There’s an entire subculture and modding scene dedicated to them
Now while you may not see the point of modifying small B-series Dodge vans for the purpose of racing, then you must not have heard about the highly popular Dajiban phenomenon in Japan. It involves just that, and the people who mod their Dajibans don’t mess about and take them grip or drift racing every chance they get.
It’s one of many similar car cult followings in Japan that have sprung up around the most unlikely of vehicles.
We got a closer look at what these Dajiban fans do when they gather thanks to noriyaro, who made a video at one of their meets held at the Ebisu track. Here, vans with varying degrees of modifications show up – some are left in the track’s parking lot and are not modded for track use, while at the other end of the scales there are stripped out, V8-swapped bruisers that have no problem tackling corners… and powering out of them.
The vans also look quite cool all lowered and made to look more sporty; heck, like 80 percent of them ride on small 14-inch Watanabe wheels, the kind you also see under nearly all modded Toyota AE86s in Japan.
If you haven’t seen this before, you’ll be amazed at how they are driven by folks who aren’t racing drivers, but regular people who do it for fun on weekends.