Liberty Walk

We’ve all heard about liberty walk’s bodykit being installed in most modern cars to increase its looks. But what is Liberty Walk actually? Who created it? Why is Liberty Walk so known these days? Well, here are a few things that you need to know about Liberty Walk.

Established by Mr. Wataru Kato from Japan, Liberty walk is well known for its amazing body kits, it’s fender flares, hoods, splitters, side skirts, rear spoilers and diffuser. Kato-san explains that Liberty Walk means “Walk free” in japanese, which also means freedom to customise your car in any way you want. Liberty Walk is also known as LB works or LB performance.

Photo Credits: Mark Riccioni from Speedhunters, and unknown

Not only bodykits, but Liberty Walk does not just upgrade body kits, they also supply and modify exhaust kits and air suspensions too. For you who does not know what air suspension is, air suspension functions to provide smooth ride quality but in some cases is used in sports suspension. Modern electronically controlled systems in automobiles always feature self levelling along with raising and lowering functions.

Photo Credits: Tenor from Giphy

It was aggressive. It was colorful. And nothing had to make any sense…. Welcome to JDM, circa 1990.

Wataru Kato, Liberty Walk

Back in the 80’s or 90’s, Liberty Walk was started by the “Kaido Racers”. Those days, the Japanese street fighters would build cars with wide body frames, extended fenders and even no bumpers to give out an impression that, “I am dead serious here”. The bigger the better, the louder the better. This culture was loved by most yet hated by some. Wataru Kato, founder of Liberty Walk has taken this old school “Bosozoku” style and adapted it to the finest automobiles in the world.

(Credits: libertywalk.co)

Photo Credits: libertywalk.co

Famous Body kits from Liberty Walk

1. LB-ER34 Super Silhouette SKYLINE

Photo Credits: Dino Dalle Carbonare from Speedhunters and Liberty Walk

2. LB-WORKS NISSAN GT-R R35 type 1.5

Photo Credits: Liberty Walk

3. LB-WORKS HONDA NSX (NA1)

Photo Credits: Liberty Walk

4. LB-WORKS TOYOTA SUPRA (A90)

Photo Credits: Liberty Walk

5. LB-Silhouette WORKS 458 GT

Photo Credits: Liberty Walk

Spoilers / Wings

Many car enthusiasts or even racers installs wings on their cars, supposedly, to increase aerodynamic efficiency. Some racers or should we call them Ricers (just kidding no one is a ricer) install wings just for their looks and not for aerodynamic efficiency. Well basically it’s up to anyone how and why they want to install wings. But the fact still remains, how is it functioning or benefitting the aerodynamics of a car?

A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to ‘spoil’ unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion, usually described as turbulence or drag. Spoilers are often fitted to race and high-performance sports cars, although they have become common on passenger vehicles as well. Some spoilers are added to cars primarily for styling purposes and have either little aerodynamic benefit or even make the aerodynamics worse.

Some spoilers do have benefits in terms of aerodynamics but there are also others that flukes. Spoilers are supposed to provide a greater downforce towards the car whenever driving with certain amount of speed. When downforce is applied thoroughly throughout the car, stability will be the number one factor that is affected by it.

In races, cars usually focuses more on stability to get good cornering when going in and going out. the car’s stability is the number one factor in terms of getting a good corner. Wings usually helps the car to achieve a great amount of downforce but there are cases that sometimes their wings or spoilers contributes a lot of drag too. Remember, to get big wings, drink red bull. Just kidding. The bigger the wing on a car, the bigger the amount of drag produced by the wing itself causing a slight pull to the back whenever the car is moving. Doesn’t mean that the bigger the wings, the faster your car go. Nope. It depends on the setup you have mounted onto the car itself. It would take a lot to get the best setup. Factors that plays a role are the car’s shape, weight, size of wing, height of wing, angle of wing and many more.

To provide stability towards the drag and downforce created by the wing, a front lip or a splitter will be needed. Splitters or lips are widely used in races. Some customise their lips by adding a rod to hold onto the lip from the bumper. Some enthusiasts finds it beautiful to install lips or canards to their cars. It does gives off an angry look from the car and would definitely make cars in front of you sway to the left without having you to tailgate them. Just kidding drive safe guys.

So, what are you going to do with your car? Installing a wing or not? Tell us in the comments!

THE GALVATRON

Video Credits: @shahsupraa on instagram

The Toyota Supra or in Japanese, トヨタ・スープラ, Toyota Sūpura was initially made as a sports car and a grand tourer. In total, the Toyota Supra has 5 lines of generations including the newly released Toyota Supra MK5 in 2019. It’s generation goes way back to 1978 when Toyota manufactured the first generation and named it as Toyota Celica Supra. The body shape of the Supra, as in the video, has been derived from the Toyota Celica Supra except that it is longer and wider.

Photo Credits: @imransyafiq, @_speedgod_, @biadap__ from Instagram

The Galvatron, owned by Shah Supra was bought in the year 2008. So if you get the maths correct, he has owned this car for 12 years straight and probably have done alot to upgrade and maintain this car. Let’s get a deeper and closer look to the car.

When Shah first got the car, it was white in colour and was left abandoned in a parking lot by the recent owner with no rims and no battery in it. The car was in a good condition but Shah had to change a couple of things for it to get to what it is today. Shah said, “When i found the car, there was no tires on the car, left in the parking lot and i just knew that i need to get it eventhough there is no battery or tires.”

After getting the car, Shah started to rebuild the car slowly to get to its maximum potential. Below are the upgrades he has made:

• Holset HX35
• 60mm Wastegate
• Custom made intake,
• SARD injectors 1000cc
• HKS FCON Management Vpro 3.24
• Ogura Twin Plate Clutch
• Walbro Fuelpump 450lph
• Synergy Radiator
• 5 speed gearbox R154
• 4 inch inlet outlet GTR style front mount intercooler
• Custom Made Banana
• Recaro Tomcat Seat
• Nardi Steering
• Japan Quick Release
• Greddy Profec B Boost Controller
• 6 Meter Defi boost, water temperature, oil temperature, oil press, vacuum, voltage
• 18 inch Gaia wheels
• Semi slick Accelera tires
• Custom made rear spoilers
• Custom made front bumper and canard
• Custom made rear widebody
• Aftermarket side skirt
• Top secret carbon fibre hood
• Tein Adjustables
• Engine specs: SECRET SSHHH

As you can see from the pictures above, his car evolved in so many ways and have tried so many setups which can fit to become the Ultimate Galvatron today. By the way, yes it is a 2JZ that you’re looking at. Shah upgraded the engine from 1JZ which is the stock Supra MK3 engine to 2JZ which is widely used on MK4 Supras.

Shah has participated in many events throughout Malaysia and his car is well known in the car scene. Shah has went from a “Wangan” type of person to a “Carshow” type of guy. He used to go around town and speed over highways but based on what he said, his time is up. He now focuses more on car shows and keeping the car clean and neat. Shah’s car is truly a dream that every man would want.

Photo Credits: @adam_photographyofficial @galerikereta @biadap__ on instagram

Depending on the count of MK3 Supras, there is not alot in Malaysia. Approximately there are 10 MK3 Supras in Malaysia but the Galvatron is widely known in Malaysia as shah has entered a numerous amount of events throughout the country. from the imports of Supras, the MK4 was widely imported in Malaysia but the MK3 was not imported as much as the MK4. From there, you can see why this car is considered as “rare” through the number of imports that came in Malaysia.

Other than “just car events” or “wangan nights’, Shah’s car was known for its rareness thus being called for movies such as Longkai and Adik Manja The Return 2. Shah’s car was an attraction towards the car enthusiasts because not everyday you can see a MK3 Supra running around Kuala Lumpur.

Photo Credits: @_speedgod_ @galerikereta @biadap__ from instagram