The Mid Night Club ( ミッド ナイト クラブ Middo Naito Kurabu ) was one of the most respected and well known illegal street racing clubs in the world during their run from 1987 – 1999. With cars that were capable of reaching speeds over 200mph, it’s no surprise that almost twenty years later their stories are still being talked about.
The club gained widespread notoriety not only due to the combination of their dangerously high-speed races and aggressive driving styles but also for their secrecy and a strict code of ethics for members. As odd as it may sound, the club put pedestrian and other motorists safety at the top of their priority list knowing they are driving speeds between 160 – 210 mph on public roads.
It’s one thing to engineer a car that can go 200mph, but it’s a whole another animal when we are talking about back ally tuner cars maintaining those speeds for 20 minutes at a time. To give you a better idea of the scope of these cars, a Lamborghini Diablo can only hold it’s top speed for about 3 minutes before it’s V-12 overheats, and the Bugatti Veyron can hold full open throttle for 12 minutes before it runs out of gas. We are talking about normal everyday vehicles outperforming today’s modern Hypercars. The club contained a wide variety of cars including Mazda RX7’s, Nissan Skyline’s, Toyota Supra’s, and even a Toyota Soarer that was rumored to go 350 km/h (217 mph) on the Wangan. The club would often test their vehicle’s top speeds on the famous and unfortunately now closed Yatabe Test Track. In 1994 and 1995 High Power Magazine was granted access to photograph one of these test sessions.
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