- You've never seen "Emperor's New Groove"?
(plate thuds)
Are you joking?
Eric, have you ever seen "Emperor's New Groove"?
- [Eric] Yeah, I have.
- Yeah, I (beeps) hope so.
Trey, have you ever seen Emperor's New Groove?
Thank you, Colin?
- [Colin] Yeah, I have.
Isn't that where the emperor turns into the llama?
- Yes, it's a llama animation.
- [Eric] That's a classic.
- It's a classic!
I can't believe this.
What is the 180 mile per hour tickets,
bespoke tuning modifications,
and a V12 out of a Toyota Century all have in common?
First stops, it's a very wide range of things
to even remotely tied together, okay?
Probably the fact that they laid the foundation
for one of the best stories to ever be shared
and come out of the Japanese scene outside of,
dare I say it, "Attack on Titan".
- What are those neanderthals up to?
Don't they know I'm busy spoiling myself?
(door opens) (Squidward screams)
- Okay, my head is still stuck on it, I can't get over it.
It's just going to be a thing
for at least a couple, two, three more weeks, okay?
And that's okay.
There's yelling, there's music,
and I just can't get over the fact that it's just
really enjoyable show to watch
that has a lot of, you know, death.
Unlike that depressing story though,
the story of smokey burnouts, excessive modifications
and crazy Japanese tuning is something that did happen,
and it's going to continue happening.
And it was one of the major cannons
of the Japanese automotive history
that all of us should know.
People like you and people like me need
to understand what happened
because it's a really cool story.
Not like everything, but you know,
more so like the SparkNotes version.
If you don't use SparkNotes in college,
go type in sparknotes.com, you'll thank me later.
I'm Alex, Alex.FI on Instagram,
and today we're going to be taking a look back
on the history, one might even say history of,
and or truth about, Top Secret and Smokey Nagata.
(upbeat trap instrumental)
Welcome to "Fitment Industries".
I talk fast, Dakota talks and cursive,
and Sean B has a beautiful head of hair
that competes with our very own gels.
It's very interesting to see how Sean Berger manages
to have his hair like that, but we all try our best.
We started this because we have a honking-sized gallery
where you can enter in your year, make and model
to find what vehicle fits...
Wait a minute.
What wheels fit your car?
When it comes to wheels, tires and suspension.
Maybe some special like performance parts of sound
by the end of the year, too.
So if you're looking for that sort of stuff,
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com
where we literally have everything
you're a little hard could possibly imagine, plus financing,
if that's something that you're interested in as well.
The history of Top Secret is actually pretty top secret.
No joke.
It's started by Kazuhiko Nagata,
and I am really bad at this, okay?
Kazuhiko Nagata.
Nailed it!
All right, Nagata was a boy that grew up
in the Hokkaido province of Japan on his parents' farm
where there was no stu stu stu,
there was no rap rap, rap.
Okay, there was only whatever boring noises you'd find
living on a barn in the Hokkaido province
would actually give you.
(woman speaking foreign language)
- He'd help his parents transport stuff
with the family truck every chance he could get
because he absolutely loved driving.
Once he was able to drive, he was absolutely hooked.
He'd end up buying a motorcycle to continue
that passion all the way up until he actually picked up
a go-cart to continue his passion for speed.
Now there wasn't a whole lot of go-kart tracks
in the Hokkaido province, so he ended up just driving it
on the street whenever you want it like Mario kart.
It's pretty exciting stuff.
Once old enough though, Nagata would begin working
as a mechanic at the local Toyota dealership
until I'm he made the jump to move to Tokyo
to fuel his automotive hobby of building some
Tapatio spicy style cars, okay.
After becoming the shop assistant
at a tuning company known as Trust,
Nagata would find in his off hours
either before opening and closing,
working on his own side project parts
and components for his build
because he had learned how to build them
from other people at Trust.
It was something that he was really excited to do
but Trust had their trust broken
by his top secret activity that was happening.
But instead of reprimanding Nagata for breaking their trust,
they agreed to allow it to continue
as long as it was kept top secret
and without hindrance of Trust's business model,
thereby repairing the trust and establishing.
Nagata future business name of Top Secret.
You all know how hard it was to put that thing together?
Did you follow that?
That's where the name comes from.
That's where he got the name for his business
and Trust actually allowed them to start that.
But people like Isami Amima,
and Misamitsu Hayakawa
were influences to Nagata, okay?
He didn't want to steal from them.
He don't want to steal from their businesses.
He wanted to be like them.
He found them as icons and that's what he wanted to do.
The Top Secret story essentially now begins.
Nagata would start his first built
with a Toyota Soarer with the 7 MGTE engine
that he ended up getting into the 12s
with his own modifications.
My first project car couldn't stay cooled
on a 60 to degree day.
So there's that, the guy had a real good craft
and then Smokey Nagata would kickstart
the Top Secret shop off of the Soarer
and continue to dabble and invest his time
in the tuner cars that were available
around him at the time
and this is when the market was really blowing up,
specifically focusing on parts,
tuner parts like the RX 7s, the JZ platforms,
and of course the Nissan Skyline.
The opportunity was in that little computer,
in the ECU that they're putting in these cars,
was absolutely massive
and Nagata figured out how to make it work.
Taking the car to the next level was something
that lots of shops were doing.
But Top Secret did things just a little bit differently.
They built them to handle consistent,
ridiculously high speeds and dynamic driving.
It wasn't just a drag car,
it was essentially a midnight race car.
The Yatabi's oval proving ground would be one
of the first places to be graced
with the top secret prototype cars
that were built like absolute train.
Then Tokyo Bay would follow where you'd start
to hear the fluttering of RBs all across the night
because they were running them around the entire city.
The name will become locally, just known
and Nagata would with built high horsepower cars
with extremely comprehensive suspension,
tire and chassis components, integrating body kits
and spoilers to truly keep the car planted
on the ground as a very function, heavy focus
and as Top Secret perfected various builds
and truly became the trophy car for the shop,
they would end up painting it in gold,
as seen as some of their most famous builds.
And that's essentially to recognize the car is
a key achievement to both Nagata and Top Secret,
and only a few of their cars
have ever been painted in that gold scheme.
Top Secret would hit world news though
after not so secret golden RB swapped
Toyota Supra would be imported into England
for a Max Power line show,
which requested Nagata's presence at the time.
In short, Nagata, albeit, a quiet looking man
that loves the smoke, is actually quite the extrovert
when it comes to driving.
So much so that he really just wanted to set a record
of speed on a street road of 200 miles an hour.
"Option" a Japanese magazine that flew out
with him to film this record...
or came with him, it was like a group posse.
The Supra would be hated on by 14 year olds
on Tiktok right now, but it would be cemented
as an iconic moment with a shaky VHS recording
of wild burnouts prior to running down the beltway 4:00 AM
in England pressing 197 miles per hour
before being flagged down by police at 186 miles an hour,
on a street road
He ran an RB swapped Supra at 197 miles an hour
at 4:00 AM on a street road.
Like what?
He may or may not have spent the night in prison,
and even though he was doing nearly 200 miles an hour
in this car that would probably make most people cry.
He ended up getting out of it with a $255 ticket
and a 28 day suspension on his license in the country.
Like what the hell was that?
I got a $600 ticket for window tint
and going seven above when I was 17 years old.
Ed WiffelHoffer's a terrible cop.
The video recording of him committing the act
couldn't actually be used due to region lock
which likely saved him and got him this tiny ticket.
But after that the news hit international
automotive networks and blew up the name of Top Secret
and ultimately Smokey Nagata.
Most stories would slow down after a feat like this
or end in a blazing ball of fury where they couldn't keep up
with the digital age of the early 2000s,
but that's not really the case with Top Secret,
and that's what makes this story so very interesting.
Top Secret would go on to create some ridiculous cars,
like a Supra that had a 5 liter V12 from a Toyota Century.
Then they took some HKS GT 2540 turbos
and strapped two of them on there
with a body kit to reduce any sort of air resistance
and add some cooling into the rear boot
to give it 900 horsepower out of the platform.
The car of doing 229 miles per hour on the Aqua-Line Tunnel.
How?!
They've R35 swapped an R32,
they've taken R33 and thrown them to the sky
with power, performance, and style.
And that's what makes Top Secrets
such an interesting tuning shop.
Take a look at their cars,
and you'll see that while style has been kind
of aggressive at times, they're likely one of the few shops
that have maintained a style, a quality and a relevance
to the scene that makes people want to know about their cars
and actually really want to own them.
A lot of Top Secret builds are really fricking good looking
and they offer parts for the R35, they built, they promote,
and boy do they smoke, okay.
Their name carries a legacy that is sparked rumors
of the midnight racers, business drama with HKS,
and more than it could probably actually be a movie
that most people would actually enjoy.
And what Smokey Nagata and his shop have done
for the scene is again lay the pillar
of a crazy performance story,
and just the history that led the introduction
of new brands entering the scene in the early 2000s.
They may sell some wheels at their shop,
but we're willing to give it to them
because we love them, all right?
But what do you think about the Top Secret
high performance engineering service?
And if you actually knew the story at all
and if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires or suspension,
be sure to hit us up over at fitmentindustries.com.
Let us know in the comments section below
if you want us to talk about another story
because these stories are fun.
I'm Alex from Fitment Industries and we will see you later.
Peace.
(chill electronic music)