part 11 | The Phantom Sportscar
- Luca Sciarrillo
- Dec 6, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
The most complete story behind the groundbreaking old school sportscar that never got its chance.
With Tomita Auto UK handed over to AUTOBACS in 2000, and the creation of AUTOBACS Sportscar Laboratory (ASL) shortly thereafter, the ZZII’s development was formally transferred to this new entity. The Kameoka facility changed hands, and the car was rebranded the ASL RS-01 — a move aimed at legitimising its motorsport ambitions, including a planned entry at Le Mans in 2003, with first customer deliveries optimistically scheduled for September 2002.
But the grand plan shifted. AUTOBACS instead chose to continue its domestic GT300 campaign, swapping the RS-01 for the newly developed Garaiya, fielded under the Super Autobacs banner. The curtain fell on the RS-01 project on May 20th, 2003. ASL itself lingered until 2005, in name at least — the logo continued to appear on ARTA Super GT race suits through to 2008, though the laboratory had quietly dissolved behind the scenes.
The sole RS-01 prototype spent the next seven years tucked away at AUTOBACS' R&D site in Kameoka. In 2009, it returned home to Tomita, who maintained it in remarkable condition and occasionally wheeled it out for events — the last known outing being the Carzy Sportscar Heritage Gathering at Kyoto’s Kitano Tenmangu temple in May 2019.
In the spring of 2022, construction began on a permanent display for the ZZII in Kyoto — a quiet full-circle moment for a car that never quite made it to the grid.
Meanwhile, the Tommykaira ecosystem refused to die quietly. Independent servicing and tuning operations sprang up — most notably Threeek and KED (short for Kam Engine Development) — to keep the brand’s legacy ticking.
On May 1st, 2002, Tomita launched Tomita Dream Sales (Tomita Yume Hanbai), headquartered in Minami-ku, to manage Tommykaira’s vehicle sales independently. Although Tomita himself stepped away in 2003, the company technically still exists.
But the debts from the Dream Factory days had become insurmountable. On February 14th, 2003, the company filed under Japan’s Civil Rehabilitation Act — a softer form of bankruptcy introduced during the economic crisis to encourage early disclosure and potential recovery, without immediate leadership reorganisation. The debt stood at roughly one billion yen, or around 8.3 million USD in today’s money.
Dream Sales became M-Direction in 2007, and in 2009 the Tommykaira brand was licensed to ER Corporation, later rebranded as Tommykaira Japan. Based out of Toyota City, they shifted focus to flashy bodykits, sports exhausts, and visual tuning across multiple manufacturers. The original Dream Factory was dismantled, and the remaining offices converted.
Tommykaira proper re-emerged in 2016 when the brand returned to Tomita, who then lent it to GTS Co. Ltd. (Genuine Tommykaira Studio), a company with several ex-Tomita Yume Kojo staff onboard. Development resumed on the R Concept — first shown at the 2018 Tokyo Auto Show — while the Tommykaira M14, based on the Suzuki Swift Sport ZC33S, marked a more recent return to tuning form.
In the meantime, Tomita himself has returned to his roots: collecting and selling rare cars. He reopened Tomita Auto Co. in Kyoto in 2012. And in July 2018, he announced his intention to form a new company — Tommykaira Co. — to develop a high-performance petrol sports car based on the electric ZZ.
The place where the Yume Koujou rose near the Temple of the Golden Pavilion.
Top left photo from a 1995 magazine.
Picture below left by Koichi Noguchi picturing how the Dream Factory headquarters looked when he bought his Tommy Kaira Z (Z33) in 2003, just before the abandonment of Yume Koujou.
Photos on the right: Google Maps screens on the building that stands in place of the offices.
Some of the Tommy Kaira stores opened during twenty years. Some of them were exclusive Tommy Kaira stores, others were opened inside official dealerships (Nissan and Subaru), and many others were stands into AUTOBACS stores.
The old Tomita Auto Co. headquarters, and the building erected in its place.
Photos by Jun Nishikawa.
