Since I have started the Crazy Tuner series, videos about Japanese Tuners have been the
most requested.
But the Japanese car world is so rich and important to all the petrolheads that deserve
a series of its own.
From the drifters and ricers to street racing, Japan has definitely changed the car world
for ever.
And the best way to talk about the Japanese car world is to talk how everything started.
So, in this video I would talk about the most famous illegal street racing team.
So guys welcome back to another video and here is Mid Night Club - Straight From Japan.
A quick announcement before I start the video, I wanted to ask you guys if any of you happened
to have any magazines, brochures or catalogs about different Japanese tuners, would be
very helpful if you could send some pictures from these materials.
Because I want to use only official pictures and no amateur pictures, since this way I
can show how the car originally looked.
Mid Night Club was formed in 1987 as a response to Bosozoku gangs, which used to terrorize
the Japanese highways back in the 80s and 90s.
Bosozoku are Japanese biker gangs which were very popular back then.
The typical Bosozoku members are teenager which would usually commit minor act of violence.
And in the late 80s the Bosozoku gangs were very popular, sometimes they would ride in
gangs of more than 100 riders when they would attack drivers in highway.
So, some driver were sick by this behavior so they started playing with the Bosozoku
members.
These drivers typically were rich drivers with enough money to buy a Euro Exotic or
drivers with enough knowledge to built a Japanese car that could go as fast as an Exotic.
And the best drivers were part of the Middo Naito Kurabu or Mid Night Club, how most of
the people know the team.
I'm going to talk about the cars of the gang a little bit later, since it is impossible
to rank the car is a chronological way, because of not much information that exist.
To join the club was hard, and this was one of the things that set the Mid Night aside
from the others.
Most of the teams would accept any driver, especially back that when Japan street racing
scene was like the wild west.
The first thing that you need at to join the team was a car that could go with, at least
250kmh/155mph for a long time, since racing with 300kmh was very common.
New members were regarded as apprentices for one year, when they were required to attend
all the meetings.
In the end only 10% of the drivers would qualify for full membership.
But the rules didn't end here.
The anonymity was a very important part of the team.
All information about names, addresses, professions, how the members made the money to tune their
cars, and everything remotely personal was highly guarded and was never leaked to anyone
inside or outside the Club.
If members were already friends, they were obligated to be quiet about it around the
Club.
If you posed any type of danger to other drivers and to other members you were out.
All these rulers really helped the team with the quality of the drivers, which helped them
in the long term, especially when it came to the police.
The typical markings of Mid Night Club car owners were at first nothing more than simple
bumper stickers, It said "Mid Night Car Speciall", and beside it was sometimes a
sticker saying "Caution!
Wake turbulence".
But after they figured out that Bosozoku couldn't read that from looking behind them on their
bikes, they also applied them to their windshields.
That way, as the rider of a Bosozoku was riding, he could swivel their heads and see what was
trailing them.
When the club grow in popularity many tuners and racers that weren't part of the team start
using these stickers to show of.
If a member of another team, or an independent racer was spotted owning a car displaying
"Mid Night" stickers that were not part of the actual team's roster, they could face
harassment, and in some cases, vandalism inflicted on their cars.
There were many reports of non-member cars wearing the logos being damaged to a state
of disrepair because of the attempt to fabricate the stickers to falsely announce their membership
in the gang.
It sounds like something the Yakuza would do, but I totally agree with that.
In order to organize a meetup, a Mid Night Team Leader would place an ad in a Tokyo local
newspaper, under the "Classifieds" section.
Usually, it would read something entirely different from any sort of racing meeting,
in order to not draw unwanted attention from law enforcement.
The subject of the ad would have been discussed at the previous meetup, so that the team members
could look up the ad and specifically meet up at the exact location in order to begin
racing, at the exact time.
Races usually began at speeds of 100-120 km/h with a signal from a third car in the form
of a horn.
Both participants rushed on, and sometimes the starting point was a line just before
a big curve and continue on to various straights.
To end the race, they would choose the entrance to a rest area, where the drivers could talk
about the details of the race.
Other racing teams would also issue challenges to the Mid Night Club.
In this case, each team would elect a member which would race against them.
But the Mid Night Club was no punk, as full-fledged members' cars were capable of performing over
320 km/h (200 mph), the cars were usually boasting 400–600 hp.
On average, there were 30 members in the club, but by the mid 90s Mid Night had about 75
members.
The interesting thing is that even thought drifting was very popular back then, they
never drifted, their motto was "Drifting" and "Autocross" is for the weak.
We only do Maximum Velocity.
" But, all good things must come to an end.
At approximately 3am on an unknown Friday night in 1999, a member of Bosozoku was driving
recklessly down the Wangan, while the scared drivers were swerving out of his way.
The Mid Night Club just happened to be racing in this area, and while he caught up to them,
they blinked their lights, unknown to the fact that the rider of the motorcycle was
in fact drunk.
As they proceeded to race through the traffic, in excess of 250kmh/155mp per hour, the Bosozoku
rider lost control, and hit a motorist, it culminated in a huge chain-crash.
The motorist crashed into the barricade, dying instantly.
The Mid Night Club racers slowed down, and noticed that the Bosozoku rider was also in
fact dead.
8 motorists were hospitalized, 6 of them being innocent drivers on the highway.
Due to a policy that the Mid Night Club had organized at their start up, the group disbanded.
Their rule was simple, if anyone was to die during the existence of the club, whether
a racer, or a motorist, or whether it was indirect or directly the clubs fault, they
would disband.
And that they did.
Even If the crash hadn't happened, the Club would still likely be disbanded by now, since
the Japanese authorities had started cracking down on different types of gangs, including
a lot of the Bōsōzoku gangs that started the Mid Night Club in the first place.
Mid Night is one of the longest running street racing gangs.
And there are a couple of reasons why they lasted for so long, most importantly with
never getting caught.
First are all the rules that they had the anonymity together with the high skilled drivers
helped them a lot.
Another thing is that the police cars of the era were limited to 180 kmh/110 mph, a legal
requirement set forth by the 1977 Japanese Automotive Gentlemen's Agreement, and thus
the police cars couldn't catch cars that were driving 180 km/h or faster, even if they had
cars like these.
But the no1 reason is that they had the best cars.
Not only the cops but also the rivals were slower compared to them.
So here are the cars of the Mid Night Club.
So guys you should keep in mind that these are just rumors because all the secrets that
surrounded the club.
One of the most known cars of the club was the "Devil Z", a Fairlady Z S130 or the
Datsun 280ZX how the car is known in America.
The "Devil Z" came with a gorgeous ABR-Hosoki bodykit, which made this car to look way more
modern, even though was 1978 car.
But since their were true tuners the most interesting part was underneath the bodykit.
The power came from a L28E which was tuned by ABR, which had increased the capacity of
the engine from 2,753 cc to 3,100cc with its own forged pistons, rods, crankshaft and cams.
The new engine was also packed with two turbos now.
Some other modifications were, the brakes: R32 Nissan Skyline GTR calipers with TRD Supra
Race rotors and the suspension: modified Bilstein dampers with TRD springs.
It's presumed to have between 600 to 680 horsepower, which was enough to reach 330kmh/205mph
on the Wangan.
But the best car of the gang was definitely the Yoshida Specials 930 Turbo.
Now is hard to say what modification this car had received but there exist some specs
about it.
The Yoshida Specials probably had at least 500hp at it pick and could rich a top speed
of more than 300kmh.
Everything was dressed up with a TBK bodykit.
The owner spent an estimated $2 million USD tuning the car over the course of 15 years,
Now there exist some sources that talk about a Porsche with 700hp that could reach 350kmh/217mph
but is hard to say that.
Also, some sources say that the "Devil Z" and the "Blackbird" could maintain a speed
of more than 300kmh for 15 minutes, which is totally crazy.
But in the end of the day these are just rumors.
Some other car of the club were.
Many of Porsche's including here a 930 with a crazy Warm bodykit and at least one 964.
The most popular cars after the Porsche's were the Skylines.
R32 and R33 were part of the club and some could hit a top speed of over 300kmh.
And off course cars like RX7's, Supra's and 300ZX's.
The weirdest car that I have founded with Mid Night Club sticker is this Lamborghini
Countach but I couldn't find nothing if this car is real or fake.
Most of the members of the Mid Night probably were different Japanese tuners with Smokey
Nagata being one of them.
The Mid Night Club has left a true legacy behind and has definitely changed the street
racing for ever.
Many gangs have tried do leave up to their legacy but they have failed.
But their legend leaves up with the Midnight club game which was named after them.
Also, the Wangan Midnight Anime series was based on the stories of the original Club.
Plus the best Fast and Furious the Tokyo Drift has a similar story, just they are more focused
on drifting.
So guy thank You for watching, see you next time.
For more infomation >> Buying A New Car? Here Are Some Things You Should Know - Duration: 3:50. 
For more infomation >> Authorities: Man Hit Cars With Truck, Assaulted Firefighter - Duration: 1:57. 
For more infomation >> Person dies after car runs into backhoe on I-40 - Duration: 0:32. 
For more infomation >> Truck for kids - Unboxing Dump Trucks for children - Kids videos Car toy - Tutikid - Duration: 10:03. 
For more infomation >> ✌ #Car Reviews:トヨタ 新型 ハイエース フルモデルチェンジ セミボンネット採用 H300系 15年ぶりとなる 2019年発売 ✌ - Duration: 7:13. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét