Minis are Japan’s answer to America’s iconic muscle cars or Britain’s open-air roadsters–affordable vehicles to collect, race, customize or simply roll out of the garage for a Sunday spin. Nostalgia is swelling for these ““people’s cars,’’ the first vehicles many Japanese owned and pampered. More recently, minis became the second cars people tinkered with and–in the case of ““bubble-era’’ convertibles produced during Japan’s 1980s economic boom–drove for sport. Today, says Hidetoshi Arai, chief editor of the magazine K-Car Special, ““minicars are tools for fun.''
An estimated 3,000 amateurs now race them. They dash around road courses, tear up muddy off-road circuits and, on frigid Hokkaido Island, race on snow and ice. Other enthusiasts collect vintage minis, from no-frills 1950s sedans to roadsters. Or they customize tiny minivans with garish paint schemes and glitzy interiors. Drifters’ clubs, named after mini-pickup trucks with back ends so light that they easily slide, or drift, around corners, have sprung up across Japan. WE EXCITE THE PUBLIC WITH OUR SMOKE AND SQUEAL, declares a bumper sticker for D-Side racing, a club on Kyushu Island.
The Kasuga time trials offer a typical mix of minicar fanatics. As Beastie Boys rap music blares from loudspeakers, contestants get eight attempts to turn in a fast lap. Yusei Makari, a local mechanic, races a 15-year-old Daihatsu he salvaged from the junkyard and lovingly rebuilt. His quickest spin around the serpentine go-cart circuit: 54.32 seconds. Takashi Kiyomoto, 44, is top gun in the nonturbo category. When he’s not racing, he commutes to work in his 1991 Honda Beat, a two-seat convertible shaped like a wedge of cheese. Race organizer Mitsuhiko Sawatani owns the Remix auto shop in Kakogawa. He sponsors eight events a year, fields his own car (a souped-up Suzuki Works painted pink and yellow) and helps others fine-tune their tiny racers. Business is almost too good. ““I haven’t had a day off in four months,’’ he complains.
For true fanatics, the Internet affords online wealth. One Web site, The Exciting Micro Coupe AZ-1, is dedicated to an exotic Mazda two-seater. The roadster appeared in 1992, at the beginning of Japan’s recession, and sold fewer than 4,000 units before it was discontinued. Today the AZ-1 is a coveted collectible. Cappuccino Press caters to owners of another two-seat mini, Suzuki’s Cappuccino. Created by Fukami Manabe, a Kanagawa-based graphic designer, the site includes a chat room. ““I just came back from a Kyushu tour and drove 3,500 kilometers,’’ reads a Cappuccino driver’s travelogue posted last week. ““At one point I thought: “It’s starting to rain.’ But I was driving through a swarm of bugs!''
Back at Capital Sports Land, Takedo’s time-trial defense falls short. Stricken by stomach flu, he runs nearly a second slower than the pacesetter and settles for third place. Yet his minicar fascination isn’t only about winning. His hobby, he explains, led him to meet his current girlfriend, a fellow Suzuki Works driver. ““There are places where minicar lovers gather,’’ he recalls. ““I spotted her car, which looked different than most, and we started talking.’’ About turbochargers and suspension systems, no doubt.
