PANDEM Silvia S13 ‘Addition’ style is coming! What is the reason that he made such a busy ‘GACHA-GACHA’ appearance? You should also check out the low-cost aircups and the ‘fake audio-less’ style!

This is the latest model of PANDEM series which many people cast a spotlight on. The Silvia S13, a compact FR, made her debut about 20 years ago. I want to say thanks for TRA Kyoto making this kit for such a good old car. This kit will attract not only Silvia S13 owners but also disowners.

MOONTHECH

Mr. Taguchi, the owner of the PANDEM Porsche Cayman which we reported in the previous article, started up his own company named MOONTECH.

His fans are interested in his new works. This time, I planned to interview his maiden work, PANDEM Silvia S13. I’m very glad to see one who finds success.

PANDEM

First, he showed an overview of the kit.
“This is a new (unpublished) model, PANDEM Ver3 full body kit. It includes front bumper, front spoiler, overfenders, side skirts, rear bumper, duck-butt wing and GT wing. It’s made for the Silvia S13. Besides, this exhaust system is also a new work”

The tapered bumper. The silhouette of the PANDEM kit. Also the PANDEM kit has been installed to Porsche Cayman he owns, but they are pretty different. Only the ‘Blister style’, which its body seems to be held low, is common.
“This is the PANDEM Ver3. V3 is the kit with blister fenders. In the front view, the fenders aren’t curved in contrast to the popular overfenders. They are more angular like a box. No fender-pieces are assembled to the front bumper. This means that the bumper itself is widened.”

FENDER-PIECES

By the way, the style of the fender is an attractive point for fenderists at an event “Fenderist” in Japan. The hem of the fender is a very important point in making a car body. Although many fenderists are particular about the body line of their cars, on the other hand, some fenderists cut off fenders without concern about the line to the bumper.
Though I shouldn’t talk a lot about it now because this problem is very complex, if I had to choose a word to describe, I‘d say that the most important point is that the fender’s hem is very important in car customizing. The PANDEM Porsche Cayman kit includes the hem of fender called “fender-piece”.

In contrast, in the PANDEM Silvia S13 kit, the front bumper is widened to the wide-fender line. The fenders are made to abut against the bumper. This is a very interesting point.
“Do you know the PANDEM Porsche kit? It includes fender-pieces. By contrast, this new one doesn’t include them. The hem of the front bumper is widened. The rear bumper is also widened. This means that this ‘full kit’ is needed to make the body line.”

WHY DID HE SELECT THE 17-INCH WHEELS?

The Silvia S13 owners are likely to prefer 18-inch wheels, I think. However, he installed 17-inch wheels.

“PANDEM Silvia S13 kit is designed to install 17-inch wheels and tires. There is the standard size of wheels and tires for the PANDEM and Rocket Bunny kit.”
That’s the official shop. As-built drawing for PANDEM and Rocket bunny kits exist.
“These wheels are 17-inch FUTURA with stepped-rim made by O.Z Racing. The exact spec of the wheels is unknown because of rebarreling. The tires are R888R [F:235/40-17, R:255/40-17] made by TOYOTIRES.”

FENDERS

The fender arch is designed higher for the aim of keeping the stroke-range of the suspension. Therefore, we can make the car slammed hellaflush. The expanded lengths are about 80mm in the front and 100mm in the rear. The fenders are more horizontalized in contrast to the other PANDEM series. The thin silhouette of Silvia S13 is deformed.

Though the duck butt wing and DTM-like GT wing are not so flashy, they’re so addicting.

HOW PARTICULAR ABOUT MAKING THE KIT?

“Not only the hellaflush style but also its two-tone coloring is the attention point. It was very difficult to paint because the color is candy-red on high-spark-silver. The candy-color is CARDINAL RED, a new one named envy made by SHOWUP.
Besides, you should check out the aircups for everyday use. The audio system with a power amplifier is also installed. I’ve never thrown away the air conditioner.”

The base of this S13 is the former model, but its exterior is the latter model. ZETA III (BRIDE), racing harness (PANDEM), shifter knob (LIKEWIZE), shifter extension (LIKEWISE), side brake lever (Re:Low), USA steering (GReddy) and rollcage are also installed.

THE FAKE CUSTOM: ‘FAKE AUDIO-LESS’ STYLE

Almost all of the interior panels are removed. The dashboard and door inners are painted with flocky-coating like rally cars. The rest of panels, such as the meter, are painted piano-black. I wonder that the image of the Euro-cars he owned in the past is the reason why he chose the color.
I couldn’t find the audio deck, but the music was playing. He installed ALPINE 500W amplifier to the 2DIN space, and hid it with a covering plate. This is the ‘fake audio-less’ style. The amplifier can be used with the iPhone. This is a fine idea I’ve never imagined. I want to copy him.

“Normally, there are the audio deck, speakers and usually the iPhone and the audio amplifier. If you connect the iPhone to the audio amplifier via USB, you can remove the audio deck, and the ‘fake audio-less’ style is achieved. It can also gain the better quality of sound.”
The panels were removed as racing cars, but the air conditioner and the audio system were not thrown away. He aims to keep the comfortableness.

AIRCUPS

The aircups, which MOONTECH recommends, are installed to this Silvia. As ROBERUTA SYSTEM, they are height-adjustable cups for suspensions with compressed air. He showed me the mechanism of the system because I was interested in.

We can see the aircup, the spring and the helper-spring. The height of the suspension is adjustable due to the air-controlled cylinder in the aircup. They should be installed for slammed cars to pass the steps easily, at least in front of the car. I heard they were made in the Netherlands. How much is it?
“The F/R set costs about \150,000+tax, but it depends on the individual cars and the type of suspension. \100,000 for the only front. There are also some individual parts needed.”
What is needed?

“The aircup sometimes kisses to the inner-rim of shallow wheels. Various parts are needed for adjustment of the camber angle, such as the upper mount, the camber-plate or the knuckle.”

This camber-plate of the bracket is four-steps-adjustable. It enables us to adjust the camber angle. The setting is very difficult. It’s up to car shops.

THE ‘GACHA-GACHA’ APPEARANCE

The word ‘GACHA-GACHA’ means “mess”, “busy” or “jumbled” in Japanese. A lot of stickers are put on and many colors are used in his car. This busy appearance looks like the style called ‘sticker-tuned’ in SNS which we dislike.

Mr. Taguchi used to make simple-clean custom cars in his history. I’m surprised at this new work because I regarded that he preferred the ‘subtraction’ method to the ‘addition’ in car-making. He is never an idiot. What is he aiming for?
“I feel that someone who had made the ‘sticker-tuned’ car had aimed to copy the ideas from others’ cool cars. It is not a wrong way, but the balance of installed parts often becomes terrible.”

“A cool car has a good total balance. We should install parts that can get along with other parts.”

THE SUGGESTION

“First, plan the concept of the custom. Chose and tune the suspensions, wheels, tires, or cambers and so on, next. Finally, imagine the appearance with coloring and stickers. Total balance is the most important. This is the best way to make cool cars. It is terrible to paint a part of the body, to put stickers on or to install curious wheels without concern.”
Then, why did he make this masterpiece Silvia S13 by the ‘addition’ style called ‘GACHA-GACHA’?

“I dare to aim to advocate that busy ‘addition’ style can be cool if we deeply imagine the total balance. Besides, this less-cambered-wheels and non-stretched-tires style can be the next trend, I think. The tire-shoulder-flush and the slammed style can exist together. It will be a new genre.”

THE PROOF

I’ve seen his car-making from the beginning, but I doubt whether the car will be cool with such busy stickers. However, once his work was published, it received praise from many fans.

Remember the 90’s. Racing or street-racing cars are so cool at the time, and we do love them even now. Silvia S13 has the features of them. Racing cars of good old days were ‘GACHA-GACHA’ style. After thinking about it, I realized that I’ve been swayed by the public opinions. MOONTECH has a cool head. Most people often give a negative consideration to the new trend, but some clever people try to observe and accept it. This tendency is especially seen in SNS in Japan now. People in the USA can usually enjoy and ride the new wave. This is the reason why the car culture is developing in the USA.

Mr. Taguchi is a very interesting person. He goes for it. I wish many car-meisters like him will appear.
“As the readers of StreetChic know, the beginning of PANDEM series was Porsche Cayman. RX-7 FD3S and Silvia S13 were the next. I want to show that any cars of the good old days can be rivals. Cayman is a high-rank car, so people can think all the cars will be defeated, but it is incorrect. There are many ways to attract someone. I should say that the low-rank cars can defeat the high-rank cars.”