Import Bible celebrates its 10th anniversary with its Series 10 range of t-shirts, paying tribute to the Lamborghini Diablo, R34 Skyline GT-R and Toyota GT-One among others
[Not a valid template]“When I first started Import Bible, I set out to change the way people thought about car t-shirts, and I’ve spent a significant amount of time creating designs that to me just said ‘quality’. That’s been the most important part of it all.”
The above comes courtesy of David Nguyen from Import Bible, which this year celebrates its 10th anniversary. Long-time readers of crankandpiston.com may already be familiar with David’s work, plus his enthusiasm for the JDM market and his voluptuous models (this time round it’s the beautiful Lynn C). Our publishing editor also holds a soft spot for Import Bible: not only does he own a couple of shirts from Series 6, but it was also one of the first pieces he wrote back in 2012.
No real surprise that David has taken an extended trip down memory lane, starting with ‘the supercar poster that represented a life long goal’, the Lamborghini Diablo. It looked mental, sounded mental, had a 5.7-litre V12 that delivered a 320kph top end, and it was named after a bull. What exactly was not to love?
It’s also not the first time the revered Skyline has made its way onto Import Bible’s catalogue, the R34 GT-R taking the reigns this time as Series’ 10’s perennial ‘heart-breaker’. Now, fans of the line-up may be wondering why the Skyline, of all things, is a heartbreaker, given it’s industry-stopping performance. Those of you who’s broken their wallets on project builds with the Skyline meanwhile should understand this love/hate relationship perfectly…
Speaking of which, the ‘Grease Monkey’ range is aimed at those who are not afraid of rolling up their sleeves ‘to get down and dirty’, and we can only assume David is referring to the engine. Quite how these people would react to a magenta t-shirt though remains to be seen.
Last up, with the 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans just around the corner, we have a nod to Toyota’s endurance sports car program, specifically its three-race run with the GT-One. Having been originally engineered for grand touring GT1 racing (hence the name), the GT-One was latterly adapted to meet LMGTP prototype regulations, ultimately knackering its performance and fuel consumption as a result. Nevertheless, after an underwhelming debut in 1998, the GT-One took pole position for the ’99 race – which people tend to forget owing to those pesky ‘flying Mercedes’ incidents – and finish runner-up before the program was scrapped in favour of Toyota’s new Formula 1 campaign. It would be another 12 years before Toyota returned to la Sarthe, and another four thereafter without that sainted victory.
Prices and shopping details, as always, can be found on Import Bible’s online store. Here’s looking forward to another 10 years of significant change and quality.
