Canibeat

Black Seduction

Photography & Words by Chris Minshall for Canibeat.com

This car is nothing short of a masterpiece and draws mad attention at every single car show or meet it attends. There is just something about a black on black, big body sedan that simply mesmerizes and demands attention.

This super clean 1999 Lexus LS400 is owned by Jin Ueno, who happens to own AZ’s only VIP shop called Kyoei USA. All the attention to detail in this car is absolutely stunning. Everything from the 20″ Work Varianza D3S wheels to the Junction Produce Fusa & Tuna to the K.Break front table holding two Sake bottles and a pack of unopened Japanese cigarettes – an eye catcher any way you slice it.

A VIP-style car is never complete without the proper interior accessories. Jin’s LS features many interior enhancements such as black Bellezza curtains front and rear, Luxis crystal shift knob, K-Break front table, Junction Produce Fusa and Tuna, Junction Produce black neck pads, Luxer1 LED dome and interior lights and a Panasonic double din head unit with Beat Sonic translator. All of these accessories flow very well with the luxurious OEM black leather interior.

Here you can see some of the attention to detail that Jin has put into his LS. What immediately jumps out at you is the custom, bullet-shaped license plate hardware. A slightly more subtle touch (to the uninitiated) is the custom vanity plate which reads UCF20. For those who don’t know, that’s the chassis code for the 1995-2000 Lexus LS400. An even closer inspection reveals that the trunk has been shaved of all the Lexus emblems. This gives the rear end a much cleaner look. Some other small details are the smoked license plate cover and custom black pinstripes separating the brake lights, turn signals and reverse lights.

No shop car can go without the company name and logo in big lettering on at least one of the windows. The top decal is Japanese lettering which says Kyoei USA mirroring the website URL underneath. Kyoei in Japanese means “mutual prosperity” and is actually considered to be a name which invokes a family-oriented atmosphere. Simply put, they treat you like family.

This is a good clean example of a VIP car without any crazy modifications to the body lines. A few things to point out in this image are the custom, gloss black, powder-coated, Atio front grill and the JP USA front lip spoiler. These two items are very clean additions to Jin’s LS. The gloss black grill flows well with the blingin’ Lexus paint and the JP USA front lip makes the front end more aggressive and sporty looking without the constant fear of it hanging too low to drive through the city without ripping it off. To light up the roads, Jin’s LS has 8000K HID bulbs and yellow fog lights.

Jin’s LS is riding on Tanabe Sustec Pro NF Coilovers and a Youzealand SS kit to give it that proper stance without sacrificing the comfortable Lexus ride. Camber is set at -4 degrees rear and -3 degrees front. Jin wanted to keep the body lines stock and clean so all he had to do was a slight fender roll in the front and rear (no fender pull was needed). The wheels of choice are 20×9 +38 and 20×10 +35 Work Varianza D3S in silver polish finish. To get the stance dialed in, Jin also added Ichiba Version 2 bolt-on spacers; 15mm front and 20mm rear. The fitment was pretty much spot on but Jin wanted just a tad bit more “flushness” (feel free to use that whenever you like) so he added another 3mm spacer on all four wheels; bringing the effective offsets to +20 front and +12 rear. Tire sizes have a slight stretch to aid in more fender clearance. Sizing is 225/30/20 front and 235/30/20 rear.

Stay tuned for Jin’s LS400 as it goes through some more changes over the next year. He has big plans for this car including Air Runner suspension, new and more aggressive wheels, side skirts and rear bumper, custom interior, a new audio system, custom exhaust, Nagisa front camber arms and last, but not least, a fresh coat of paint. I can’t wait to see this clean LS evolve into something that looks even better. I promise, as soon as it is done, there will definitely be a follow-up photo shoot.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 9:01 am and is filed under Canibeat.com, JDM, Photography, VIP and tagged with Arizona, AZ, Chris Minshall, Jin Ueno, junction produce, Kyoei USA, Nagisa, VIP, Work Varianza D3S. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.