- There's a little rebelliousness inside of all of us.
Park where you shouldn't,
put Sprite in a water cup, okay.
And some might even say, take the nice pen from a waiter,
and not ever give it back.
Pretty sure that's actually just theft.
I'm Alex.
@Alex.Fi in Instagram,
and today we're gonna be talking about
one of the most extravagant subcultures,
and the automotive scene that was completely crafted
by the rebellious nature of an Island
across the ocean, okay?
One of the biggest,
one of the baddest,
the subculture that truly makes you think,
"Wow, so the movie Cars could potentially
have some validity to it
when there's the four cars driving around at night
with like the 17 wings," okay.
This subculture that likely brought about the eccentric,
colorful, and loud as shit car style into the States
from the JDM community.
Ladies and gentlemen,
today we're gonna be talking about
you wanting to own a Bōsōzoku car.
(upbeat music)
(car engine revving)
- Disclaimer, if I mess up any of the terminology
in terms of how I pronunciate it,
I am sorry.
I'm trying my best,
but there's two languages in my noggin,
and the third one ain't doing very hot.
By the way, hi, drink your water,
and if this is the first time watching Fitment Industries,
Hello, I'm Alex, don't forget to subscribe,
and we started doing this YouTube channel to find,
oh wait, no, we started this YouTube channel
to help find people what fits their car using wheels,
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So, we made a big ass honking size gallery
where you can actually enter into your mega model,
share specs, all that sort of good stuff,
and find what easily fits your car.
So, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels, tires,
or suspension, be sure to check us out
over at www.fitmentindustries.com,
and if you've got a pretty neat car
add it to our gallery of fitmentindustries.com as well.
Bōsōzoku, I'm not gonna mess this up.
Bōsōzoku, Bōsōzoku, Bōsōzoku.
Boso, Bōsōzoku,
Bōsōzoku.
Bōsōzoku, which quite literally translates
to "running out of control."
As a vehicle is a Japanese youth subculture
that originally wasn't meant to be associated
with cars whatsoever.
It was, actually, just a token of rebellion
that was spawning into the world
in the early '50s in Japan.
Bōsōzoku style was spring-boarded from the groups returning
from World War II that had difficulty readjusting
to normal society,
and after everything had, had happened.
There's a lot that happened in World War II,
and a lot of emotional scars, okay.
The post-World War II was a very difficult time
for almost the entire world.
It had marked a turning point
in mentality, international trade,
and of course, mental health, well week, that last one.
Many individuals began finding purpose in their life
by the way of the Bōsōzoku lifestyles,
which, in its simplest form, wasn't the healthiest.
It was Cheetos for breakfast.
It was fasting for 36 hours.
You see many of the initial group came back
from the war as Kamikaze pilots.
Something that truly changes who you are.
And then you only had those, just the one thing at the end
and that's not happening anymore.
For the end result to end
with you coming home versus the alternative.
Many of these individuals couldn't cope
with the normal world and coming back
to a normal-ish society and just didn't make sense.
It was an adrenaline rush filled lifestyle,
where an expression of yourself
through the motorcycle would begin turning
into gang-like activities and countless run-ins
with the good old arm of the law.
It was motorcycles that Bōsōzoku would use in the beginning
because that was actually much more common in Japan
than cars were.
Bōsōzoku would base some of its stylings and attitudes,
actually, off of the American greaser subculture
which was massively popular during this time.
This was in the mid-fifties.
Now, some of U.S. stylings are going
off of Bōsōzoku stylings now
which was some of based off of U.S. greaser stylings
which is based off of the scientific method,
and somehow J.G. Wentworth's song is somehow still
stuck in my head 15 years later.
J.G. what, what.
(choral music)
- Cashed out!
I was just,
it was a really terrible Cartoon Network commercial
and I just never want to be a part of it again.
They were not hitting their target market.
What's important here is
that the Bōsōzoku group was never labeled as that.
They were never labeled as the Bōsōzoku, internally.
It was more so known as the Kaminari
or the Zoku, or Thunder Tribe,
which was coined because of their loud-ass,
straight-piped motorcycles.
It was obnoxious, all right.
And it wasn't until the '70s
that we'd see the term bushes Bōsōzoku
start to be used for this,
like, group of individuals that could be equivalent
to Mexican TV at 11:30 PM.
Then, your parents don't want you watching
what's on that TV at 11:30 PM.
As the Bōsōzoku community began to grow
its expression, group and people grew with it.
The '70s became a pivotal moment for the Bōsōzoku,
as the group began to truly own
its own substantial community base
and gain an opinionated voice against the police
and the Japanese dealings,
and some of the opinions that they carried
in terms of local decision-making.
All right?
This group carried actual hellfire
when it came to the Japanese public roads,
and, in general, known for dangerous acts
and reckless driving,
the Bōsōzoku would carry weapons with them,
run illegal items that make your mom sad
and just skipped school,
which made dad even more sad.
And this was kind of a big deal
because Bōsōzoku were generally younger male individuals
from the ages of, like, 18 to 22.
And, so, this was a big deal.
It was big middle finger to pretty much normal society.
And either way the Bōsōzoku wasn't
about a modified motorcycle though.
It was about just a lifestyle
but most people assumed Bōsōzoku with the eccentric styling,
that a lot of you know and love,
for cars and motorcycles,
which was something that's occurred now
for almost half a century.
Loud, flashy, tall seats, custom frames, colorful paint jobs
and long-ass exhaust pipes to make that thing swing!
It was just, it was a really exciting time.
The more against the norm it was,
the better, the better, the better it was.
And even though the Bōsōzoku had a lifestyle
that was risky and aggressive,
it still carried virtues, loyalties and rules
that individuals had to follow.
Including values like being respectful
and being honest and having honor, okay.
Like accepting when you admit defeat,
like when you lose against ping-pong, Dakota.
And when the Bōsōzoku culture was massive in the '80s,
with as many as 42,000 members,
it all but decreased over the '90s, 2000s,
and now, it's, it's pretty minimal.
This comes from the fact of economic turmoil in the '90s,
the whole bubble,
the Japan Road Traffic Law improvements of the 2000s
and the overall loss of value and what it stood for
as the decades went on.
Truthfully, the first half of the Bōsōzoku lifestyle
was built around finding purpose in fear and in excitement
and in the '80s and '90s
it turned into into an expression
of just general rebelliousness.
General rebelliousness and, like,
what it used to be known for are two very different scopes.
And, in terms of the pressure,
the new group is just a little bit smaller.
Nowadays, people have found different ways to let off steam,
like playing your Enscape or Call of Duty
and yelling into a microphone
that you can't hear in-between, you know,
search and destroy,
but Bōsōzoku isn't a car type,
it's a lifestyle.
And it's a way of expression for the most part.
This is where the confusion often comes from
when individuals reference different sorts
of Japanese car types like Kaido racers or Kyusha bikes
or Bōsōzoku, when that's not inherently the case.
Someone who owns one of those could be Bōsōzoku
but a Kaido racer isn't necessarily Bōsōzoku.
Is, is water wet?
That's a great question for another time
that's not with me.
Think of Bōsōzokua a lifestyle or umbrella,
where other subcultures gained certain influence
from their respective interests
but it was, it was a little confusing.
And there's lots to unpack here
that goes past just the insane car modifications.
What really goes into this entire thing is the heritage,
the expression, the sheer story
of why it came to be is something that can't be described
in a couple two, three beers,
and maybe 67 minutes on a YouTube video, okay.
This is why we're done talking about the history
of the Bōsōzoku.
You want some of that?
Let us know, I really do enjoy this
because this is,
there's a lot of history in the story
and I really do feel
like it deserves a little bit more information.
No!
We are here to talk
about you wanting to own a Bōsōzoku styled car, okay.
So, you want a Bōsōzoku.
Okay, well, set down your welder
and grab your favorite bondo
because we're about to talk
about what it's like to actually own one
of these literal representations
of what we know from one of the cars,
three replica cars.
If you're looking to go into Bōsōzoku straight up
you're likely going to be looking for a motorcycle,
not a car.
The style crossed over, sure,
but most of the heritage is within taking, like,
a 400cc motorcycle strapping you a big old Hugo exhaust
with inward handlebars and some crazy load horns
and some loud paint scheme
to pretty much have everyone look at you.
Bōsōzoku is also commonly associated
with that style of modification.
Oh, and don't forget the fall, the tall seat
and the big-ass flag that they'll hang from the back.
And don't forget the fact
that you can also get the jumper
that they have a very fancy name for it
but that's actually a very expensive piece
of the apparel culture to be a part of the Bōsōzoku.
You don't need to do that.
When most people think Bōsōzoku
think of one of the following.
Okay, and special shout-out
to all the fantastic work that's being done online
for the record-keeping for this incredible car culture.
I wanted to give a massive shout-out
to the people that have actually looked at this
like Top Gear, Heinfleur EDU,
iTroll's, special thank you.
I hope this history absolutely never dies.
This is such a cool story.
There's lots that go into building a car
that would be aligned with this crazy, eccentric,
and often rebellious characteristics of the Bōsōzoku.
So, let's get started
'cause there's certain, almost groups, of people
that have a tendency to assume
that this type of car is Bōsōzoku.
You have the Kyusha,
just a nice stance car,
maybe wheels, fender flares,
predominantly an old classic Japanese cars.
There's no age limit here,
but older is the better.
And you're going to see a lot of older style wheels
on these cars, especially from SSR and Key and Bolt.
Like, original skyline is what we're talking about
when we say "old Japanese car" versus,
like, a newer Celsior, okay.
Cars that are Kyusha generally go
with a slight stretch setup,
usually down to like a 2.1535
smaller work wheels,
like we said before,
and you just got to keep it simple.
This is just a great looking car as a whole.
Then you have the Shakotan, meaning "low car",
but it's a more extreme version
of what we just described before, above.
It's a little bit more of a racer boy car.
You're going to start to see
where these things start to get tilt-y headlights,
oil coolers on the outside
that may or may not work.
Big old fenders, okay.
Lowered, loud stickers everywhere.
And now we're talking.
It starts to get a little bit more aggressive.
Fully fit as a Shakotan,
here, here it is.
Then you have a Yanky.
If Shakotan is a Jack, Yanky is a Queen.
Even more wide fenders,
fenders strapped on the front of the Sedan doors
to prevent them from even being used on the back anymore
and having super deep wide wheels and crazy colors.
This is where things just to start to get bigger
and wider and crazier and more centric.
And sometimes even less useful,
especially with the four-door thing.
Finally, the one most would know with Bōsōzoku
would be the Grachan, A's.
I'm doing this right.
The reason why is because most people associate Bōsōzoku
from local motor sports and the Grachan look found its roots
in the Group 5 Super Silhouette Class
where aerodynamics played a huge role
in the body styling and build.
That's why things are centric and crazy and wide.
And that's where a lot of the car builds
from Bōsōzoku started to get their looks from.
Examples are taken from the classics
like the Ferrari 312 PB,
the Lancia Montecarlo and the...
(record scratching)
- Lancia Monte, Lancia Monte, Lancia Monte...
Carlo
and the Toyota Celica,
actually, the racing spec version.
And if you're looking to build any of these types of cars
there's a few things that you'll want to know,
especially as we go into any of the kinds
that we described above,
especially the Grachan.
It's a (bleep) blast, okay.
First, and foremost,
these cars are predominantly meant for expression alone,
which means you make you,
you get to make your cars weird as you want
and you really don't need to make it fast.
You just need to make it truly, truly, truly yours.
And because styling is intended to be counter culture,
the odder the build and the more excessive,
in my humble opinion,
the better it looks.
It's all about being rebellious.
It's all about giving a proverbial middle finger
to anybody that looks at the car
and would think that they don't like it.
Your job is to say, "I really hope you don't,"
and it's a lot, okay.
The massive tailpipe, huge fenders, tiny wheels
and purposely aggressive,
and look-at-me styling,
generally speaking, isn't for everyone.
You can go with something more modest
like just a typical stance Japanese old school car,
but Bōsōzoku is currently more associated
with the extreme side of the pillar.
It's away over here
and we started looking at what people associate
that terminology with.
And you'll find a lot of people that love JDM
they could be the biggest JDM fans in the world
but not this JDM
because it's too different from the normal JDM stuff.
You can't make super cool edits, apparently,
with, with this car, but you can with S-13's and S-14's.
So, we're just gonna make those things cool,
instead of like super cool old school stuff.
Bōsōzoku styling has known for founding its heritage
from the expressiveness
of the motorcycles post-World War II vets
that they had built from the ground up.
And they did it as a way to express themselves
and rebel against the new-age conservatism.
There's a big thing that was going on
in the world at that time.
And its expression is more than a car or even a bike.
It was a statement from a world that was at war.
And as we look back
to how individuals found escape through that world
and all the turmoil that it provided almost everyone
they turned to what they had available to them.
And that's why it started with what it did.
And now, even with the Bōsōzoku
all but extinct in the 21st century
their expressionism laid the foundation
for people like you and people like me
to use as inspiration for our builds
and, in a way, to express ourselves in our own way.
A lot of what happened in the '50s and '60s is a lot
of what we now know as Normal Modification Behavior
in the scene.
So, regardless if it's a Kaido racer, a Kyusha, or Shakotan,
or any other version of a Japanese modified car
could be potentially associated
with the terminology or the lifestyle of the Bōsōzoku
but it means more than that.
It means more than just the wide fenders.
It's why it was built that makes it carry that title.
And it's why the person decided to do that to it
and what their story is
as to what makes it a Bōsōzoku car.
But what do you think it is?
It's a trend that's worth respecting
or should it just stay back there,
like, there in the past,
or, you know, maybe something in-between?
Let us know below
and, of course, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires or suspension,
be sure to hit us up over @fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries and we will see you later.
Peace.