A PIT Autobacs Shinonome Morning Meeting
A PIT Autobacs Shinonome in Tokyo holds a morning meeting once a month on Sunday mornings. The theme for 17 September 2023 was “female owners”, and cars of all genres from mini to American gathered at the venue in the morning. Apart from taking a group photo, there was no set program of content, and the usual routine was to relax and exchange information while looking at each other’s cars. We spoke to some of the owners we were interested in at the event.
Jointly owned with her brother
Ms. Maiko is in the process of customizing her Toyota Aristo, and on this day came in a Nissan S15 Silvia Autech version. She bought this car when she was a university student, and although she gave it to her brother for a while, she now jointly owns it.
“I was in my second year of university when I bought it, so I was around 20 years old. When I bought it, it had Bomex aero and a Kakimoto muffler, and I drove it for about three years and gave it to my younger brother when he got his license, but he bought another Silvia, so we decided that we should drive it together.”
“When I was a student, I fell in love with it at first sight and drove it! I thought, ‘This is it! It will always teach me how fun it is to drive and drive it by myself. When I bought it, it was already 170,000 km old and now it has over 200,000 km on it, but it had deteriorated so much since I bought it that when I handed it over to my brother, he said ‘I’ll clean it up’ and changed it to Final Connection’s aero.”
“I want to run it to the limit without sparing it”
The parts that have been changed since the purchase include the aero parts from the aforementioned Final Collection, a normal bonnet, removal of the GT wing which was distorted without reinforcement, and a change to normal wheels, daring to go in a simple direction with a less sporty feel.
On the contrary, the interior has been given a sporty presentation with the steering wheel changed and triple additional gauges set in the air conditioning vents. It seems that her brother is currently taking the lead on this Silvia, but what kind of customization direction does Maiko have in mind for the future?
“I’d like to add aero to make it a bit sportier. I like the simple and cool Silvia, but I still miss the Silvia I used to drive back then. It’s an MT car that’s all about driving, so I’d like to make it a cool car with specifications that can be driven.”
“Also, there are some parts that are going to break down, so I’m hoping to fix them up a little bit nicely, not restoring them. The price of the car and the cost of parts have gone up, but I intend to drive it to the limit without sparing any effort. It’s a car I like, so I’m going to do my best.”
translated by DeepL
