As a Speedhunter you get to experience a lot of very nice cars – supercars, track weapons, show cars, lowriders, concours champions… The list is very long and very exciting. However, it is very rarely that I’ve found myself faced with a vehicle that transcends its label and becomes something more.
Following on from a whirlwind three days at the Jogja Volkswagen Festival in Java, my local contacts made some introductions to several movers and shakers in Indonesia’s car scene. Before long, two VW enthusiasts from Bandung had extended an invitation to visit their private operation named Terror Garage, and take a closer look at some of their recent creations.
Terror Garage was merely a familiar name to me at this stage; I knew there was a link to Akira Nakai’s growing RWB family, but as with much of the Indonesian car scene, very little detailed information had made it into Western circles. However, even the veteran collectors and builders spoke with hushed reverence when they mentioned the sinister-sounding workshop name. It didn’t take long for my curiosity to be piqued, and I accepted the invitation.
And that’s how I found myself on a leafy suburban street above the chaos of the city of Bandung, staring at what is undoubtedly one of my favourite cars I’ve hunted this year.
I won’t spoil the whole story of Terror Garage (it deserves an article for itself), but one part of the operation is running RWB Indonesia – the exclusive local arm for RAUH-Welt Begriff’s Porsche modification operation. RWB has, in the past few years, been establishing a network of similar partners around the globe to assist Nakai-san continue to deliver the unique RWB experience as the business continues to rapidly expand.
The stunning blue creation you see here is not Terror Garage’s first or only RWB, but it is the latest and quite obviously breaks the somewhat formulaic design approach we’ve seen from previous RWB builds. It is, in fact, build #4 for Yanto, the passionate VW collector and owner of Terror Garage.
Yanto’s partner at Terror Garage, Michael Lesmana, is a talented designer who cut his teeth working for large car manufacturers before the partnership with Yanto opened up the opportunity to work on projects closer to his passion for vintage vehicles. He is the mastermind of this creation, leading the project from the first sketch until completion some three months later.
The final product seems to exist more in the realm of the concept cars that grace motor show stages – a creation that is absolute in its conception and execution as opposed to something that has been merely modified to suit a specific taste or purpose.
Relative to other RWB builds, Nakai-san’s role was slightly more subdued than you might expect. Although he did supply and fit the iconic over-fenders during a short visit in October, it was Michael who fathered the Speedster concept and its many unique details. Thus, it’s incorrect to think of the Speedster as an RWB car – rather it is a collaborative effort between the two entities of Terror Garage and RAUH-Welt Begriff.
I probed Michael about his relationship with Nakai-san, and in particular his feelings towards this extremely unorthodox build. Let us not forget that ‘Rauh Welt’ translates to Rough World, and that Nakai’s usual creations are characterised by a rawness that the polished Speedster lacks completely. “He was really positive; as soon as I saw his first reaction to the car I knew he liked it,” Michael said. “He approved of my design.”
