Monterey Car Week has a Surprise (or an RWB) Every Where You Turn
- Commander
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Most people go to Monterey Car Week for the big car events and it was no different for Air Brigade®. Werks Reunion brought us to Monterey but the streets of Carmel provided for a show in itself with Porsches, Ferraris, Cobras and more parked up and down the streets of the idyllic seaside town.
The street show started early in Carmel as the Commander and Charter Member Allen Peerson arrived early for breakfast at Kate’s Place only to find a golden RWB Porsche arriving on the Main Street of Carmel. You don’t find these exotic one-of-kind Air-Cooled Porsches on every street corner, but here was one all of sudden in Carmel. That is what car-week is all about.
A RWB Porsche is a flamboyant Air-Cooled Porsche statement. The owner of this RWB, Riko, matched his car. As Allen and I wondered over to look at this statement car sitting alone on the streets of Carmel, Riko welcomed us to Riko’s Meet, his Monterey Car Week pop-up Japanese Car Show on the streets of Carmel.
Each RWB Porsche has a name and this one was no different. It is named Yoshiwara Yuukaku. The name Yoshiwara was emblazoned down the rocker panel of this stunning Porsche shining in its iridescent gold paint.
We soon learned the Yoshiwara is known as the “pleasure quarter of Tokyo” or as westerners may call it, the red-light district. According to Riko, gold is considered an erotic color in Japan so it was only appropriate that Yoshiwara was painted gold. In all honestly, research on the internet could not support this claim, but I suspect Riko knows… It all came together with a clear understanding that it really is Riko’s Way in style, Porsches and car shows.
Riko’s RWB appeared at this year’s Quail Show and was previously shown at SEMA and the Tokyo Auto Salon. To see more of Riko you can find him on Instagram @Rikos_way
A RWB Porsche shares the Air-Cooled Porsche platform because they are built on 930 Turbos, 964’s and 993’s. There is a small segment of 997 RWB’s but the focus is the aforementioned air-cooled Porsches.
RWB was founded by Japanese Tuner Akira Nakai and each model is a custom design and creation. RWB is short for RAUH-Welt Begriff that roughly translates to “rough world” with Begriff being style, expression or concept depending on where you look for the translation.
Nakai imagines his creations with nothing but his eyes and an air-powered saw. In true Porsche fashion, Nakai believes that the unique style needs to live in harmony with a hard driving style where his creations are not prisoners in a cloistered garage environment.
According to an article in Motor Trend magazine: “The first RWB Porsche started as a beat-up, air-cooled 930-Series 911 that Nakai bought for himself. He cut weight everywhere and anywhere from the car, upgraded the engine to make 360 horsepower, installed a full race suspension, and of course created an incredibly dramatic body kit. The result was a 2,100-pound car he named Stella Artois, after his favorite beer.”
It is estimated that there are upwards of 400 RWB Porsches existing today. Surprisingly, my first view of a RWB in the Wild was at Porsche North America in Atlanta when a group of RWB’s appeared out of nowhere for a photo opp, and then quickly disappeared.
Riko’s RWB was the only Porsche at Riko’s Carmel Meet, but the other Japanese tuners were fascinating to see as Riko had arranged to ship friends’ cars over from Japan to appear at The Quail and at his show in Carmel.
Daijiro Inada and his 1991 Datsun Sunny pickup were just one of the many Japanese tuners to appear. Unique to Daijiro’s pickup was the plexiglass see-thru window in the bed of the truck so you could see the suspension that was a work of art in itself. Daijiro’s Instagram is @daijiroinada if you want to see more of this unique creation that was built by Daijiro and Obayashi Factory in Japan.
After enjoying these unique creations, Air Brigade moved on to the ratified air of the Concours Village and the Gooding Auction. More stories are yet to come.
Comments