If you’re an enthusiast of a certain age, there is a very good chance you got your first taste of JDM cars from a pirated copy of a Best Motoring VHS tape. It would be inaccurate to call it a show since it was never broadcast over the airwaves, but the monthly videos — released first on tape when they debuted in 1987, then DVD — were hugely popular in Japan. Eventually, they even crossed the Pacific divide before the days of internet.
For $20 an episode, you could watch legendary Japanese drivers give their impressions on the latest cars forbidden from US import in Best Motoring, or catch the latest in Japanese tuning trends in Hot Version as they raced around Tsukuba and fought touge battles. Now there’s no longer a need to fumble around with recorded media.
Want to see a review of the Tommykaira M30 when it was new? How about a comparison of 1990s Japanese 4-wheel-steering systems set to synth music? A touge battle between the world’s best drifters? Or when the whole gang went to Finland to watch Tommi Makinen hoon the crap out of a Subaru? It’s all on the Best Motoring YouTube channel.
Goodbye, productivity!
YES, I’ve spent countless $$$ on Best Motoring International videos. Gan-san driving the Hako at Fuji one last time is aural pleasure. They did it so right, no music, just the pure mechanical sound of the S20 at full song. I made countless friends watch the DVD back then.
Back when they changed the track around 2005…still watch that one a lot !
That’s one of my favourites too – an absolutely spine-tingling sound.
Ha, that Tommi Makinen (one “k”?) video is great! I was laughing out loud, especially when they started driving at the end and he just takes off and disappears. Thanks for the head’s up on this channel, Ben!
One K corrected, thanks!
(sorry, I didn’t mean to be that guy..)
No worries, corrections always appreciated!
!!!!!!!!
Forgot to add that there’s a secret bit of comedy if you turn on closed captions and have it translate to english (on videos with CC enabled)
Also, don’t feel bad. It’s not really mocking “engrish” because no one at Best Motoring was involved with the Japanese subtitles, let alone the English ones. Youtube generates them itself
At last! Thanks to that this years December won’t be the worst month of the year for me. Arigato for the info ^-^
I have a dream of one day finding a site that has .ISOs of the original DVDs, unaltered in any way. I want to play them on loop on my garage TV. Oh, and I want a garage TV.