Popular Bosozoku cars: Toyota Mark II X3/X4
This weeks highlight is the Toyota Mark II X3/X4. The bodystyle is very distinct and can easily be recognized between all other bosozoku cars. A good example is this really nice Shakotan style Mark II X3:
Shakotan style Toyota Mark II X3
This Shakotan styled Mark II really shows how this almost stock car can be made very beautiful by simply adding two tone paint, a set of fat stretched tires and lowering the car till the ground.
The Mark II is a very popular model because it has very American styling, like the cokebottle lines and its grille and headlights are more British. This combination is ideal for the early 80s Granchan style.
Bosozoku style Toyota Mark II X4
This Bosozoku styled example has it all: extra wide fenders, big chin spoiler, oil cooler, changed (square) headlights and a very big wing on the trunk!
Bosozoku style Toyota Mark II X3
No headlights at all? Is that road-legal in Japan? Or are the headlights hidden somewhere? Then again: those big exhausts are not road-legal either…
The first Mark II was originally meant as a Corona model between the Crown and the normal Corona, hence the Mark II tag.
Factory stock Toyota Cressida MX41
The X3 and X4 are the third generation of the Mark II (shouldn’t it be called Mark IV then? 😉 ) and was sold as the Toyota Cressida overseas.
The difference between the X3 and the facelifted X4 are minor: only the grille and foglights are a tiny bit restyled. I couldn’t find a clear factory stock X3 picture, so you have to compare it with one of the Bosozoku styled cars. 😉
Factory stock Toyota Cressida MX41
The Cressida’s and Mark II differ only in engines: the European version had the high performance 18R engine while the American version had the older 4M engine. In Japan they had a wide variety in engines: 1L, 1M, 4M, 16R, 18R, 21R, 3T, 13T.
Only the 4M and 18R are true worthy engines for this car: the 4M because it is a SOHC inline 6 and has a big displacement and gives a smooth ride. The 18R because it is a high performance DOCH inline 4 with fuel injection and creates a sporty ride.
The X3 and X4 had an A43DL 4-speed automatic optional. This automatic had an overdrive and an overdrive lockout. Nowadays this sounds not like a big deal with all those 7 and 8 speed automatics, but back then the overdrive lockout was a major improvement.
Personally I would love to own a 4 door X3/X4 myself as a daily driver and slam it to the ground shakotan style. 😉
by banpei with 3 commentsPopular Bosozoku cars: Nissan Gloria / Cedric C330
This week I wanted to highlight the Nissan Gloria / Cedric C330. 🙂
Nissan Gloria C330 Bosozoku style
The mid 70s cokebottle styled Gloria and Cedric and pilarless doors are excellent bodyshapes for a bosozoku styled car! It looks really wild in its shape, it’s got the big bad attitude of the early VIP cars and with the big flared fenders it looks even more wicked!
Nissan Gloria C330 Yanky style
These yanky styled Gloria C330s really looks a bit more like an American hotrod than a Bosozoku styled car. Only the exhaust gives away these cars. 😉
Bosozoku styled Nissan Gloria C330
The differences between the Gloria and Cedric are so minor that with a Bosozoku style makeover you can’t even tell if it is a Gloria or Cedric anymore! But this should be a Gloria
Both Cedric and Gloria were rivals of the Toyota Crown. Apart from the outragous President both vehicles were the flagships of the company.
The Gloria joined the Nissan lineup after Price merged with Nissan. From what I understood the Gloria was the upmarket car and the Cedric more or less the downsized car. In the previous generation of both vehicles this was even more clear: the Cedric featured less chrome and an hood ornament!
Just like its predecessor, the C230, the C330 features pilarless rear door, so there is no B post between the front and rear door. This to mimic late 60s and early 70s American cars even more.
Most cars feature the L26 engine but the L20 engine was also available but mainly used in the taxi variant of this car.
Almost factory stock Nissan Gloria C330
On this picture with almost factory stock Glorias you can clearly see how beautifully styled these C330s actually were! If I were to find one of these beauties in the Netherlands (they were sold here!) I doubt whether I would keep them stock or slam them to the ground Shakotan style!
Popular Bosozoku cars: Toyota Soarer
This is going to be a regular here: it would be nice to see some really mild to really wild examples of the Bosozoku style cars and then read how they came out of the factory. 😉
This week we’ll kick off with the Toyota Soarer:
Two Bosozoku styled Soarers
As you probably have read in the introduction an extremely lowered Soarer featured Shakotan Boogie. This most probably helped its popularity among Bosozoku stylers and most Toyota Soarers you see on Bosozoku car meetings are Shakotan Boogie look-a-likes.
Lengthened hood and overfenders on this Soarer
This milder styled car is of course an exception: it has a lengthened hood and overfenders as well. But apart from that it looks quite stock.
Read on for more pictures…
Someone has really gone wild on this Toyota Soarer
Big wing, deep dish wheels with huge overfenders and sideskirts wide enough to have somebody stand on!
The Z10 is the most popular Bosozoku styled Toyota Soarer, probably because of its boxy shape and because it is quite cheap to buy. Z20 Soarers are hardly seen and I’ve never seen any Bosozoku styled Z30 and Z40 Soarers, but never say never. 😉
How did it come out of the factory then?
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10
The Soarer itself was a successor to the Toyota Crown Coupe, which was a 2 door version of the Crown with a bit more sporty suspension. The Soarer itself did just as well as the Crown Coupe. The Soarer shared the same engines as the Crown and the CelicaXX.
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10
Because it shared the same engines as the CelicaXX it is often confused to be the same platform with a different bodyshape, like the Celica and the Carina have. However there is a Supra JZA70 with a Soarer Z20 frontend which makes the confusion even bigger.
Factory stock Toyota Soarer Z10 interior
To confuse it even more: a lot of the interior components of the Soarer look like the interior of the CelicaXX. True, but the CelicaXX also shared a lot of components with the Corolla AE86.
Tiptronic climate control
The Soarer was the most luxurious car in the Toyota lineup (apart from the Toyota Century of course!) and featured all the state of the art technology! In the picture above you can see the climate control of the Soarer is featuring tiptronic controls, other buttons were normal but about everything is electronically adjustable. The Soarer also featured a digital dashboard, state of the art 4 speed automatic (with sports setting!) and the passenger door had a seperate doorhandle for the passengers in the rear!
I hope you can see now why a Bosozoku styler would choose for the Soarer Z10: it is an incredible car with a lot of comfort which can’t even be found in cars from the 90s! Besides that: it is a very cool car itself.
by banpei with no comments yet