Back when I was writing The Real JDM for Modified I started working on an idea of a JDM Tuner Car of the Year Award for my column. The concept was for me to ask the Presidents of various leading Japanese tuners what their favorite 5 JDM tuned cars were that year. The catch was that they weren’t allowed to name their own cars in the list. In theory that would keep everyone honest and I’d be able to get a feel as to what the best cars in the industry were, coming straight from the true innovators.

It ended up being an incomplete project and took up a bit too much of my time. What I’m posting here are the results from what I did accomplish (which was still quite a lot). After countless phone calls and emails from both myself and my staff, here are the results of this unpublished The Real JDM research:

All Data Completed in September/October 2006

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by J’s Racing

- RE Amemiya 3 Rotor FD
- M Speed BNR34 GT-R
- Cyber Evo
- HKS Time Attack Evo
- ASM Time Attack S2000

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by Top Secret

- Option Stream Z
- HKS Time Attack Evo
- HKS Dry Carbon Altezza
- Amuse Carbon GT-R (R34)
- ORC Twin Charged Z33 Fairlady Z

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by ASM

- M Speed BNR34 GT-R
- Panspeed FD3S RX-7
- Cyber Evo
- Kanayama-san said no other cars interested him.

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by Tracy Sports

- Option Stream Z
- ASM Time Attack S2000
- C-West Carbon S2000
- Yamamoto-san had no other submissions

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by Backyard Special

- Cusco Impreza
- HKS Time Attack Evo
- C-West Carbon S2000
- Tein USA Civic
- Option Stream Z

Top 5 Best Tuner Car Pics by Ings+1

- Phoenix Power SE3P RX-8
- Option Stream Z
- Top Secret V35 Skyline Coupe V8
- Signal Auto Z33 Fairlady Z
- Autotech Tsukada Z33 RS Fairlady Z

So there you have it…the best cars of 2006, picked by some of the top tuners in the industry.

Winner = Option Stream Z

Here it is, your moment of zen
(2400pix hi-res un-watermarked wallpaper of the winning car)