Common people visits Japan for many reasons, like the majestic temples of Kyoto, the vivacious night life of Tokyo and its shopping department stores, the uncontaminated nature of Hokkaido, the breathtaking landscapes of the Mount Fuji, or even the undisclosed tropical paradise which Okinawa actually represents.
Well that's what normal people may do, but gear-heads wouldn't. They visit Japan with just one aim in mind, and that is... Cars!
Perhaps that's what might have flashed in Andrea's mind, one of our friends from New Zealand, while planning his trip. He's a car addict just like us, so no wonder why he sent us these stunning pictures of his personal experience at one of the most motorsport-oriented car workshops in the whole country: RE Amemiya.
It's simply a must see, not just because we all remember it from Gran Turismo and Best Motoring, but also for its accessible location in Chiba, at 15mins of taxi from Narita Airport, or either 45mins with a special airport bus which stops exactly in front of the workshop.
Company's title says it all, R.E. stands for Rotary Engine where Amemiya stands for the name of its founder Isami Amemiya, which in the mid '70 firmly believed the cars world needed a new injection of adrenaline. Mainly oriented on Mazda rotary engines tuning, they have focused all their efforts in making Mazdas going faster, other than building special one-off vehicles which sometimes doesn't belong to Mazda at all (like the recent Lotus Europa engine-swapped with a rotary 20B).
RE Amemiya designs his own suspensions, his own aero kits, and his own lightweight racing parts. They cover every aspect of the car with great competence and dedication, and this led to what someone's defined as one of the craziest build of all times, the 1996 Greddy RE Amemiya VI AZ1. Based on the key car AZ-1 and boasting a 20B 3 rotors turbo engine, it had a custom stretched wheelbase and a dedicated aero kit: whoever had the luck and pleasure to drive it briefly reported an astonishing handling coupled with an endless power band.
After this little presentation to let you better understand the profound heritage that Amemiya represents in the Japanese motorsport and car scene, we can get back to our visit which absolutely paid off! Take a look at this great pictures... Packed in less than 2000 sq.m. there's an incredible concentration of rotary-powered monsters.
It's easy to tell with any doubt that their favorite car model is the FD-series RX7: furthermore the 'RE Super G' are some of the most finely tuned road legal RX7s that money can buy.
They have accrued so much experience on tweaking and tinkering this car that their race-spec RX7 have made it through as a winner on the 2006 JGTC (now Super GT) under the GT300 category. A victory in this high cost championship is usually a prerogative of official teams, led and supported by car manufacturers with big sponsors endorsed. Amemiya-San made a true exception to this, barely left to himself without any support from Mazda and rocking an older version car, he has proven that old doesn't mean slow and this can translate quite perfectly when you're talking about an RX7.
Since 2012, RE Amemiya have merged all their knowhow and experience into a one-off car to compete in the WTAC, the World Time Attack Challenge held in Sydney on a year basis. This example of FD RX7 has been named "Hurricane" after its explosive and pervasive power due to a 3 rotors 20B turbocharged engine matched to the GT300-derived car's chassis. Driven by Nob Taniguchi for the first two years and by Max Orido in 2014, the Hurricane always got a top 10 placement.
Even the backyard has its own treasures, by showing all the customers rides just finished and ready to be picked.
This example of a Time Attack-spec FD3S just makes our eyes pop out. Superbly constructed and flawlessly assembled, the choice of performance components is always top notch.
Keep this in mind and note down this must-do for your next travel to Japan..!