I randomly see one or two riding around on the highways on weekends or in the parking lots at various car events but I have never stumbled upon a Bosozoku car gathering as the one I witnessed last month in Nagoya. On the Sunday morning before the Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown opened its doors to the public, one area of the vast Port Messe exhibition center parking area was getting taken over by these mean machines.
I couldn't believe my eyes and literally dropped everything to head over and start snapping away. The selection of zokusha was incredible all sporting wild body conversion...
...and outrageous exhausts!
Compared to any of these kind cars I have seen in the past in the Kanto area the ones down in Aichi seemed to sport wilder modifications, be it in the form of those outrageously long front spoilers, to the actual paint jobs.
In a lot of cases some of the cars were so heavily altered that I had trouble identifying the base car! This pink ZZ20 Soarer almost looked easily recognizable...
...until you stepped around the back for a view of the rear!
This Crown was sporting a couple of air intakes on each side of its "diffuser." Not sure how functional they are!
A different take on racing headers! This Crown was one of the wildest cars at the meet, check out that crazy wide-body conversion. I think the rear doors can't be opened any longer!
This is what it all looks like in the engine bay! This is just nuts!
Gotta have the overfenders!
These two were all about the functional aero, with wing-like side skirts...
...and crazy double spoilers on the trunk! Notice the color coded exhaust extensions.
Another version of racing headers.
Gotta have the air-horns! I believe this one played the Godfather theme.
This Hakosuka didn't really belong in the line up but it was difficult to resist grabbing a few shots. Notice the wild fenders...
...and it seemed to have been painted in what looked like the Silica Breath color from the R34 GT-R M-spec. You have to dig the bucktooth spoiler and Equip 01s!
This PGC110 Skyline was my favorite, especially from this angle. Notice the star-shaped centers of the rear lights!
Chopped-roof Crown sedan. The pink on red motif was hard on the eyes!
Under all the crazy bodywork hides a GC10 Skyline!
You just have to laugh!.
Here we go again with the direct exhaust systems.
A bososzoku meet wouldn't be complete without a couple of bikers. As the outlaw gangster style dictates, both bikes had no number plates. All of the owners of these wild machines were very friendly and very amused that a foreigner was so interested in their cars!
Now that is pimp!
The racing oil-cooler placed on the outside of the bumper is obviously something you need to be doing if you want to give your car a bosozoku look!
I really have no idea when I will be lucky enough to run into a meeting like this in the future.
I'm just very glad I had a chance to share all this very unique take on Japanese car culture!
-Dino Dalle Carbonare