Why Rocket Bunny widebody kits are now called Pandem

The short answer

Rocket Bunny and Pandem are the same design studio. Both names belong to Kei Miura and his company T.R.A. Kyoto, and both still exist today. Rocket Bunny is the name that made the brand famous worldwide on cars like the Toyota GT86 and the Scion FR-S. Pandem is the name TRA Kyoto now uses for newer kits and for sales in markets where the Rocket Bunny name ran into trademark trouble, most notably the United States. According to TRA Kyoto's own retail site, the two are presented as one creative house behind two brand names rather than a company that abandoned an old one.

From Kyoto street racer to global stance icon

Kei Miura's own account of his career, published on the Rocket Bunny Pandem site, starts far from a design studio. He grew up in Kyoto, bought his first car, a Nissan 510, from a local mentor at 18, and spent his twenties immersed in the Kanjo loop racing scene, the underground street racing culture built around Osaka's Kanjo expressway. He also worked as a contractor at Tokyo Disneyland, fabricating attractions, which is where he picked up the sheet metal and fibreglass skills he later turned on cars. TRA Kyoto, short for Top Racing Art, grew out of that fabrication shop.

The Rocket Bunny name itself began as an internal project name, inspired by Miura's earlier work on Japan's small kei cars and vans, before it stuck as the brand for his widebody kit on the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ twins. Partnering with GReddy USA for distribution turned that one kit into a global phenomenon and pushed widebody styling from race paddocks into mainstream car culture. TRA Kyoto went on to build kits for the Nissan 370Z, the R32 and R35 Nissan GT-R, the Mazda RX-7 and the Nissan S14, among others, as confirmed by kits still listed for sale by GReddy itself.

Why the name had to change

As the kits spread internationally, the Rocket Bunny name hit a trademark conflict in the United States. TRA Kyoto's response was not to rebrand entirely but to run Pandem alongside it, using Pandem for its US sales entity and increasingly for newer releases, while Rocket Bunny stayed attached to the earlier, more aggressive kits with exposed rivets that built the brand's reputation. That is why you will see both names used almost interchangeably by shops and importers today, and why TRA Kyoto's current news only mentions opening new dealerships in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines rather than any renaming.

What it means if you own a GT-R, 370Z or Civic in India

None of this is sold through an authorised Indian dealer. A genuine Rocket Bunny or Pandem widebody kit for a Nissan GT-R, a 370Z or a Honda Civic has to be imported piece by piece, and fitting one changes your car's registered width. Under India's Central Motor Vehicle Rules, any change to a vehicle's notified dimensions needs prior approval and an endorsement on the registration certificate, using the alteration process laid out in Form 22D. Skip that step and a widebody car, however good the fabrication, is running an unauthorised modification that an RTO or an insurer can flag. The history is a good story. The paperwork is not optional.

Sources

• Rocket Bunny Pandem: About Us
• TRA Kyoto official site
• Japanese Nostalgic Car: Pandem kit for the Datsun 620
• GReddy: Rocket Bunny Pandem Aero Kits
• Parivahan: Form 22D, Endorsement of Alteration/Retrofitment