Ever wonder how Japanese Bosozoku and Yanki car owners came up with the ideas of how to make their cars look so crazy? Well, according to stories I’ve been told, a lot of these guys began making their street cars resemble the professional Super Silhouette racing cars, and then making them look a whole lot crazier and a whole lot more gangster basically.
Me personally, I love Super Silhouette cars. I wasn’t really aware of these cars in the 80s when they were new, as I was too busy watching cartoons like Robotech (Macross) and playing with Transformers. However, whenever I began going to toy stores that had Japanese car models, I noticed that many Japanese plastic model companies like Fujimi and Tamiya had silhouette racers within their product lines! So awesome. Just another reminder of why I love Japanese car culture so damn much.
So let’s watch the video and enjoy the Super Silhouette racers as they run Tsukuba Circuit and my favorite, Fuji Speedway!!!
:: Antonio Alvendia
That’s the same story that I was told. Basically some people just wanted their own Group 5 race car but on the street. Why it became popular amongst bosozoku gangs I don’t know.
wow, that’s awesome. I wish I knew where to download full races… I LOVE old racing like that. Touring car championships too…
Super Silhouette is so awesome, I wonder though, how those cars would have faired against the DTM cars of Europe, during that time. I am sure though, that is comparing apples and oranges.
I remember seeing models of these too in the old model shop off Nogales street in West Covina (it’s probably a Jolly Bee or some Filipino joint now) when I used to by my parts for my budget Grasshopper off road RC buggy. Love the phat offset and slammed to the ground look! Cool video!!
@MaydayJohnP I don’t think the DTM cars stood a chance against these monsters: the DTM cars back then drove under Group A rules while the Super Silhouette Formula cars drove under Group 5 rules. Think of it as if the Super Silhouette Formula cars were as wide as the DTM cars PLUS the width of the tires, not to mention the difference in weight. 😛
The FIA banished Group 5 for a reason: too many loopholes and the cars were getting ridiculously fast (equals dangerous in FIA’s mind).
BTW: I wrote an article about the Tomica Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette on Bosozokusytle to illustrate why its style got copied into the bosozoku style:
http://www.bosozokustyle.com/content/popular-bosozoku-cars-tomica-nissan-skyline-kdr30