5 Crazy And Unique Car Cultures Outside Of The United States

I don't mean to brag (or maybe I do) but America has a great car scene. There's plenty of variety, muscle cars and pickup trucks and a lot of different climates and geographies that can suit you. However, there are some interesting car cultures that are outside the land of guns and V8's. Here's a list of my favorites...

One: Australian Burnout Competitions

One thing’s for sure, the Ozzies sure know how to give a set of rear tires a proper sendoff, and this is coming from a born and raised American. Summernats is truly a sight to behold with tire smoke clouds reaching up to at least 10 meters high pouring from the wheel wells of insanely overpowered vehicles; remember to bring your gas mask! Oh yeah, and they have a lot of utes, and that’s pretty cool.

Two: Finnish Jokamiesluokka (Rallycross)

If one country had the highest amount of successful race car drivers per capita, I wouldn’t be surprised if Finland was at the top; “If you want to win, hire a Finn.” The Finns place a high priority on driving and driver skill and the motorsport of “Jokamiesluokka” is where some Finns hone that skill. All of the cars involved are supposed to be sold at a certain price and if a fellow racer asks to buy your car, you have to sell it to them. With that in mind, the race cars don’t cost much and aren’t that fast which means that the racing is more competitive and participating is more accessible. The racers in Jokamiesluokka range in age from pre licensed teenagers to retired old men and the racing is very fun to watch. In fact, participating in Jokamiesluokka is one of my gearhead bucket list items.

Three: Panamanian Bus Racing

Modifying NA Miatas? That’s fairly normal. Volkswagen Golfs? Same story. How about American school buses? Now things are getting interesting.

Panamanian bus drivers modify and then race against each other in engine swapped school buses to compete for passengers. Nowadays, these tricked out buses are banned from Panama City itself but still run in the outskirts. The buses also have mural artwork and obnoxious sound systems to draw attention.

Four: Dekotora

Japan has so many crazy car cultures I might not be able to list them all. Here’s an explanation of why some Japanese truck drivers make their trucks look like a mini Las Vegas on wheels.

“Dekotora is a Japanese abbreviation for “decoration truck,” and is arguably the most flamboyant customizing trend on the planet. Dekotora are large trucks that have been adorned by their owners with elaborate patterns of brightly colored lights, complicated exterior add-ons and various styles of anime artwork. They look like rolling pinball machines or casinos on wheels, and no matter what opinion you have you’ve got to admit that they certainly draw attention and provoke conversation.”

“It’s believed that dekotora originally appeared in the early 1970s in north-eastern Japan, where some drivers of fishing transport trucks were customizing their working vehicles as garishly as possible. The true dekotora revolution started after 1975, when the first in a series of ten action-comedy films called Torakku Yaro (Truck Guys) transformed the trend into a downright Japanese media frenzy. Soon enough numerous other movies and TV shows were dedicated to the phenomenon, with model cars and even video games helping popularize this odd subculture.” -toptenz.net

Dekotora

Five: Bosozoku

Bosozoku culture is more than just making motorized vehicles as attention grabbing and obnoxious as possible. The drivers of said vehicles also cause mayhem for the general populace. Jalopnik’s Kat Callahan goes in depth about what Bosozoku is really all about… (see article below).

Bosozoku

There are a lot more crazy parts of Japanese car culture like Midnight lub and touge drifitng, here's a Car Throttle's take on Midnight Club below. It's safe to assume that Japan is one of the best places to travel for car enthusiasts.