In the 90s, Tommykaira established itself as one of the leading tuners in Japan, for the most part focusing on popular Nissan JDM models.
Since then, they have pretty much disappeared, like many automotive brands they were a victim of their own success. After successfully modifying several potent Nissan Skylines, they decided to take on too much when they developed and produced their own sports car. In terms of sales, it was a failure, but unperturbed, they insisted on dumping even more money into a second effort that never sold either.
10 Strange Starting Point
You would be forgiven for thinking the most obvious starting point for a Japanese tuner would be any one of the JDM sports cars, but no, they chose a path less travelled.
A Mercedes-Benz 190E was their car of choice, it would be one of only two European cars that they would make kits for, but in an 80s kind of way it made a degree of sense. Tuners were springing up everywhere back then, so what better way to differentiate yourself from the crowd than by taking a dull but popular luxury sedan and making it fun?
9 Bringing Extraordinary To The Ordinary
Although this theme wouldn’t be their bread and butter, it is something they continued to do throughout their short history. The very ordinary looking 7th generation Skyline was tweaked cosmetically, but the most radical of changes were made under the hood.
In place of the newly developed 2-liter turbo, they put an older, heavier naturally aspirated 3-liter lump. It made similar power, but the way it made its power in a more predictable, linear fashion was what made all the difference. Interestingly, Nissan elected to do the same thing in some markets outside of Japan.
8 Tommykaira R Raises The Bar
After adding their spice to the 300ZX, the R32 Skyline followed and truly put them on the map in a global sense.
It also set the tone for them as a tuner that took a holistic approach, making the cars more engaging without ever sacrificing usability. All their cars were, if anything, more comfortable and more economical.
7 The Famous Tommykaira R R33
If you have encountered the Tommykaira brand before, then you would most likely be thinking of one of these Skylines.
They played a huge part in Japanese tuner culture, with the incredible RB inline-6 under the hood it is easy to see why too. Over the years they only made 50 of these cars that were just tuned to perfection.
6 Developed Their Own Car
After building incredible relationships with both Nissan and Subaru, who gave them their blessing to rename their cars after the company tuned them, Tommykaira bit off more than they could chew.
When they built their own car, they clearly misjudged the market and just how much it takes to build a car from the ground up. After pumping billions of Yen into this car, they only ended up selling around 200, it brought the company to its knees by the late 90s.
5 An Impressive Impreza
As the company hit the weeds thanks to their ill-fated ZZ sports car, they were still able to fire off a couple shots before they got swallowed by another parts manufacturer.
The M20b was their version of the popular rally bred WRX STi Impreza, it made more than 350 horsepower and would eat just about any contemporary sports car for breakfast.
4 R34 Monster
The last of their coveted R line cars, this would be their most powerful and arguably best car.
Making 530 horsepower isn’t strange for these cars, but making that 530 horsepower usable on the road is what makes these cars different. They are superbly balanced cars that are at home both at the track and any urban environment.
3 ZZII Never Happens
Although they were determined to make amends after their first time failure, this was just unfortunately never meant to be.
When they got bought out, their new parent company took their car and rebranded it, selling it in limited numbers under the ASL badge.
2 Expensive ZZ-EV
For the best part of a decade the brand was just that, a brand, something you could buy over the counter at a parts store. In 2010 that changed again, except this time they would take the form of an EV roadster.
By 2014, the car was put into production and was being sold for $80,000. With a range of only around 75 miles, its impressive 0-60 time didn’t mean much and sold in low numbers until production ceased last year.
1 A Little Too Much Ambition
A little ambition can be a dangerous thing, in the case of this famous Japanese company that rings true.
Sticking to what they were good at in the tuner world might have been a better bet than making a sports car during a recession.