You know how you've always wanted to like cars, but they never had that dropped-to-the-ground-by-a-gigantic-toddler look that you crave? Well, wish no more, pal. Check out the Kawashima Celica, shown at this year's Nagoya Exciting Car Showdown in Japan.
That's a great name for a car show, by the way. Who's going to say "You went to the Exciting Car Showdown? Sounds boring." Nobody, that's who.
How and why would someone do this?
The Celica with the insane negative camber there is the creation of Kawashima, an employee of Drift Tengoku magazine. In an interview with Nori Yaro, Kawashima explained the insane camber and tire look:
As for the look, there's three main points of the way modified cars should look (in Japan), and that's onikyan (cambered wheels), tsuraichi (tyres just barely inside the guards) and hippari (stretched tyres). I wanted to make a car that took all of those things to the furthest point I've ever seen them done.
The tape and what could be cardboard that form the fender flares make it pretty clear the car's not finished yet, though it is drivable, as shown in this video.
To keep the low-profile tires hugging the oversized rims, they have to be filled to about 87 psi, and refilled several times mid-drive. Finally, that magic balance between exploding tire danger and wild inconvenience has been achieved.
Aside from looking nice and bonkers, there actually is a reason for large amounts of negative camber— in cornering, negative camber can maximize contact patch area. There's even been a racecar built based on this very concept: the two-stroke Milliken MX1.
Now we just need some loon to make a car based on the idea of taking toe-in to its extreme. (Hat tip to _Engineer!)
Photo Credit: NoriYaro