I’ve always found the relationship between Japan’s automotive scene and the one in North America is pretty interesting. We copy them, they copy us, they copy us copying them, we copy them copying us copying them.
It’s like a never ending feedback loop that more often than not leads to a lot of cool cars.
Their influence on our import scene, and as such our influence on theirs in the form of ‘USDM’ styling is often covered extensively on other blogs but what I find even more interesting than Japan’s take on contemporary Japanese vehicles is their take on American and European builds.
They do such a great job that often –license plate aside– I have a hard time convincing myself it’s actually photos of Japanese builds I’m seeing.
My favourite place to catch up on American and Euro builds from Japan is Local-Hereo.jp, I can’t read much of anything (Google translate makes a mess of things) but love the content.
Today’s Theme Tuesday includes some of my favourites from that site.
Euro
This is almost a Beetle version of Blair’s 57I’d love a closer look at the paint on this Ghia but sadly I didn’t find a closer shotAwesome kind of mash up of themes here, would have fit in well with the Surf Wagon Theme Tuesday tooSo much awesome paintwork coming from Japan
Traditional Hot Rods
Incredible 5 windowThis looks like something I’d spot over on the H.A.M.BLooks to be at a swap meet, for America Cars, In Japan. AwesomeHip heightNot really related to this but SpeedHunters did a feature on a 28 Ford from Japan that is worth a read
Trucks
OG styled DatsunAired out OVER the parking block, never seen that one beforeReally I could see this go either way, I would love to see it painted but raw would also work greatIncredible
Kustoms
I’m told big vehicles are hard to drive in Japan which makes me wonder how often these get driven, I hope the answer is as much as possibleGreat looking 51(?) Chevy on fat whitesOutstandingIf I ever go to Japan I am seeking out an event like this
Lowriders/Los Boulevardos
This car has an equally awesome front endIf you dig this post check out Strongers kar klub on facebook as wellStreet Hop minus Royce 5’9Perhaps one of the cleanest El Caminos I’ve ever seenAs ‘wrong’ as it is I always seem to like Camaro LowridersThey do bombs tooMore custom grill work and incredible paint
Be sure to check out Local-Hero.jp for more and if anyone reading this is from Japan and could cover an event where these cars are present shoot me an email!
I’m loving this theme. top notch builds, all of them.
Awesome post Dave, more of this please 🙂
Thanks Valek! Another Theme I wasn’t sure how it would go lol.