In our continuing effort to get our readers more information on retro rides and rice on Nostalgic Wednesdays, a question was posed on our Facebook Page about what you’d like to see today. When somebody mentioned The Midnight Club, I’m not gonna lie, the first thought that popped in my head was that terrible video game.

My second thought brought my senses back, and I immediately realized that he meant The Mid Night Club, Japan’s notorious street racing gang. Pay attention, i’m only doing this once!

The Mid Night Club, or Middo Naito Kurabu (try saying that but in a Japanese accent, and you’ll get it), was established sometime around 1985 when a group of speed freaks in Tokyo would gather at midnight to challenge the Bosozoku, a violent gang of bikers that would wreak havoc on unsuspecting motorists as they flew by them at a very high rate of speed.

The Mid Night Club is perhaps the most well respected and most influential group of car enthusiasts known around the world. Part of that reason was it’s exclusivity. To be in the club, a candidate would have a one year trial period before becoming a full fledged member. The candidate had to have a car that could do at least 160mph as most races were typically above 190mph and consisted of mostly Fairlady Z’s, Ferrari’s, Porsches, Skylines and RX-7’s.

One major rule the Mid Night Club had in place was a very strict policy on safety. If you were ever a threat to yourself or anyone around the club while driving on the expressway, you were immediately asked to leave. In fact, it is said that of all of the candidates considered, roughly 10% of that group would go on to don the infamous Mid Night Club stickers which can be seen written in cursive on the front windshield, side rockers and on the bumpers. This was a prestigious moment for a member, as any car caught with these stickers without being a full fledged member was allegedly vandalized and even burned down. Sheesh!

Races usually began at speeds of 100-120 km/h and a signal from a third car in the form of a horn. Both participants rushed on, and sometimes the starting point was a line just before a big curve and continue on to various straights. To end the race, they would choose the entrance to a rest area, where the competition could talk about the details of the race. It could also be used to catch up with the other car shoul they lose sight of the other contender.

Other racing teams would also issue challenges to the Mid Night Club. In this case, each team would elect a member to duke it out with the opposing team in a best two out of three scenario to eliminate any chance of luck. But the Mid Night Club was no punk. Their members would often pack some super serious punch back in the day. Of course most members horsepower output was believed to be anywhere from 450-700hp, there was one crazy Z32 that supposedly had a prototype motor directly from Nissan that they used in their Z32 Bonneville Salt Flats race car. A motor that is believed to be somewhere in the realm of 800hp.

Which leads us to another rule of the Mid Night Club. Under no circumstances, a member could not ask another member what he did for a living or how he got the money to modify their cars. This was strictly forbidden. One member supposedly spent upwards of $2million dollars to keep up with his addiction to “Maximum Velocity”.

And as Steve Neill puts it,
“One night however, in 1999, the group would see its final hurrah.

At approximately 3am on an unknown Friday night in 1999, a member of Bosozoku was driving recklessly down the Wangan, whilst the scared drivers of motorcars were swerving out of his way. The Mid Night Club just happened to be racing in this area, and while he caught up to them, they blinked their lights, unbeknown to the fact that the rider of the motorcycle was in fact drunk.

As they proceeded to race through the traffic, in excess of 160 miles per hour, the Bosozoku rider lost control, and hit a motorist. The motorist crashed into the barricade, dying instantly. The Mid Night Club racers slowed down, and noticed that the Bosozoku rider was also in fact dead.

Due to a policy that the Mid Night Club had organized at their start up, the group disbanded. Their rule was simple, if anyone was to die during the existence of the club, whether a racer, or a motorist, or whether it was indirect or directly the clubs fault, they would disband.

And that they did.”

The members of the Mid Night Club are sworn to secrecy, but some members are obvious. Amemiya-San of RE-Amemiya Japan is said to be a part of the club along with his buddy, Top Secret guru, Smoky Nagata, famous wangan racer aka hashiriya. Our own JohnP asked the man directly, “Are you a part of Mid Night Club?” during an open interview session at Import Reactor 2010. On cue, he dodged John’s question, which more or less confirms that he did indeed participate in one of the most well known street racing gangs on the planet.

–David–
David@maydaygarage.com