MoMo Stops By ARVOU

So here we are, I’ve finally gone through all the photos from Japan which leads me to this post with shots from my visit to Arvou out in Tochigi Prefecture. Arvou, in my opinion, is similar to Pro Shop Fukuoh in the fact that both are out in the boonies and are not quite visiter friendly especially without a car, although Arvou isn’t as bad as it was only about 50 or so miles from Tokyo. But like with most of my shop visits, I wasn’t going to let a little distance steer me away. I was, however, in a pretty tight time schedule as my flight back home was on the same day, but nevertheless, I got my ass up early in the morning, checked out of my hotel, found a locker for my suitcase, and hopped on the express train toward Tochigi. The two hour train ride was long but very comfortable and after a hop over to the Tobu Nikko Line, I finally reached my stop at Shimo-Goshiro Station.

Photos by MoMoHitsTheSpot!

When I say this shit was out in the boonies, I mean it’s out in the boonies! The train station literally had no one, and there were just some scattered houses, an Eneos station, and Arvou…

After a 15 minute walk from the train station, it was such a delight to see the familiar green signage knowing that I’m at the right place. For those who are not familiar with Arvou, they’re pretty much a tuning house that currently specializes in Lotus’ and S2000s, although they do dabble in other makes and models.

The good thing about having a shop out in the middle of nowhere is you have ample space to store your cars which Arvou has plenty.

An AP1 just chillin’… literally.

More S2000s inside the garage with the two time attackers back home after competing at Attack Tsukuba.

I had some people ask me whether or not this was their “touge” S2000 that crashed and I can assure you that it’s not… this is, however, Kobayashi-san’s personal car which he piloted at Tsukuba to the tune of 59.837.

Then there is this bad boy. The one that gave ASM a run for their money. The one they call “黄緑” S2000… I do regret not getting some photos of the engine bay, but all you gotta know is 2.4L with 320HP, and a Tsukuba lap time of 57.585.

Advan RS-DF wrapped in Yokohama A050 rubber over J’s Racing fenders… what a beautiful concoction of parts.

The back end features a massive SARD GT Wing 020 spoiler and a pretty aesthetically pleasing Ings+1/Voltex bumper/diffuser combo.

A couple more shots of the two together, and a shot from outside the garage space. It really seemed peaceful out here as there was only one guy wrenching on the cars and I was just free to roam around the garage…

Moving inside the shop, there’s the customary waiting area complete with magazines, tables, and stools. Of course, there’s also a nice display of tires to choose from… as long as you’re looking for Yokohamas.

A few miscellaneous items were also scattered throughout the shop.

And a shot of the wheel display from outside as I was heading back to the train station.

So with that, my posts on Japan shenanigans are just about complete… it’s always bittersweet knowing that I have no more Japan material to post up for the time being, but I’m also relieved that I got everything up on the site. But I should be having some stuff from Stateside in the near future, so see you guys then!