The Untold Story of Neela’s RX-8 and Its Journey to Pakistan
By The Community
Documentation & Verification: Arkimoto Team
So. You know the film.
Tokyo Drift. 2006. For a generation of us, it wasn’t just a movie. It was a doorway. The first time we saw a car move like that, like it was dancing instead of driving. The first time we heard names like Veilside and realized cars could be art.
You remember the cars. The Han’s Monte Carlo. The 350Z. The Fortune RX-7.
And then there was hers.
Neela’s RX-8. The one that slid through the parking lot. The one with the blue fade, the carbon wing, the presence. Not the loudest in the film. But somehow, the coolest.
You know what we didn’t know back then?
That years later, that exact car would end up here. In Pakistan.
And nobody would believe it.
The Beginning
Let’s go back.
The Fast & Furious trilogy changed everything for petrol heads worldwide. But what most people don’t know is that Newera Imports the guys who would later bring so many dreams to Pakistan were right in the middle of it. Liaising directly between Universal Studios, Hollywood, and Japan’s premier tuners. Supplying cars for the third movie.
This RX-8? It was one of them.
Built by Veilside themselves. Designed by Hironao Yokomaku the same man behind the Fortune RX-7. Styled for D1 professional competition, hence the name: Veilside D1-GT kit. Every piece of it purposeful. The front bumper with the massive duct for turbo intercooling. The side skirts. The rear diffuser. The fully adjustable carbon GT wing.
House of Kolor paint. Black, blue, light blue fade. A rolling piece of art.
Under the hood, a Renesis 13B rotary with a GReddy turbo kit. T618Z turbo. Front mount intercooler. Tanabe exhaust. 305 horsepower at 0.56 bar of boost. All managed by a GReddy E-manage system.
Inside, Takata seat belts. Nardi steering wheel. The little details that made it hers.
When filming wrapped, the car went back to Japan. Stored. Waiting.
At auction, it sold for 2.9 million yen. Adjust for inflation today? A fortune. But to the right person, it was never about the money.
The Arrival
Then, somehow, it came here.
A car like that. With that history. In Pakistan.
When it landed, people didn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe it. The rumors started immediately: “It’s a replica. Has to be. No way the real car ends up here.”
And honestly? You couldn’t blame them. The idea was ridiculous. A genuine Tokyo Drift car. In Peshawar. It sounded like something a guy at a meet would say to impress you, not something that could actually be true.
But then Arkimoto got involved.
The Verification
They dug in.
Properly.
Found photos. Traced numbers. Got the chassis details. And then they did something that changed everything.
They reached out to Craig Lieberman.
For those who don’t know: Craig Lieberman was the technical advisor for the Fast & Furious films. The guy who sourced the cars. Who knew which ones were real and which ones were props. If anyone could verify this car, it was him.
They sent him the details. The chassis number. The photos.
And Craig confirmed it.
This was the real one. The actual RX-8 driven by Neela in Tokyo Drift. The only surviving genuine RX-8 built by Veilside for the film.
He was amazed it had ended up here. In Pakistan. Of all places.
The car that had been on screens worldwide, that had slid through the most famous drift film of a generation, was now sitting in our city.
MashaAllah.
The Bad Phase
But the journey wasn’t smooth.
Between then and now, the car went through things. Hard things.
At some point, the rotary came out. A 1JZ-GTE VVTI went in. Then an SR20. Then, eventually, a rotary again. People didn’t understand what they had. They treated it like just another swapped project, not knowing they were dismantling a piece of film history.
Parts changed. The soul got confused.
It happens here, you know? We love our cars. But sometimes we love them too hard, in the wrong ways. We chase power and lose authenticity. We modify without knowing what we’re modifying away.
The RX-8 went through that phase.
But that chapter is closing.
The Restoration
Right now, as we write this, the car is being brought back.
Properly.
Restored to its former glory. To how it looked when it slid through that parking lot in Tokyo Drift. To the spec that made it famous.
The Veilside kit is being respected. The rotary is going back in. The blue fade is being redone. The carbon wing is being cared for.
It’s becoming itself again.
What This Means
Think about it.
A car built for a movie. Shipped to Hollywood. Driven by a rising star. Filmed on mountain roads and parking lots. Returned to Japan. Stored. Auctioned. And then, somehow, against all odds, brought here.
To Peshawar.
To us.
This isn’t just a car. It’s a thread connecting our little scene to something global. Proof that the dream isn’t somewhere else. It’s here too. It landed in a container, cleared customs, and now it sits among us.
The same car that made kids in 2006 fall in love with drifting. The same car that inspired builds and dreams worldwide.
And it’s here.
Being restored. Being cared for. Being understood.
The Truth
There are very few genuine film cars in the world. Even fewer from a franchise that shaped an entire generation’s relationship with cars.
And one of them is in Pakistan.
Not a replica. Not a tribute. The real thing. Verified by the man who was there when it was chosen for the film.
The golden age of cheap parts might be over. The scene might have quieted down from those wild early days.
But then something like this reminds you: we’re part of something bigger.
We’re not just guys in a city swapping engines and sliding on weekends. We’re custodians. Of stories. Of history. Of machines that matter.
The RX-8 is being restored now. To its former glory. To what it was meant to be.
And when it’s done, it’ll roll out onto our streets. A piece of cinema history. A genuine Tokyo Drift car. Here.
MashaAllah.
Some things are worth the wait.
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Special Thanks
To the Arkimoto team for the digging, the verification, and the dedication to getting it right.
To Craig Lieberman for confirming what we hoped was true.
To the current custodians who are bringing it back the way it deserves.
To the countless photographers who photographed it over the years
To Syed Talal Shah for sharing the current photos!
To whoever had the vision to bring it here in the first place.
And to Neela’s RX-8 itself. Welcome home.
To the reader who read this: Stay blessed, happy, and safe. Aameen.
From all of us who were there, and all of us who still are.