FLY ME TO THE MOON

SIMON MAJOR WINGS HIS WAY TO THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN FOR A BUCKET-LIST EXPERIENCE AT THE 2024 MOONEYES HOT ROD CUSTOM SHOW IN YOKOHAMA

-  SIMON MAJOR

NO ONE does retro better than the Japanese, and when you add that sensibility to the country's homegrown car culture, you get the Mooneyes Hot Rod Custom Show.

Held for one day only on 1 December at the Pacifico Convention Centre in Yokohama, the 32nd running of Mooneyes continued its tradition of bringing an astounding variety of vehicles and styles together in one place. Whether it's customs, hot rods, mini-trucks, Volkswagen, lowriders, cool bikes or classic JDM rides that rock your world, you'll find them all at Mooneyes, with organiser Shige Suganuma and his team packing the halls with incredible builds.

As huge fan of all of the above, and having never been to Japan, a visit to the Mooneyes Yokohama show has long been on my to-do list, and 2024 was the year it finally happened. Walking into the venue on Saturday's set-up day had me giggling with excitement as the scale of the show and the sheer breadth and quality of the vehicles hit home.

I was barely 10 metres inside when the gorgeous 'Flaming Gene' 1958 Pontiac of Yonezawa Kazuhiro stopped me in my tracks. The once two-door sedan has been converted to a hardtop and treated to a heap of custom body mods, including a three-inch chop and custom front and rear end treatments that incorporate era-contemporary Corvette and Impala parts. A 400-cube Poncho mill resides under the bonnet, and the white-with-candy-pink-flames machine scored the Coby Gewertz/Church Equipped's Choice plaque and trophy handsaw! As the hall continued to fill on set-up day, with lanes of mind-blowing builds forming, I found it be such an instructive reflection of Japan's car scene and Japanese culture more generally.