Even if you’re not Porsche-mad, you’ll likely be familiar with Auto Garage TBK. This Yokohama-based workshop is famous in the Japanese tuning world largely due to its association with the infamous Mid Night Racing Team. Naturally then, when the opportunity to visit such a historic place presented itself, there was no way I was passing it up.
While Auto Garage TBK is best known for its Porsche 964 and G-Body 911 aero kits, the company also manufactures aftermarket body parts for Japanese performance icons including the Nissan Skyline, Mazda RX-7, and Toyota Supra. That said, I was expecting to see some special cars. But I didn’t expect to catch a glimpse of a certain blue 911 sitting on jack stands at the back of the workshop…
To understand the significance of this particular car, it’s probably best I provide some context on the Mid Night Club and their street racing antics during the ’80s and ’90s in Japan.
Mid Night is by far the world’s most well-known street racing club, its members known for driving at incredibly high speeds throughout Tokyo’s complex network of expressways and tunnels. The club operated in complete secrecy, with meet-up locations sometimes being hidden in code within local newspapers. Despite what you might think, safety was a high priority within Mid Night. If any members were seen endangering the lives of others, they were promptly exiled from the club.
Mid Night took themselves very seriously as a club, something even more evident in the calibre of cars they had assembled by the mid-1990s. As you can imagine, maintaining speeds of 200-300km/h with vehicles of this era meant no expense was spared when it came to modifications. While most of the club’s activities took place on public expressways, Mid Night cars also set various Japanese top speed records at legitimate events.
That brings us back to this metallic blue 930 Turbo – owned by one of the original Mid Night Club members and built by Auto Garage TBK.
The 930 you are looking at was known to be incredibly fast on the Wangan and Shutoku highways back in the day, allegedly reaching speeds of up to 340km/h.
There’s a famous photo of this car at the Yatabe test track that isn’t short of a good story either. The 911 set a domestic top speed record of 305.8km/h at the now defunct proving grounds in Tsukuba in June 1995.
While the 930 is currently missing wheels, some paint, and a few pieces here and there, it was in shockingly good condition given it’s almost 40 years old. It was surreal to see such an iconic car in person.
Takahashi-san, the owner of TBK, explained that the Porsche was undergoing an exterior refresh and a few small upgrades to keep it fast, safe and most importantly beautiful.
Interestingly but not entirely unexpected, this 930 is equipped with several JDM parts, namely the huge Trust/GReddy intercooler core and piping modified to fit, and an early model Trust/GReddy Profec electronic boost controller. It is safe to say it’s certainly not a high-tech build, but in no way does that stop this thing from being an absolute animal.
While it wasn’t possible to see the 930 in action, you might have noticed from the photos that an operational 964 Turbo with TBK’s signature aero package was present to satisfy this curiosity. As you might have guessed by the window banner, this 911 is also owned by an original Mid Night member, the car being a recent purchase to replace his circuit-spec 991.2 GT3 RS.
While this 964 was mechanically original apart from a stainless-steel exhaust system, it was in incredible condition for the age and certainly faster than you would expect for an otherwise standard powertrain. Following a tour of the shop and office, and an extended history lesson on Auto Garage TBK and Mid Night, Takahashi-san offered to take us out for a ride to Daikoku PA.
I had to ride in the chase car (a severely underpowered Suzuki Jimny for those curious) for the rolling shots you see here, but I don’t regret it. Watching this Porsche accelerate through tunnels and various parts of the Bayshore Route was quite the experience; it almost didn’t make sense for what essentially is a standard ~300hp car.
Air-cooled 911s are certainly not the fastest cars, but for me, their soul and character will forever be unmatched – especially when there are Mid Night stickers present. Thank you to Takahashi-san and Katsumi-san of Auto Garage TBK.
Alec Pender
Instagram:Â noplansco
Credit : Source Post
