Indeed, he’s a proper, old-school habitual chuffer it’s rare that the 57-year-old doesn’t have a cigarette loosely hanging from his lips.Ĭonsidering his infamy as a 200mph maniac, Smokey doesn’t have the look of a menace to society. “What do you want to know?” Smokey says, crossing his legs while exhaling a thick cloud of smoke in front of one of his iconic cars. Smokey Nagata in Uk to attempt 200mph on a British public road. Two decades on, Top Gear’s come to Japan to learn a bit more about the man, the myth and the truth behind that highly dangerous night. It was the ultimate ballsy PR tool for his company – Top Secret – proving that his cars were the real deal.įast-forward 20-odd years and the perpetual nature of social-media algorithms has propelled that grainy footage to a new generation. His escapades hit the headlines, and the grainy footage of him illegally squirrelling down the motorway from the cameras gaffer-taped to the car went VHS viral – instantly catapulting him to legendary status within the tuning community. It wasn’t long before the winter darkness filled with blue lights: the police made chase and arrested him, resulting in Smokey having a night at Her Majesty’s pleasure (a remarkably lenient sentence which wouldn't happen today) before going back to Japan, worried his tuning company was going to go under. More than enough to unofficially claim the dubious, dangerous record of the fastest speed ever reached by a car on UK public highway. Due to some complications (the engine running lean on one run, the car wanting to jettison its bonnet at 190-odd on another), he had a few attempts but ultimately fell short of the double ton, clocking 194mph.
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