ANAGAWA, JAPAN. I’m deep in the bowels of a Tokyo Police

Station, wondering quite what the hell I’m doing here. It’s taken

45 minutes, so far, to pay a parking fine that took all of five

minutes to receive. And as I sit here, alone, in some random

quiet corridor in this labyrinthine building, I can’t help but

wonder if I’m about to become a diplomatic incident.

It’s somewhat ironic, too, that I should find myself in trouble

with the law for this most minor of indiscretions, given the last

24 hours I’ve had. I’ve been hot on the tail of the mysterious Mid

Night Club, the exclusive and secret clique of street racers that

streaked across Tokyo’s public expressways at speeds of more

than 300km/h, in the ’80s and ’90s.

No retelling of the story of Nissan GT-R would be complete

without delving into its starring role in this most infamous of

underground street racing scenes. Formed in 1982, the Mid

Night Club, or Mid Night Racing Team, would meet, as its name

suggests, in the middle of the night, and host full-blown races

up the multi-lane expressways that skirt Tokyo’s Bay Area. While

other underground clubs focused on street drifting or point-to-

point time trials, the Mid Night Club was all about top speed.

It was difficult to join and there was only ever an average of 30

members at any given time. It legendarily attracted a well-to-do

membership of accomplished businessmen in their thirties and

forties, and was governed by a strict honour code. No members

were to share details of their private lives, and you weren’t to

ask. And no member was to ever needlessly endanger the safety

of another racer or, crucially, a member of the public. Break this

rule and expulsion was swift.

The club was also known for its clever means of clandestine

organisation. In the times before mobile phones (remember

those?) members were told to grab a certain newspaper, in which

details of the next meet-up would be communicated via a cryptic

classifieds ad. ‘Interested in discounted leather handbags? Meet

at the Daikoku rest stop between 11pm and 2am’ read one ad. All

to keep things on the down-low, you understand.

Despite the secrecy, Mid Night Club members would wear

their high-speed penchants on their sleeve – or their front

bumpertobeprecise.Memberswouldidentifiablebywayofa

small, rectangular sticker on the front bumper that read “Mid

Night Car Speciall”, sometimes complimented by “Mid Night”

in a scripted font across the top of the windscreen. But apply

this trademark insignia to your own car with no membership,

and you could find the decals torn off. Or worse.

On the streets themselves, races were won and lost based on

whether you could ‘lose’ your rival, or reach a certain point on

the expressway first. Quite how this all managed to go on for

nearly 20 years sort of says something about the effectiveness of

the local Tokyo police at the time (and now – have you ever paid

a parking fine in Tokyo?). Although supposedly, despite being

a chronic nuisance, the Mid Night Club kept things clean and

maybe, just maybe, earned a modicum of begrudging respect

from some of the police that were trying to catch them.

That was until 1999 when the brakes for the Mid Night Club

were jammed on hard. Two members of the outlaw motorcycle

gang, the Bosozoku, taunted the Mid Night Club into a high-

speed race that would end in tragedy. Chancing upon slow traffic,

there was a monumental smash in which the two Bosozoku

motorcyclists were killed and eight drivers hospitalised, six of

them members of the public. In the midst of a media storm,

the Mid Night Club, having forgotten its own honour, and in the

most Japanese way possible, promptly disbanded.

Of course, it was always the cars that made the Mid Night

Club. To be eligible for entry, your machine must have been

capable of at least 250km/h, not just because the races took

part in the realm of 300km/h but also because local police cars

were limited to 180km/h (as are all new Japanese cars). And

so the Mid Night Club attracted everything from Ferraris to

highly modified, late-model Toyota Supras and Mazda RX-7s,

and countless Porsches. The most infamous of all Mid Night

Club cars was the maroon, ‘Yoshida Specials’ Porsche 911, also

known as Black Bird, a 460kW turbocharged-to-within-an-

inch-of-its-headgasket 930 Turbo, built to eclipse the v-max

of German tuner RUF’s own infamous CTR Yellowbird. That

benchmark? 347km/h. Supposedly Black Bird – on the public

expressways in Tokyo, recall – never quite got there.

There was another car popular amongst the Mid Night

BELOWDaikoku

Futocarparkin

Yokohama was a

popular meeting

spot for Tokyo street

racers in the ’80s and

’90s and continues to

be a late-night

hot spot for cool cars

tothisday

K

➜

120 september 2019 whichcar.com.au/motor

UP THE MULTI-LANE EXPRESSWAYS THAT SKIRT TOKYO’S BAY, THE MID NIGHT CLUB WAS ALL ABOUT TOP SPEED