So my friend Matt is a loyal customer of Trust Kikaku, and so of course when he announced a few months ago he was going to visit Japan, we agreed that we should drop in for a visit when he was here.
Flash forward a few months, along with a courtesy email to the staff at Trust Kikaku, and this past weekend I found myself driving up to TK - after having an interesting part installed at Nismo Omori Factory, which I will blog about in an upcoming post.
Pit stop for a quick lunch (for me!) on the way up!
This post will be photo heavy, since there is SO MUCH GOING at TK, rather than write about it, photos are way more efficient. Thanks very much of course to Matt who kindly shared his photos with me and gave me free license to post the ones I liked!
Anyway, TK is located in Ibaraki Prefecture, away from the cities in the countryside and about an hour north of Tokyo, with nothing really except farms mostly so it was quite obvious when we had arrived:
Once we drove through the gates, and then parked in front what appeared to be the main building, we were immediately greeted by Hirano-san and of course Hannah! (famous from the TK YouTube videos, of course!) Unfortunately it was Abe-chan's (Hannah's side-kick in the videos) day off, so I guess we will have to meet him the next time we visit!
But yeah, from the outside it looks very factory. Note the USS auctions satellite antenna on the roof though!
THE Front Door...and they even have their own welcome mat...
Once ushered inside, we changed our shoes into guest slippers (Nismo brand, of course) and went to the second floor, which is their client/customer greeting area as well as their administrative operations area.
At the top of the staircase:
Hannah proudly pointed out they have GT-R emblems from EVERY generation of GT-R!
And:
And:
Once the formal introductions and courtesies were over, Hannah offered to take us for a tour. I said "sure" figuring we would be done in 10 minutes. How wrong I was...
That is a manual transmission Nissan X-Trail on sale for 980,000 yen!
And as we moved down the row, the first of many R33 GT-Rs I saw in various states of condition.
This one looked to be in good condition, but we were told the underside was rusted!
This one had been sold to a lucky buyer in the USA!
So while this blog is R33 centric, of course I saw some other interesting cars there too.
R31 Skyline, and 4 door R34, both sold
We then turned around back towards the main building...
And started to check out the row of cars parked along the side of the building. Apparently, these are in the process of being inspected to determine whether they will be parted out or sold as used cars.
Altia aero kit version, anyone?
The price reflects its relative rarity
And of course more R33 GT-Rs.
With the Type R Integra in front
Looking back towards where we started the tour, you can see at least ONE car that will be parted out...
Now here is the real hairdresser's car. Anyone who says the Roadster/Miata is a hairdresser's car is wrong. That is a man's car in my book, such a fun car to drive. Sadly, this Z34 is not exactly what I would call fun...
After walking another 100 meters or so, we turned the corner to the back of the main building, where I found this:
Better hurry guys, THIS ONE is a beautiful MNP car with only 2000 kms! The stitching on the seats looked brand new, never mind the rest of the interior. Even R34 and R32 owner Matt was impressed enough to take a photo!
We also found these 3 rarities - a dark blue BNR32 on BCNR33 wheels, this white R30, and yes that is a white BNR34 V-Spec II
Hannah and Matt were discussing how the pearl white BNR34s suffer from different rates of white paint fading - the lower plastic was a bit more yellow than the body.
260RS Stagea too!
We also found this completely stripped out Z32 that was filled up with "garbage" parts. Of course I couldn't resist taking a look, and found some pretty cool parts and accessories in the mess. If I had more time I think I could have taken home some useful things.
This is I think when Hannah realized that I'm not exactly a normal person...
It was at this point where Hannah decided to show us something which would end up blowing me away in the sheer scale of it all...
That's right, row upon row of cars. What kind of cars?
Mostly Nissans...
I guess TK think that the future is bright for demand in R34 sedans and non-GTR coupes...
We didn't even bother walking around much here. Why should we? I guess the R34 fan could walk around and find some cool things - for example, I found a few manual transmission R34 sedans, and spoiler-less coupes (which confirmed my thinking that the R34 coupe looks weird without a wing of ANY type). So after about 5 minutes we headed back and this time walked through their factory/warehouse.
The warehouse has everything car related you can think of. First we saw a lot of parts stripped from cars that were going to be thrown away.
Yes, I am looking for ANYTHING I can take back with me... sadly nothing R33 related here
Sure this is R33 related but kind of hard to walk out the door with this.
On the other hand....
Look closer and it's not for a BCNR33
Those are crates of engines! Not just RBs but also an SR20!
And yes, even some special customer cars before they get shipped out - those that they will NOT leave outside... this Z-tune fendered BNR34, this R35 GT-R Nismo, and an Evo X.
This is their "studio" where they take photos of all the stuff they put on Yahoo Auctions:
With the tour done, they kindly invited us back upstairs for a short break and some tea.
At this point, I was content to say our goodbyes, however there was one more thing Hannah and Hirano-san wanted to show us - their new PR office!
In the employee parking lot right outside their PR office, I found this -
Someone has great taste, obviously...and strangely the employees do not buy cars from the company.
And actually, it wasn't just the office they wanted to show us, but their silver YouTube placque!!
Can't remember if it was for 100,000 viewers or 1M views, but...impressive nonetheless! Well done guys!
As we were about to drive away, Hannah was kind enough to pretend to be interested in my car.
Hannah laughing at me for spending so much money on the car...
Admiring Cesar's handcrafted interior
It was then that TK's video editor, Suzuki-san, another car-crazy guy, came out to check out my car as well. And he REALLY knew his stuff about the R33, even though he drives a slammed out 86! He knew, for example, where to check for rust spots, and asked about what clutch the car had, etc.
Here, the young ones get excited about the classic Skyline afterburners. Maybe I will make it onto TK's Facebook page?
Anyway, thank you very much to Hannah, Hirano-san, Suzuki-san and the rest of the TK staff who welcomed us and took so much time out of their day to entertain us. Great people, an interesting business, and a lifeline for many of us looking for that rare or hard to find part.
Thank you again! I look forward to seeing you guys again sometime soon!
So as I mentioned in the first of these Mine's visit posts, the Silence-VX Pro Titan III was not the only Mine's part I decided my car needed.
But before I show you what I got installed, how about I show you what was removed? The guys at Mine's were nice enough to pack up all my old parts into boxes for me.
Damn when did I get so hairy?
You can already tell that it contains "SBC" and "ESC" so:
And yes, not surprisingly, they made sure to wrap up the important pieces in plastic. So they don't get scratched up. Why? Because Japan...
So yes, they removed my old Blitz Dual-SBC boost controller for a newer unit by HKS, their EVC7:
Frankly, I'm not sure how this improves control of the turbos, except the interface seems to be much more user friendly. Maybe more precise control? Although when I picked up the car I vaguely remember Nakayama-san saying something about setting up different boost settings and that he decided that at the maximum boost setting the car felt too fast and so he dialed it down one notch.(!) Actually I found this comparison chart but maybe one of you guys can sum it up for me.
Ok onto more removed parts.
Blitz E-ESC, electronic exhaust sound controller. This was the electric valve I referred to in my previous post.
Note how even the controller is wrapped in plastic. Not good for the environment, Japan!
Looks like this unwrapped, according to the Blitz website:
And here is a video of the effect it had on the sound of the Tomei.
Obviously, with the new Mine's exhaust, this is something I don't need anymore. Removal of this valve -quite heavy actually - saves me XXX grams - and maybe makes up for the difference of the slightly heavier Mine's exhaust vs the Tomei? Not sure what I will do with the E-ESC now - maybe save for the Lexus if I ever get an aftermarket exhaust for it? I see Blitz discontinued it, so it could be handy in the future.
Also, they gave me back all of the Tomei Expreme Titanium - in pieces (it is not a one piece design, like the Mine's is), all nicely wrapped up!
Not sure what to do with this - keep for future track days?
Ok so the exhaust and exhaust value were obvious, given my previous blog post. How about this - the engine bay, how it used to look:
To now, this:
I changed out the OEM plenum, complete with the Mine's crinkle coating, for a non-crinkle coated Nismo plenum. I've always thought this part looked great just the way it is, and by limiting the crinkle coating to the engine, I think it actually further emphasizes the engine itself although strangely maybe it makes the engine bay look a bit busy?
Of course, if the plenum is replaced, other stuff is going on too.
That's right, I decided to replace the old Nismo 600cc single hole injectors with modern OEM R35 12 hole injectors! This necessitated a new fuel rail:
If you look at the Mine's website, you will see that they advertise this bit of kit showing all the fuel lines on the topside - Nakayama-san told me some owners like to be able to show off, when the hood/bonnet is opened, that they have this new set up installed and so opt to have the fuel lines routed as follows:
Hmm. Just noticed the red O is different...argh!!!
Not me, I like the more subtle look of the fuel lines all tucked away.
Of course, with new injectors you should run new Air Flow Meters (some people may disagree, I am just letting Mine's and Nakayama-san install what they have perfected over the years) so these old Mine's units came off:
To be replaced by the modern and thus much more accurate R35 ones. OEM parts FTW, I say!
The black crinkle finish is a bonus!
And with new injectors and AFMs, Mine's installed a new custom VX-ROM for me (I know because Nakayama-san told me about he himself setting it up out on the road). So how does it all work together?
First, I don't know why, but the engine starts up much easier. Even Ochiai-san at Nismo commented on this (yes another Nismo post coming soon!). Second, throttle response with the new R35 injectors, along with more volume in the Nismo plenum, results in very crisp, instant response. To be honest, it was very good before, but I feel like it's even more precise. Surgical?
Strangely, the exhaust still stinks, although not chokingly bad as before. Maybe it can't be helped with these engines but I was hoping for cleaner fuel burning due to better fuel atomization from the 12 holes.
I will post a sound clip of the Mine's exhaust soon, but it is fairly quiet. Still loud compared to the Lexus or the average car, but much more refined and therefore tolerable.
Power-wise, because of the more accurate throttle play, I feel like the car is more lively, and even with the new exhaust, which may be slightly more restrictive, I never felt like the car was down on power. So with better response and no perceptible change in power, (Nakayama-san grinned knowingly when I told him this), I am VERY satisfied at how this upgrade turned out! Although come next year sometime, Nakayama-san is promising me another powertrain upgrade which he thinks will make the engine even more responsive!
There is however one more pre-arranged modification I had Mine's do. I will publish that as soon as the Speedhunters article (working title - Return of Project 33) comes out, which now appears to be next month. If I do not see it get published by then, then I will go ahead and update the blog accordingly - you guys should not have to wait for that to find out what is really going on!
