VIP Tuning
With VIP's underground inception, it's only natural for its styling cues to be subtle. Unlike show cars with ostentatious paint jobs and aggressive body kits with wild wings, VIP cars are camouflaged for urban duty. If you're a brash Bosozoku tired of being busted, or a street racer sick of getting sweated, you'd want your key to dangle as low as possible. And it doesn't get any more low key than a flagship saloon built for the executive demographic. It's the mafia equivalent of opening a money-laundering storefront.
Over time, VIP transcended its seedy element. A new form of tuning, it appealed to a wider audience looking to modify a luxury sedan. And for the Japanese VIP purist only a few platforms qualify, with the viable makes residing heavily in the Toyota and Nissan camp. US variants of the Lexus LS and GS, the Infiniti Q45 and M45, as well as other J-exclusives proliferate under the VIP banner (see sidebar). As of recently, however, VIP Style tuning has crossed over into the more affordable realm of subcompact K-cars and larger Minivans. Bippu Fits and Odysseys? Best-to believe it.
Loop, swoop and pull. That's what tying a Kitsuna knot is all about.
Although makes may have transcended the flagship saloons, there is still a common theme when it comes to VIP styling-clean. Black is the traditional Bippu color, but other muted hues such as whites, maroons or silvers are acceptable. Full body and lip kits are simple, taking the stock lines and mildly exaggerating them. Spoilers, if any, are small and most graphics are frowned upon. At most, owners will place small crew or shop stickers on the front windshield or on custom license plate frames. Add any anime characters, flowers, tribal or six-foot long Honda or Civic stickers and you'd have to lose a pinky finger. Instead, chrome emblems and grilles are used to contrast the body of a VIP ride.
The feeling of understated luxury is carried over onto the cabin of a VIP car. A dealership's wet dream, factory style accessories proliferate; factory style, being the key words. Aftermarket floor mats, seat covers, wood trims and steering wheel covers give the interior a sense of lavishness. About the only flashy modification you might see in a VIP cockpit is the ICE. Thanks in part to US trends, integrated monitors and audio is executed la flying first class. Other tell-tale VIP traits are rear curtains, rear view mirror ornaments, tables and pillows. If you can't tell, attention is carefully paid to the small details. After all, it's the sum of minute details that separates a room at a Motel 6 and one at a Ritz-Carlton.
As for tuning, the typical VIP car is light on the modifications. Built motors, huge turbos and nitrous are for the birds and racecars. Instead, mufflers, brakes, suspension bars, camber kits and coilovers are about the only things a Bippu boy rocks. Height adjustable airbags once left to the Lowrider world are now popular means to slamming your JDM ride.
While VIP cars aren't going for the "Hottest Engine" or "Hottest Performance Vehicle" awards, what definitely is hot on a VIP car is its wheels. Paradoxically, while most of the exterior is on the hush-hush tip, the wheels scream louder than a pack of Mydol-lacking PMSing banshees. Huge, gleaming rims with aggressive offsets lathered in a thin coat of tire is the final quotient in the buff VIP look. Before you think about re-drilling the 16-inch wheels off your Accord, don't. Bippu's be flossing 20s and up, holmes.
Nipple tassles minus the boobies.
The Wave Of The Future
Now that VIP's managed to slip past Homeland Security, what can we expect? Well, if there's one thing we Americans are good at it's adding a twist of our own ingenuity. Already VIP Style has leaked over to Scions-particularly with the xBs-and Acura-badged sedans have followed suit playing up their luxury roots. Others have taken their VIP rides to US tuners and have thrown in high horsepower I-eat-AMG-Mercedes-and-BMW-M-series-for-breakfast-lunch-dinner-oh-and-brunch setups. And as of recently, thanks in large part to Falken, AutoLuxury and the twist of tuned sporty sedans with VIP-styling cues are tearing down the four-doored Bippu'd walls.
So how does one define VIP? You can't. At its core, VIP defies the norm. It is a form of James Dean-like automotive rebellion against authority, and the search for something different and all-together new. With only a loose set of guidelines, it is what we make of it. It is the future of our scene. It's the maturation of JDM and, like us, it will grow and evolve.
As for me? I'm looking to sell some of my cars. I need come up with some cash so I can find me a used Lexus. JDM may have its Wong but VIP's about to have its Jung.