Custom Porsches: Rauh-Welt Japan

Issue one of Performance Garage is fast approaching and as such, we thought we would give you a behind the scenes look at one of its upcoming features;  a profile on the now world famous Nakai-san and his workshop RAUH-Welt Begriff.

Loosely translating as ‘Rough World’, the roots of RAUH-Welt formed in the early 90s when Nakai-san first got his license.

Nakai-san cut his teeth modifying and racing the humble AE86, hitting touge passes around Mount Tsukuba as part of a street racing team populated with like-minded Hachi enthusiasts who called themselves ‘Rough World’.

It was during these early years that Nakai-san developed his unique motorsport-inspired styling flavour that fueled the increasingly rapid expansion of RWB into a worldwide movement.

It was around 2008 that RAUH-Welt first came to our attention, with images of this gorgeous matte-black S15 trickling on to the internet and eventually appearing within the pages of Performance Imports.

There was no denying that it was a stunningly styled Silvia but the fact that it pumped out 400rwhp and lapped Tsukuba in 1:04 all while still being street driven began to make waves internationally.

Without a doubt though, it was when images of his Porsches began to circulate that the real RAUH-Welt explosion began.

This was greatly fueled by a series of fantastic videos from Luke Huxham, giving an insight into why it is that Nakai-san’s customers are so extremely loyal.

Each car is a handmade creation with Nakai-san insisting on doing the body work on each one himself, a feat lessened by the fact that these Porsches are limited to one per customer.

Despite their rarity these heavily modified Porsches see constant use and this is an important part of the RWB culture. These cars are built to be looked after and used, not just collected.

This culminates at the Idlers Games events held a couple of times a year at the tight and technical Tsukuba, with the majority of domestic RWB customers in attendance and driving to the absolute limit.

Nakai-san is an endlessly interesting character and I could go on here forever about why RWB is such a cool workshop but this is neither the time nor place. For that you will have to wait for issue 1 of Performance Garage, a magazine that you will be able to pick up with a copy of your favourite magazine in July.

In the meantime though, check out Luke's second interview with Nakai-san now that RWB has gone international.