Daijiro Inada Deserves His Flowers 🌸
This week's Tokyo Auto Salon cements Inada-san's legacy
HAPPY RACE DAY! especially to our friends and fellow Long Beach residents at Oilstain Lab. Two twin brothers, Iliya and Nikita, built an insane 911-inspired hot rod and got the Top Gear treatment they deserve.
Oilstain is always doing something different, exciting, funky or a combination of all three. We’ll have more from them, including a shop tour, coming soon.
In today’s newsletter:
Car culture legend: The legacy of Diajiro Inada, explained
Best videos from Tokyo Auto Salon: Prepare for the wild side of Japan
New focus for Luftgekühlt: Moving on from the air-cooled thing?
RACE DAY FEATURES
Daijiro Inada: Father of Tokyo Auto Salon
In a land of car culture giants, Daijiro Inada stands above the rest. Not literally—at around 5-foot-6, the longtime publisher and promoter could blend in with the crowd on any Japanese intersection. But the innovative Inada, now in his 70s, carries weight behind his name that has made him one of the most recognizable fixtures in car culture throughout Tokyo and beyond.
I’m reminded of that following the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon, held last week. The expo celebrates Japanese car modifications, welcoming the most famous custom shops in the world to show their stuff. By some estimates, this TAS had the highest attendance in its 42-year history. And the show, the shops, every single person in those huge crowds, they owe it all to Dai-san.
OPTION MAGAZINE
Inada started the most famous car culture publication in Japan, Option Magazine, in 1981. The goal was a lofty one. He wanted to decriminalize car modifications—at the time, modifying your fenders or mirrors would attract the police. With Option, he hoped to not only legalize the hobby, but take it to new heights.
When I visited Inada-san at the Option offices in early 2023 to research Cult of GT-R, he told me, “I love racing cars and looking fast. Racing cars can’t drive on the street. Tuning is like racing cars. Now, Japanese people can tune and customize. Legally.”
Authorities finally started to ease restrictions in the late 80s. The car mods scene exploded, and Option became their bible. It published road tests, features on people to know, and DIY tips. Inada launched Option 2 and Video Option to meet demand. It even turned some into global superstars. When tuner Smokey Nagata famously was jailed in the UK for trying to reach 200 mph on public roads, he was there with a Video Option team who captured the whole thing.
YATABE SPEED TRIALS
From the start, Option was more than a cheerleader—Inada wanted a serious performance magazine. One of his first moves was to organize high-speed testing to see which tuners and shops were truly the best. In order to reach top speeds, he chose the Yatabe Test Track about an hour outside of Tokyo.
With a new way to test themselves, shops hurried to one-up each other. They began to produce monster machines, and by the mid-80s they routinely hit 300 kph (186 mph). Often, Inada himself was at the wheel. Some of these companies—Trust, Abflug, HKS, Blitz, Veilside, Top Secret and more—remain the most recognized names in tuning around the world. The infamous Race Team Mid Night also used Yatabe for research and development (below).
D1GP
As drifting rose in prominence around Japan’s mountain roads in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there were several attempts to organize a professional series. But none of them took off like D1GP, started by Inada and Keiichi “Drift King” Tsuchiya in 2000. D1GP had the biggest names, best judges, and big-time sponsors to fuel the growing sport.
D1GP was as homegrown as it gets. But the legitimacy of the series, aided by Inada’s involvement, lent it immediate credibility. Drifting became the acceptable way to drive like a maniac. It quickly spread to the U.S., leading directly to Formula Drift which draws massive crowds across the country today.
TOKYO AUTO SALON
Inada started the Tokyo Auto Salon in 1983, less than two years after Option first hit newsstands. The idea was to showcase all of the products and cars you read about in the magazine. Its original name was Tokyo Exciting Car Show.
Of all Inada has done, there may not be a better microcosm of his legacy than TAS. The largest and most famous brands which he helped build, mingled with massive throngs of enthusiasts which he helped inspire, all in one place. In the U.S., only SEMA in Las Vegas can rival TAS for its influence on car culture and the aftermarket. What separates them, however, is the passion and determination of the daring publisher and driver who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
VIDEO CENTRAL
This year’s TAS brought tons of content creators to Japan. On top of the show itself, they produced some incredible footage of the surrounding car culture scene.
Here are some of my favorite YouTube clips:
Larry Chen drives his R34 GT-R at Fuji Speedway
Dino Dalle Carbonare shows you the essential TAS builds
Dustin Williams finds an epic underground car meet
And Finally…
The team at Luftgekühlt have opened ticket sales for its Air|Water car show coming to Southern California in April. At past Luft shows, Air|Water was limited to a select area—now it gets an event of its own.
Luft feels like it’s in flux. It helped spark the air-cooled Porsche movement, which became a parody of itself as prices skyrocketed and online saturation reached a fever pitch. What once celebrated raw outlaw culture instead reflected tech-bro, hedge-fund tastelessness. Air-cooled Porsches became shorthand for unimaginative peacocking.
It remains to be seen whether Air|Water redeems that reputation or perpetuates it. Air|Water combines:
older air-cooled models and;
more recent water-cooled ones;
plus hybrids and electrics.
Does that dilute the show? Or neuter it in favor of brand-friendliness? Luft is a well-curated show and fun for all ages. Maybe this is just a natural maturation. Either way there’s nothing wrong with celebrating a brand nearly unparalleled when it comes to performance and development over the years. That makes Air|Water a strong recommend, tech-bro or not.
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