We’ve see many trends roll through JNC culture over the years. Some great (upgrades in body rigidity and period correct wheel re-pops), and some not so great (such as over-use of accessory add-ons). Personally, I wince every time I hear people waxing on about “JDM” this and that. It comes off as very boy-racer and an air of elitism. How about you?
What makes you cringe about the current JNC culture?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your favorite JNC underdog story?“
Last week, we were all transported back to 2001 thanks to Jac Cottrell‘s recreated memoirs of a certain Mr. Toretto. How many times have we all been there? Sitting at a stoplight, wild graphics on our freshly painted boosted Supra, only to be dissed by some doofus in a stock Ferrari.
One time, this punk owed me a 10 second car. He brought me a burnt heap of a Mk IV Supra to my shop. After about 20 minutes – fueled by an amazing soundtrack – my crew had this thing all back together. We applied killer graphics over the chrome orange paint and took it for a shake down. At a stop light he complemented a local car owner on his ride…only to be told “More than you can afford pal, Ferrari.” I casually leaned over and said “Smoke him”. And, well, I guess the rest is history.
– D. Toretto
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What makes me cringe about the current JNC culture (and car culture) is the fact that tasteful modifications that even improve the reliability of the car are at times not valued or may even decrease the value of the car. Take the turbos on the R32 GTR for example. Those factory ceramic turbos should be replaced ASAP for reliability. Yes even Godzilla deserves some work. Its a sports car not a parade queen and technology should be embraced. You can always save your inferior nostalgic bits in the event Nissan or some ritch idiot desides they need a completely OEM car.
Originality is valued by so many in the hobby, most of whom are neither rich nor idiots, that the market simply reflects this. Personally I love reversible, period correct mods on older JNCs. On newer cars like the R32, performance and reliability modifications do make sense.
I value originality. That is why I prefer tastefully modified classic cars that are unique, creative, and usually improved by the owner with time. Sure I also enjoy some classic period correct mods, but to me a factory (dealership brochure) rebuild is boring and lacks originality.
What makes me cringe is how few times I see people doing a build that is timeless and high quality. People are proud as hell to backdate a 911, to pay $500,000 for a Singer or to build an RSR clone. Not long ago everyone thought a 964 was unreliable, now it is untouchable. Supra’s, 240Z’s, GTR’s and S2000’s, RX7’s, NSX’s (the list goes on) are amazing cars and always were, with excitement, leading technology, reliability, racing heritage and more. I am waiting to see when people start to present more than street racers and mint classics and start to build more high quality cars that bring the best upgrades, quality builds and long term ownership passion to these undervalued, superbly built machines.
I actually have 3:
1. When cars like the MKIV Supra and Honda NSX were new they did not sell well and could be seen sitting in the dealer showroom for months on end. Now when I am at car shows I hear people talk about how they were the hottest thing and ruled the streets when new. They are both great cars but you should really know your history.
2. I am past the point of cringing and may actually slap the next person who boasts about slapping an LS anything into a JDM body. I’m particularly speaking to you RX owners! Long live the rotary!
3. The current trendiness of importing anything from Japan that is 25 plus years old and was never sold here.
1. The fact that they didn’t sell well to the general public doesn’t diminish the street cred of either car.
2. Rotary RXs aren’t exactly rare. What’s wrong with an engine swap. I suppose you don’t like K-swap Miatas either.
3. But why? It’s fun to see and maybe even drive cool cars we never got when new.
#3 is only a trend because it legally couldn’t happen until now for most of the cars people have wanted to bring over forever.
Since I criticized others, I will add my response to the original question:
“Stretch”
But I do get it. Many of us are attention seekers and stretch, along with slam, flush, and krazy kamber do the job nicely.
A lot of things make be cringe in the actual JNC culture, as it is the case every time a culture becomes more expanded and more narrow-minded. If I had to choose, it would be those two :
-The regular “US” bros, born in the mid 90’s, with their New Era cap and tank tops, trying to explain to you how that imported Skyline they discovered in their big brother’s Gran Turismo game was a giant killer when they were not born yet, and that thanks to their very high knowledge they are able to get 800hp out of that RB26 DETT. It also works with 2JZ-GTE, 4A-GE, F20, etc.
– The tendency to think that because it’s a JNC, it has to be great. I’m sorry it’s not. I’m fed up with all the “Jalopnik style” articles that goes like “I saw this photo of this *insert random JNC of your choice* and now I need it”. This is only building fake hype, based on nothing. This is how we get to pay thousands of $ for cars that nobody wanted back in the days (especially in central Europe where I live). 80’000$ for a NA1 NSX ? 60’000$ for a JZA80 Supra (automatic…) ? Come on ! And that’s not the end of it, because now it’s 15’000$ for a SW20 MR2, 50’000$ for an S30 Z, and the list goes on, 30’000$ for a TA23 Celica. This is just crazy, and I’m not even talking about R32’s. Only because fanboys keep the hype on internet, thinking that those cars were the stars of the shows in the 90’s, but they were not. They were genuinely awesome cars, but never sold properly, especially the top of the range ones (NSX, Supra, RX7, 3000GT). I’m a hardcore JNC enthusiast, owned many of them and daily drove them, but I found my limit there. I’ve been disappointed with all of them as long as I considered them according to what’s being said on the internet. The only ones that lived up to their hype are the NSX and the Miata. I really started to enjoy them the moment I took them for what they were and not what people dream about them.
1. Of course you can’t get 800 HP out of those engines you mentioned. You need you a 4g63t for that, running 70 lbs boost, yo.
2. Those prices would only be accurate for very low mileage clean examples. And don’t blame the fan boys’ hype for rising prices on some JNCs. Fan boys can’t afford NSXs or Supra Turbos. But, yeah. I think there may be a bubble. Look at the top of the market and what has happened to 2000GT prices lately.
Ugh…the primacy of social media is the root cause of a lot of it, I suspect. But it manifests in things like all those douchey import shows where the attendees are more likely to be vape or streetwear fans than they are car nuts. Or in everybody thinking retarded widebody kits are kewl, because from Japan. Even though if people would step back a second they would realize this crap is just the flared fender version of all those wings west and kaminari body kits from the early 2000s. Useless, nonfunctional, ugly trash. Except back in those days bodykit designers weren’t known by name nor worshipped. This time they are celebrities and for …what. It’s just pathetic.
Can’t stand seeing all these wide body kits people are tacking on to cars these days, both inside and outside the realm of JNCs. They look terrible and completely ruin the functionality of the car when paired with the trending wheels/spacers/street cred stance.
If you can’t make the car look good without a ridiculous Rocket Bunny/ Pandem Aero kit then you’re doing it wrong.
Stancing, especially when it ruins the vehicle such that it can no longer fulfill the goals on its design brief and especially when its a less-than-common car. For instance, a sports car cannot drive in a spirited manner if stanced, and I think it’s safe to call stancing a Skyline GT-R Vspec II a criminal act.
It trashes the wheel wells and fenders when done poorly, which it often is, and usually beyond repair and takes away from the car in functionality and wear from rubbing, while adding nothing.
When youth think worn wheel wells are cool, that means stupidity is “in”. Destroying your car while scoffing at performance, safety, and functionality is straight-up idiotic. Boo!!!!
Pretty much everything these days but decals on the front and rear glass makes me look for a high platform near by to launch my self off of. If I ate tide pods on the regular too, I would have decals on my windshield to completely ruining my driving experience just to make sure the next April fresh smelling idiot pulling up knew my ride was hellafxxked.
Original vehicles are worth more than somebody’s idea of how they know more than the factory engineers and designers.
When people talk about how their old pre-RX7 Mazda blew everyone away, because it secretly came from the factory with a million horsepower, and they never slowed the engine down enough to let the over-rev buzzer turn off, and then it backfired a couple of times and died, and they sold it for a hundred bucks. The cars had 90 something to a bit over a hundred horsepower, folks. They would blow away stock Pintos, Vegas, and 510s, because the others only had 60 or 80 horsepower. Street racing all those cars was like watching a sloooooow motion movie. The rotary was one of the best econobox engines of the day, and a really nice engine to diddle around town in, but that isn’t saying much. The older I get the faster I was.
While not exclusive to the JNC community, street racing and stupid road moves. It makes the community look bad. You’re not as impressive as you think you are. My JNC hood was a “proud” recipient of detached wheel from a slammed 240zx in the midst of his or her douchery. It missed the windshield by a foot. (The State Patrol caught up with the guy showering sparks.) It could have killed both of us…
Please, keep it on a course.
I TOTALLY hate the fact that from 1974 when I got my TE27 SR5, I only saw ONE OTHER, and it was in a discount used car lot, and now EVERONE has turned their Corollas into fake Levins.
I’ve only seen one other honmono SR5, and it is that red one that was at Toyotafest a few years ago. Still see a lot of fakes with incorrect stripes, and bumpers. Kuyashi…
As a fan of keeping things original or restored to original spec, it was fun to sit back and watch this one unfold.
What makes me cringe, is all the comments I see here.
Spoilers, high price, stickers, rare, not rare, original or non original, collector or non collector, rice or not rice.
I get it everyone is different, but to negatively criticize another car enthusiast is either because there is a lot of envy, or you are not a car enthusiast yourself.
We live in the millenial age, where going to walmart in pjs is acceptable. Displying your innerself with green/purple/orange hair is acceptable. Wearing tennis shoes to your wedding is acceptable.
But you cannot get over the fact that your next door neighbor is spending 20K to restore that very common TE31 to orginal spec. Why, do you have a better idea what to do with your 20K? ohh, but its his 20k……. i forgot……
The only thing that makes me cringe about the JNC market is the rising prices. Countless JNCs were used to death and trashed. And there were the corrosion problems, so they’re getting rare. I get it.
But I have a particular distaste for the large collectors, auctions and speculators. The ones that sit in the front row on Sunday at Barret Jackson and treat the cars as stocks or commodities and cause prices to rise out of reach for the average guy, just as they’ve done to ANC market. And there no large selection of JNC reproduction parts yet.
Hopefully, there will be.
there are parts, however coming from cars that are still in good shape, that get Parted or cut into pieces, to diminish the population.
I agree, large collectors ruin it for everyone…
Collectors protect the culture but snatch it up from everybody so its a 50/50 PRIVATE collections that are hidden and or secret are absolutely useless and of no benefit at all to the car community since nobody but some snob can appreciate them.
What bothers me isn’t what people choose to do to their car, or how much they pay for it. Simply put, it’s when they make their car a danger to others. Stretching tires, modifying suspension until it’s no longer functioning as such (stance, etc.), putting HIDs in halogen reflectors, etc. All of these things endanger everyone on the road for a “look”. Mike Kojima et al over at motoiq have more than a few good articles addressing many of the dangers these trends represent, which are excellent reading for anyone interested in vehicle design and tuning.
Sorry dude … bags and wheels is not a “build”, and you’re definitely not “killing the game”.
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Call me a hater but I generally dislike car meet bros who often are known to buy or be BOUGHT new cars and then they pay for shops to customize their car in the latest trendy fashion. Not that anything is wrong with that I just despise the cringe Youtuber Car culture cancer that has been popping up like TJ Hunt, Vehicle Virgins, and those Lemonade stand kids.