In the aftermarket world of automotive body kits, few companies are as divisive as Liberty Walk. But the brand started with more of a fizzle than a bang – taking some time to grow into the brand it is today. The Japanese customization firm originally started out importing the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz into Japan, opening a used car shop in the early 1990s. It started working on bolt-on body kits, and at the 2009 SEMA show displayed its first fully kitted out Murcielago – not a wide-body kit.
No one took notice… until it introduced the wide-body LB Works style to the world in 2012 by cutting up and modifying a Murcielago with a full wide-body kit. Since then, Liberty Walk has modified all sorts of vehicles – butchering supercars, fitting over fenders, wings, riveted on parts, and giving supercars and daily runners alike the crazy style its become known for. We've selected 10 of our favorite Liberty Walk builds, ranging from the crazy to the downright absurd.
Lexus LC500
The Lexus LC500 is gorgeous – it's taken the world by storm as a mega GT car that's arguably the pinnacle of Lexus's current design language. The only way Lexus could make it any better would be if it were to spawn a new LFA – an unlikely occurrence. So this LB Works LC500 kit gets our mouths watering, complete with super wide signature arches, air intakes, a ducktail rear spoiler, and a slammed stance to make the already low and wide LC500 look even lower and even wider. It's definitely no OEM+ modification, but damn it looks good.
Lamborghini Miura
This one isn't going to go down well with fans of classic supercars. After all, the Lamborghini Miura is one of the most beautiful supercars ever made. The uncharacteristically smooth lines are classically elegant, so the LB Works style could be considered to ruin it. It's not your typical Liberty Walk design though, the fender flares are more concentrated, the wing more subtle, and the stance less aggressive and offensive. If anything, Liberty Walk has given this Miura some hardcore retro race car styling. Cutting up a classic to make it one a kind… does that justify the death of a factory spec Miura though?
Acura NSX
The Acura NSX is a gateway to the future of supercars. Whereas the Porsche 918 pioneered hybrid tech in the hypercar realm, the NSX is the first to bring that to a supercar level. But the styling of the standard model hasn't been praised by all - some have said it's boring, mismatched, and staid. Not when Liberty Walk gets its hands on it! While the ride height hasn't been slammed as much as most LB Works cars, the front lip, side skirts, and rear skirting hang low and wide, and the massive flared arches are only overshadowed by the huge rear spoiler. The Acura NSX is boring no more!
Mazda RX-3
Kato-san, owner and founder of Liberty Walk, doesn't just sell kits to willing buyers – he equips them to his own cars. This yellow and green Mazda RX-3 is just one of his own cars styled like a retro race car from the late 1960s and early 70s. The fender flares may be a little less subtle than a Hakosuka Skyline GT-R, but the low front splitter and ducktail wing are tasteful elements for a classic look that'll never go out of style.
McLaren 650S
There's a reason why the McLaren 650S comes immediately after the RX-3 – Kato-san owns them both. Featuring the same yellow and green livery, the LB Works equipped McLaren 650S gets traditional bolt-on styled fender flares, gloss black splitters and side skirts, and a big, fixed rear wing. Catch it at a glance, or don't look carefully enough, and it'd be easy to mistake the LBW 650S for a McLaren P1 GTR. But it comes at a price. For a full carbon fiber kit and dry carbon wing, the kit will cost you $42,380, or $55,280 if you want to equip a 12C with the same styling.
Audi A7/S7
While it's almost always Lamborghinis and Nissan GT-Rs that steal the headlines where Liberty Walk is concerned, the Japanese firm also deals in family vehicles too. Take this kit for the Audi A7/S7, for example. Comprising a front bumper, front lip, side skirt, rear bumper, rear wing, and wide fenders, the A7/S7 kit gives the already sinister looking Audi an even meaner appearance. In black, like this one, and with blacked out windows, it's not hard to imagine Darth Vader cruising the streets of planet earth in style and comfort, with a couple of storm troopers riding shotgun.
Dodge Challenger
American muscle meets Japanese tuner style. It's an unlikely pairing, but one that works – no two ways about it. It's low and wide, and has a presence that any other tuner would be crazy not to be envious of. But stanced as much as it has been in current incarnations, there's an element of practicality being ruined. After all, muscle cars are potent performance machines – at home on the drag strip. With stance like this, the performance potential of the Challenger may be somewhat compromised.
Ferrari 488 GTB
Who on earth would dream of cutting up a Ferrari 488 GTB – the finest turbocharged supercar currently available in Italy? Of course Liberty Walk is up to the challenge, slapping the wide body LB Works kit on the 488 without care or concern about how the purists might react. This particular matte grey model, with a pronounced ducktail spoiler, was the recent work of RACE! In South Africa – and wowed crowds at last year's South African Motoring Experience, proving that from Japan to the USA, Italy to South Africa, LB Works kits are adored by as many as they are hated.
Nissan GT-R
You can't mention Liberty Walk without mentioning the Nissan GT-R. The R35 GT-R has already become a world beating supercar, a technological marvel, and a potent race machine, but it's also one of the most commonly worked on cars by Liberty Walk, to the extent that it offers three separate kits for the R35, the Type 1, Type 1.5, and Type 2 – with prices ranging from $12,500 to $17,600 in the USA. It may ruin the outright trackability and race car potential of the GT-R, but there are some supercar owners for whom style matters – and the R35 GT-R by Liberty Walk is a potent reminder of that.
Lamborghini Huracan
Many Aventadors and Gallardos have found their way under the Liberty Walk knife over the years – but the latest Lamborghini to get the LBW treatment is none other than the baby Lambo, the Huracan. Two versions of the kit exist, but they're both styled to match the aggressive Lamborghini styling without compromising performance. Of all the Liberty Walk kits, the Huracan's setup looks as good as, if not better than, the Huracan Performante.