oh yea, a modded 430 would kill the resale value. But i see why people would want to make the car their own.

The real danger though I would think would lie in the fact that the cars will handle very skidish if pushed because of too little suspension travel, too firm. I am not a smart man, but the amount of seat time on the track I have I know this for sure.

 

carguy I am with you about the other types of racing especially f1 and SCCA or IMSA type events, actually I just learned about drifting. looks cool but i don't get the object. i see you can get tires that smoke different too. How do you figure out who wins, how is it scored? Is the skill just to be the oversteer king?

 

Gato's car is more of an American style VIP car. Very clean, nothing too wild but the car as a whole is awesome. In Japan you see wild colors, crazy camber and aero and exhaust work

 

I like drifting because I think it looks cool and I admire the car control required to keep a drifting car on the fine limit between sliding and spinning out. I think it's scored based on your drift speed and slip angle (how sideways you get) and how long you hold the slide. All I know is that I certainly have fun with sliding around in the wintertime

Gotcha! Yeah I've seen some pretty wild colors on our cars over in Japan.

 

Sellah, Thanks, I like that Gatos car. Thats the one that the lights look green on the front right? If it is, I agree somebody put a lot of work into that.

I know this was an imperial, but as a kid I used to love the green hornet, and that gatos car reminds me of the green hornet imperial.

 

I like the clean lines too. I get that the yakuza didn't want to draw attention to themselves, but I would honestly think a slamed car with bright paint and aero kits would draw lots of attention from the cops and rival gangs.

 

I personally prefer wide tires since it looks more aggressive. In the VIP and "Stance" scene, they want the skinniest tire you can fit on the widest wheel. An example would be a 18x12.0 wheel with 215/35/18 sized tires on it.

As far as who makes the highest end stuff, Junction Produce is pretty high up there on the list. Nothing they make is cheap.

VIP was originally intended for the big body Japanese sedans like the Toyota Celsior and Aristo or the Nissan Gloria, but the style spread to some of the big German sedans like the S-Class Mercedes and 7 series BMW's. The style can be applied to other cars as well like luxury coupes too.

A really low Civic isn't considered VIP. Most of the young guys with really low cars and wide wheels are into the "stanced" or "flush" look which requires you to be low and have wide, low offset wheels as well. You might want to check out Stance Nation's website for good examples of that style.

 

kira thanks for your help, I have learned a lot of things I never knew, I had no idea that a subculture from japan like this even was around. Growing up in the US, I never saw this. It was mostly the mexican and black cultures here that had rides I thought were all the same because they were all low, and filled with subs, but didn't realize how much different or that the yakuza was the original influence.

 

So, I know this is a touchy subject, and I mean no offence, but do white kids get into vip too? Or is this more of a cultural thing. How long has vip style been around? Since like the fifties?

 

holy crap man, i don't even know where to start. i really hate to be rude (not really) but some of these questions are so leading that its hard not to take it the wrong way.

i am white, lived in japan (okinawa) for 2 years from 02-04 while in the Air Force (US air force BTW )... i met my japanese wife there, she is from osaka, (kansai neighborhood to be more precise), she is actually there as i type this... she has some friends that know way tooooo much about the yakuzza culture.... i've been to her old neighborhood a few times and from what i have seen personally and from the folks i have talked to personally the 'real' cats don't like to draw attention to themselves so they will most likely not even have tint on their car (most have personal drivers too).... the ones that have a lot of noticeable mods are far from the top and have a lot less to loose.... the ones you have to watch out for are the ones that only have like 2 or 3 mods... these are the ones that seem to be playing the middle ground if you know what i mean.

the japanese system is an old system and there is a lot of respect shown to people that are supposedly better than you... your really not supposed to talk to or even look at people that are yakuzza... however the underlings that are the dirty street worker pusher tough guy types will usually drive very flashy vehicles that are more reminiscent of your lowrider civics and poorly executed wanna be pimp cars (although sometimes they have a lot of $$ and a lot of time in them, yeah)... these guys are referred to as chinpira and the extremely low and wild/noisy car/motorcycles are called bosozoku and they are like junior chinpira in training if you will

our new friends from japan who recently moved to nyc were down at our place outside of dc for a few days over the holidays again and they swear i'm some sort of yanki cuz of the car and car subculture i'm in i just laugh and keep it moving.

any of this make sense?

you also have to keep in mind that the VIP car style is usually very very expensive but in japan twice a year very large bonus's are given out to almost all workers... these bonus's are in addition to normal pay checks and usually range from one months pay to 3 months pay.... so every summer and winter holiday you have large chunks of money handed out to the masses... if your into the car culture what are you gonna do with an extra 10g's ??? i know i would get a new set of wheels, some air susp and maybe a body kit, what about you??

ALSO: toyota/nissan/and others make a lot of models that never make it to the states... the toyota crown is one of them. not sure why they don't but it would be the top of the line Toyota for sure in the ladder or just below the LS in the lexus lineup. they make lots of versions of the crown but the most high dollar one is the crown majesta. my wifes ex started a company called aimgain with a few others a very long time ago and they failed miserably at that time for selling expensive *** parts to the japanese public since they were way ahead of the times. one exaple was that they were trying to sell body kits for the crown majesta apparently and not many of these cars are sold per year, let alone to someone who wants to slap a body kit on it, you dig?

and i realize this is a public forum so i've left out a lot of juicy bits.

 

A simple type of the word lowrider under google will lend you these results

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...FMGqsQK97JzwAw

When jdm vip is googled this is what you get (jdm- Japanese domestic market)

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=2559&bih=1236

The difference is more in the culture behind both styles of modding. A little internet time will tell you everything you need to know if you look past style and looks and move to the culture of the style.

 

Thanks, never knew what JDM meant.

 

Im 20, white, and have even been called a "hipster".

 

It's no problem. I also never saw the VIP style outside of California and maybe Florida. In my area, there was just a bunch of beat up Hondas, muscle cars, big trucks, and exotics. It's extremely rare to see a true VIP styled car around here.

From what I've seen, just about everybody is getting into the VIP scene. More people are into the "stance" and "flush" look though. It's generally the younger guys who are into the Asian and European imports that you'll see in the lowered cars.

That was a pretty informative post. I hope to go to Japan someday.