Tofu Auto Works Is Building A Race Car That Never Existed From 3D Prints And Scraps And It's Incredibly Entertaining

Some of the world's greatest car building enthusiasts are chronicling their journeys on social media, and it's about time we do our part to bring as much attention to them as possible. This is the first installment of a regular Jalopnik series we're calling Wrenchers You Should Know. In each installment we'll introduce you to a cool new builder, talk about some of their work, and give you a few reasons why you should be watching their progress. This week we're talking about Tofu Auto Works, which operates as a single person in a pretty nice shed in the countryside. Their current street-legal Group C project is among the coolest things I've ever seen, and every time there's a new installment in my YouTube feed, the TV remote hits my hand like Mjolnir. 

You might have already heard about the good and difficult work that Tofu Auto Works is doing over in the antipodes. Both the channel's Cyperpunk Miata and GT-R-look Stagea Wagon projects (more about those later) have been received quite well, and racked up some views. Not enough, I say! Show this channel to all of your friends, have watch parties, share them widely, because this person needs more clicks.

This incredible build began with a wrecked Toyota MR-Spyder, a CAD drawing, a pair of giant 3D printers, and a dream. It's still nowhere near being done, but the amount of effort and difficulty they've expended and seen thus far are inspirational. If watching this doesn't make you want to get off your butt and start working on your own projects, you're probably missing that wrenching gene.

The project is affectionately known as the MR-C, which I think is cool. I had a teacher who went by Mr. C in high school, and he was pretty chill. 

Unlike most "What's Up YouTube!" style build channels, TAW's audio is completely unspoken. This is an ASMR car build channel, and all of the exposition is a text crawl at the bottom of the screen. It takes some getting used to, but I'll take this over a Mr. Beast wannabe every single day of the week, and twice on Sundays. If you're just into the idea of watching a dude jam out on his car for an hour or so every couple of weeks, make sure to give the channel a sub, and throw it on a big screen. It's a nice respite from the rest of the BS going on in the world, so turn your phone off and get some time to chill and think about cars without any distractions. 

So what does TAW do with all of that 3D printing capacity? For this project, they're printing up their own fiberglass molds to craft bespoke Group C-style bodywork (inspired by the Porsche 962, Sauber-Mercedes C9, and Mazda 787B) for the MR-S to wear. This is a level of technology use that I could never even hope to aspire to, so I'm definitely using this as an opportunity to both learn and just sit back in amazement and watch a master work. 

This project is different from a lot of the others on YouTube, because it doesn't have anything to trick the algorithm. This isn't a build with four-digit horsepower, or a seven-digit price tag, it's just a humble dude in his shed making a cool looking race car body for a twenty-year-old underpowered Japanese roadster.

What's the point of this? I don't know, man, what's the point of going to the park, reading a poem, eating a delicious meal, or making love? The entire human condition boils down to just doing things for the sake of doing them. You don't have to live your entire life by the algorithm, just do things you think are fun and see if other people think they're fun, too. 

Most of the projects on the TAW channel are aesthetic in nature. The goal isn't necessarily to build something that will be fast on track, but just something that looks cool. Really, that's what modifying cars is usually about anyway. Even if you do enjoy driving your car, a lot of modifications are affected to make the car (and driver) look cooler to other car folks. Would it be cooler with a big turbo Honda K-series engine? I would argue it would actually be worse, because while power is great, I want to see a car that will actually work when they're done. 

Once you've seen all of the episodes of the MR-C build, dig back into the archive and check out the full four and a half hour GT-R Stagea build supercut.

And once that's been run through, you can also catch up on the Cyberpunk Miata, which is maybe the coolest looking Miata ever built. It's got more downforce than pretty much anything you've ever driven, to boot. 

Don't worry, he's also got the world's coolest Suzuki Twin! Yes, my tongue was firmly in cheek typing that, but it's fun.

I really enjoy watching these videos, and have racked up a couple dozen hours watching this dude work his magic in silence. If you haven't already caught up with his efforts, give it a look.

Keep an eye out for future installments of Wrenchers You Should Know, because I'll be delivering them regularly to the site. Let's discuss this channel, his builds, and the state of social media car builds in the comments below, I'd be glad to chew the fat with you a bit about one of my favorite topics.

If you have suggestions for some lesser known builders on social media, please feel free to drop them in the comments section as well. I'm always on the lookout for folks out there doing cool stuff. It doesn't have to be just cars, either. While I'm well apprised of the car and motorcycles building scenes, I'd love to get deep into the nitty gritty of some more niche topics. Do you follow some cool folks building snowmobiles, jet skis, or DIY fighter jets or something? I definitely want to know about it. 

And yes, you're welcome to do some self promotion in the comments as well. Let everyone know where they can follow your build and what you're up to. If it's particularly unique or incredibly good, we'll feature it on the blogs.