When Hironao Yokomaku began working at a French restaurant aged 16, little did he know how much he’d influence Japan’s car culture in the decades that followed.
Now aged 63, the Tsukuba-based tuner shows no signs of slowing down having just unveiled a new project alongside Fast & Furious actor Sung Kang. Because for nearly four decades, Yokomaku-san has led the iconic Japanese tuning brand VeilSide.
Most readers will be familiar with VeilSide’s work in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Almost 20 years on, Han’s orange and black Mazda RX-7 remains a poster car for the entire film franchise. But long before Hollywood thrust VeilSide into the spotlight, it had established itself as one of Japan’s most advanced tuners, building the country’s fastest cars with exteriors almost as loud as their exhausts.
VeilSide’s distinctive look was originally inspired by the George Barris-designed 1960s Batmobile of all things. Now it’s synonymous with 1990s and ’00s Japanese car culture – think huge, sculpted rear wings and curved, ankle-breaking splitters.
During this time, Yokomaku-san wanted to create cars that he felt were ‘complete’ packages, as opposed to focussing on a single element, as most Japanese tuners were doing. But a VeilSide car needed blistering performance, sharpened handling, and bespoke aero before it could ever wear the hallowed ‘Fortune’ or ‘Combat’ name, depending on the level of work involved.
The look didn’t just inspire other Japanese tuners; it even crossed continents, with VeilSide-style body kits being adapted on European cars during the Max Power era. Everyone wanted a piece of the VeilSide pie. And while the good times felt like a perpetual party, the difficult times that followed brought the company to the brink of collapse.
Now, with VeilSide enjoying a resurgence in 2025, Yokomaku-san is keen to remind the world of VeilSide’s 35-year-long history.
“At first, I started riding around on customised motorbikes, and of course, I thought mine was the fastest,” Yokomaku-san explains. “That was until one day I raced a Nissan Bluebird with a tuned engine. I lost easily. And that’s when I knew my tuning life had started. When I began driving at 18, I immediately got a job at a car shop to feed my obsession with speed.”
Car tuning in the 1980s wasn’t exactly the behemoth it is today. As the owner of an S30 Nissan Fairlady Z set up for drag racing, Yokomaku-san tuned its engine by trial and error, leading to many rebuilds. By the age of 22, he’d honed his craft enough to establish his own business – Yokomaku Racing Service – working tirelessly to build the fastest S30 in Japan. His pièce de resistance was to turbocharge Nissan’s L-series engine, which immediately led to more victories while competing in zeroyon (0-400m) competitions. Then, a year later, he turned his attention towards the new Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R.
At the age of 28, Yokomaku-san was beating established tuners in just about every discipline. Keen to showcase his skills beyond simply going fast, Yokomaku Racing Service became VeilSide – a name based on an English translation of his family name – ‘Yoko’ meaning side and ‘maku’ meaning veil.
“Between 1990 and 1990, I set many Japanese records including top speed, drag racing and the fastest 0-300km/h time of 13.72 seconds in our R-1 Street Drag R32 Skyline GT-R,” Yokomaku-san adds. “Our cars were very distinctive, but also the fastest, so many requests for engine tuning came from owners across Japan. But before long, I was reminded of the dangers of tuning after frequent accidents in tuned cars occurred across Japan. I did not want this to happen, so I decided to create a car that could attract people’s attention without running at crazy speeds. After winning awards at Tokyo Auto Salon for many years, the VeilSide cars and look became very popular.”
While the Tokyo Drift RX-7 might be VeilSide’s most recognised Fast & Furious car, the company’s aero kits have been present in every one of the franchise’s films since day one. Remember Dominic Toretto’s red Mazda RX-7 in the original movie? That’s Veilside. Oh, and Suki’s pink Honda S2000 from 2 Fast 2 Furious? Yes, that’s one too.
Unfortunately for Yokomaku-san, this popularity led to an overwhelming demand, which left VeilSide unable to maintain supply. Before long, cheap replica kits flooded the international market, and as the tuning industry slumped in the mid-2000s, VeilSide found itself in a bad financial way.
“During this time, VeilSide moved away from the spotlight with a focus on survival,” Yokomaku-san explains. “It wasn’t until Tokyo Drift made a big impact all over the world that people began to remember VeilSide and expose a new generation to our designs. That was a good feeling.”
“I started VeilSide after many bad experiences with other tuners, so to still be creating exciting cars for enthusiasts all around the world is very moving. I am not getting any younger, but for the future, all I hope is VeilSide can continue to inspire the next generation of tuning fans, just like myself all those decades ago.”
Mark Riccioni
Instagram: mark_scenemedia
Twitter: markriccioni
mark@speedhunters.com
