Welcome back to another post in this series. This post is going to be a little more bare than the next few posts in this series. In a weird coincidence, out of the 160 magazines I have scanned, I still don’t have one published in 1980. The images used in
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With the popularity of kaido racers now reaching a more global scale, I thought it might be best to go back in time to see where they originated from and the trends and shifts in their design throughout the generations. This first post will be geared toward what Holiday Auto
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In 1979 a new Japanese TV show drama was released titled Seibu Keisatsu 西部警察 or “Western Police”. It followed a group of detectives apart of the team “Daimon Gang” lead by Daimon Keisuke. Daimon wasn’t the type of detective to mess with. This wasn’t an average detective drama—it was packed
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In the early 1990s, Jr. Young Auto had a column that highlighted young couples’ love for each other. The column featured photos of the gifts they gave each other, primarily plush versions of their vehicles. They called this hokapure. So far I have seen hokapure written in three different ways.
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Kaido racers are no strangers to repurposing parts from other cars for their own. The most common examples of this are likely OEM vents, tail lights, and headlights. That said, I’d like to highlight the Mercedes Benz grille swap which became popularized first through an aftermarket FRP part and then
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If you have looked at enough photos of “haiso” (high society) styled kaido racers, chances are you have noticed antennas mounted either to the rear end or the roof. First assumption is for a radio or even a television, but that isnt always the case. CB (Citizen Band) radios peaked
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While tools such as social media are great for seeing photos of kaido racers new and old, this may leave you wanting more. Whether it’s wanting to focus on a specific period, finer details, or finding “deep cuts”, going straight to the source remains one the best options, but where
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Continuing from the previous article about music that you might hear around kaido racers, we continue with more artists of the 80s-90s. Mind you that this isn’t all of the artists and also that many people who are into kaido racers listen to other music besides Japanese artists. In fact,
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In the late 80’s and early 90’s kaido racers really started to resemble what Westerners use the blanket (incorrect) term of bosozoku for. Cars sporting a plethora of fiberglass, both custom-made and “off the shelf”, to create borderline unidentifiable cars were at their peak around this time (exemplified with Chibaragi
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In the 1980s European tuning shops started to get popular. In Germany alone, there was RUF, Brabus, Gemball, but what was probably the craziest tuner was Koenig Specials. Willy König purchased a Ferrari 365 BB in 1974 and wasn’t happy with the performance of it. He had the 365 sent off
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