Thailand Street Metal: a local’s guide to the Thailand car scene

Just as we thought we had a fair idea of what was going on in the automotive world, a Facebook page named ‘Streetmetal’ prompted us to find out more from an unlikely corner of the globe. With a scene that appears to be more evolved and intense than ours, Thailand is a hot-pot of crazy Japanese cars that are commonly modified here in New Zealand — with the added bonus of some of the most spectacular urban cityscapes to cruise around in late at night, and readily available JDM accessories to make things even better.

We got the feeling that it wasn’t just tuk-tuks and taxis that get modified — as seen in the second instalment of the Hangover movie franchise — and we weren’t disappointed. Reaching out to Kittitouch Katemanee from Streetmetal, we asked him if he’d give us a rundown on the Thai car scene as a whole, and what the usual car enthusiast gets up to. It helps that Kittitouch is a car enthusiast through and through, and, little did we know, has lived not only in Thailand, but in Japan, too. He also owns a modified Honda Civic EG with a D-series engine that is completely stripped out, with Bride seats and on Volk wheels.

But enough of us rambling on about how cool their scene is — over to you, Kittitouch!

NZ Performance Car: Hey Kittitouch, tell our readers a bit about yourself and how your Streemetal brand came about.

Streetmetal: When I was young, I loved modified cars so much that I started driving them when I was 16 years old. With a passion for nightlife and street racing, I would meet my friends at the gas station every Saturday night, and we’d go on runs — to me, this life is a wonderful one. I was so passionate about modifying cars when I was younger, that I decided to make the move to Japan to be amongst the tuning scene there. Every day, I was working with used cars, removing tuning parts off them, and selling them online.

In 2013, I decided to move back home to Bangkok, and I wanted to take photos of cars there and get involved with this car culture again. After shooting my EG Civic and a friend’s car quite frequently, I decided to establish the Streetmetal Facebook page in March, 2013.