Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Tag: bosozoku style (Page 1 of 4)

What if Toyota sold Kaido Racers?

What if Toyota sold kaido racers?

Today I’ll try to answer the question “what if Toyota actually sold zokusha”. Zokusha, also better known as Kaido racers or bosozoku style cars, are cars that have been modified to the extreme. The style varies from race car inspired modifications, like enormous fender flares and super wide wheels, to bizarrely shaped objects, like sharknosed frontends and oddly shaped exhaust pipes.
Sharknosed zokusha (Toyota Soarer MZ10)

This car styling started somewhere in the early 1970s and became extremely popular near the end of that decade and remained popular throughout the 1980s. Now why would Toyota ever sell these oddly modified cars? Would there be demand for such a car? In this new video series I’ll try to answer questions like this using a thought experiment, imagining what could happen.

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JDM Trivia #7: Kaido Racer part swaps

JDM Trivia #7

The feedback I got from the picture I posted was great! Some people suffer from Pareidolia just like me. Pareidolia is when you see faces in everything and some of you saw angry and happy faces in the photo. But what I actually was aiming for were the swapped tail lights on the kaido racer in this photo. Some of the commenters already uncovered me as the person behind the Bosozoku Style blog and yes that’s me.
JDM Trivia #7: Kaido Racer part swaps
In the kaido racers scene swapping parts between various cars is a highly valued modification, especially if it something original.

Kaido Racer part swaps

I haven’t done any statistics on this but I can say the most swapped parts are the tail lights of a Nissan Cherry X-1R and most of them end up on either a Skyline C110 or C210.

Second most swapped parts are the banana tail lights of the first generation JDM Toyota Celica liftback and it is unbelievable how well they look on Glorias, Fairladies, Skylines and Laurels. It is almost like the Nissan owners are jealous of this magnificent Toyota design.

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Kickstarter: JDM coloring book

As some of you already know a few years ago I created a coloring book. My son complained to me coloring regular coloring books (with flowers, kittens, turtles, etc) was boring for him. So I created a special coloring book for his third birthday: a Bosozoku Style coloring book!
Bosozoku Style Coloring book
The result was amazing: he started to like coloring again!

I liked the concept so much I actually sent a few copies to people around the world and one of them, Mike Garret, shared the story and thanks to that I was bombarded with orders for the coloring book. I decided to reprint them with a colored cover and that version sold almost 100 copies. Imagine that: over 100 people liked it so much they actually bought a coloring book!

Bosozoku Style coloring book

I spoke to a friend a few weeks ago and he asked my why I never created a follow up. I couldn’t tell him exactly why, except for a few ridiculous reasons that made no sense at all. One of them being that, like last time, I have to invest a lot of money up front. He told me to actually try to do a Kickstarter project and I agreed that it would make sense. So I decided to give it a go!

What is the plan?

Basically my plan is to create JDM coloring book featuring all sorts of Japanese cars to make it more mainstream than last time. JDM is a broad term, so it could literally mean anything from nostalgic cars to fully tuned F&F Supras. Having a broader audience also means more coloring books will have to be ordered up front than last time.

Rewards are simple:

Pre-order your coloring book and you will receive a signed copy and have the ability to vote for which cars/styles will actually make it to the coloring book.
I also wanted to allow people to fund the project a bit more by featuring their own mad JDM ride in the coloring book which in my opinion is the most awesome reward possible. 😉

What does it look like?

Last time I traced a couple of bosozoku styled cars and edited that in my favorite line-art program. I plan to do the same again so I can best describe it with some example content from the bosozoku style coloring book:
Example content for the JDM coloring book
Now squint your eyes and think of your favorite Japanese car! Yes, exactly: like that!

Well, there you have it. The plan is simple, the rewards less simple and reaching the goal to get the project funded is going to be the most difficult part. So if you like the project, please do share it any way possible:
JDM Coloring book project page at Kickstarter

Family Album Treasures: Toyota Sprinter Trueno TE47 zokusha

This Toyota Sprinter Trueno TE47 was a corner case: I could have posted it on the bosozoku style blog but decided otherwise because it contained an excellent Family Album Treasure:
Family Album Treasures: Trueno TE47 zokusha
The Sprinter Trueno TE47 is actually one of my favorite cars and high on my if I ever win a million I will have to buy this car list. And it is not like it is made from unobtainium: they were sold in small numbers here in Europe. 🙂
The Trueno is actually owned by his buddy, hence he is not in front of the car. But there is a nice bosozoku vibe in the picture: hanging out with your gang buddies.

More interesting is what his buddy did to the Trueno TE47:
Family Album Treasures: Trueno TE47 zokusha
Overfenders and deep dished SSR Mk 1 rims at the rear. Looks like the stock Toyota fenders got some banding treatment as well.

Found at yoza1282

Carina Sightings: the yellow zokusha!

People knowing me well enough also know I love kaido racers/zokushas and all sorts of other bizarre creation from Japan. So I actually was quite happy to see this in one of the kaido racer videos:
Yellow Carina AA63 zokusha
Yes, that is indeed a yellow Carina AA63 with (fake?) oil cooiler up front and lowered on a set of SSR Mk II rims (or are those Techno Shadows? Can’t see it too clearly!). 🙂

It even gives a good welcome when arriving at the spot by doing a bit of revving: Continue reading

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope your new year was just as good as mine!
In the Netherlands we are allowed to fire off our own fireworks and unfortunately we do have idiots showing off like this guy in my home town:

He was able to blow out almost all windows of the hotel next to the explosion and injure four persons in one go. Obviously this made the Dutch national news yesterday. Sad but true…

So to cheer you up I’ll do a crosspost of the 2012 kaido racer Sunrise Run with Bosozoku Style: (videos on the next page!) Continue reading

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