The History of VIP Styled Cars

What is the origin of VIP Cars? They most likely started from a Japanese car club or four cars, who went by the name of 'Black Cockroach'. All four cars were painted matte-black, or flat black, and they were a Toyota Celsior, Toyota Crown, Nissan Cima, and Nissan President. They were connected with the Japanese mafia, known as the Yakuza, and shortly after some of the gang members were styling their own luxury cars in this same manner. Eventually another car club was formed, called VIP CLUB, and they were featured in Young Magazine which boosted their popularity throughout all regions of Japan. Before they were called VIP cars (VIP in Japan is pronounced as a single word, like Vip), they were known as Haiso cars, which was short for High-Society, because they were taking expensive, luxurious cars and modifying them with very expensive and exclusive parts.

So what defines a VIP car? VIP cars were originally powerful rear wheel drive luxury sedans produced by Nissan and Toyota. The most common models used in VIP styling were the Toyota Aristo, Celsior, and Crown, and the Nissan Cima, President, and Fuga. There are other various models though as well. Many of these cars are only produced in Japan, although equivalent models were produced such as the Lexus GS, Lexus LS, Infiniti Q45, and Infiniti M.

Typically, VIP cars are lowered with coil-over suspension or airbag suspension. They are also defined by there 'stance', which is incorporating how low your car is with the size and offset of the wheels used. VIP cars usually have three-piece wheels, and are given an excessive amount of negative camber.

One thing that sets this niche of Japanese car tuning apart from sport-compact scene is the quality of the work done and the quality of the parts. While you can go out and find many imitation companies for Honda, Nissan and Toyota sports cars that make parts that look like the original brand, with VIP style cars, there are almost no imitation companies out there. Many of the arts are hard to find, and very expensive when you can find them, and it is fairly common to find a VIP car with more than $10,000 put into it. This is almost necessary, because remember that they were luxury cars to begin with. You wouldn't at all want to lower the quality of your car in any aspect when it comes so well done from the factory.

What is the ultimate VIP enthusiasts dream? Check out my hub about the Toyota Century

You can view my website about VIP Cars by clicking the link!

Above is a small photo of my personal car. I don't have a whole lot done to it yet, but it is a slowly moving work-in-progress. It is a 1993 Lexus GS300, and I bought it from the original owner about 4 years back. So far, I've managed to lower it on Blitz springs and KYB GR2 shocks. I also have JDM Toyota Aristo Taillights and JDM Toyota Aristo HID Headlights, as well as a JDM Toyota Aristo strut bar. My personal favorite piece to my car is the Junction Produce passenger table I have. I know there aren't too many out there that were made for left-hand drive vehicles, and I still haven't found another first generation Lexus GS that has one.

At one point I started piecing together a Toyota Aristo V(there was a Q and a V line, the Q had the 2JZGE non-turbo engine while the V had the twin-turbo 2JZGTE) turbo kit, which I still have most of the pieces too, but the funding for that project is currently on halt.

Thanks everyone for looking at my page, if you have any questions, comments, or critiques, please leave me a comment at the bottom of the page!