RWB Porsche Builder Akira Nakai Actually Races Cars
Nakai-san builds 60 cars a year all over the world. He also races them.
There are videos of Nakai-san building his RWB Porsches in Thailand, China, Germany, Poland, Russia, California, Atlanta, Brooklyn and countless other places around the world—most importantly here in Brooklyn—so you already know the street-style Porsche builder's work and most likely have a strong opinion about his polarizing wide body creations.
You probably also have strong opinions about RWB irreversibly modifying pristine examples of Porsche's iconic air-cooled 964, but you can't knock Nakai's tireless passion and work ethic. In order to keep up with the orders from his growing clientele, Nakai flies 60 times a year to build 60 cars—year after year.
It's an insanely packed work schedule and it makes a person wonder: Does Nakai-san ever take a vacation? What does he do for fun?
He races them.
Every year, the Rauh-Welt family gets together to participate in the Japanese 12 Hours Idlers Endurance Race. Seven cars, 50 drivers, one team.
RWB Australia documented the team's last outing and created RWB - Life After Birth, a 45-minute short film to recount the drama that day and also share the strong relationships made between the personalities that make the RWB family.
Endurance races are tough enough for professional race teams, let alone an amateur team of modified air-cooled Porsches. Nakai-san would do everything in his power to make sure all his cars cross the finish line, even if it means no sleep for all 12 hours on top of the 24 hours of preparation the day before.
Still, not all of Nakai's Porsches made it to the end. RWB Adriana DNF'd after it suffered heavily damaged during the race. RWB Australia stated that proceeds from tickets sold to see this film will help fund Adriana's extensive rebuild. Money would also be donated to the National Cancer Council of Australia. According to the official site, the film will premiere on March 25 at IMAX Melbourne and will not be available on the internet.
To our readers in Australia who are interested in seeing this movie and meeting Akira Nakai in person, you can purchase tickets for RWB - Life After Birth here.
Finally, check out the two trailers RWB Australia released here:
