Chevrolet Corvette with Uma Musume Twin Turbo spec
While there are many customization cultures that Japan can be proud of, one car culture that has grown remarkably is the world of “Itasha” cars. In recent years, the attention and number of such events have been increasing, and many small-scale events are held throughout the country. In addition, the annual Odaiba event attracts as many as 1,000 Itasha cars, creating a great deal of excitement. Mr. “Totomofu”, who created a Chevrolet C6 “Corvette” to the “Itasha” specifications, is one such person who has fallen in love with the world of “Itasha”.
Few Corvettes in the Itasha world
Mr. “Totomofu” has created a Chevrolet C6 “Corvette” to the “pain car” specifications. He was a regular car enthusiast and anime fan before he learned about the customization culture of “Itasha,” but it wasn’t until he started seeing custom “itasha” cars at car events that he began to look into the subject, and from there his interest grew.
His automotive history began with a Mazda Demio, followed by two CX-5s, and five years ago he purchased a C6 Corvette, which he had hoped to own at least once in his life. He had been enjoying it for a while as a stock body with only the wheels changed, but around that time, he started to be interested in painted cars and thought it might stand out if he built a base car with a C6 Corvette, which hardly existed in the painted car world! This was the idea that he had at the time, and he started a project to paint his favorite character “Twin Turbo” from “Uma Musume Pretty Derby,” which he was into at the time, on the Corvette.
Evolved into a higher level of art
Because Twin Turbo is a character with a particularly strong appetite for driving, the design that Mr. “Totomofu” draws on his car also has a sense of speed in mind. The driver’s side depicts the character running at full speed when overtaking, while the passenger side depicts the character running but in a more relaxed manner so that the viewer can see the character when the car is stationary.
Also, the hood, which is a feature of the C6 Corvette, is usually attached using a 120 cm wrapping sheet, but Mr. “Totomofu” insisted on a one-piece design and asked “Divide”, a Tokyo-based store that can do that special work. However, “Tomofu” insisted on a one-piece design and asked “Divide,” a shop in Tokyo, to do the special installation. The actual wrapping process took only two days, but it took about three months, including the design discussions and revisions.
Because “attractiveness” is the most important element of an Itasha car, the process of “design” is just as important as the parts used for ordinary customization. This is the most important part of the process for the Itasha car owner, and it is a “place of competition” where rivals compete with each other to see what kind of pictures they can create, and where the owner’s sense of style is tested. Therefore, all painters, without exception, are particular about the expression, composition, and design of their characters, and they pursue them without compromise, including the smallest details. The car graphic culture of car wrapping has attracted the attention of the global customization scene, and the high level of skill required by the owners of Itasha cars in Japan can be said to be the highest in the world.
As conveyed by the look of Mr. “Totomofu’s” C6 Corvette, the style of this Itasha car could be described as a work of art. A fusion of Japan’s proud anime culture and customization culture. The “Itasha” style, which mixes the two, is sure to evolve even more intensely in the future, as owners compete fiercely in this field.
