Exposed oil coolers, negetive offset wheels, fender flares that are in different color than the rest of the car on early model cars are styled after the touring/road race cars like the KPGC10 Skyline 2000 GT-R that were popular in the 60's.
The boxy front ends and crazy wings are styled after the early 80's racecars like the Tomica/Newman R30.
This hobby has been around since the 1970's, so it's not anything new really. We are just noticing this because of the JDM trends of recent years.