iM Shop Spotlight – illmotion

iM Shop Spotlight: Concept-1

March 19, 2012September 26, 2016

|Shop: Concept-1
|In The Car Industry For: 15 Years
|Location: 18 Highfield Circle SE Calgary, AB
|Website: http://store.concept1.ca/store/
|Contact: info@concept1.ca
|Telephone: (403) 287-8549
|Crew: Ken (Owner), Curtis (Manager), Andrew (Service Manager), Aaron (Sales), Tracy (Sales), Matt (Technician), James (Technician), Louis (Technician)

With as many Japanese import tuning shops in the city, it is a lot harder to find ones for the Euro crowd. And even then, it gets segregated between the individual brands themselves. One of the big (if not the biggest) names in the Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche scene in Calgary is Concept-1.

Specializing in Volkswagens (air and water cooled) and Audi, and also dabbling in a bit of older Porsches, Concept-1 has a 6000 square foot main showroom and service facility in which to work on your vehicle with 5 hoists, and a 2WD dyno. Add to that a newly built second 6000 square foot warehouse behind the main building to house a few cars and stock tons of parts and accessories for your needs, and you see these guys are serious about helping you get what you need in a timely matter.

Concept-1 is an authorized dealer for KW suspension, FK, Brembo, and the newly announced/released Volkswagen Racing line. And also, by the time you read this, Concept-1 will be the master distributor for APR in Canada. But don’t think that those are the only brands that they carry, they can bring pretty much everything in.

In addition to satisfying your aftermarket tuning needs, they also stock many OEM VW/Audi parts, and do full maintenance an service on your vehicle, old or new, water or air-cooled. They can get hard to find/discontinued parts at great prices. They also do safety inspections on vehicles in case you find a used car that you want, but just aren’t sure and want someone to look it over.

Concept-1 also has a few shop/demo vehicles that they use to advertise their services and what they sell. Still on the fence about getting your 2.0T tuned? They’ve got a MK6 GTI that they can take you for a ride in to show you what the tuning does and how it feels. They also have a 2011 Touraeg test vehicle, as well as many older VWs that you will see in the pictures. And coming soon will be their 2012 APR Golf R which will boast over 500+ HP in a daily driven setup coming directly from APR.

So make sure you visit or call Concept-1 for all your Volkswagen/Audi needs. Their friendly and knowledgeable staff will be there and ready to give you a hand.

More pics can be found on our Flickr set: HERE

iM Shop Spotlight: Super Autobacs

February 3, 2012April 5, 2012

Whenever I see pictures inside Super Autobacs it always reminds of those ghetto shops that are sometimes in malls around here and all they sell it altezza taillights and model cars but replaced with every baller JDM brand you can imagine. Walls of rare wheels, limited edition Recaro seats and everything in between.

Did someone say wheels?

Wall o’ Nardi wheels

Need any small accessories?

No, how about a carbon J’s intake.

And everyone favorite rack…. altezza’s on altezza’s on altezza’s.

More Super Autobacs pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

And that’s a wrap as far as our Tokyo Auto Salon/JDM shop coverage goes. We’d like to throw a huge thanks out to Galen Wan for the amazing stuff he’s been able to provide us with over the last month or so. Also to our friends over at Stretch & Poke! be sure to check out their site when you have minute for their take on all this crazy JDM stuff.

We’ll be back in the coming days/weeks with a couple more local features & videos that we’ve saved up from the summer months which I’m sure you guys will enjoy.

iM Shop Spotlight: Backyard Special

February 1, 2012February 29, 2012

Today we’re going to be sharing some pictures from Galen’s stop at one of my personal favorite JDM Honda Tuners, Backyard Special. I remember reading a story in Honda Tuning a while back about Hatsuo Suzuki the CEO of Backyard Special and his love for Honda’s from the very beginning. The way the story was written I got the feeling that he just loves what he does and I think it really shows in the products they continue to produce.

He opened this shop back in 1983 and has been tuning Honda’s in the same location since then.

As usual for all the JDM shops space is not plentiful. Also peep the S600, Hatsuo’s favorite Honda.

There was also a couple other Honda’s parked outside on display.

And then at the end of his visit Mr. Suzuki gave Galen a ‘spirited’ drive back to the train station in the company CRZ.

More Backyard Special pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

iM Shop Spotlight: J’s Racing

January 30, 2012February 29, 2012

In recent years J’s Racing popularity has gone through the roof. Their products are distributed through many North American distributors now and slightly easier (minus the wait times) to get into your hands and onto your car. Also attributed to their popularity would be the current trend to build track ready cars with track inspired parts. Whether that’s your thing or not, the quality of J’s parts can’t be denied.

First up we have the J’s Racing CRZ. Galen wasn’t able to get too much information out of the J’s crew but he did learn that they’ve up’d the compression and are continuing to find ways to squeeze more power out of Honda’s latest sporty hybrid.

Euro CTR, no big deal.

The J’s Racing shop dog Ryoma just chilling on the front steps.

Next up are a couple of the Honda Fits/Jazz that they had parked out front all rocking the crazy aero kits, wings and exhausts.

And even more parked out on the street.

Couple more J’s pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

iM Shop Spotlight: Feel’s, Seeker & K.Break

January 27, 2012February 29, 2012

Next us on our Japan Shop Spotlights we have Honda tuners Feel’s & Seeker and also a quick stop at K.Break.

| Feel’s:

First up is Feel’s who had their street & track CTR’s on display. If I owned an 8th gen civic I think that there would be lots of Feel’s areo finding its way onto the car. Love the widebody fenders on these two.

More Feel’s pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

| Seeker:

Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone at Seeker that spoke any english so it was just a quick stop checking out their parking lot which had a couple CTR’s, a CRZ and a old school prelude.

Couple more Seeker pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

| K.Break:

Last up for today is JDM VIP tuner K.Break. Mostly know for their VIP bodykits and aero products. They were closed when Galen stopped by to visit so here’s a couple shots of the cars that were parked outside.

Air ride obviously not in it’s hardparking position.

Couple more K.Break pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

iM Shop Spotlight : Spoon/Type One

January 25, 2012February 29, 2012

After Galen’s trip to Tokyo Auto Salon 2012, he also decided to check out some of the Japanese performance shops that we all know and love. One of his first stops was Spoon Sports/Type One. Unfortunately Spoon is under some renovations so he wasn’t able to get inside. Regardless this post is dedicated to the Honda fanboys. Enjoy!

Spoon CRZs

Spoon CR93 and a Couple ECUs

Spoon Motor Rib for the Honda CRZ.

Couple of cars outside. Spoon Civic and Spoon Honda S2000.

Kind of funny seeing the Mugen RR Civic at Type One.

More Type One pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

iM Shop Spotlight: Tommy Kaira & Wald International

January 12, 2012February 29, 2012

We are extremely excited to be presenting our readers with our very first collab posts courtesy of Galan Wan and our fellow bloggers Stretch & Poke from out east. With coverage coming straight out of Japan, we have lots of shop features and tons of Tokyo Auto Salon stuff in the coming days/weeks so be sure to check back often, 56k be warned.

| Tommy Kaira:
We’re starting off with the Japanese car tuning company Tommy Kaira. In addition to being a distributor for many manufacturers they also design and manufacture their own aero products. Their aero kits are designed and rendered by company president Mr. Hiei and then passed off to their modeler to sculpt and refine the design in clay, full scale, till it’s just right.

They’re pushing really hard to get into the Euro market this year with the brand name “Rowen” which is evident by the cars they are franticly preparing for TAS. Just to clarify, these pictures were taken yesterday… 3 days before TAS starts. Some of the cars/kits still need to be finished, painted, and detailed before the 2 hour bullet train ride to the show. I guess the last minute rushing everyone is oh so familiar with this side of the Pacific isn’t lost in Japan.

Also be sure to check out Tommy Kaira at SEMA 2012 as they are planning on making the long trip to showcase their work in North America.

More Tommy Kaira pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

| Wald International:
Next up was a quick stop at Wald International. Known for their wheel and aero products for whatever ‘baller’ car you may own. The pictures speak for themselves.

The only information Galen was able to gather from the sales rep was that all the cars in the shop, with exception to the Maserati, are all owned by Wald. Nice collection!

More Wald pictures can be found on our Flickr page HERE

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the start of our TAS 2012 coverage!

iM Shop Spotlight: 1st Gear Auto

June 20, 2011March 1, 2012

The illmotion crew got a chance to get together this weekend and check out a new Parts and Accessories shop called 1st Gear Auto, located in Calgary’s south. 1st Gear Auto carries a large assortment of parts for whatever your need for your vehicle, as well as a nice selection of apparel for you to rock while cruisin’ in your whip.

With a fine parts list ranging from Buddy Club, Password:JDM, Tein, HKS, MOMO, Greddy, JIC Magic, Project Mu, Muteki, Jackson Racing, Sparco, Megan Racing, Cusco, Work, Momo Racing, NRG Innovation, Advan, Rays Engineering, etc., 1st Gear Auto can accommodate to pretty much everyone in the car scene.

One of the key elements that 1st Gear Auto has over other competitors in the market is that they deal directly with the manufacturers so they can offer you the best prices and super reliable parts availability; no third-party non-sense here.

And if that isn’t enough customer satisfaction for you, depending on the part you are looking for, 1st Gear Auto will match or beat their competitors price by 10-15%.

With the customer being the main focus of 1st Gear Auto, the crew can also assist you with any installation of parts in-house at their shop.

So if you’re ever in the need for parts and accessories for your whip, be sure to give Ba and Rod a visit. With super competitive pricing and the proper product knowledge to get your car modified the way you want it, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll leave a satisfied customer.

Thanks again to Rod and Ba for letting us feature their shop. Congrats on your opening and we wish you guys the best!

-illmotion crew

iM Shop Spotlight: Urban Expressions Wheel & Tire

May 2, 2011March 1, 2012

Being in the auto industry, the most common “accessory” that consumers look into changing the “swag” of their vehicle is a nice set of wheels and tires. Whether you’re looking for a set of wheels for the winter or a nice set to roll on in the summer, look no further than the knowledgeable staff at Urban Expressions.

Any inquiries you may have regarding wheel & tire fitment can be answered by Urban X’s consultants, Bob & Lorne (Or Gary & Cort at the South Location). Whatever your budget may be, Urban Expressions can accommodate according to your needs with an excellent selection of wheels & tires.

With the latest & greatest state of the art mounting & balancing machines and a very efficient install crew, the boys at Urban X can have you rolling in and out of their shop in a very timely fashion; no “kicking tires” here.

If you would like to price out a set of wheels, tires, or a combination of the two, don’t hesitate to give the boys at Urban X a shout. To check out their shop, Urban X can be found both north & south of Calgary.

Shout out to the boys at Urban Expressions!

iM Shop Spotlight: Garage Box Grand Opening

March 21, 2011

On Sunday, March 20th 2011, the illmotion crew hit up the grand opening of another new shop in Calgary: Garage Box Auto Innovation. Paul Tan, responsible for a lot of awesome work done to a few of Calgary’s sickest whips, is the man in charge of the new shop.

Being that it was officially the first day of Spring (Seriously, it was), there was no better way to kick start the season than to get every one together to congratulate Paul on the opening of his new shop. With good people, good food, awesome beats and raffles with proceeds going towards Japan Tsunami Relief, Garage Box Auto Innovation definitely left a good impression to those in attendance.

Garage Box Auto Innovation specializes in general automotive service/maintenance as well as custom and aftermarket applications on whatever vehicle you have. Should you have any further inquiries do not hesitate to contact Paul Tan.

Congratulations once again going out to Paul on the launch of Garage Box Auto Innovation. You’ll definitely be seeing a few of us from illmotion wanting to get work done on our cars! =)

-illmotion crew

Our very own Aldrich, hittin’ up the turntables for most of the afternoon.

Paul’s ongoing project Celica

And it looks like even though it’s mid march, we have some homies like Steve rocking his partial summer mode. We were lucky enough to avoid the 15-20cm snowfall warning that was supposed to hit last night. So it’s good to see.

We also have Gangster D rocking his J’s Fit. This, believe it or not is his winter beater. He’s also got a Spoon’d out S2000 for summer time. Spoon calipers for stopping in the snow? Jeez.