Jan - 2019, TOKYO

The project was initiated by CARS HATANO, a shop in the outskirts of Tokyo that imports hard-to-get European cars to Japan. Lancia Deltas are one of their particular interests and the owner wanted to build something absolutely crazy out of his own Delta HF Integrale. My friend and professional car designer Masashi guided the project and asked me if I would like to participate, now of course I obviously said yes.

Masashi is also responsible for the overall design of the modifications (bodykit, wing etc.) and the logo design from the shop.

In January 2019, the car was exhibited at Tokyo Auto Salon and was even given an award! I especially flew in from Holland to be part of this unique occasion. Read more about my Tokyo experience further below!

To See the full build process, all technical details and everyone included in the project, I highly recommend checking out this link!​​​​​​​

The name 'FENICE105' is derived from two elements, the Italian word for 'phoenix' and the 105mm of extra width the car got on each side after the modifications. The 4-cylinder engine has been bored up to 2.3 liter and produces 607,8hp with the help of a big single turbo and an anti-lag system. 

All the exterior modifications are built out of carbon fiber and are designed to be functional. The huge wing for instance is mounted directly to the roll-cage, right above the rear axle, and should produce up to one tonne of downforce!

So, it's quite clear, this car is built to be functional. Of course, The livery had to reflect this as well. After some proposals, we decided to take a minimalistic approach so that all the one-off modifications had room to show themselves as well.

A stripe theme was one of the initial ideas I had and suited the newly designed logo from the shop very well.

The livery is reduced as much as possible to visually enhance only the most remarkable features from the car. 

On the side for instance, the stripes are parallel to the wing-uprights. The roll-cage mounted wing is a very unique and ingenious element of the car so I was eager to use the livery to make it stand out more. The stripes on the rear fenders also serve a second purpose of protecting the paint from the rocks and debris that are being spit up by the front wheels.

Another interesting feature of the livery is the half-tone rear wheel. This should make it easy for the pit-crew preparing for pit-stops and changing wheels during a race. Moreover, it makes for a cool effect when the handbrake is pulled during a rally stage.

Besides the livery, I've made a T-shirt design as well. I thought it would be cool if the team could wear a FENICE105 shirt during the Tokyo Auto Salon (TAS). Selling the limited edition shirts also helped covering the costs of going to Tokyo.

The first day of my trip, I visited the Copic headquarters in Tokyo where I did some live sketching/rendering. Copic has been a big support throughout my beginning career as a car designer.
I first came into contact with Copic after winning the COPIC AWARD at the end of 2017. It was also at the Copic Award Ceremony early in 2018 where I met Masashi, which eventually lead to this project.

The second day, I visited Cars Hatano, the shop where Fenice105 was built. It was also the first time I actually got to see the car in real life and meet some of the team members so I was super excited. When I arrived, the team was working on the engine, the raw rumble was pretty epic. Getting to know everyone and trying to communicate in Japanese was a lot of fun as well.

Eventually it was time to load the car on the trailer and drive it to the TAS. Real Fast and Furious vibes here.

Imagine seeing this on a trailer when driving home from work

Every year, around the same time TAS is held, there is an RWB meet. Of course I could not miss out on this. I went straight from Cars Hatano to Roppongi Hills and met up with another friend I met a year earlier. Seeing so many RWB Porsches together was just jaw dropping. The presence these cars have is something you can only really understand when you see one in front of you. Sadly, I did not manage to spot Nakai-san, the creator of RWB. His own RWB, Rotana, was there though.

So, in January 2019, FENICE105 Lancia Delta HF Integrale attended Tokyo Auto Salon, one of Japan's biggest car shows and arguably the biggest tuning-car show in the world. As mentioned earlier, I especially flew in from Amsterdam to Tokyo to be part of the experience. 

The car managed to draw quite a crowd to the Sano Design booth.

It was quite surreal when I realized that the booths next to our Lancia Delta were Rocket Bunny and SpeedHunters, two really big inspirations to me. in fact, I met Kei Miura (Mr. Rocket Bunny) a year earlier during my first trip in Japan, when I visited his shop in Kyoto. I managed to quickly say hi to Miura-san and was happily surprised to hear that he still remembered me! He even signed one of my drawings!
I also met Dino and Phil from the SpeedHunters which was absolutely awesome, they even featured Fenice105 on the website and in one of their videos.

That wasn't it! Ken Block and some of the Hoonigan crew came to check out the Delta as well, they seemed to be quite impressed.

Now of course I had to do some actual hands-on work on the car to become a real part of the team, so right before the opening of TAS, I applied the final livery stripes to the winglets. Hard work, haha.

On the last day from TAS we received a letter from the staff. To round up an already fantastic experience, Fenice105 was nominated for one of the only 24 awards! 

Not to forget, there were a lot of really cool cars at display. Famous names such as Liberty Walk, Rocket Bunny, Top Secret, RE Amemiya, the Hoonigans and many more all brought some mind-blowing creations.

The parking lot was a show in itself as well.

Sunday night, when TAS was over, Masashi and I went to Akihabara UDX, one of Tokyo's underground car meeting spots.

One last thing I wanted to do before heading back to the Netherlands, was visiting someone I got to know via Instagram, Masao-san.

Not only does Masao own one of the coolest Skylines on the planet, he also builds all the parts for his cars by himself, which is something I really admire. 

Although communicating was a bit tricky, we managed to talk for hours, the main topic being.. cars, obviously.

When the night fell, we even took the Skyline for a spin, you bet it was awesome!

If you want to know more about Masao and his cars, you should definitely check out this video.

After all the craziness at Tokyo Auto Salon, Fenice105 was featured in several magazines, including Tipo and CAR Magazine. Several websites featured the car as well, including the SpeedHunters!

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask any questions about the project!