![]() ![]() Top Secret has also made news in the GT-R community, as they’ve swapped an entire R35 powertrain into an R32 Skyline a few years back. I’ve known Top Secret to produce some epic JDM builds that are still imprinted in my brain, most notably the 1,000hp twin-turbo V12 Supra that dates back to 2007. It’s the type of tale that cements Top Secret into the history books and makes Smokey one of the most notorious and idolized individuals in the tuning scene (if you haven’t already, check out Top Gear’s article on Smokey). The end result wasn’t just a slap on the wrist but being immediately deported, followed by a ban from the country that would last 10 years. ![]() Smokey himself was caught by authorities after shipping his Mk4 Supra to the UK and attempting to surpass 200mph on public roads. What made them perhaps most memorable was their attitude, which sometimes led to insane 1,000hp sports cars partaking in illegal high-speed runs. Founded by Smokey Nagata in 1991, Top Secret’s early days included competing in professional drag racing, road racing, and drift, campaigning D1GP for six years. He definitely made sure of that.If you’re anything like me and grew up flipping through JDM car magazines like Option and Super Street, then you’ll know the significance of the company Top Secret and its importance in the tuning scene. Nagata had goals right from the start and motive to reach those goals. People who have a genuine passion for cars and making them uniquely theirs. Smokey Nagata’s story is a perfect representation of what JDM culture is about. Since Smokey’s Supra was so revolutionary in JDM culture, the very same one went to auction in January 2018 and was sold for $80,700 USD. People wanted their cars to be that fast, seeing as though his supra was one of the fastest for its time. It pushed business towards him and everyone wanted in. When the footage was released, it did quite the opposite. This is the holding record for the fastest anyone has gone on a British motorway.Īfter getting arrested Smokey was concerned this would drive customers away from his shop and he would close. He hit a top speed of 197 miles per hour before getting pulled over by the police and spending a night in jail with a fine of £190. Waiting until there was no traffic, Smokey did a massive burnout with his 12 cylinder engine performing 930 horsepower with 745 foot-pounds of torque and took off. This attempt was made on a British motorway in the UK at 4am. A goal to hit 200 miles per hour in his Mk4 Supra. Later in his career, he had a new goal in mind. This was a 9.6 km tunnel underneath Tokyo Bay where Smokey eventually tested his R33 GT-R Skyline and went from 0-186 miles per hour in 17 seconds and hit 204 miles per hour. This resulted in Smokey opening his own tuning shop and due to the circumstances, named it “Top Secret.” With access to parts and his own shop, he began to test his cars on the Aqua-Line. However upper management loved the work he did so they made him stay and keep it a secret. After getting caught, Smokey wanted to quit instead of getting in any more trouble than he was already in. After hours, he worked on creating his own parts as the company had been doing. He applied there because they had racing programs he wanted to get into. With experience in modifying cars, he got another job at the company Trust/GReddy which specializes in performance tuning parts for cars. Nagata decided he would move to Tokyo, the city of racing, to pursue his dreams. This would be the first time he started modifying vehicles, which was also the reason he was fired.įrom there, he strived to become a race car driver but there wasn’t much in Hokkaido other than farmland. He got his first job when he was 16 years old at Toyota as a mechanic. ![]() “My father loved driving fast so I became obsessed with the sensation of speed and started tinkering with cars,” Smokey said in an interview with TopGear. He grew up on a farm in Hokkaido, Japan where he first fell in love with the feeling of speed. Smokey Nagata was one of the biggest influencers in the tuning community. However, JDM culture is spreading around the world and becoming more popular. This originated in Japan and to this day, is most common in the region. ![]() Many people, generally of a younger age, will tune their cars to be faster and then race them illegally. That is, cars getting tuned and modified, then sold. The Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) is often used as a shorthand to refer to the culture of car modification in that country. Kazuhiko ‘Smokey’ Nagata, the god of speed, revolutionized tuner culture. After modifying it to go faster, the first thing Smokey does is take his car to the street and pushes it’s limits, hammering the gas pedal through the curvy roads of the Hokkaido mountains. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |