Japan's Dodge Ram Van Spec Racing Series is Painfully Cool - Automobile
Picture a mid-1990s Dodge Ram 1500 Van. In Japan, some Ram Vans meet a much different, more glorious fate. The Dodge Van , or “Dajjiban”, has taken the Japanese enthusiast community by storm, with hopped-up Dodge Vans done up in wild Japanese style for the express purpose of competing in a yearly spec racing event. Event organizer Takuro Abe was at the motorcycle racing school track day, when he got the idea to take his Dodge van onto the track as a joke. Despite warnings not to, a group of stock vans charged around the track, and spawned an entire automotive subculture and this extremely entertaining documentary about it. Now, the D-Van GP is on its eighth running, and it gains more followers... The spec-sheets of some of the vans are more impressive than some high-dollar muscle car builds here in the U. S. One particular Dajjiban featured in the video below has a carbon fiber hood and grille with, of all things to find on a delivery van,... Power for that Dajjiban comes from the stock 5. 2-liter Magnum V-8, victim of a shockingly intensive build kit with a full top- and bottom-end rebuild with high-performance internals, fat cams, beefy rockers, heavy duty oil and water pumps, and a... Source: www.automobilemag.com
