Category:Cars with JDM Modifications

Starting in the 1990s, when tuner cars first began to enter the mainstream popular culture emerged a trend of the 'clean JDM look'. This entails Japanese cars sold outside Japan receiving JDM (Japanese Domestic Market, as in any car sold in Japan) parts swaps to make their vehicle resemble it's Japanese-market counterpart. This trend has taken cars such as the fifth and seventh-Generation Honda Civics by storm, as the JDM-style has become increasingly popular in the West. In other models, such as the Acura Integra which Hot Wheels designer Ryu Asada designed, took a not uncommon trend among young Integra owners and replaced the North American-market front end (The Nort American front being dubbed 'Bug-eyes' by some enthusiasts) with the JDM front end.

Another example being the ['71 Datsun Bluebird 510 Wagon]], based of |Jun Imai's Own 1971 Datsun 510 Wagon which is a graceful replication of the real deal. Imai's Wagon embodies the Japanese 'shakotan' or 'lowrider' style (Japanese: シャコタン) in 1:64 scale. The Datsun shows a JDM Grille and is lowered and modified the way Japanese road gangs customize their cars. Cars customized in this fashion are often called 'zokusha' or in the literal translation; 'Gang cars' (Japanese:族車). Jun Imai later immortalized his motorized masterpiece as a casting the same year he finished his own Datsun wagon.

The last few cars in this category (as of 2017) are relatively mild in customization by comparison. The Scion FR-S is a sports car made by Toyota and sold under the Name 'Toyota GT86' outside Canada and the US. The Hot Wheels casting replicates this US-spec Coupe in right-hand drive, which is seen on JDM cars, not cars sold in the US and Canada as it is illegal for a car manufacturer to market Right-hand drive models new in both countries.

Same goes for the Acura NSX, modified to Right-hand drive in spite of being under the brand/marque exclusive to the Left-hand drive markets of Canada and the US.

Lastly, the Honda S2000, which is modified with a Japan-only hardtop roof and a roof-mounted air scoop. The S2000 was Honda's response to Mazda's MX-5 and Suzuki's Cappuccino coupe at the tail-end of the 1990s. Like Jun Imai, |Asada took inspiration from his own Honda S2000 as the basis for his casting of the car, even when it was released as a casting, it was in Yellow like his real car.