5 Things That JDM And Muscle Car Culture Have In Common #blogpost

Sometimes it feels like Japanese and American car culture couldn’t be more different. However, these two camps have more in common than you might think…

One: Gentleman’s Agreement

I’ll just let my man Christopher Smith talk about this one, he made a good post about the subject…

Two: They Have A Significant Modifying Scene

Both entities modify their cars a lot, but in different ways. For JDM cars, it’s body kits, spoilers, paint jobs, camber plates, rims and turbos. For muscle cars, it’s camshafts, rear axles, intakes, cylinder heads and pulley upgrades. The Toyobaru triplets have big exhaust cutouts to where you are lead to believe that the designers had a gut feeling that many people who bought the car would be putting exhaust systems with big tips into the car. V8 motors in many American sports cars have room to grow when it comes to power, leaving many possibilities for tuning shops to work with.

Three: JDM And American Cars Make A Lot From Little

You may be thinking “Wait, but muscle cars have massive engines, how can they be making a lot from a little?” Muscle cars and American sports cars almost always have the mantra of giving you a lot of car for not much money. For example, you can get a 470 horsepower Challenger that runs mid 12’s in the quarter mile for under $40,000. Also, the new Corvette Z06 is faster than cars costing 3 times as much as itself on a racetrack; that’s making a lot from a little. On the Japanese side, they make really fast cars from cars with relatively small engines, all thanks to turbocharging. In addition, the Mazda Miata in stock form is by no means a fast car, but many car enthusiasts enjoy driving it anyway.

Four: An Intense Rivalry

It’s hard to find another rivalry in car culture as intense as the one between American and Japanese cars. Internet warriors and bench racers around the world argue over which one is better, videos on Youtube surface of drag races and persuasive videos. At this point, it looks like this feud shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Five: Tire Smoke

It looks like both Asia and America like to send tires to the graveyard, just in different ways for the most part. For muscle car enthusiasts, it’s grand displays of power at Summernats or the drag strip. For JDM drivers, it’s drifting around corners totally sideways shredding the tires into oblivion.