Over the last 25 years, we’ve strived to entertain our followers with everything from the most iconic concepts of yesteryear to the latest trends in the collector car world, and we’re delighted that our family of like-minded enthusiasts is now over five hundred thousand strong! To celebrate this incredible milestone, we knew we wanted to do something special, and so we decided to ask artist extraordinaire Davide Virdis to work his magic on an appropriate classic.
We threw around ideas; obviously 500 had to be in the model title, and so automotive greats like the Lamborghini Countach LP500 and Fiat Cinquecento immediately sprang to mind, but we knew that for it to truly represent Classic Driver, it had to be a little different. The concept of ‘the sleeper’ has always been near and dear to our hearts, and no car does it better than the Mercedes-designed and Porsche-built 500 E. What better way to celebrate, then, than by flipping the sleeper concept on its head by envisioning what our dream bosozoku-inspired Merc would look like.
For those who don’t know, bosozoku refers to a Japanese subculture that was born out of the biker gangs of post-WWII Japan. Looking to express their style through their machines, these Bosozoku bikers added crazy exhausts and vibrant paint jobs to their two wheeled chariots, and eventually this form of self-expression graduated to cars as they became more accessible to the average Japanese gangster. No longer exclusive to Japan’s criminal underworld, bosozoku has become a widely-loved subculture that is all about extreme proportions: crazy two-story exhaust pipes, continent-rivalling front-splitters, and slammed-to-the-sidewalk stance is the name of the game. In other words, a wild two-tone metallic flake 500 E riding on SSR Speed Star MKIIs was the only way we could express our gratitude to all 500,000 of you in our extended family, and the ideal way to welcome the next-generation of Classic Drivers. Thank you all, and here’s to the next 500,000!
