Need More Motorvation?

Following on from our recent article on Steve Kirk's conceptual drawings in Street Machine's Motorvation series we thought we'd bring you Japan's offerings along similar lines: 'Custom Dreaming' by Crazy Masaru.

My inability to read Japanese puts me somewhat on the back foot here, so the information I've gleaned is purely visual from the pages of Lightning Vintage Auto magazine where there is a Custom Dreaming section in every splendid issue. Cars are seemingly always domestic in origin (Japanese, that is) and themes are often influenced by American car culture with the likes of Bonneville styled RX7s, Cobra-ised Datsun Roadsters, surf bum Hiace vans and Suzuki Fronte Gassers! 

Brilliant lateral thinking here with a Lil' Red Wagon inspired Honda Acty pickup - the Little Little Red Wagon. 

Here's that Suzuki Fronte SS (Sport Sedan) drag racer I mentioned. A picture of the front shows a gasser stance, some Cragar-esque mags and the legend 22 cu in on the fender (22 Cubic inches is 360cc for those that don't have their calculators to hand). It's the clever touches like that that make these ideas so neat. 

This MS72 Crown looks good given the circuit racer treatment.

Another fantastic concept is this Fairlady, as mentioned previously it's been Cobra-ised (or Shelby'd, perhaps?). Again, my lack of Japanese language skill holds us back, but I can clearly make out the numbers '289' amongst the text, suggesting that Masaru has a V8 in mind for this creation.

Further info? Despite the Crazy Masaru moniker (changed to Funky Masaru in at least one issue) the credit for illustration goes to M.Nemoto. I've yet to find anything on the 'net about the artist or the illustrations, but judging by this picture from Auto Otaku's Flickr pages there was a display of the works at the Tokyo Nostalic Car Show this year. If you know more let us know.