Writers Note

The following terms Vertical Wipers and Mono Wiper are my own. I scraped through magazines and a number of Japanese forums to try and find a term for this in the context of kaido racers and came up empty. I don’t believe this topic is that deep as it’s a change that takes less than 5 minutes to implement and can be reversed just as quick.

On racecars in the 70’s (and even modern day) you’ll see the windshield wipers in a vertical position on the windshield as opposed to horizontal. The benefits to this in a racing application include:

• Decreased drag, which also results in less strain on the mechanical components/wiper rubber
• Retaining the ability to clear rain in the case of variable conditions (as opposed to removing the wiper entirely)

While it wasn’t uncommon to see kaido racers with under-hood tuning, this is another “mod” that emulates a racecar rather than having any positive performance effect on a public road.

Vertical Wipers

This is often seen in the context of Grachan spec cars, specifically bases that are inherently “sporty”. The most examples you’ll find are S30 Fairlady Z, but the next gen Z car (S130), RX7, and first gen Celica are also fitting. Luckily this is a free “mod” achieved by leveraging the fact 70’s and early 80’s electronics are incredibly simple.

How to do this with a Z car: With the key on, turn on the wipers and once they are vertical, turn the key off to stop the wipers. Turn the wiper switch to the off position and you’re done! If you need to use your wipers, just hit the switch and they will work normally. You’ll just need to redo these steps to get the wipers back to the vertical position.

The same may work for other bases but I personally own own Nissans and haven’t tested this in other vehicles.

Mono Wiper

My best guess is that this would have been inspired by the next generation of racecars, specifically European. The timing of when this started to be seen more often aligns well with the Koenig style boom. This is most often seen on Chibaragi spec cars in the early 90’s with examples being seen on nonsuri event cars through the 2000’s as well.

How to do this: Remove both wipers from your car using (likely) a 14mm socket or wrench. Store one of the arms in a safe place while reinstalling the other at the appropriate angle. You may be able to increase your wiper blade size as well. This will obviously have a negative impact on your ability to clear the windshield of rain as opposed to a “vertical wiper”.

Both of these looks can be found outside of kaido racers as well. I personally drove around with a “mono wiper” on multiple tuner cars well before I knew anything about kaido racers.