- Before we go any further into the Liberty Walk story,
go ahead and hit that Like button,
it really helps us out in the algorithm.
Disrespectful to classic cars.
Sacrilege.
Piece of (bleep), (bleep) fart,
(indistinct) looks like he took out of a piece of (bleep)
and put it all up (indistinct) butt.
If you've heard of Liberty Walk,
chances are that you've got an opinion on them.
But there's a lot more to Liberty Walk
than wild body kits, over fenders,
and stoking internet flame wars.
Who is the madman
who came up with these designs and body kits?
How did he change custom car culture in Japan
and the world at large?
Well guess what?
Today we're gonna find out and we made a video about it.
This is everything you need to know to get up to speed
on Liberty Walk.
(8-bit music)
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- Liberty Walk makes some of the most insane body kits
the world never asked for.
Now whether you like them or not,
you have to admit
they've made a huge impression on car culture
thanks to their passion for innovation
and commitment to quality.
Plus they cut up some insanely expensive exotic cars,
which takes a lot of guts to even attempt you gotta admit.
The founder of Liberty Walk is Kato Wataru.
Kato san was born in 1967
on the outskirts of Japan's third largest city, Nagoya.
Now Nagoya is often called the Detroit of Japan
because people love building cars there.
And Japanese Eminem is from there.
♪ Aye, I'm a destroyer from Nagoya ♪
♪ Driving through your Shinoya ♪
- As a teen in the 80s,
Kato san grew obsessed with the idea
of taking a regular car
and turning it into something special,
something aesthetically dangerous.
Like adding a harmonica to a rock band
"Blues Traveler" style.
The hook will bring you back. (mimics harmonica)
Now this is most likely because of
all the influence of the bad boys of Japanese car culture.
Course I'm talking about the bosozoku,
the bosozoku, the bosozoku.
I've talked about these guys before
in our Rocket Bunny episode.
Back when I hosted "Bumper to Bumper" we did a video on 'em.
I'll put the link to both of those
in the description below.
If you like this video and you're like
"I wanna watch more Donut,"
you can click on those.
They're be right there. They're really good.
Now the word "boso" translates to crazy or loud.
And "zoku" means group.
Put 'em together and you got some crazy loud guys.
I can't identify with that at all!
These specific crazy loud guys
were former World War II pilots
who started modifying cars and motorcycles
to reflect their personalities.
Now they wanted their vehicles to be impossible to ignore.
And they succeeded, okay.
These cars have elongated fenders,
wide squared off arches, and transplanted headlights.
But the vibrant paintwork and 12 foot long exhaust pipes
made these cars a little divisive.
Some people loved 'em,
and others, the police included,
branded them as a menace to society.
Now let's not forget,
this all takes place in Japan,
a country where the dominant culture
tends to be more modest like a mouse
and respectful of tradition than some other places.
So the bosozoku were living out loud
and freaking out the squares, man.
Just like your aunt when she finalized her divorce.
She's got all new underwear and she's wearing a toe ring!
Eat your heart out, former Uncle Chris!
In the 1980s
the rest of the world didn't give a hoot
what a bunch of crazy loud guys in Japan were doing,
but that was all about to change.
In the 1990s the culture of car modification in Japan
would gain global exposure for the first time.
And Kato saw this an an opportunity.
In 1993 Kato realized
how he could make his own stamp on car culture.
At the tender age of 26
he took a major leap and founded his own company.
A company where he could capitalize
on the global explosion of interest in everything Japanese.
A company where he could bring his own creative take
on the bosozoku style to the world.
A company that would go on to become
one of the most respected
and controversial modification companies in history.
That company was Liberty Walk.
Now the name Liberty Walk,
a name Kato san picked to represent
the freedom a customer has to customize their car
in anyway that they'd want.
Now this was totally in line
with Liberty Walk's foundational principles.
Kato san original formed the company
to change the perception of car workshops
and to spread positive energy
by bringing a smile to the faces of its customers.
I love that.
Plus, the obsessed renegade wanted to brand himself
as a radical and unique builder.
And to do that,
Kato san started selling body kits for cute little K cars.
Now we know what K cars are,
they're a lovable little Pixar characters,
are Japan's everyday economy cars
and are a perfect example
of the Japanese culture of restraint and function over form.
We're talking beauties like the Suzuki Wagon R,
the Daihatsu move, and the Subaru Rex.
Now Kato san's idea to sell body kits for K cars was radical
and really put Liberty Walk on the map.
Business was booming!
Today K cars are often modified
and personalized by their owners,
but not back in the 90s.
No sir.
Liberty Walk was at the forefront of the movement
to personalize them.
He crafted some of the most interesting
and radical parts and kits, and spoiler alert,
he still does it to this day.
He's probably out there doing it right now.
I don't know. What time is it in Japan?
He's either sleeping or he's doing it, okay.
For example, you can buy a body kit for a Daihatsu Copen
and turn it from this into this.
Now around 1996
Kato san started importing American cars and super cars
from companies like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Hummer.
Because what does a Hummer need to be?
Wider. I agree.
Not nearly wide enough.
Now this was another radical departure
from the average Japanese car shop.
And for a while
Kato san made a decent living
through his modified K car parts and kits
as well as selling American sedans
to rich Japanese business men.
But something was missing.
Ever the renegade,
Kato san become focused on Liberty Walk's future.
He thought about his influences
and his love for 80s and 90s Japanese tuner culture
and the bosozoku, the bosozoku.
The inspiration he got from vibrant colors, radical lines,
and the unique one of one adjustments
that turned a car from a collection of parts
into a rolling work of art.
He thought about the reason
he loved to modify cars in the first place.
The smiles,
the smiles that he saw on his customers' faces.
And then Kato san realized
what his next iconoclastic step would be.
It was time to start modifying exotic cars.
This was in the 2000s.
Modifying performance cars
was gonna (honk) a bunch of people's absolute (honk)
the (honk) up.
Now one of the first cars Kato san modified in this style
is the reason why the purists formed such a,
let's say strong, let's stick with strong opinion of him.
Now there's no easy way to say this,
but the first car he modified
was sort of a car that you don't modify.
They don't like it when you do it.
And I'm just gonna rip the bandaid off here and,
it was a Ferrari.
He cut up a Ferrari, sorry Enzo.
And to make it hurt a little more
for you traditionalists out there,
it wasn't just any Ferrari.
No, it was a Ferrari F40.
This was the last car
that Enzo Ferrari signed off on personally.
For a ton of people,
the Ferrari F40 is the reason that they are into cars.
The F40 is not a car
that's you're supposed to (honk) with, okay.
Ferrari F40 ain't nothing to (honk) with.
That would be like taking an angle grinder
to the Statue of Liberty and carving a pair of jorts.
You just don't do it.
And yet Kato san did it.
And you know what, it looked amazing.
Now even though this early super car modification
doesn't exactly show the full Liberty Walk style,
the F40 showed purposeful mods and artistic restraint.
Kato san redesigned the rear fender
to include two giant, yet functional, Venturi tunnels.
The front lip spoiler was elongated.
He added fixed headlights
and a manually adjustable for added downforce.
Despite the respect he showed the Ferrari
as well as the functionality of the mods,
people hated it.
The F40 along with Kato san's similarly modified F50,
yeah, blew up the car forums and Reddit.
This was a pre-Kardashian breaking of the internet.
Some people, myself included,
think it was a mark of fearless genius
to take a car that people are obsessed with and change it.
Other people,
and by other people
I mean spaghetti slurping stallion stans,
thought it was a sin,
the absolute worse thing you could do.
Aside from overcooking your pasta.
But Kato san didn't do it for them.
He did it for himself, to make himself happy.
And as long as he was happy there were no problems.
But if he wasn't happy, then we got problems.
Another massive moment in Liberty Walk's story was in 2008
when a buddy of Kato san called him up.
He goes "Kato son, I'm over my Diablo,
"but the new Lambo lineup is basic as hell, man.
"And the Murcielago's way too tame looking.
"Can you help me?"
And Kato san was like "Hell yeah, brother,
"I can help you, bro.
"We'll ship a Murcielago straight to Japan
"so I can blow people's minds off.
I'm paraphrasing.
I'm not sure they had those accents,
but that's basically what went down.
Now Kato san cut into the Murcielago's fenders
and completely redesigned the car,
drawing on design elements from classic Lamborghine Machines
as well as his own bosozoku influenced Japanese style.
And what Liberty Walk ended up with was this,
the first but definitely not the last Lamborghini
modified by Liberty Walk.
In 2009 Liberty Walk brought the car to Las Vegas for SEMA.
It was the company's first time
exhibiting at the world famous car modification show
and was also the first
real worldwide exposure Liberty Walk got
for it's high end modification work.
And even though Liberty Walk fits in at SEMA these days,
they were definitely the black sheep
at the car show in 2009.
To put that into context,
this was about four years before Rocket Bunny went to SEMA.
It's one year before RWB.
So as you can probably guess,
people had opinions.
Yes, the radical redesign of the Lambo
blew up the internet again.
But after all that exposure,
no new orders came into the company.
Kato san became concerned that his modifications
were unacceptable to the car community.
He'd only ever gone with his gut,
never listened to the crowd,
and instead focused on how a car made him feel.
Maybe he had been wrong
to make such drastic changes to super cars.
No he wasn't!
Like with all good things it just takes time
for people to catch up to a visionary idea.
How long did it take for people to like Rocket Bunny?
Van Gogh died before he earned a single Dutch money.
Operation Ivy broke up the day that their album came out.
But Kato san's treatment of the modern super cars
was met with far more praise.
Probably because he wanted to use through F40 and F50
to shock people out of their comfort zones,
or maybe the stylings of super cars in the 2010s
were just kind of tame.
This new crop of super cars didn't look as aggressive
or exciting as past iterations,
which is where Liberty Walk's body kits and mods came in.
Suddenly these super cars were unexpected
and stoke inducing again.
A Lamborghini Gallardo modified by Liberty Walk
didn't look like an Audi R8 with a different body kit.
Looked like a fricking Liberty Walk Lamborghini.
At SEMA 2013, Liberty Walk exhibited two cars,
a Nissan GTR and a Ferrari 458 Italia.
The internet kind of predictably at this point
went absolute BAPE, shouts to Pharrell.
Liberty Walk was the talk of the town.
Everyone wanted to see these cars with their own two eyes.
Everyone wanted a photo.
They wanted to straight up
make these cars their girlfriends.
Liberty Walk was officially the hottest ticket on the scene.
And the orders, they started rolling in.
Since then, Liberty Walk has only grown in popularity.
The company was inundated with so many worldwide orders
for their Lamborghine Machine body kits
as well as fully customized cars
that they had to acquire additional workshops.
Now that's not bad
for a company that started in a single garage
that could only accommodate three cars at a time.
Liberty Walk was so busy
that Kato san set up sister companies
to handle their customers' every wild whim.
LB Performance handles customers
who wanna add a few flares and extra details
in the form of removable body kits, suspension,
and wheel upgrades, all right.
These cars can be put back to stock
if you ever wanna sell it.
LB Works is for people who want a Kato san original.
Your car gets shipped to Japan
and is modified in the shop by hand.
But no takesees backsees.
They're gonna cut that (honk) open.
Then we have Liberty Works GT.
Box fendered race cars. Enough said.
Finally, Kato san stays true to his roots with LB Nation
which makes parts exclusively for domestic Japanese cars,
including K cars.
For the workers at Liberty Walk,
the motto on the shop floor
is "no boundaries, no limitations".
And trust me, they live up to that motto.
And to prove it to you,
let's look at some (honk) cars already, all right.
One of the cars that launched Liberty Walk
into the stratosphere is the R35 GTR.
It's one of their most customized with three different kits,
each offers a different blend of performance versus looks.
Same goes for the Ferrari 458.
Kato san and his team took
this sleek Italian aerodynamic beauty
and crafted it into an absolutely mean wine chugging horse.
Liberty Walk has also modified the Ferrari 488,
the McLaren 650S street car,
and even a Lamborghini Miura,
which is a replica of a Miura
but still looked fricking so, so sick.
The replica stands just 32 and a half inches from the ground
with Kato son's typical stance
and unfussy redesigned front and rear fenders.
Again, this gorgeous work of art is just a replica
so please chill out.
Don't comment.
Just kidding.
Definitely comment.
It helps us with the algorithm.
All hail the algorithm.
Now in the crowded room that is super car modifiers,
Kato san is a man who stands alone.
Liberty Walk is more than just a shock shop.
The artists at Liberty Walk clearly love cars
and take massive aesthetic risks
while also considering the flow
of the car's original bodywork.
It's not about just bolting on a pair of fenders, all right.
The sign that hangs in the Liberty Walk showroom
may do the best job
of summing up their eccentric founder's ethos.
"As long as it's a car, we can do it.
"And above all, let's be happy together."
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