Motoring
See Mike Whiddett tear through Tokyo’s cool car culture in his new film
The New Zealand drift racer known as Mad Mike has made a documentary about the Japanese capital’s extraordinary after-dark modified auto scene – check out Nihon Nights now.
Sometimes in life, if you want to experience something truly out of the ordinary you have to wait until after dark. And if unusual cars are your bag, the best place to be is in Japan after the sun has set. Enter drift racing king Mad Mike Whiddett, who’s made Nihon Nights, a film about the subject. Join him in Tokyo as he meets the scene’s major players.
Watch the full documentary below.
12 min
Nihon Nights
Mad Mike Whiddett’s Nihon Nights documentary.
When it comes to automotive design, Mike's a fan of pushing the envelope. He has a passion for modified car culture and couldn’t wait to learn about the scene in Japan. Its origins here can be linked with bosozoku, a term given to car and motorbike enthusiasts souping up their machines and generally being rebellious. As with many youth cultures across the globe, it’s all about going against the nine-to-five lifestyle and standing out from the crowd.
This '54 Chevy Belair isn’t for sale
© David Ishikawa
These days things aren’t quite so unruly, but the legacy remains and the Japanese petrolhead’s desire to break boundaries in car design and modification has created a vibrant and unique culture.
In Nihon Nights, Mad Mike takes a nocturnal tour of the jaw-dropping car modification scene in Japan, hooking up with some of the coolest and most respected modifiers along the way.
Before watching the documentary in the player further up this page, scroll down to learn more about the different factions of car fanatics in and around Tokyo who feature in Nihon Nights.
Dekotora
Dekotora roughly means ‘decoration truck’ and this craze is one of the biggest, brightest and boldest of all the Japanese automotive modification traditions. It involves taking box vans and trucks and driving them around the streets sporting everything from flashing bull bars and chrome accents to hundreds of lights.
A dekorota truck with Ryo Hirakawaa’s Lexus LC500 Super GT car
© Kunihisa Kobayashi/Red Bull Content Pool
That’s not all. More often than not a large portion of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that goes into turning these everyday machines into moving works of art is spent on the interior, where bespoke fabrics and fittings are the order of the day.
Kei Cars
Meaning 'small' or 'light' in Japanese, Kei Cars are hugely popular with modification fanatics because their small engines mean smaller insurance costs. As a result, more money can be spent on lights, chrome, massive tyres, hydraulics and all sorts of ingenious add-ons.
Hisashi Ushida, aka Cholo, at his lowrider workshop
© David Ishikawa
A cool lowrider car at Cholo’s workshop
© David Ishikawa
Hanging out at Cholo’s garage
© David Ishikawa
Cholo's Custom garage
© David Ishikawa
Because Kei Cars are 100 percent street legal, they’re one of the more sensible types of modified car you’ll see on Japanese roads. But that doesn’t make them any less spectacular to look at.
Kaido Racers
The Kaido Racers are throwbacks to the rough-and-ready days of the new wave of car owners wanting to step away from the mainstream and carve their own path in Japanese modification in the 1980s.
Watch Ricciardo and Verstappen on their Tokio Kaido Racer ride in the below player:
2 min
Ricciardo and Verstappen's ride through the streets of Tokyo
Action Clip featuring Red Bull Formula 1 Drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen riding a Japanese gem, Kaido Racer Car, through the city of Tokyo.
These machines hint at a sci-fi, almost cartoonish style with some resembling old-school touring cars and others looking like something out of Futurama. Popular machines to tinker with include commuter carriers like the Toyota Chaser and Celica, or the Nissan Gloria. They’re often dropped on their rims and flared out with audacious, angular takeyari-style exhaust pipes to extra-mean.
Supercars with loads of LED lights
There’s no actual label for this category of incredible cars, but it’s safe to say that most people who are lucky enough to own a Ferrari or Lamborghini tend to keep it pretty much as the designers intended. Not in Japan.
Shinichi Morohoshi’s Lamborghini
© David Ishikawa
Shinichi Morohosh in Tokyo
© David Ishikawa
Party up front
© David Ishikawa
All lit up in green
© David Ishikawa
One Japanese modification fan featured in Nihon Nights described driving a standard Lamborghini Diablo as “boring”, so to liven things up a bit he plastered the thing with LED lights and diamanté decals – and the result is anything but boring.
Find out more by watching the Nihon Nights documentary now.