Late final yr, I paid a protracted overdue go to to Limitless Works in Yokohama.
I had really contacted the store’s proprietor Kazuhiro Sato – Kaz to his associates and acquaintances – nearly two years prior, within the hope that he might do some work on my Impreza. However alas, the calendar was totally booked with buyer automobiles – largely Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions – with the following out there opening just a few months forward. So, sadly, I needed to look elsewhere.
Limitless Works is a Japanese tuning store in very excessive demand, and maybe one of many final of its type.
Kaz started tuning Evos within the late Nineties. He arrange Limitless Works by himself 17 years in the past, hiring a tight-knit crew of mechanics who’re nonetheless working with him right now. Discuss job satisfaction.
It’s no shock actually, as there’s at all times one thing thrilling to work on. Most notably, Limitless Works helped develop one of many world’s most iconic and influential Lancer Evolutions – the two-time World Time Assault Problem-winning and Tsukuba legend, Cyber Evo.
When you chat with Kaz for greater than 54.642 seconds (that’s the Cyber Evo’s quickest Tsukuba lap time), there’s one phrase which is able to pop up greater than as soon as: Ardour.
Whereas tuning Evos to set blisteringly-fast lap instances is a positive approach to develop into well-known, the issues that hold you in favour with the plenty are drivebility and reliability. The Limitless Works group delight themselves on constructing quick street automobiles which preserve a sure diploma of civility. Meaning air-conditioning and electrical home windows can all be present in Kaz’s buyer builds. Even a few of the sub-60 second Tsukuba automobiles that Limitless Works have constructed nonetheless retain their manufacturing facility creature comforts.
These automobiles are constructed for efficiency although, and as you’d count on, some neat aftermarket elements are made in home. Limitless Works’ stainless cat-back exhaust methods are fairly well-liked, and can be found in two specs: hold it civilised or wake the lifeless.
Speaking with Kaz about his store and the aftermarket business generally revealed two factors of concern for the veteran tuner. Firstly, he sees a much bigger divide than there’s ever been between the variety of retailers who carry many years of experience to their clients and produce work which displays this, and fly-by-night retailers producing sub-par work. His different concern is a common fear for tuning retailers and shoppers alike – elements, or lack thereof. I’m positive lots of you too have been hit with the dreaded ‘this half has been discontinued’ error on the checkout. So how is the business surviving? Properly, fortunately many elements are nonetheless out there. However typically elements like trim, bumpers and different physique panels aren’t. The one possibility is to refurbish, recycle, or in some instances, recreate them your self.
The recommendation from Limitless Works? Take care of your experience and take preventative measure towards sick destiny. Carry on high of upkeep, drive sensibly – inside purpose – and take a look at to not hit something alongside the way in which. When you take care of your stuff correctly, then it is going to final a number of automotive lifetimes.
When the Cyber Evo ran its WTAC victory lap in 2011 it was a 10-year-old automotive. It might be a 23-year-old automotive this yr, and I’m positive it could nonetheless run rings round a inventory 991 Porsche 911 GT3. Kaz doesn’t know the place the long-lasting Evo is now, however on the day I visited Limitless Works, there was a buyer Lancer that laps Tsukuba nearly as fast because the Cyber Evo did, in for a routine check-up. I made positive to test it out, so keep tuned for that characteristic very quickly.
Toby Thyer
Instagram _tobinsta_
tobythyer.co.uk
Extra tales from Japan on Speedhunters