Influence is a rather interesting phenomenon in automotive culture. There are, on the whole, three major camps: the European, the East Asian, and the North American, each of which has a near unlimited amount of subcultures and movements. While each of the spheres has their own unique aesthetics, individuals are constantly pulling ideas from each other and blending those designs into their own region's styles. One can look to the American hot-rod culture's influence on the European air-cooled Volkswagens or the American adoption of the Japanese tuner style. Eventually these influences get passed around so many times, that they end up coming back to the original source in new ways. For example, the Japanese VIP scene was inspired by the large, classy sedans of Europe. Japanese tuners were drawn to the imposing characters of cars like the Mercedes S Class and BMW 7 series, and sought to apply those same styling cues to their own domestic sedans, mixing the classy Old World style with the existing shakotan look. Michael Milano-Picardi was inspired by that bippu look and has applied it to his own Mercedes CL500; an American, modifying his European sports coupe in a manner invented by the Japanese for to mimic stately European sedans. Wunderbar!
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