JDMfiend : vip styled cars and vip cars go back to the yakuza gangsters of japan. its not a stupid trend, its been around forever though its just just starting to catch on. in japan its pronouned "veep", but we just say vip. lazy americans :smash:
The Vans and Wagons have thier own style of vip............ so do Sedans. If I see alot of vipstyled out bB / Scions and folks are drooling then its vipstyle to me. I see a vipstyled Benz or Jag at a car meet / event and no one is really talking to the owner or drooling over his ride and like only 1 or 2 of them show up. Not vipcar so thats why no one likes his Benz or Jag.
Then you have a vipcar who only has wheels and tint.......... alot fo folks give him suggestions and how to fix it up he is welcomed. vip
Just because its in the vip magazine a Jag or Benz that does not make it vip I see it as trying to sell vip style parts to them. The crowd at a vip meet is whats makes it vip
so who decides ............he vipcar folks that own one. not the owner of JP or any of the other big names out there they want to make a buck.
I see alot of usa guys making a buck off the NONE vipcar so what but am I going to say wow nice vipstyle car you have there.
Well, they do call the US trend of big high offset wheels "us luxury Style" if thats any consolation. But they also advertise alot in magazines saying "Ooh, look these new wheels are us luxury Style"...
So like a dog chasing its tail, the Japanese are trying to imitate the Dub crew, while the us dub & baller crew are trying to get into the Japanese vip style...
Even showing someone a vip magazine wont work, there are plenty of pics of high offset, bling style cars in there these days. In the end the most defining aspect would have to be the Fusa hanging from the mirror!
When people in America think of vipstyle cars they think expensive, exotics, big chrome, etc. However, the style is much more complex and borrows from many different car modifying genres. You do not have to own a vipcar to use vipstyle on your ride. There are a few groups of cars that you do commonly find vipstyle on in Japan though. I have created four groups to segregate and describe to you:
1) vip Van and Wagon (including Kei Cars)
2) vip Euro
3) vip 4 Doors
4) vip Other
I will delve deeper into each genre and present you with pictures soon, but lets talk about the style for a second.
The over-riding theme in vipstyle (like mentioned in part 1) is low, wide, and classy. The low and wide part is pretty much set in stone, you slam the ride, and you run aggressivly fitting wheels. (who likes a wheel that fits with no work anyways?). However, the classy part is open to interpretation. Back in the late 90's and early 2000's there was a transition perior for vipstyled cars from a more "radical" look to a more conservative (or what is commonly called executive style) look. Both styles are still around to day, and are recognizable as vipstyle, but they are polar opposites. The more extreme look is slowly leaving the scene, but styling ideas from these cars can still be found.
The Conservative Movement
This style is best exhibited by the Junction Produce or Wald cars. The car is lowered, but it not laying frame, the car has aero products, but they do not transform the look of the car. The car has aggressive wheels, but it does not need a flare or widebody to fit them, just a solid roll and perhaps a slight pull... etc.
I believe that everyone has heard of vip wagon, vip Luxury style, vip this and that. What is vip ? Of course it stands for Very Important Person of which most of us comprehend. This concept is based on the car built for a very important person. Thus it has to be luxurious and a display of class and status.
In Japan, this concept begins when young adults who used to love performance cars began to grow out from the racing scene. Being working in the executive society, the display of image is important for showing off their capabilities as executives. However being young in the fast moving work force in Japan, owning a large size saloon car seems impossible. But that can be made possible with older Japanese Saloon Cars, hence with no holds barred, these young Japanese brought some old Toyota Cressidas, Older Celsior, Older Toyota Crown, old Nissan Cima and such, as older cars in Japan are cheaper in price as their depreciation deems high.
So these younger executives buy older cars, dress it up with new paint jobs and aerokits, rims, etc to make it look stylish. Hence this trend started to catch the eyes of many young Japanese and it began to bloom about 15 years ago in Japan. And the word "vip" starts to conceptualised with association from this style.
vip Concept cars are often dressed up with vip aerokit, (something simple, very little curves, look muscular in image), biggest rims that they can squeeze into the fender, and most of them are 3 pieces deep dish rims for the look of expensive taste. Suspension has to be low down to max low to show the sporty feel of class. Then, exhaust has to made to look like continental feeling of twin exhaust style or single exhaust.
Windows are usually tinted until very dark with resembles some rich organisation big boss car or something. In addition, inside has to be leather and classy accessories and wooded console and panels to resemble some rich men driving a expensive cars as most expensive cars such as Mercedes, BMWs, Jags, etc comes with wooden panels.
Popular vip colours are black and white, however with more new variants of colour, Bright RED/maroon are up and coming colours of the vip range.
vip Concept start to come with a big bang as the spending on the car is definitely cheaper than performance cars in terms of parts and maintainence.
The expensive parts of the vip are only 3 things. The Aerokit, the Big Rims and the Suspension. However the appeal factor for the mass is always there as it displays the image of class and elegance.
And of course, it must not be clustered with too much sticker because it is not a race car but an image looking car. A few metal emblems will add to the entire class of the car.
vip Concepts are conventional looks of dress up luxury cars/wagons ! The shapes are basically very traditional like brands like Fabulous, Junction Produce, Evolution and such.
However Custom vip are more aggressive in styling, brands like Garson, etc. Once famous example is our black Mafia Estima, with front bumper extension, etc and the shape defy the conventional vip look. In addition, Custom vip also reflects the additional add onz to the aero styling such as with air brush graphics, and weird and big aggressive spoilers. Definitely not the gt wing !
vip does not apply to coupes and such. It mostly applys to vehicle with at least 4 open doors.
By the way, just to clear a small misconception about vip styling. IT DOES not have to be purely white or black. The extreme vip styling or Bosozoku in Japan follows very strict candy paintjobs in their cars (bright blue, neon green, candy red, orange, etc) and the EXE vip styling has many silver, maroon, dark blue and other muted colors in their lineup. The LUG vip styling (or American vip as some prefer to call it now) almost always turn out gawdy and churn my stomach - chrome spinner wheels, airbrushed paintjobs, etc.
Tsurauchi vip'ers, which like their wheels to tuck in under their fenders. The Tsuraichi like to have their wheel lips touching the fender with extreme negative camber, and that usually translates to very short lifespan of rear tires.
vip Style Cars
History:
vip cars stated approximately thirteen or fourteen years ago in Japan. However, they were not known as vip cars. Originally, vip cars came from a team named Black Cockroach in Wakayama Prefecture. That team's cars were published in the national car magazine for the first time in Japan. The Black Cockroach had black Cima, Cedric, Celsior and Crown, which were very unique and exemplified the owner's personalities. Many have vip cars tied to the Japanese mafia, better known as the Yakuza, to the beginnings of the vip scene in Japan. Afterwards, a team named vip Company evolved that belonged to Mr. Taketomi, the eventual owner of Junction Produce, a leader in vip styling in Japan. It was popular in Osaka Sooner and later, Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture. The popularity of vip cars spread to Sendai city and Young Auto magazine, which brought Chibaragi, a name of remodeling cars, to the public.
Before naming vip Car, those cars including racing, motorcycle gang and remodeled racing cars were called a Haiso car (high society salon cars), a Kowamote car (coercive atmosphere car) and an Oshidashi car (push car). The Young Auto established a corner of the customizing scene by restyling luxury cars. They coined named vip CLUB when the owners displayed their remodeled luxury cars. These cars would become what we know as vip.
The vip scene eventually lead to the establishment of vip Car Magazine., a company and magazine that was started by a publisher from Young Auto Magazine. vip Car Magazine showed remodeling luxury cars called a vip Car. The vip Car magazine has been distributed for ten years, mainly in Japan. In Osaka, there a vip company team, which dressed up vip cars and started by Mr. Taketormi, was a pioneer who drove the popularity of vip cars approximately fourteen years ago.
Traditional Definition:
vip car is very simple. Usually pronounced V-I-P (vee-eye-pee) and meaning Very Important Person, the true pronunciation is vip, or bippu, where it's pronounced like a word.
Cars that fit into the vip category are predominantly rear wheel drive Japanese luxury platforms such as the Celsior, cima, Cedric/Gloria, and Crown, just to name a few. These cars are usually the more expensive models and are usually purchased by the more affluent car owners. It's not a vip Car unless it starts with one of these cars. Many vip purists will not consider any other platforms as vip, even though other cars can take the styling cues from the larger vip sedans. This is commonly known as vip Styling.
vip Characteristics:
vip cars can loosely be translated to “Low and Wide”. Many have argued that vip cars can include European and even American cars. These can be considered vip Style as long as they follow in the vip guidelines, but they will never be vip Platforms. Some general characteristics of vip Style are:
Large/wide wheels (many times with big lips and low offsets) that are flush to the fender
Stretched tires in order to tuck the wheels under the fenders
Low stance via adjustable suspension or air ride
Substantial body kits to achieve the “Wide” look
Custom body work to accentuate the “Wide” look
Custom video and audio components and installations
Wood grain interiors with additional trays and extensions on the dash
Custom seats and mats
Additional and upgraded internal and external lighting
Louder exhausts with larger tips
Engine/performance work (though not as popular)
vip Culture:
When vip car enthusiasts in Japan build their car, they immerse themselves in the culture of vip Car. Accessories like Noburi Flags, clothing, lighters, teddy bears, fans, and every accessory that a company makes are purchased and proudly displayed. Many automotive events and gatherings in Japan are steeped in the tradition of the vip culture. Simple gatherings of enthusiasts can turn into major events. As usual in the Japanese culture, the cars are the stars, but socializing and even food are main attractions. vip Car has a sense of pride within the Japanese community on its luxury vehicles.
vip Styling
vip styling is taking the aspects that was started in Japan with the vip Cars and merging them onto cars that aren't really considered vip car platforms. Some platforms that are gaining popularity are the K-cars (Vitz, Scion, and other econo-box cars), vans (Odyssey and Previas) and many other vehicles (G35, IS300, 300Zs) that have been heavily influenced by the vip Style. That also has trickled into our US market with the larger cars like the Chrysler 300C and Dodge Magnum.. European cars can also be influenced by the vip cars, and have been gaining popularity in the US.
US Market for vip:
Where does this all fit into the US market? With companies who's operations are based here are now trying to define the vip market as Bentleys, Benz's, and other high end Euro cars, it basically leaves out the cars where it all began, the Lexus GS and LS, and the Infiniti M and Q series. Yes, the US automobile market may not have the choice of Japanese luxury cars found in Japan but we make due with what we are provided. However the view of vip Car or vip Style Cars is being extremely skewed in the US and leaves the hardcore vip Car enthusiast with a sour taste in its mouth. vip Car starts with the platform first. 350Zs, G35s, Scions, Accords, and other cars are defining the vip Style Car… vip Style Cars was mainly a term devised to help define the difference from a vip Car platform and a car accessorized with vip styling. This website has room for everyone. I created this site for the reason to give these people a home to learn and educate each other. Whether you own a vip Car or own a vip Style Car… Yes, we will have to define our own definition of vip Style Cars but we can't stray too far from the foundation of it all. There will be those of us who will stick to our vip Car platforms and those who will decide that their Scion fits the platform as well. Both sides are correct in that matter. What is wrong is to decide that our vip Car platforms are not acceptable platforms of vip here in the US.
he Best of Japanese Bippu Style (vipstyle)
If you don’t know what “Bippu Style” is your in for a treat. Bippu (Pronunced “vipPU”) is the japanese word for V.I.P. or V.I.P. Style cars and clubs.
Bippu modifications and history has often been linked to the yakuza. It is claimed that bippu came to be due to the risk of gangsters riding around in high-profile European sedans like the Mercedes S-Class or bmw m-Class. The attention could either bring about police action or retaliation from rival gangs. By using Japan domestic market cars with modifications associated with the creation of limousines, gangsters could avoid detection by the police and rival gangs.
Automotive enthusiasts caught onto these modifications, and adapted beyond luxury sedans, utilizing minivans and Kei cars. One advantage presented to enthusiasts is that such modifications can make a car luxurious without being expensive.
copied from vipSTYLE magazine
picture link:
http://www.k-break.com/event/54kingk.html
12/7/2008, 1:13 am
