QotW: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to get the JNC (or part) of your dreams?

Subaru 360 in snow

We’ve met a lot of crazy JNC owners over the years and heard even crazier stories. From buying a one-way ticket from LA to Philly in order to drive back with a set of Celica smiley bumpers, to putt-putting a Subaru 360 that had been sitting for years from Denver to Savannah, we’ve heard them all.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to get the JNC (or part) of your dreams?

What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining or inspiring comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner from last week’s question, “What’s the best mod you can make to a classic car?” 

028-9163_NissanFairladyZ-S30_Datsun240Z-ScottKunisawa

We were severely tempted to crown Benjamin the winner for suggesting that the JNC inkan is the best mod, for its ability to change a rustbucket into a conversation piece. As much as we are susceptible to it, in this case flattery got him nowhere. Instead, Tj surged ahead to first place with his screed on the glory of a carbed motor.

Easy. Multiple side-draught carbs. Weber, Mikuni, Dellorto, pick your poison. As long as there’s enough of the greasy, fuel-leaking little buggers to have one choke per cylinder, you’re in aural heaven.

Put aside all the talk about most effective power adding modifications, forget about everyday tractability and bottom end torque, and don’t mind the fact that you’ll be singlehandedly funding your local petrol station owner’s kid’s tertiary education.

Whatever your ride, a set of these, wide open in morning traffic will be enough to make a little bit of wee come out of even the most ardent BNR32 GTR owner (I can personally vouch for this).

Simply roll down the windows (if they’re not already due to the fumes) find a solid roadside wall or tunnel, show the firewall the sole of your right shoe and don’t ever stop. You’ll get what I’m talking about.

Omedetou! Your prize from the JNC gashapon is a Hot Wheels Super Speeders mystery pack Mazda RX-7!

white_hot_wheels_rx7_debut_07

 

permalink.
This post is filed under: Question of the Week and
tagged: , .

29 Responses to QotW: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done to get the JNC (or part) of your dreams?

  1. Kev says:

    Was in Tokyo once, and was struck by an awful case of gout (if you’ve had it before, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

    But my time in Japan was short, and you gotta do what you gotta do…and so I dragged my sorry ass for one and a half hours on foot from Aoto to Ichinoe, limping every step of the way, a jolt of excruciating pain shooting up my leg, if so much as a light gust of wind fell upon it.

    All to get this, a KG Works instrument panel for MX-5 (they’re out of production, y’know): http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m255/MX5_Dorifto/154.jpg

    • Eljay71 says:

      I’m no stranger to gout (which is also the Dutch surname of a dear old friend of mine,but I digress) and it sucks like a top of the line Panasonic vacuum cleaner. Still,that is a gorgeous instrument panel,and surely worth a bit of agony. I tip my hat you,kind sir! 🙂

    • I’m extremely pleased to find this page. I need to to thank you for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely loved every part of it and I have you book-marked to see new things on your site.

  2. Loquendo says:

    This isn’t a super crazy story but I bought an ae72 without knowing how to drive stick and drove from one side of Chicago to the other. It typically takes 40 minutes and it took me two hours. My fiance and i were pulled over twice because there were no plates, and slept overnight in a parking garage (steep hills) so no one would tow it, each cop threatened to impound the vehicle. The next morning we drove it to get registered. That’s my story. Because of that car, I now know how to drive stick. The ae72 doesnt have a tach btw

  3. Brad D. says:

    500 miles each way for a fender. After searching high and low and being told time after time that the places I found one where not willing to ship a sheet metal part due to the potential for damage I finally gave up and went from just outside of Boston to Buffalo NY to pick one up. Gathered up the girlfriend and her eight year old daughter, rented a small SUV to put the part in and made a family trip out of it. Spent a day in Buffalo, and a day at Niagara Falls, if you have not been there yet, I highly recommend seeing it. Truly one of the greatest things I have ever seen. So got a fender, and a great memory all at the same time! Would not hesitate to do it again!
    Story and pics here…. http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20688

  4. jivecom says:

    when i noticed that the old lady ahead of me had bought the last unit of the part i wanted, i stole it from her to give to my friend george

  5. Nigel says:

    Back in 94′ or 93′ my father and I delivered a 1976 Corona to a friend of his.
    I drove the Corona and my dad drove his Dodge Omni for “interference” as we had to
    go about 40 km.
    The Corona had a “dealer” plate, my dad made $200.
    The dealership was going to scrap the car. We saved it.
    (At the time I did not know what a great car I was driving, my share was $20).

  6. Dutch 1960 says:

    I used to scout for dusty spider-webby RX3s parked in the street in front of apartment buildings. The building manager would usually put me on to the owner because the manager really wanted the thing gone anyway. This was about 1986. So I find a cherry 1973 2 door with a dead engine. The owner wants $160. Kind of high, but the car was in perfect condition save the engine. Go the next day with the trailer to pick it up, and it is gone! Owner says it was towed by the city. Cost to get it out of impound is $200. Convince the guy to forego the $160, I will pay the $200 to the lot, but only registered owner can pay. Got everyone together, quite the hassle, but got it done. Would have been a shame to see it crushed. My wife’s first car. Got lots of miles out of it, sold it years later for $100. Sure wish I had it back now.

  7. Koich says:

    How about moving my family to the states from Tokyo in 2005, 6 months later diving into a build AGAINST MY WIFE’S WILL at a friend’s garage 100 miles away, and going there every weekend to build it? And completing it in 6 months so I can drive it to Toyota Fest in Long Beach?

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/koich/sets/1518562/

    Was living in an apartment at the time and didn’t have a garage. Don’t think I’ll ever want to repeat that again. lol

    • Dabidoh Sambone says:

      I totally recognized your S2000 Celica – I felt nothing but empathy that you were forced by circumstance into selling it at the bottom of the recession. You really should write a story about the build and all the pitfalls.

    • Censport says:

      I remember your car as well. It was fantastic. Shame you had to sell.

      • Koich says:

        Thanks guys.

        I have no regrets on selling it. Family first. Plus it went to my friend, who’s putting good use to it.

        But the build was a good experience. Made new friends, learned valuable lessons and redeemed myself from my wife by selling it for the family.

        Definitely a checklist off my bucket list. The problem is, there are other boxes to check. 🙂

  8. Taylor says:

    Travelled 3000 miles to bring back two 240z’s. We flew down to Austin, TX from Vancouver, BC and drove back up, we loaded one of them in a cube van (weren’t supposed to), and the other one was left on a trailer. Drove through some questionable towns and cities, including El-Paso at midnight. Stayed in Vegas while it was being bombarded by smoke from a Californian forest fire. Overheated on a hill in the middle of the desert, saw a semi truck burning to the ground, drove past Edwards AFB and later saw the largest wind farm we had ever seen. While at a gas station off the highway we were attacked by a giant swarm of cicadas, the truck was plastered with them when we actually took a look at the truck later on.

    It was the most interesting week of my life.

  9. Marlow says:

    The last Celica I purchased is quite the story. I knew that my wife would be out of town. I took my old car apart for a few weeks and when she left I brought the new car over from my friends house. I bought the car a week earlier at the sheriffs auction and I could not store it at my house, She would have killed me. I swapped over entire car over a weekend. When she got home she was really confused that my car was blue and not black anymore. I recycled the old car, it was pretty rusty.

  10. Tyler says:

    Stationwagonguy automatically wins this one.

  11. Pete says:

    For quite a few years ive really wanted a 1971 dastun 510 2dr. I finally found the one calling my name. bought it sight unseen, bought a 1 way plane ticket from WI to Tuscan AZ, Then the next 2.5 day road trip by myself proved to be 1 of the most memorable trips Ive ever been on. It was/is and has been worth every min of the 22hr and 2000 mile of that trip

  12. Kevin says:

    Bought a round trip ticket to Tokyo with my girl for a week. The side mission: To go to Jubiride and come back with a set of flares for my Miata. It was the 2nd to the last day of our amazing time in Tokyo. Masterplanned the route to get to Jubiride. Took the subway to ride on the Bullet Train. Flew past cities, towns, and Mt. Fuji. Walked through streets and blocks then was forced to get a taxi. Taxi took the both of us through hell and in to farm fields. I remembered the whole crazy session was from sunrise to sunset. Seriously thought we were going to get killed while the driver took us through these corn fields. We come up to a shack and on the door was a sign, “Jubiride”. The driver barely spoke any english and he communicated with the man at the doorstep. They were closing. Good thing the man at Jubiride spoke some english. I told him what I was there for and all I wanted was to buy a set. He said, “special order and 2 weeks to make”. At that point in time, my heart just dropped. I was so disappointed. Whole day wasted all for a set of flares. And the trip back to our hotel was not fun either. I won’t get in to details on that. Went through hell and back, and come up on nothing, all for a damn set of flares. This is what car guys do. Retarded or not. I’m sure many of you guys can relate.

    • Kev says:

      I can relate! A lot of the stuff that the tuner shops advertise in the magazines is made to order.

      We once trekked to Yokohama to have an audience at RS Aizawa, and pretty much none of the stuff advertised in the Hyper Rev, like the IRTB kits, was in stock. Then Aizawa-san has a lightbulb moment, goes into a back room and triumphantly comes back with a strut brace…well, at least we didn’t leave empty handed

  13. Kevin says:

    Or how about auctioning a Miata hardtop on Ebay. And driving 8 hours through the desert, boonies and mountains just to pick it up? Initially thought it was going to be a 3 half to 4 hour drive and be back home for dinner. Plus when I got to the sellers home, it was not exactly what I had thought I purchased. The condition was a 6 out of 10, when it was suppose to be a 9 out of 10. Required new paint, seals and latches were both kind of messed up. Was forced to stay over in a hotel and that was no good. The trip back was even more exciting dealing with plenty of rain and snow. At least the sights were amazing and made a stop at what I would consider one of the earliest gas stations ever built. It was so old school it still had the dials. Older than the ones I recall seeing in the early 80’s. Another hellish trip just to get a damn hardtop.

  14. Censport says:

    Spent a month in Japan, mostly Tokyo. Flew BNA-LAX-NRT. Was looking for cars, bikes, and parts for the museum. Had the time of my life! Drove across Rainbow Bridge, rode a motorcycle through a twisty mountain pass on Hokkaido, went camping at Lake Shikotsu, attended a Mooneyes show on Odaiba in the pouring rain, visited the Toyota Mega Web and museum, proposed marriage to a cute girl working in a chocolate shop next to the Sky Tree (she politely declined, which is good because I was only joking, as I can’t afford a wife), went to Tsukuba and saw a Honda tuning shop’s track day as well as a motorcycle race, fell asleep on the Toneri Liner while standing up, carried a shrine during a matsuri parade, drove right past Mt. Fuji without seeing it because of the clouds… and all I brought back were a pair of door struts for our Toyota Sera. I overpaid for them at the dealer, and the doors still won’t stay up! But I made some great friends, picked out a really good exporter for future purchases, and made contacts with people who have since supplied parts for our Yotohachi’s engine rebuild.

    And I can’t wait to do it all over again later this year!

  15. Badger says:

    Funny, I’m about to buy 4 Enkei gold mesh 13×6 wheels in San Francisco — and fly home to Victoria, BC with them. All for a spoiled brown KE70 (nice combo eh?)

  16. Kevin says:

    @Bob, Yes, I bought it. Wasn’t about to come back with out it lol.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *