Dekotora Trucks: Could Japan Tradition Become NHRA Craze?

This phenomenon has been a part of Japanese pop culture for decades, but it could be something to capture a fresh audience for NHRA drag racing.

What started the trend, which has grown into a subculture, was a series of 10 Japanese comedy-action films that hit the box offices between 1975 and 1979. Noribumi Suzuki directed these movies that starred Bunta Sugawara as Momojiro Hoshi (“Ichibanboshi” or “first star”) and Kinya Aikawa as Kinzo Matsushita (a/k/a “Jonathan”). These two truck-driving characters entertained with their various escapades throughout Japan in these outrageously decorated trucks.

Today, Momojiro and Kinya wannabes sink millions of yen into tricking out their trucks with lights that would make an arcade look dim. In and of themselves, these truck displays are an overwhelming spectacle. But what if they could help transform the NHRA into an ultra-hip sports property – like it was in the 1960s and ’70s – and build on the already high-tech marvel that the NHRA already is?

Whether an NHRA race-car hauler, with the capability of flashing lights and music, would be street-legal is a salient point. Maybe no Department of Transportation would permit it. But Tommy Ivo’s unique glass-sided trailer from the 1966-68 era leaps to mind. It showed off his “Barnstormer” dragster. The race car, incidentally, also was featured on film, in the 1964 “Bikini Beach” romantic comedy which starred Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon.

The Dekotora – which means “decoration truck” – domain might never intersect with the NHRA. But it’s fun to imagine how it could.