About
My love of JDM cars started at ten years old. At the time, I was pretty confident that I knew all the cars there were to know. My dad was in the motor trade his entire career and he used to teach me all the manufacturer badges when we went driving – so I was fairly smug in my knowledge. I’d never really considered that there were cars sold in different countries that I’d never seen before.
So when I got my hands on the Nissan 240SX in Need for Speed Underground 2, it blew my tiny little mind and set me off on a journey of JDM enlightenment. A few years later Tokyo Drift came along, and that high-rise car-park scene, with all the ridiculous JDM builds, rewired my brain. I’ve not really recovered since.
For years it stayed where most car obsessions stay; on auction sites I was never actually going to bid on. Mortgage, work, the usual reasons people quietly shelve their good ideas. Then we had triplets, which on paper is the least JDM thing that can possibly happen to a person; three car seats, a pram the size of a small caravan, and a perfectly sensible estate car on the drive.
Except (and this is the bit I still find funny), the triplets are what finally pushed me into it. The hunt for a sensible seven-seater quietly turned into a hunt for the right seven-seater, and the right seven-seater turned out to be a dark metallic purple Toyota Noah G X Modellista (R70). Sliding doors on both sides, captain’s chairs, factory body kit, the lot.
What Kaiju JDM actually is
Once the Noah landed I started writing things down. What I’d learned about the auction system, which generation of which model is actually worth a punt, why certain JDM-only trims are quietly brilliant, and all the small stuff (ULEZ, IVA, insurance, parts, English-language head units) that’s easy to trip over the first time you go through it.
That writing slowly turned into Kaiju JDM. The honest version is I’ve been hooked on Japanese cars since I was old enough to recognise a Supra badge, and this is the place I get to indulge it properly. Family stuff like the Noah is part of it, but only part. There’s just as much room here for kei cars, sports coupes, wagons, vans, and whichever oddball thing has caught my eye that week. If you’re into JDM in any form, you’re in the right place.
Our Base
We’re based in the Ribble Valley, an area of outstanding natural beauty that hosts the official geographical centre of Great Britain (a phone box just outside Dunsop Bridge, since you asked – see map). A beautiful part of the country to live in, and a beautiful part of the country to drive in; or it would be, if anyone could persuade Lancashire County Council to actually fill the potholes.