Remembering Japanese cars from the past

Category: What if

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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What if: the Saint would drive a Nissan Silvia CSP311?

I had an interesting thought when I watched BANKAKUEMIKO’s video on a white Nissan Silvia CSP311: what if Roger Moore would have driven a Nissan Silvia CSP311 in the original Saint TV series? The white Silvia looked so classy, elegant and exciting that the Saint certainly would have bought one if he could have.
Nissan Silvia CSP311
A little bit of background: The Saint (played by Roger Moore) drove a white Volvo P1800 coupe in the TV series where both the director and Roger Moore both owned one and used it for the TV series. They had to choose between the Jaguar E-type and the Volvo P1800 as they were brand new cars that got revealed at the Geneva Motor Show and chose for the latter. The Volvo P1800 initially was a hand built car by Jensen using a Volvo engine and suspension. Enter the Nissan Silvia CSP311: it was a hand built car using the Nissan Fairlady engine and suspension.

Now I know it could not have been the Nissan Silvia CSP311 as the original Saint TV series was aired from 1962 onwards (so filming started early 1962) and the Nissan Silvia CSP311 was revealed in September 1964 at the Tokyo Motor Show. So there was a gap of two and a half years. Also the main reason for featuring a foreign car on an English TV show was that it actually was built in the UK by Jensen so featuring an exotic car like the Silvia would have been out of the question. Still I would have loved the idea and therefore I made a terrible Photoshop of Roger Moore and the Silvia: Continue reading

What if: Initial D was drawn by Michiharu Kusunoki

Just imagine: what if Michiharu Kusunoki drew Initial D instead of Shakotan Boogie or Wangan Midnight?

Would Takumi and Bunta look like this?
Takumi and Bunta Bosozoku style with pompadour
I love the B?s?zoku looks of these two muggers and they look like they could be father and son. 😉

Or would we massively listen to Rockabilly instead of Eurobeat? I hope not!

And would Takumi have drifted an AE86 Trueno looking like this Shakotan Boogie Soarer?
Shakotan Boogie Toyota Soarer MK1 replica

Hopefully we will never know. 😉

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