KNOWLEDGE: Autolook vintage Japanese racing seats history & models

Over the years, I‘ve posted about the now defunct Japanese racing / bucket seat brand “Autolook” a few times, but only today I was able to puzzle a few things together and fill some gaps. So in this post, I would like to look a bit at the History of Autolook seats, their first seats, and what happened to the brand later. Because, apparently you can still buy Autolook seats brand new from Alibaba and other places – but we’ll look at that in a moment.

Disclaimer: Aside from my experience, I tried to rely fully on trustworthy sources and official documentation, which I have collected over many years. I am not a professional journalist, but I put countless unpaid hours of work and years of research into this post and spent quite a bit of money to collect a lot of original documents, so please ask, before you copy anything. Thanks! If you have any correction, input or additional information, I appreciate if you let me know. I’ll update this post whenever I find something to add or change.

It all started many years ago, when I was looking for vintage Japanese racing / bucket seats for my 240Z project. Despite Japan being a tuning-crazy country in the 80ies and 90ies, the range of Japanese vintage after market seats is very limited. For the S30’s the obvious choice would be the Nissan Sports option / NISMO seats that were available in the early 70ies, with many reproductions today, or the Ikeda-Bussan seats from the Z432-R, but I wanted something different.
The best-known Japanese Brand BRIDE has their Histrix seat range (which I bought initially), but despite resembling some vintage racing seats, they still feel too modern with their Carbon fiber bucket. When researching a bit, I came across a cool set of seats branded “Autolook”.
In 2021 I finally got a used set of two in repairable state from Japan. See thread about them (including a mock-up in the 240Z and comparison to the Bride Histrix here)

But the question remained: What exactly was Autolook? When did they exist, and what did they make?

1. Brand History
Autolook was a brand of the Company 株式会社タカムラファイナリー (Takamura Finery Co., Ltd.), which was founded by Takamura Akira Hei (篁昭平) (if my translation got that right?) in Tokyo, Japan.
Sadly, my Japanese googling skills didn’t let me find any old company records, so I have no idea when the company was exactly founded, but my guess is in the early 70ies?

2. Early seats
Unfortunately, I don’t have any date from the below magazine advert, which was for sale in Japan, recently, but just by the looks of it, it appears to be the oldest type of seat and products I have seen so far. In this ad, you can see their typical Product range like bonnet straps, bucket seats, Motorsports clothing, pedals, racing gloves, etc. It’s kind of interesting that most of the text is in English language, too, despite appearing to be from a Japanese magazine.

The most famous “early” seat of their lineup, however, is the Autolook “Type A”, as shown here in an 1983 Carboy Magazine ad:

And another one from the same Era (in color, note the yellow FRP bucket):

If you look closely, there is a Patent number 407289 on the seat’s rear Aluminum sticker. After searching the Japanese patent archives, I was even able to find the original Design patent drawings, with some details. Here’s an excerpt of it:

As you can also see from the patent, it was Submitted in September 1971, approved / registered in June 1975 and published in the public design bulletin in October 1975. So it took more than 4 years to approve the design patent. But I’m pretty sure they didn’t wait with production until the patent was approved. So in my opinion, this seat was produced over quite a time-span, when you look ad ads from the mid-80ies where the exact same seat is still advertised.

At some point, Autolook also released the “Type B” seat, which appears to be exactly the same as the “Type A”, except for the vertical seams in the cushioning vs the horizontal padding on the Type A. Here’s a photo of one of my Type B seats, before restoration.

In case you wonder, the original (and reproduction) seats have a metal plate laminated into the FRP bucket, which allows you to drill a hole and install the seat safely.

3. Later seat / Product range
Autolook quickly became an accessories brand with many names, as sometimes typical for Japanese brands.
For e.g.: Autolook, AL (Autolook), Autolook PRE (Professional racing equipment), M’s Motorsport, M’s speed, Autolook M’s, Lonza, etc.

They still mainly focussed on Pedals, steering wheels, racing seats and racing suits, but also shift-knobs and other Motorsports accessories.

Here’s a page from their 1993 / 1994 “Racing gear” catalogue:

Here’s an example of their M’s speed Autolook Nomex racing suit.

I’m not sure exactly from which date this Catalogue photo is, but i guess late 80ies, early 90ies. You can see the TypeA and TypeB seats were still available, but the range had expanded significantly. I’m still trying to find an original catalogue or something with a date and more information.

At some point, the Type A seat was also available with “Firelex” fire-resistant fabric:

In this 1972 Magazine ad, Autolook advertises their products using the Firelex (by Teijin Conex) fabric. Firelex (Similar to Nomex) is now used by FIA Racing suits by Gruppe M Motorsports:

Thos one (source) appears to be one of the latest designs. It’s claimed to be from the “80ies and made by PRE”, but I have my doubts. I personally think it was made in the early 90ies. It doesn’t show up in the 80ies catalogues and the design appears to be much more modern, compared to previous versions – just look at the Fiberglass body construction. And PRE was only a sub-brand of Autolook:

4. Latirips
I don’t know exactly when Autolook disappeared and when it all went out of business, but according to the Amon website (see below), the previous Autolook license holder Napolex co.ltd later changed its name to Latirips. There’s still a Japanese car accessories maker named Napolex, but I’m not sure if it’s the same and how they were linked to Autolook / Latirips. There is now evidence of them ever being the same company or Joint-venture or something similar.
I remember browsing the Latirips.com website in the early 2000s to find more information about their seats, but they didn’t sell any seats anymore. The website went offline around 2023, but luckily the web archives still have some snapshots of their old website, with some information. For e.g. it mentions that as of September 1, 2005, the Autolook brand was taken over by Latirips, a Japanese car accessories maker / seller.

At some point in the early 2000s, Latirips even updated the Autolook logo design, from this:

to this:


They continued to sell stuff like shift knobs, shifter boots, LED Interior lights, pedal sets, brake disks, Race clothing and random car accessories.

5. Licensed reproduction run by Amon
Aside from the old, worn vintage Autolook seats, there are still plenty of suspiciously good seats floating around for sale, and you might wonder why. One of the reasons, is the Japanese Classic car specialist AMON (Nostalgiccar.com), which manufactured some Autolook type A reproduction seats in 2003.

In 2003 (Heisei 15), we produced the Autolook Racing Bucket Seat, a reproduction version produced entirely in Japan under a license agreement with Napolex Co., Ltd. (now Latilrps Limited), the Autolook trademark licensee. In 2005 (Heisei 17), we began selling our own original low-back seat, based on the shape of the Autolook Racing Bucket Seat. However, despite their popularity, we were forced to discontinue sales after

Here are some photos of their lovely, licensed reproduction seats, which seem to be very close to the original design. Note the black base (vs mostly seen yellow on the original seats).

As mentioned in the quote above (from the Amon website), they also made “Type A Low back” version, based on the original TypeA shape. As they only made a small lot of those, I guess they are quire rare, these days.

Also, Latirips mentions on their website:

Amon Classic Car Club, which sells Type A bucket seats (reproductions) under the AutoLook trademark license, is featured on our LINK page.

Amon mentions that they don’t intend to reproduce their seats anymore, and therefore their original Molds and cutting-dies are available for sale, in case you want to reproduce the seats 🙂

I was able to secure a set of old logo autolook stickers a vintage M’s / Autolook reflective sticker and two reproduction aluminum stickers (which go on the back of the type-A seats) from Latirips. This will definitely help me restore my stools.

6. Unauthorized Copies
In December 2022, the Japanese company Colin Project Co., Ltd. announced the sales of Autolook Type A reproduction seats. However, Amon mentions on their website:

For your information! Currently, there are no genuine AutoLook bucket seats for sale. Incidentally, the AutoLook bucket seats currently being sold as reproductions on the Internet are not licensed products sold under a trademark license agreement with AutoLook’s trademark licensee, Napolex Co., Ltd. (now Latilips Co., Ltd.).

So it appears to be an unauthorized copy of their product, despite showing the Autolook trademark:

Colin project is known for reproduction of vintage JDM wheels. I don’t know the wheels itself, but it is said that their products are cheap copies and clearly visible to anyone who knows their vintage JDM stuff. But each to their own.
To make it worse, the exactly same seats showed up on Aliexpress / Alibaba, Amazon etc., for a very low price. I have noticed this with other products before. A somewhat reputable company lets reproduce a classic JDM Part from a Chinese manufacturer in China. First, only the company who gave the order sells the product, but then suddenly, the exactly same product shows up on all kind of Chinese websites. So my guess is, that the actual manufacturer in China sells them too, for a way lower price. My experience with Chinese law is that it is very difficult to intervene, as a foreign company.
If you look closely at the reproduction seats, you can see that the headrest cushion seems to be much more “edgy” vs the more rounded lower part shape in the original / Amon seat (See photo below). So like with their wheels, the Colin project reproductions are clearly visible as cheap reproduction, for anybody who knows.

7. Conclusion
As with many Japanese motorsports products, the Autolook seats have a lively history.
You still find plenty of used original seats for sale used in JP if you look around. But please do me a favor and buy used original ones or authorized AMON reproductions and not the cheap unauthorized crap.
A (racing) seat is safety relevant, and you don’t want to risk your life to save a few bucks just because bought the cheap replica.
I think the Original / Amon reproductions are great looking vintage Japanese seats, and hopefully, I’ll be able to put mine in the car again soon and enjoy them.