Tommy Kaira

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Tomita Dream Sales Kabushiki Kaisha Tomita Yume Hanbai 株式会社トミタ夢販売

Type	Public
Founded	1968 as Tomita Dream Factory; 1987 as Tommy Kaira
Headquarters	Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Industry	Specialty Car tuning and Automobile manufacturing
Products	Sports cars, car tuning services and high performance automobile parts and accessories
Website	www.tommykaira.com(Japanese only)

Tommy Kaira (トミーカイラ, Tomī Kaira^?), formally Tomita Dream Sales (株式会社トミタ夢販売, Kabushiki Kaisha Tomita Yume Hanbai^?), is a Japanese car tuning and manufacturing company founded on May 1, 2002 and headquartered in Minami-ku, Kyoto, Japan.^[1] The company was named after its two founders, Yoshikazu Tomita and Kikuo Kaira.^[2] Its parent company was originally founded in 1968 as Tomita Dream Factory (株式会社トミタ夢工場, Kabushiki Kaisha Tomita Yume Kōjo^?). Several of its Tommy Kaira's custom cars have appeared in the Gran Turismo series of video games since Gran Turismo 2, as well as Forza Motorsport for the Xbox and Forza Motorsport 2 for the Xbox 360.^[3]^[4]^[5]

1 Car Tuning
2 Car Manufacturing and Economic Crisis
3 Models
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Car Tuning

The Tommy Kaira signature, which identifies the cars tuned by the company.

Tommy Kaira began its true activity in the automotive world in 1987 when it unveiled a tuned Mercedes-Benz 190E which was conveniently renamed as "Tommy Kaira M19". Coincidentally, the first ever tuned cars by Tommy Kaira were not manufactured by a Japanese company but rather by a European one: this led to the birth of the aforementioned M19 and the M30E (based on the Mercedes-Benz 300E). Nevertheless, from 1988 onwards Tommy Kaira began to exclusively work on automobiles made in Japan, establishing along past years successful contracts with giant manufacturers Nissan and Subaru. Historically, Tommy Kaira has focused its efforts in providing extensive mechanical and visual improvements to mainly four cars: Nissan Skyline, Nissan March, Subaru Impreza and Subaru Legacy. In 1988, the company tuned for the first time a Nissan Skyline R31 (rebranded as Tommy Kaira M30), in 1993 the turn was for the Subaru Impreza (M20b) and the Nissan March (m13) and, finally, in 1994 the first Subaru Legacy Wagon (M20tb) received attention from the Kyoto-based company.

Tommy Kaira has not limited its tuning activity just to the four models mentioned; over the past few decades models like the Nissan 300ZX, Nissan Silvia, Toyota Vitz, Nissan 350Z and several keicars from different Japanese car manufacturers have been customized according to the company's exclusive tuning processes. Due to the great dimension of mechanical and visual improvements worked out on the cars, Tommy Kaira has consistently rebranded the cars as if they were completely manufactured by the company itself, with the consent of the parent manufacturers: for example, a Subaru Impreza is rebranded as Tommy Kaira M20b or a Nissan 350Z turns out into a Tommy Kaira Z. This phenomenon is not unusual around the world as German manufacturers such as Ruf and Gemballa operate in a similar way with Porsche automobiles.

On the other hand, the rebranding process carried out by Tommy Kaira has arisen some controversy directly related to the status of the company as a car manufacturer. According to the information spot provided by the PlayStation videogame Gran Turismo 2 about the Kyoto-based company, "in 1988 [Tommy Kaira] succeeded in introducing Tommy Kaira M30, Japan's first fully modified high performance car [...][while] in 1997, [it] manufactured and marketed its original sports car, the ZZ". In general terms, the 1988 M30 model is regarded as the first integrally tuned Japanese automobile, an integral tuning that implied rebranding of the original model. This fact acknowledged the capability of Tommy Kaira as an important aftermarket manufacturer and prepared the way for the launch of the company as a consolidated car manufacturer with the self-conceived 1996 ZZ model.

[edit] Car Manufacturing and Economic Crisis

By 1996, Tommy Kaira had solely modified pre-existing models manufactured by Nissan and Subaru; nonetheless, the heavy improvements worked out by the company on the cars made it gain recogition as a brand in its own right. In order to consolidate that image, Tommy Kaira decided to develop a car of its own starting from the design desk which was finally named ZZ.