Can you remember the last time you saw a car straight out of the Sex-Spec era that wasn’t on a restoration YouTube channel or a two-year-old Facebook Marketplace post touting the infamous “ran when parked” line? Yeah, I don’t remember either. The trend is dead and nobody in their right mind keeps building those things.
Right? Right???
Here comes Japan’s L-Tide Co, Ltd. and its demo cars/customers at the 2025 Tokyo Auto Salon! Earlier, I told you about the future of tuning from the kids on display at Japan’s biggest tuning show. Now it’s time for a story about a firm that feels solidly planted in the past.
L-Tide is a small company out of Kodaira, a city part of Tokyo’s megalopolis, about an hour west of Tokyo Station. They make and sell seat covers for VIP vans and cars, along with caliper covers (yes that’s a thing) and other car accessories. They were by far the craziest booth of the TAS with some of the least expected vehicles this weekend.
You arrive at the booth, with loud “Pitbull style” music playing out of all the sound systems (each car playing different music, of course), and are immediately greeted by this bright yellow Honda Accord with (bright) red and yellow interior filled with (bright) spotlights showcasing the Alcantara leather that covers the entirety of the seats, dashboard, door panels and so on.
Oh yeah and of course, the car is stanced on 19×10 Work wheels, the entire trunk filled with speakers and subwoofers surrounded by, you guessed it, more red Alcantara leather!
If you were wondering, no, this is not a car on air suspension. It has 50-kg and 60-kg springs instead. I let you imagine the great overall comfort when bouncing around the city with your entire family.
Next to it was a Toyota Aristo. This one was a little weird as it had an air compressor in the trunk but the spec sheet indicated that it was on regular coilovers and springs. Maybe the compressor existed solely to make the BBS wheels in the trunk spin?! Yes!
The blue Aristo with very pink interior has a fake spare wheel that spins behind a plexiglass in the boot!
The interior was similar to the Accord, but with more dials (the compressor was most likely unplugged and the wheel in the trunk probably used a little electric motor to spin, but I like to think a complicated air system dealt with all that. Leave me and my imagination alone!)
A Toyota Alphard was also bombastically sitting next to it, similarly modified to the first two but with a black and orange interior, VIP captain chairs for the middle row, sitting on a real air suspension setup this time.
But all these cars are eclipsed by the real crazy cars of the TAS. Sitting at the end of the booth was the most insane Hummer H2 ever created, with a Takeoka Abbey Carrot next to it and a little Daihatsu Spacia in between them.
The sheer difference in size between those 3 was startling. Do you remember when Mad Mike and Xzibit would put screens around your screen so that you could watch your own rap video clip debut at full blast all over inside your car (and outside)? Well, this is what they did with that Hummer.
It was all the episodes of Pimy My Ride combined into this H2 crouching in front of me. Screens in the door cards? Check. Screens in the floor? Check.
Screen in the sun visors? Check of course!! And night/strip club lights! Everywhere!nWith gullwing doors, 32″ wheels with super thin tires, enormous speakers in the trunk and you guess it! More screens!!
Meanwhile, the Takeoka Abbey Carrot a 50cc microcar from the ’80s sat there next to it, with a fairly nice reupholstering job, no speakers. It felt almost refreshing to see it there. A car that looked like some recognizable form of reality compared to all the other cars, without a single boom-boom coming out of it.
We tend to make fun of that era, of the people that were into it. I know I do have quite the grin on my face when I first see that type of car anywhere. But.. then nostalgia kind of kicks in.
Nostalgia for something I wasn’t a part of but that was there to witness, back when everything felt simpler. I’ve made fun of Sex-Spec cars. I still do if I’m honest, but I like seeing them now.
I enjoy being reminded of that period in time and I hope the few who keep spending thousands and thousands of dollars on those cars keep doing it so I can have that nostalgic grin on my face, lying to myself when I complain that they are tasteless and ridiculous when the truth is… that’s what I like about them.
All photos: Flavien Vidal for the Autopian
