When Hironao Yokomaku started working at a French restaurant aged 16, little did he understand how a lot he’d affect Japan’s automotive tradition within the many years that adopted.
Now aged 63, the Tsukuba-based tuner reveals no indicators of slowing down having simply unveiled a brand new undertaking alongside Quick & Livid actor Sung Kang. As a result of for practically 4 many years, Yokomaku-san has led the enduring Japanese tuning model VeilSide.
Most readers can be acquainted with VeilSide’s work in The Quick and the Livid: Tokyo Drift. Virtually 20 years on, Han’s orange and black Mazda RX-7 stays a poster automotive for the whole movie franchise. However lengthy earlier than Hollywood thrust VeilSide into the highlight, it had established itself as certainly one of Japan’s most superior tuners, constructing the nation’s quickest automobiles with exteriors virtually as loud as their exhausts.
VeilSide’s distinctive look was initially impressed by the George Barris-designed Sixties Batmobile of all issues. Now it’s synonymous with Nineties and ’00s Japanese automotive tradition – suppose large, sculpted rear wings and curved, ankle-breaking splitters.
Throughout this time, Yokomaku-san needed to create automobiles that he felt have been ‘complete’ packages, versus focussing on a single component, as most Japanese tuners have been doing. However a VeilSide automotive wanted blistering efficiency, sharpened dealing with, and bespoke aero earlier than it may ever put on the hallowed ‘Fortune’ or ‘Combat’ title, relying on the extent of labor concerned.
The look didn’t simply encourage different Japanese tuners; it even crossed continents, with VeilSide-style physique kits being tailored on European automobiles in the course of the Max Energy period. Everybody needed a chunk of the VeilSide pie. And whereas the great occasions felt like a perpetual occasion, the troublesome occasions that adopted introduced the corporate to the brink of collapse.
Now, with VeilSide having fun with a resurgence in 2025, Yokomaku-san is eager to remind the world of VeilSide’s 35-year-long historical past.
“At first, I started riding around on customised motorbikes, and of course, I thought mine was the fastest,” Yokomaku-san explains. “That was until one day I raced a Nissan Bluebird with a tuned engine. I lost easily. And that’s when I knew my tuning life had started. When I began driving at 18, I immediately got a job at a car shop to feed my obsession with speed.”
Automobile tuning within the Eighties wasn’t precisely the behemoth it’s at present. Because the proprietor of an S30 Nissan Fairlady Z arrange for drag racing, Yokomaku-san tuned its engine by trial and error, resulting in many rebuilds. By the age of twenty-two, he’d honed his craft sufficient to determine his personal enterprise – Yokomaku Racing Service – working tirelessly to construct the quickest S30 in Japan. His pièce de resistance was to turbocharge Nissan’s L-series engine, which instantly led to extra victories whereas competing in zeroyon (0-400m) competitions. Then, a yr later, he turned his consideration in direction of the brand new Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.
On the age of 28, Yokomaku-san was beating established tuners in nearly each self-discipline. Eager to showcase his expertise past merely going quick, Yokomaku Racing Service turned VeilSide – a reputation based mostly on an English translation of his household title – ‘Yoko’ which means facet and ‘maku’ which means veil.
“Between 1990 and 1990, I set many Japanese records including top speed, drag racing and the fastest 0-300km/h time of 13.72 seconds in our R-1 Street Drag R32 Skyline GT-R,” Yokomaku-san provides. “Our cars were very distinctive, but also the fastest, so many requests for engine tuning came from owners across Japan. But before long, I was reminded of the dangers of tuning after frequent accidents in tuned cars occurred across Japan. I did not want this to happen, so I decided to create a car that could attract people’s attention without running at crazy speeds. After winning awards at Tokyo Auto Salon for many years, the VeilSide cars and look became very popular.”
Whereas the Tokyo Drift RX-7 is perhaps VeilSide’s most recognised Quick & Livid automotive, the corporate’s aero kits have been current in each one of many franchise’s movies since day one. Bear in mind Dominic Toretto’s pink Mazda RX-7 within the unique film? That’s Veilside. Oh, and Suki’s pink Honda S2000 from 2 Quick 2 Livid? Sure, that’s one too.
Sadly for Yokomaku-san, this reputation led to an awesome demand, which left VeilSide unable to take care of provide. Earlier than lengthy, low cost reproduction kits flooded the worldwide market, and because the tuning trade slumped within the mid-2000s, VeilSide discovered itself in a nasty monetary method.
“During this time, VeilSide moved away from the spotlight with a focus on survival,” Yokomaku-san explains. “It wasn’t until Tokyo Drift made a big impact all over the world that people began to remember VeilSide and expose a new generation to our designs. That was a good feeling.”
“I started VeilSide after many bad experiences with other tuners, so to still be creating exciting cars for enthusiasts all around the world is very moving. I am not getting any younger, but for the future, all I hope is VeilSide can continue to inspire the next generation of tuning fans, just like myself all those decades ago.”
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