki-san shared with me. I am also following up on some technical questions as well, so if you have any, please do leave a comment and I will follow up on those too! For example, I was told by Nakakuki-san that both bulbs for low and high beam are H8 bulbs, but the Japanese website states the high beams are H11. And yes, I know that they are very close to the same form factor and that there are slight differences, but what is the actual situation here?

Anyway - first, an English language website (for ordering) is coming in the near future - probably next month. So yes, you will be able to order and purchase these units from outside Japan, and yes they will have no problem sending these out by international post. No need for a middleman service.

Second, the projected run is about 200 sets initially, but if there is more demand then of course they will continue to produce more.  It is important to note that the current retail price is an "early bird" special, in that the high and low beam bulbs - valued at 66,000 yen (with Japanese VAT) are included for no additional cost. The units will be ready for sale sometime between March and May, likely during April. After the initial run, it seems the bulbs will be an extra cost.

Third, the harness for these kits is plug and play for Series 3, but the displayed red car is actually a Series 2, so obviously a retrofit is possible.  However, if you watch the demo video before, you will see that when the high beam is on, the low beams shut off, which is consistent with what the Series 1 and 2 OEM lights do - but NOT the headlights for the Series 3 cars, where the low beam stays on - because of the Xenon bulb. I will find out more details on whether any harness modifications are needed (but IIRC, he said there were not, so...)

I managed to capture these still shots during the video. 

Low beam - incredibly bright, although I wish they had kept one side the original Xenon for comparison

Blinding high beam! But low beams turn off just like the Series 3 OEM units

There were a few other cars on display too. There was a manual Z sporting a Nismo body kit (i.e. hint hint Nissan this is how the Z Nismo should be...) As well as this very clean Autech 4 door GT-R.

Turns out this Autech is also one of Matsuda-san's cars...

I still don't know what purpose this half clip served, other than to allow the models to sit down behind it.  

Oh and it was also hooked up to show off what could be possible, strobe light-wise?

Meanwhile, as I was talking to Nakakuki-san in the back, a crowd was forming outside - so when I looked out I saw this:

Models posing with the half cut. One way to draw a crowd I guess...

Veleno also had their other products on display, including the "Impact Blaster" which was apparently some kind of anti-bacterial ozone generator for your car...

Anyway, rest assured I do myself have a set on order already, and will post my impressions once I get them installed. Maybe do a video showing the difference between the LED and the Xenon (I know I am going to miss that "warm up blue" effect...).

Finally, this being Tokyo Auto Salon - well there are a bunch of other websites and social media platforms showing more content.  For me, this is a shot of how it looked when I first entered the main area of Makuhari Messe (the convention hall that hosts Tokyo Auto Salon). Me being me, somehow I found myself entering exactly where CraftSports (GT-R specialists) had their display...

Stay tuned for more updates!

LED Scuff Plate - Quick Repair Turnaround!

So during my Marine Day interior upgrades, I realized as I was finishing up that something was not working.

The left side red LED scuff plate I got many years ago from G-Corporation was no longer lighting up!  So of course I was hoping for a loose wire somewhere...

As you can see in the photo, I dug into the rubber sealant portion to see if I could figure out what was broken. No luck. Nothing loose or broken that I could find. This meant I would have to contact G- Corporation, and see if they were willing to do a repair.

The day after I contacted them, they immediately responded and told me they could do so - all I had to do was to send the broken part in, they would give me an estimate, and if I agreed to the repair cost, they would quickly fix it and send it back once I wired them the money.

That seems like a normal response, but I sometimes forget that such customer service, while normal in Japan may not be elsewhere.  So I decided to wait right before my recent trip to Okinawa, whereupon I removed the door scuff plate and then got it wrapped up the best I could.

Lots of paper and tape - and I had some plastic wrap in there too, to prevent scratches on the visible surface:

I got it all wrapped up as such. Forgot to take photos, but then I found a large longish box into which it fit. I then went to the local 7-11 convenience store - in Japan most if not all "combinis" serve as a pick-up point for at least one of the courier companies - nice as I don't have to worry about visiting during banker hours like the post office!

So my car now looked like this:

Hopefully, the turnaround would be quick so no one would have ride in my car like this. And indeed it was - I was gone for 2 weeks but with work, the beach, a car show (maybe a future post?) and meeting up with Murray keeping me preoccupied, when I flew home I found this waiting for me.

Super well wrapped, not surprisingly:

Looks brand new, which is awesome. 

Now of course the chance of receiving something that was NOT properly fixed is close to nil, but old American habits die hard, I guess.

Had to test it before installing - works perfectly!

But, not all was perfect! You see, on the body side there was this connector... and what I had sent to G-Corporation had the matching female side. What they sent me was new and they had not included the old female connector. What to do?

I COULD splice it all in... but there is a certain elegance about being able to disconnect electrical parts... having to cut wires again if I ever had to remove the scuff plate again seems so barbarian.

Thus the hunt was on for a solution.  I finally went to Amazon and found an electrical coupler kit, prepared to cut off the existing male connector and graft on two new matching connectors.

Lucky for me, it turns out that the SM-2A coupler matched the existing coupler!  

This meant I only had to work on one side.  Trying to be neat, I cut off the excess wiring that came with the rebuilt scuff plate, to a manageable length.

Success! (although those tiny metal pins I had to connect to the wires... my aging eyes!)

And yes it works! So now one less thing to worry about. 

Now, I am ready for a photo shoot, or taking a passenger for a ride. Will that be happening? Stay tuned... and thanks to G-Corporation for the quick turnaround!!!