Japan Cars and Racing

Anyone can find used race cars for sale on many different websites including eBay Motors and Used Race Car Sales. The customer  can find others  at on-site auctions, trade shows, and NASCAR racing teams. Some used race cars are in mint condition with minimal race hours while others need some work.

Automobile racing began soon after the first cars were built. Although some cars used for racing are so specialized that they are quite useless on the streets, most differ only slightly from standard makes and thus can be used for ordinary driving as well as racing. Racing cars are usually single seaters built solely for racing. Sports cars that seat two people are true dual purpose cars which can be raced or used for street driving.

Buy from a Racing Team

You can also purchase cars from various racing teams such as Waltrip Racing, Hendrick MotorSports or Roush Racing. The best time to begin your search for a used race car is two to three months prior to the end of the racing season. Try and meet in person with the owners and drivers of each car. Top race teams often sell their cars to supplement their income and, because of their notoriety, if there is a problem with the deal you can usually find the seller pretty easily. Finally, because racing teams buy the parts and bodies of their cars at discounted prices to begin with, you can often find good deals on used race cars for sale. You can get a complete list of racing teams on NASCAR Racing Teams offered by Wikipedia.

On-Site Auctions

• Barrett-Jackson – This vehicle auction house travels the country and offers many race cars. Any one visit their website for auction dates in Scottsdale, Arizona, Palm Beach, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada. The customer  can also pre-order a bidding catalog and find out what race cars will be in each show. They also have an online bidding option that coincides with the live auction.
• Mecum Performance Auctions – If street rods, hot rods or muscle cars are for you, Mecum also travels the US offering race cars for sale. Check out auction dates for St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Charles, Illinois, Des Moines, Iowa, or Monterey, California. Many of these vehicles have a reserve price. Often reserves are not met as race cars offered by Mecum are top of the line; however, you can find some great deals if you make a trek to one of their auctions.

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Fans of action and car movies alike watched the third Fast and the Furious movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift with a level of scepticism. Not about the actors abilities or the plot (that’s for a different review) but for the realism. High speed car chases are shown all the time in America, but could drifting gangs actually happen in such a place as Tokyo?

Sadly, yes. This isn’t to put a black mark on Japan, many countries have issues with illegal street racing; Japan is merely one among many in this regard. There is nowhere you can go to look up when and where annual street races in Japan so racers have to be covert about where they can race.

Street racing takes place all over the country. Some take place spontaneously, with two drivers eyeing each other off at a stop light. These aren’t ‘official’ amongst the racing members; these are usually done for a bit of a laugh and hold no prize for the winner other than bragging rights.

There are people in Japan who are called the bozozuku, and they “run” the illegal street racing in Japan. Some people have stories about dangerous run ins with this gang, but mostly they are peaceful. Members appear threatening, and they are said to hold weapons like knives and base ball bats to keep pedestrians and motorist off of the roads on which they are racing. The Mid Night Club was an illegal street racing gang in the 80s and 90s. However, they disbanded after a crash killed one of their members.

In Tokyo, highway racing occurs at midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, and they generally occur on the Shuto Expressway.  Some racing enthusiasts see it as the government’s fault that they are forced to race on the street. In Japan, a toll pass (a pass that allows you to drive on the highway) is around ¥1,000. A pass to drive on a circuit can cost at least ¥20,000, so legitimate racers feel that they have no choice but to race on the roads.

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