Well, here we are. This car has been a long time coming for a feature here and we were finally able to coordinate everything to get some epic shots of one of the hottest cars out in Japan right now. The Avex Y33 has caused quite a commotion, and has gotten a lot of chins wagging due to its ridiculously low ride-height and massive amounts of negative camber. This car is hardcore and will certainly split the opinions of today’s enthusiasts. To me though, this car is a great example of why Japan is at the top of the game in the tuner scene; whether it’s time-attack, drift, or in this case, VIP. Like most of what’s coming out of Japan at the moment, the Avex Y33 isn’t for the faint of heart, so be prepared to be blown away.
It’s almost hard to find a place to start with this car since it really is about the whole package. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint, but to me this car has it all, and when it comes to VIP it just rocks my world (and a lot of others apparently). It’s so in-yer-face yet subtle at the same time. The body work is so subtle, you almost don’t notice it over the super-aggressive stance which really changes the character of the car. If this Cima was sporting a much more subdued stance, and less aggressive offsets, it wouldn’t create the same waves it does now. The stance is what makes this car, but it really is just one part of the whole package. Like I said, this car has it all, and mixes it together so well that it just flows together that you almost can’t picture this car any other way, and that is the reason why this Y33 Cima is one of the greats in a long line of other Cimas.
The Y33 Cima is just one of those cars that looks good on the ground, and like a lot of Japanese sedans from the late 90s/early 2000s, it has some aggressive lines from the factory that are only amplified when the car is decked to the floor. Now, if you’re into the VIP scene in Japan, then you’ll know that the Avex Y33 is not rolling on air…or hydraulics…or any kind of suspension that can be altered at the touch of a button. This car rolls static on coilovers. Just let that sink if for a minute. Go ahead, scroll through, look at the photos, and let that thought settle. Yeah, you thought you were low? That’s really cute. Toru Sasamoto is the man behind this car, and not having met him, I can only imagine that he has balls the size of wrecking balls. We’ve showcased some ground-scraping cars before, but this Cima takes the prize. Conventional coilovers and arms aside, the suspension setup on this car is one serious bit of engineering kit. Everything is custom, from the strut housings, to the springs, the arms, knuckles, everything. Nothing here is off-the-shelf, but when your stance is like this, well off-the-shelf just wasn’t going to cut it. To start, the strut housings were valved properly for the short stroke and high spring-rates of 30kg/20kg front and rear. In order to achieve the necessary camber, all of the arms were custom built. The upper-control arms were shortened as much as possible while still maintaining their integrity, and the lower arms were extended out from 3cm to 5cm. Sasamoto-san even went as far to move the mounting points of the coilover to achieve proper clearance for the camber he intended to run.
Of course the right set of rollers was needed, and although this car wears many different sets of wheels (sometimes two sets at a time), the wheels in this set of photos are arguably my favorite. I don’t think anything more needs to be said about the Work Meister S1 other than its a damn master-piece when it comes to wheels, a classic design that will never get old. The black-centered, polish-lipped S1s suit the car pefectly, and match the black paint with white and silver highlights perfectly. Sized up at 18×10 +10 in the front, and 18×11.5 -14 in the rear, their effective offsets are -30 and -34 after the spacers. Why spacers? BECAUSE CAMBER!!!! Yes, camber, and lots of it. When you’re running this much negative camber, you need to pay attention to the inner clearance between the inside of the wheel and the suspension and body, so spacers were required to push the wheel out. Forget your -4 and -5 degrees here, this Y33 is running -20 degrees of camber all around. This is demon camber at its finest, and general all-around badass-ery at its best. The stance and look of this car, which is very well captured in the rolling shots, is what VIP is all about and that is presence, and Sasamoto has absolutely nailed it.
The custom theme continues with the rest of the car. I said earlier that the car is a whole package, and every area of this car has been gone through to make it the complete package. The front bumper is a custom, one-off piece which is fitted with custom fog-lights and custom projector headlights as well. The Artisan-Spirit fenders were customized to be wider to match the worked over quarter-panels to clear the cambered-out wheels. It’s one thing to worry about the fitment of the top of your wheel lips, but when you’re checking the fitment of the sides of the wheel lips, you’re just on a whole different level, a level that Sasamoto-san is pretty lonely at. The sides and rear are Mode Parfume pieces with a custom, LED fog built in the bottom of the rear bumper, along with the custom, built-in exhaust.
One, final, unique touch that I love about this car is the tail lights. Japan has been upping their lighting game for quite some time now, but the things people over there are doing with LED lighting is just nuts. The tails on this car can be admired on their own. They are completely custom LED and acrylic tail lights framed in a clear/smoke lens, and they look stunning when they’re either on or off. Seriously, check out some of the detail shots to really appreciate how intricate these tails are, and I’m just a sucker for all clear lenses.
As I said before, this car is a complete package. It has certain areas that can be highlighted, but it all comes together as a whole to really blow you away. The car isn’t in your face because of a loud color or ridiculous set of wheels, but because the car as a whole jumps out at you and demands your attention. Its what Sasamoto-san and this car have done all year since being out, but you’ll be shocked to know that he’s not finished yet. I don’t know how he plans to do it, but Sasamoto-san has told us that he plans to get the car even lower and run even more camber. I mean, I don’t know how you get much lower when you’re already scraping flat-ground, but I wouldn’t put it past the Japanese to figure it out, haha! Sasamoto-san has done a great job thus far and produced one of the craziest cars we’ve featured so far out of Japan. Stick around though, because we’ve got more coming for ya from Japan. Enjoy some more stunning photos courtesy of Connor Surdi who absolutely smashed it with this shoot. Till next time…
Wheels/Tires/Suspension:
Work Meister S1 (3Piece)
Front 18×10 +10 (before the spacer 40mm) rear 18×11.5 -14 ( before the spacer 20mm)
Custom arms
-20 degrees of camber all aorund
Interior:
audio: carrozzeria navigation & speakers
Exterior:
Front 社外(non stock/custom) + shortened
Side mode parfume + shortened,
Rear mode parfume
Tail lamp: one-off led and acrylic tails
one-off rear fog lamp
gull wing doors
Engine:
Custom muffler: one-off full straight