This past weekend, I had the privilege of traveling with my friends Rod (AUTOnGRAPHIC), Park (HighTopFade) and Teru-san approximately 250-miles to Maze Circuit in Niigata Prefecture for 浜チヤン (Hamachan) Seaside Championship. From what I was told, Hamachan would be a huge event featuring some of Japan’s crazier Bosozoku styled cars from all over the country. However, in the past years the local police department began cracking down on these “illegal” shakotan (extremely-lowered) vehicles as most of these cars aren’t properly registered and don’t have shaken (safety inspection). Last year, Hamachan was cancelled due to this reason; this year was an exception.

After driving for 5+ hours on the expressway, we took the offramp towards Maze Circuit. On the final bend, right before the entrance to the raceway, was a road block. Before being able to turn to head towards the circuit, every single car was rerouted to a vacant parking area where a fleet of police officers were waiting, ready to perform inspection procedures on “modified” cars that passed through. It was amazing to see how persistent the police were in trying to obstruct this event from happening. Just imagine 50+ officers, an entire fleet, waiting for cars to drive by at 5:30AM in the morning; it was ridiculous.

Once arriving at the circuit, we were greeted by a pleasant surprise; a whole group of bosozoku cars sitting in the lot in idle on an extremely cold morning. Apparently these cars had made it into Niigata very early in the morning and slept over at the track before the police had set up their road block. We didn’t stay until the very end of the event since we needed to make the drive back to Tokyo, but I have no idea how these cars rolled out. Only one could imagine the ruckus, possibly a “Fast and the Furious” style getaway with all these slammed beauties racing to the highways.

It seems the newer generation of enthusiasts and those who are not in touch with Japan automotive culture seem to have issues digesting the styling of bosozoku cars.  For those of you reading this that don’t know what “bosozoku” is, I’ll attempt to explain it briefly:

Bosozoku literally means “violent running gang”.  It was primarily associated with motorcycle clubs and gangs; however, the styling was adopted by local car enthusiasts.  In the past boso cars were owned and driven by Japanese gangs, but this may not necessarily hold true nowadays as the styling is admired by many different enthusiasts and has become more of a subculture in the automotive scene rather than being associated only with gangs and thugs.  Boso cars are well known for their extreme aero kits, slammed ride height, vibrant paint schemes, and not to forget, the extremely loud straight pipe exhausts that extend out of the car.  Although these are typical car enthusiasts like you and me alike, boso enthusiasts also like to dress the part, as stated earlier, it’s a subculture, like motorcycle riders dress up in their Sunday attire, boso drivers take on a more “thug” look to dress the part of “gangsters”.  It was extremely interesting to see this car meet feature all of this and more.  It definitely gave me a sense and feel of the scene and culture behind the word.

Here’s a video shot at Hamachan of these cars rolling through the circuit.  One thing I forgot to mention, adopted from the motorcycle scene, boso enthusiasts love to rev their motors to play out a harmonious tune with their straight pipe exhausts.  Some of these cars even have a hybrid cable throttle linkage installed with a motorcycle handle next to the steering column, allowing them to rev their motors in rhythmic fashion easier:

This post is meant only as an intro of what’s to come.  This isn’t just any typical car event I can post up in one shot; it definitely has meaning to the Japan automotive scene and should be appreciated in all its glory.  There also aren’t very many chances to see so many boso cars all rolling together, especially on a racetrack.

Hamachamp Niigata Club lineup:

Another distinctive aspect of boso cars, the front-mounting oil coolers with extended lines ran through the grille or headlight cutout:

“Yankee the Pooh”, as Rod named him appropriately, hanging out of the car waving his baseball bat in gangster fashion:

Such an amazing lineup, even more amazing, the sound of straight-pipe exhausts revving throughout the entire day:

There were actually a good amount of woman-owned boso cars, all beautifully built and styled, just amazing:

Hamachan also had a drift event happening at the same time.  Between heats, the boso cars transitioned their way onto the track for parading, burnouts and donuts.

This RX-7 was killing it all day, throwing huge clouds of smoke through the final corner of the circuit.

So much more to come, please stay tuned for more coverage from 浜チヤン!