How Kamikaze Pilots Created This Absurd Car Style | Bumper 2 Bumper

- I have a question for you. (enigmatic electronic music) Have you ever thought about the fact that there were retired

kamikaze

pilots

? Guys who were conditioned to fly their planes into ships as weapons and who couldn't do that. And then the war ended and they had to return home and live their lives. Think about that for a second. How do you get back to your normal life after that? What do you do to occupy your time? They did things like

this

. A bit. But what is

this

? It's a Toyota Cressida bosozoku, and we're about to take it on!

So buckle up, Grandma, there's a bear outside and the doctor is in the kitchen with Mom! Yes, it's an

absurd

introduction and this is an

absurd

car. This is Bumper 2 Bumper. I'm James Pumphrey and Jesse is there (laughs). (invigorating rock music) Many thanks to Kove Audio for collaborating with us on this episode of Bumper 2 Bumper. This is the Kove Commuter Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker and let me tell you, this is shocking. ♪ Power baby ♪ ♪ Power baby ♪ ♪ Power ♪ Baby, all I have to do to listen to the music is connect from my phone, my computer or my tablet, and I can play music from up to 30 feet away, that's about Six meters, and with a charge that lasts up to eight hours, you can take it everywhere.

It even works as a speaker and you can place it directly in the cup holder, which I can do because now I'm free of plastic. If you follow the link below you can get this Kove Commuter for 65% off. That is the best deal we have offered on this program. Thanks again Kove, I'm really excited about this, I have two now so mahalo baby. (intense electronic music) After returning home from Doub Doub Two, the

kamikaze

pilots

had a lot of trouble adjusting back to the monotonous routine of everyday life, and they were looking for thrills, so they bought motorcycles, modified the mufflers to make them more noisy, and terrorized the streets together at night.

People called them kaminari zoku or thunder tribe. (thunder) As kamikaze pilots became too old to cause trouble, new generations of rebellious working-class teenagers picked up where they left off. They even adopted his incredible

style

, called tokkō-fuku, and their motorcycle modifications became more extreme with ridiculously high rear seats, raised handlebars, and colorful paint jobs on big bearings. They drove recklessly and blocked the streets on purpose. The guy is circling a police car. After a pair of massive group runs blocked traffic and incited riots in quiet neighborhoods, Japanese media began calling them bosozoku, which translates to tribe of violent runners.

True to the name, many bosozoku members had fierce disagreements with their rivals, carried weapons, and ended up in the yakuza. Like Nolan, if he takes off his shirt, he is covered in tattoos. (traditional Japanese music) (ferocious scream) Police crackdowns have drastically reduced the number of actual gang members since their peak in 1982, but the crazy modifications endured, and at some point, cars started getting the same treatment as motorcycles. Today I am here with this bosozoku

style

1982 Cressida, which is possibly my automotive version. I'm a Kentucky boy. Do you know what kind of life a kid from Kentucky and a 1980's Cressida usually lead?

The kind no one notices! (thunder) But neither of us wanted that, so I moved to Los Angeles, bought a jacket and some skinny jeans, and dyed my hair blonde. Max, show those pictures from that party we went to. (intense electronic music) Unwilling to live the typical Toyota Sedan life, this car has been transformed into something that doesn't just scream, look at me! Requires it. This is one of the few bosozoku style cars built on American soil. And I'm telling you, these parade floats (laughter) are some of my favorite things in the world. (soft 80's music) The builders of this Cressida are the Moonlight Runners, also known as John and Astrid.

They grew up in the American punk scene and felt a special connection to the bosozoku culture of young bikers who challenged authority. When they discovered that they didn't quite fit in with the typical car enthusiasts in the area, they were inspired to build something different. Bosozoku gives a big middle finger to the conservative mix of aesthetics. This is anything but mundane. Now, if I want to change my hair, I can go to a salon and pay someone to do it, or I can go to a racetrack, which is where I dyed my hair. But it turns out that you can't just go to eBay and order all these crazy parts for your 1980 Cressida.

You can't even get them for a Corona Mark II, which is what this car is called in Japan. So what's a bosozoku lover to do? D-I-Y, do it yourself. (James burps) The Moonlight Runners learned everything on the fly, making all of their own custom bodywork with a little help from neighbors and friends at Old Town Restorations in Orange County. With bosozoku cars, most of the action takes place outside. You might think it's just a style, but you'd be dead wrong. There are many different subtypes, there's garuchan, based on the Group 5 Super Silhouette racing cars and their functional aerodynamic features, there's kyusha, a more understated look usually seen on classic Japanese cars, shakotan and yankii are lowriders inspired by the racing with flared fenders and elastic tires.

Some people even consider VIP or bippu sedans to be a subset of the bosozoku style. It's all a bubble chart guys, we're all made of stardust, it's all connected. Time is a construction, nothing is real. But there are no rules when it comes to expressing one's personal style, and bosozoku is actually a combination of fragments of each and every one of them. This car combines many elements of the Shakotan, with an ultra-low stance, big flares and wide wheels, and they go with this huge, huge front splitter. Let's talk about this divider for a second. It's impossible to ignore it, go ahead and try it, I'll wait for you. (clock ticks) You couldn't, could you?

On the Group 5 Silhouette race cars on which it was based, projecting splitters were used to help direct more air over the top of the cars, increasing downforce and improving traction. This over-the-top, four-foot-long behemoth probably won't do that, because it's big enough to host a dance. ♪ Power baby ♪ This huge divider looks like it's going to lift you up and make you love it, like I do. (kissing) Goodbye. Shakotan style cars often have (soft 80's music) front mounted exposed oil coolers with oil lines running through the front grille or an open headlight housing like this one. The Moonlight Runners had one in an earlier version of their design and it looks very bold, but after an unfortunate traffic incident, they decided to do without it.

This headlight is not missing for any reason other than they have not found a replacement for the damaged one. If any of you know where to get one, these guys would love to hear from you. After the huge splitter, the other feature that stands out to me the most about this car has to be the exhaust. These are called takeyari tubes, or bamboo spears, and nothing draws attention more than 10 feet of bright yellow exhaust pipe in the air. It's an absolute must for any bosozoku fan, and this Cressida does not disappoint. Unlike my dad. If you're there, I hope you're done buying cigarettes, because I'd love to talk to you.

There's no way you can miss the pipes coming straight out of the hood and flying over the roof to get here. The exhaust has to make a quick U-turn right after leaving the manifolds. Under the hood is the same engine that came in the Supra. (thunder) No, not that one. The Supra of the time, Toyota's 2.6-liter inline-six 4ME engine, which produced an impressive 110 HRSPRS. In fact, this was the first engine Toyota made that offered fuel injection in the United States. Let's look at the sides (laughs). (intense electronic music) The sides keep the party going, starting with the aggressive Shakotan-style fenders in another nod to the classic JDM race car look.

They are made of custom-molded fiberglass and carefully curved to flow with the lines of the Cressida's body. Hidden beneath them are chunky AF SSR Mark I wheels, measuring 13 by 10 in the front and 13 by 12 in the rear. You know, super common size. The custom side skirts have only a few centimeters of clearance between them and that toughest of body lovers, that (bleep) known as the floor. (scraping) (laughs) The goal of this build wasn't speed, and obviously you can't go too fast on public roads with all these parts scraping the pavement, the goal was to have a car that owners could get.

Enjoy a cruise on the weekends and one that would make your eyes say, what? Something else your eyes should seriously appreciate is this incredible scratching. Many bosozoku cars are painted in bold colors or two-tone schemes that represent the province they come from, but they don't have pinstripes like this. Purple and silver were always the Moonlight Runners' preferred combination, and Astrid spent 60 hours carefully thinking about how the paint would look and exactly where to place the tape. It took her two weeks to complete the pain itself. And the result works. The number plate on the door is also a classic Kaido Racer feature, and the 32 references the MX32 Cressida chassis shell. (applause) Back here, there's a signature on the C-pillar, why is there a kanji signature on the C-pillar of this car?

Well, that's where Kei Miura, creator of Rocket Bunny, have you ever heard of him, left his mark. When our friends at Hardcore Toyko, sup Jun! When Jun was setting up his booth at FD Long Beach, the original display car fell down, so Miura-san asked to park Moonlight Runner's Cressida at the booth. If you think about it, it's great to have your car recognized and recognized by the godfather of fenders. (applause) On the back there are these sick looking vents that came from a Mark II MR2. I also love this NASCAR-style high spoiler that's grafted onto the decklid and rear panel.

A shaved butt is not only a fun way to groom your dog, but also an amazing way to top off a bosozoku build. The license plate is even tilted upwards at an angle, in a nod to Japanese gangs, because it's harder for cops to read the numbers. (heavy electronic music) Moonlight Runners' attention to detail extended to the interior as well. This place is adorned with more crushed purple velvet than my dad's lingerie drawer. The seat covers make you feel like you are sitting on a throne. The dash cover features real glass and beige tassel fringe to complement the original interior color.

Even the door panels received the amethyst velvet treatment. Forget the rug man, they're what really ties the room together. This is absolutely tiny, tiny, tiny, (laughs), tiny, tiny, tiny. The Grant steering wheel is probably the only American-inspired thing on this car. It's more of a hallmark of the lowrider style, and it doesn't make turning those fat tires without power steering any easier either, but like the front splitter and takeyari pipes on the outside, it's one of those key, look-at-me pieces. Inside. Almost everything else here is functional 1980 Cressida. In fact, when the Cressidas were new, car magazines raved about how quiet they were to drive. (engine starts) (engine roars) You know, quiet.

It is beautiful, quiet and luxurious. The icing on the cake is this flashing purple warning light. The car simply wouldn't be complete about it. Oh. (laughs) (upbeat rock music) You can't help but lose your (beep) and smile when you see a car like this driving down the road. You may not like it, but you have to respect John and Astrid for building it. They now have another car in the works and a future kit for people who want to build their own bosozoku style vehicles. I could be hitting them in the fut. So thanks to Moonlight Runners for lending us this car.

They hope to use this car to host events and help children and the homeless in their community. And gangs are about community. Gang, gang. Hey guys, if you're like me, you love stunts, have you ever wondered how they do them? I was wondering, so we did a show where I found out how. We drive a car under a truck like in Fast and Furious. It will be every Wednesday for the next three weeks. It's tight. Thanks for watching Donut Media. If you didn't see it, I couldn't do it. Honestly, this is my dream job, I think about it every day when I go to work.

Follow me on Instagram at @jamespumphrey, follow Donut on Instagram and Twitter now at@donutmedia, check out this episode of my son Nolan's show WheelHouse and check out this episode of my other show Up to Speed. There will be plenty of new shows throughout the summer and throughout the year, so be sure to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss anything. If you liked this video, please tell my boss by clicking the Like button. I love you!