There comes a time when an individual makes a decision to follow his passion and end up living doing what he loves the most. In Akira Nakai’s case, it’s driving and building Porsches.
Starting out in his younger years with a drift crew called Rough World and worked on Toyota AE86s, Nakai-san eventually started a company called RAUH Welt BEGRIFF (RWB) and became known for modifying Porsches.
Now Akira Nakai is a bit of an outlaw in Porsche purist circles. Understandable when you consider his work involves desecrating the collectible Porsche 911s and turning them into adrenalin pumping wide-bodied beasts of speed.
Our main subjects for this article are two particular Porsches that underwent the Akira Nakai touch. Two Porsche 911s given the names Stella Artois and Rotana. Both cars are the personal possessions of Nakai-san.
Rotana is a hardcore track focused purple Porsche 993 Turbo that takes Nakai-san’s vision to the extreme.
Stella Artois is his project that took him 12 year to complete, a black and gold Porsche 930 made into a roaring monster and is the granddaddy of all things RWB.
Now what does these two cars have in common, other than being both Porsches and RWBs?
Well, both of them are the basis of the existence of the REC 901 timepieces.
Who or what are REC timepieces you say? REC make watches that have character build into them.
How do you put the soul of a car into a watch? Where do you find it? In the material, the shape, or is it in the roads it’s traveled? It is our love for the extraordinary machines that drives our philosophy. A three-step process we’ve named: RECover, RECycle, REClaim. Or REC for short.
For the 901 RWB timepieces, bits of the actual parts taken off Rotana and Stella Artois find themselves as part of the watches. Called 901 RWB Rotana and 901 RWB Stella, the REC X RWB project has been two years in the making on the account of their Danish perfectionism.
Captivating the soul and the design DNA of these two iconic vehicles has by no means been an easy task. Designer of 901 RWB STELLA & ROTANA, Thomas Funder: “Whether you like them or not Mr. Akira Nakai’s RWB creations don’t go unnoticed. You take a stand. We wanted to incorporate the same powerful presence into our Stella and Rotana timepieces”.
They have incorporated the extreme wide body kit into their design – just to mention one of the many design elements they pay homage to. No formula or predefined approach defines the process. Constantly adding and constantly cutting away, they worked relentlessly to distill the essence until only the best parts remain, encapsulated in pure passion – completing the creative circle.
The cost of owning this REC x RWB timepiece? SRP goes for $1,795.00 USD (or 88,561.71 PHP exchange rate as of the time of this writing). The 901 RWB collection are limited to a production run of 305 pieces for each model.
