If you live in or around Tokyo the Daikoku Parking Area is the most common place to hold meets. Over the last year we have seen RX-7 owners gather on July 7th (7-7) and AE86s meet on August 6th (8-6), which obviously gets the mind wondering. How many other date-related meetings could there be? A few weeks back Rod asked me if I had heard of any possible S13/S14/S15 gatherings being held on January 3rd, 4th and 5th. My reply was simple, I had no idea! Best thing I could do is head down to Japan's most famous truck stop and see what was going on. So last night at around 9 pm after grabbing a very nice Okonomiyaki dinner with some friends I jumped in the car and went so see what was going down.

I wasn't expecting a large turnout, not like what those crazy rotorheads manage to do every July, but I was glad to see I wasn't at all disappointed. Amazingly enough I didn't spot one single S13 Silvia, all the cars present were RPS13 180SXs, along with some other interesting cars.

There were about 15 cars in all and when I asked one of the owners if there were more coming he looked at me with a puzzled expression. I explained that since today was January 3rd I expected to find a sort of S13 gathering. Turns out their meeting was a total coincidence with the date, which pretty much means finding these cars was a total fluke!!

Parked on the other side of the parking lot was this lonely 180SX on Watanabe wheels running a curiously high stance! 

Why a picture of an A31 Cefiro in an S13 meet? Well the link is more obvious when you take a look under the hood…

…and find an SR20DET in place of the stock RB20!

Most of the guys that came down last night are drifters, which kind of explains the mismatching wheels and tons of zip ties. 

As I walked through the lot the selection of cars began to get better and better…

…with this particular red 260 Works 180SX getting the most looks.

On top of the clean exterior and beyond aggressive stance once the owner lifted the hood I understood what all the fuss was about.

Yep, that is a 1JZ sitting nice and snug in the RPS13 engine bay! 

This particular example really caught my eye for its very nice shade of wine red. 

Check out the diffuser fins on the rear of the blue 180SX. With most parking spaces in Japan having concrete wheel-stoppers I bet the owner really needs to watch out not to smash his race inspired aero bits!

Silver on one side…

…and gold on the other! But don't let looks fool you, this is not a show car as it's drifted regularly at events across the Kanto area. 

The owner has invested lots of time and a substantial investment to build his car, which boasts a fully spot-welded chassis and welded-in roll cage. The SR20DET comes from an S15 Silvia and is running an HKS GT-RS turbine for a nice and healthy 350+ HP with a nice wallop of usable torque.

Either this guy was early for tomorrow's meet or it was another coincidence!

Check out the wide body! You really do find some of the coolest cars at Daikoku!

SR20DET power for this little Pulsar GTI-R, a very rare car even on Japanese roads.

As usual any Daikoku meet is interrupted by the sounds of un-silenced, rhythmically revved up motorcyle engines. That's when you know the Bosozoku have arrived. 

Thankfully they didn't stay long and get any attention from the Police. They are usually the reason the Daikoku PA gets closed early.

On the shop side of the parking lot it was all about blaring audio systems…

…not to mention the odd itasha. It was all a bit to loud and colorful for me.

The rarer the car the more kudos you will get in Japan. Now that Honda has began importing the Euro Civic maybe it will begin bringing these US market Civic Si's into Japan?

There is always a great mix of cars at Daikoku…

 …but what I'm worried about now is if tomorrow night will really be the S14 meeting. There is only one way to find out so stay tuned for more from Daikoku….or maybe not.

-Dino Dalle Carbonare