- Here in America, I think it's fair to say
that we take a lot, and I mean a lot,
of inspiration for certain things
from other parts of the world, and believe it or not,
other places tend to take some inspiration from us as well,
but even more so when it comes down
to different types of automotive styling,
and more specifically, car cultures.
What is goin' on, everyone?
I hope you are doin' well.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries,
and today we're gonna be taking a look
at some different car cultures from around the world,
and different automotive styling
that may or may not have made an impact on the car scene
that we see here today in the United States.
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Now before we go ahead and just jump right into
this doozy of an episode,
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Let's start off somewhere a little local,
a little place called Los Angeles, California.
What started in the late '40s and early '50s
by literally topping springs and shaving frames
eventually ended up evolving into what we know today
as the lowriders.
Near the end of the 1950s,
the introduction of hydraulic suspension
was able to get around the newly enforced
California vehicle code at the time,
which made it illegal to operate any modified car
that had a body part lower than the bottoms of the wheels.
By using hydraulic suspension,
cars were able to change their ride height
with just the flip of a switch.
Sounds pretty familiar.
This practically saved the lowrider scene
and allowed it to thrive throughout the '60s and the '70s.
GM chassis were some of the most popular choice as a go-to
as their extreme chassis were quickly adapted
and refined to accept the hydraulic suspension.
Whittier Boulevard was essentially the location
for the entire lowrider scene throughout the '70s,
and still to this day holds a lot of that to itself.
And even though lowriders have evolved
and spread to other parts of not only the country,
but the world, a lot of the lowrider scene
still holds true to what it originally was.
Low and slow was the name of the game.
Big cars with loud paint jobs,
and airbrushing that is an art form basically of itself.
Daytons, and some of the wildest interiors,
and just impeccable attention to detail.
These cars were a massive extension
of the owner's personality,
and can be expressed throughout the entirety
of the whole car.
There are still a ton of people who build
and love lowriders, and some of the cars that we see
show up every now and then are just out of this world.
Did I mention the trend expanding outside of the U.S.?
And that is true.
Believe it or not, Japan picked it up,
as there were a lot of people in Japan
who became quite interested in the whole thing.
People started importing the cars to Japan.
There was an entire magazine released in the '80s,
Lowrider Japan, and they just,
the people just loved the cars.
Paradise Road, if you want an amazing story
of one of the biggest influences
of the lowrider scene in Japan,
I highly recommend checking out the backstory
of that place, it's incredible.
When you think of hot rods,
you probably automatically think
back to America in the 1950s and early 1960s,
and while yes, that is true,
and it is a huge part of Americana history,
there is another group of people
that really took this culture
and styling of the '50s and '60s,
and even more importantly, the cars,
found mostly in parts of Sweden and Norway,
there's a little subculture named, and I'm gonna butcher it,
Raggare, Raggare, I'm sorry.
And what it loosely translated to,
it comes out something along the lines
of like greaser, or rocker.
It kind of takes trends of like the word for driving around.
It's a little bit of everything.
But they are all about big American cars,
specifically the Pontiac Bonneville
usually being one of the go-tos,
but really anything with a big chassis
and a big V8 will do.
The rise of this culture has brought a ton of American cars
over to these countries, and some say
that this has led to more restored 1950s American cars
in Sweden alone than the entire United States,
which is pretty crazy to think about.
Some people tend to stray away from the normal platforms
and will pick up something from the same era,
the '50s and '60s, but go with something more local,
typically something European or something of the sort.
So they share a lot of similarities
with what is also known as custom culture,
and oftentimes, they are used in reference to one another.
Power Big Meet is the largest classical car show
held in Lidkoping, Sweden,
and is for American cars only.
It began in 1978, and is held every year
during the first weekend of July.
Typically, anywhere between 55 and 75,000 people attend,
but has seen upwards of 22,000 cars and 200,000 people,
making it one of the biggest
American car meets in the world,
which I think is pretty damn cool.
Now, if there's one country that not only the United States,
but every other part of the world
have taken massive amounts of influence from
when it comes to modifying vehicles,
and that would be Japan.
Now, we could literally start an entire series
diving into each car subculture that Japan has to offer,
but for the sake of this video,
we'll do just like a high-level overview
of some of the more popular ones.
Kyusha, or classic style is by far
one of the most subtle groups outta the bunch.
Typically when we think of some of the trends
and stylings that we pick up from Japan,
it's something very loud and very crazy,
but there are still enthusiasts who enjoy
the more simpler things:
light modifications and keeping the cars classic.
In other terms, simple and clean.
There are other classic car cultures in Japan as well,
and they all seem to start to overlap at some point,
and they each have their own differences,
but mostly, they fall under that same Kyusha style
or classic style, and people know what you're referring to
when you say that.
However, on the complete,
and I mean complete opposite side of that,
we have one that you probably all know about,
which is Bosozoku.
These cars are not hard to miss,
'cause they're typically accompanied
by massive fender flares,
a front chin spoiler so big that you could sit down
with a couple of friends and have a beer with,
a crazy exhaust, and a massive wing.
Bosozoku traces its roots back
to the early Japanese biker gangs of the 1950s,
otherwise known or translated as violent speed gangs,
these guys were the rebellious bunch.
They didn't want to conform
to whatever was happening with society.
They wanted to ride their bikes
and raise as much hell as possible,
and they modded the (beep) out of these bikes,
and even though when most people hear Bosozoku,
they always think of the crazy cars right away.
Not a lot of people know that
that all stemmed from motorcycles,
and really only recently, I guess you could say,
within the last how many years,
things started to come from that
over to the car world.
They took the same inspiration and design cues
from the motorcycles and used that
to modify these cars, but it's not all about
just the fender flares, or the pointy front ends.
It's about being loud, being unique.
Doing things outside of the norm.
Nothing is really off limits.
When people think of Bosozoku,
they usually get fixated on the most extreme styles,
but there are several different styles,
again, of Bosozoku cars.
From the '70s and '80s,
Japanese sedans and coupes, vans,
to like modern vehicles, to even supercars,
Bosozoku culture expands a wide variety
of different Japanese cultures.
Dajiban is another one that you may
or may not have heard of,
as it has gotten a little more popular.
For some reason, '90s Dodge Vans is a thing,
and honestly, it's pretty (beep) cool,
and they race these things.
Typically, they pack like a 5.2 liter Magnum V8
in these things, and slam 'em to the ground,
throw 'em on some Watanabes or something similar,
and then all of like the interior race car amenities.
Dajiban is a smaller scene, but it is one
that is worth noting, as it has such a unique niche
that gets a lot of attention,
probably because it's just like (beep) '90s Dodge vans,
and it's kinda badass.
And then the last part of the extensive Japanese car culture
that we're gonna be talking about today
is one we have seen quite a bit of inspiration by,
especially here in the United States,
and that is Onikyan, otherwise known as demon camber.
As the name would suggest, these are the cars
that are running the insane amount of negative camber
with a wide wheel setup, here what we would regularly
refer to as stance, or VIP,
or a mixture of VIP and bippu style, or whatever it might be
mostly stems from this style,
and honestly, it is probably one of
the most controversial trends
that has taken over the car scene
within the last 10 years or so.
And the reason behind that is because that's basically
what it is meant to do.
There really is no functionality purpose to it
other than to turn heads, and to give a good shock factor.
This style has spread through a ton of different cars
and has had other twists thrown at it,
but at the end of the day,
it's all about the camber, and all about the fit.
There are truly a ton of different car cultures
and car trends out there from around the world
that we could literally sit here and talk about it all day.
There's just that many,
some that take inspiration from one another,
and others that are just completely out on their own,
doin' their own thing,
and they're all very interesting in their own way,
so drop a comment down below in the comments section.
Which style is your favorite outta the bunch,
or which one just honestly really confuses you?
That is gonna wrap it up for today.
Don't forget to subscribe, and if you're looking for wheels,
tires, or suspension for maybe your demon camber build,
or Bosozoku, or hot rod, or somethin' like that,
check out fitmentindustries.com.
I'm Gels, we'll see you later, peace.
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