A Second Spotlight-o-rama From Excite King

The popularity of Kei cars in the VIP world is definitely growing, so I thought I’d start off this second spotlight post from the Excite King meet with one that certainly couldn’t be more aggressive. This Daihatsu Mira from team “Vintage” sported serious amounts of negative camber all round…

…its deeply offset 14-inch wheels barely contained…

…by the custom vented front wheel arches.

Seeing the lack of “meat” on the rear fenders there wasn’t much there to actually blister so the owner went for an even more extreme angle with the rear wheels. I’ll let you judge the result yourselves but there is no denying this Mira had a presence far bigger than its compact size would ever suggest.

Carbon-clad, peashooter center exit exhausts are a nice touch!

Black menacing sedans sitting low on polished rims is what VIP has been all about since the beginning, but what Goma Garage have done with this customer GRS204 Crown Athlete is fuse that authentic look with a few modern touches.

The lower section of the bumper has been given an all new feel with a larger louvered air dam and twin HID projectors, recessed into each corner. Working directly on the stock bumpers, something that is often done in VIP circles…

…allows to keep a tight fit and small panel gaps that an aftermarket FRP replacement would struggle to do.

20-inch SSR Professor MS3 are a great choice for this sportier version of the Crown, and sit beautifully flush with the gently blistered and vented frond fenders.

The same flushness is obtained at the rear, where a lot of work was needed to increase the girth of the arches…and of course the doors!

And if you appreciate custom work done well, then you will enjoy taking a closer look at this bronze Toyota Estima from Truth Racing.

Much like the sedans at these meets, there are various schools of thought when it comes to approaching vans, but it’s hard not to fall pray to the look of simple yet aggressive builds that put looks in front of too much complexity.

Subtle mods to make your wheel choice pop and sit just right is what it’s all about and something this Estima does rather well. The side intakes built in to the rear sliding doors have been integrated so well into the overall design, they succeed at giving an extra touch of aggression.

The front fenders have been extended with a similar flaring as to the rears and of course feature the unmissable venting.

Quad oval tailpipes and an integrated diffuser are the finishing touches to one well put together van.

We are very familiar with the work N-Style does here at Speedhunters; we have been seeing their creations at the Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown and other events for years now and I still kick myself for not having found the time to pay a visit to their shop yet. But it will happen this year, I promise, because these guys build some of the cleanest cars in Japan, no matter if it’s a street car, drift car or in the case of this S170 Crown Royal Saloon, a VIP ride.

The owner wanted plenty of onykyan, the deep-dished Weds Kranze LXZ pushed out of the body in the same way Imamura-san at Bee Dragon likes to do things.

The result is an in your face look, and judging from those big titanium pipes sticking out of the back – a look backed up by an equally in your face sound!

Along with the metal fender flaring worked into the bodywork I also spotted this nice blended-in rear trunk spoiler. Nice touch.

If you positively and absolutely need to stand out and show the middle finger to an otherwise calm and tranquil society, you might as well go the whole way. How’s that for a theme to build a car to?

And so we move into our final car of this spotlight-o-rama, yet another JDM Toyota but known to most of you as the Lexus LS.

This Celsior would probably be classified more towards a show-car type build, so while it sports all the requisites of any VIP ride with chassis on the ground looks…

…wider front and rear fenders stretched to contain oversized wheels, in this case a set of 20-inch Aimgain GIIMs…

…it also incorporates a few over the top details like copious amounts of venting, louvers and other such aesthetic additions.

Oh and the Ferrari F40/458 style triple center exit exhausts – one of which is a fake of course. Have you had enough of VIP rides or would you like to see more? Is form over function too much to bear or are you not offended by those that put looks above performance? These posts always do get a variety of interesting comments so let’s keep the discussions going!

Excite King 2013 coverage on Speedhunters 

-Dino Dalle Carbonare

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1

More please! That Estima is quite impressive.

2

More ! mira and celsior are beautiful

3

I really like the wing on that Crown Royal

4
Everybodys_critic

I love the spread of content Speedhunters provides, but my favorite articles are always car spotlights from foreign countries. VIP stuff isn't what I'm personally into, but it's awesome to see what other people are up to and what's popular around the world. Even though I would never have a car like any of these, I'd love to integrate some of these styling cues into my own ride.

5

Love the Estima and the Mira! Absolutely awesome!

6

Loving the Crown Athlete.
Can't say I get the idea behind the wheels on the Mira though. Massive spacers, high offset and fake dish? surely low offset/deep dish would have looked better.

7

Not my bag really, but quality workmanship.

8

WIll like to see more!

9

The athlete is the smoothest VIP car ive ever seen. It sits on its haunches beautifully.
 
Are we going to get any pics of the orange estima? next to the brown one?

10

Awesome more please...lets see some "traditional" Bippu.
 That light colored Cima looks cool too.
(By the Royal Saloon).
Thanks Dino great pics.

11

not too big a fan of new VIP but i'd love to see more bozo builds

12

the knock knees camber look must not be a issue with the cops in japan but i wonder if you could get away with it in the states without harassment by the cops. i ve always wanted to see that particular style rocked on the streets. im in california and i would love to see knock knees camber on the 170. but i think the cops would have a field day harassing who ever tried it.

13

All these cars look like they have been squashed into the ground lol

14

That Daihatsu has gone full retard. Never go full retard, man.

15

The Crown and the Celsior however, are pure sex.

16

A little too much onikyan for me but besides that everything else is very nice. Only Japan.

17

this post has what i think of as the best and worst examples of VIP style, in order no less. That crown royal is exactly what i like in a VIP car, while the celsior has all the things I wish VIP guys would quit, like 9001 vents, weird wish-it-was-an-amg bodykits, and then more vents

18

@hanablemoore There's a guy around me (pa) that has some crazy camber on a lexus. I've only seen him once or twice on the streets though. The look is awesome, especially sticking out in a crowd of boring commuter vehicles.

19

Definitely keep the VIP! Sure, not everybody likes it, but isn't speedhunters all about bring all the different car scenes together? Plus, functional or not, camber this negative is just bonkers, and awesome to look at

20

That Mira is literally the stupidest thing I have ever seen someone spend money on. Absolutely incredible to think people actually fork over their hard earned currency to make a car function worse than it originally did. I'll never cease to be amazed by trends that are borderline retarded.

21

Yup, you more or less proved me wrong Mr D C... thank you. I guess that last Celsior would be an argument in favour of what i was saying before, but all the rest in this post i dig (for what it's worth) especially the restrained, not-quite-onykyan on the GRS204 Crown Athlete. Also i'd like to see more on the grey Y32 Cedric (or is it a President? surely not) parked next to the S170 Crown Royal Saloon - looks very cool. Also "if you positively and absolutely need to stand out and show the middle finger to an otherwise calm and tranquil society" ha ha :)

22

Yup, you more or less proved me wrong Mr D C... thank you. I guess that last Celsior would be an argument in favour of what i was saying before, but all the rest in this post i dig (for what it's worth) especially the restrained, not-quite-onykyan on the GRS204 Crown Athlete. Also i'd like to see more on the grey Y32 Cedric (or is it a President? surely not) parked next to the S170 Crown Royal Saloon - looks very cool. Also "if you positively and absolutely need to stand out and show the middle finger to an otherwise calm and tranquil society" ha ha :)

23

well the cars are nice to look at and they are preserved for future generations since they can barely drive. I just like driving too much to even think about doing this things to a car.  :-)

24

I'm not much of a VIP fan but I love that Crown with the twin projectors. Brabus also did  this on a few cars and I just love the look it gives.

25

banzaimag Did someone forget to tighten the wheels up? HaHa

26

banzaimag I think its nice, clean & different - Special Kei

27

JDMAttire :D

28

ryukyustriker Who gives a shit. You only live once, quit bitching and enjoy yourself.

29

TomKimmell ryukyustriker First live in Japan then get a brand new car dump another $30,000 into it and then tell me how it is. Until then you will never you have no say in it.  You look back and say dam I made some stupid financial moves. Your right you only live once and then pay for the rest of your life. I know alot of people who did just that 20 years ago and are still paying those debts off in Japan.

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