Tag Archives: mx-5

JCCS Spotlight: And the JNC Award goes to Kevin Truong’s NA Mazda MX-5 Miata

Our final installment of JCCS coverage spotlights the car to which we gave the JNC Award: Kevin Truong’s first-generation Montego Blue Mazda MX-5 Miata. Our pick coincided well with JCCS’s expanded eligibility of cars up to model year 1995. The … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mitsuoka turns your Miata into a Corvette Sting Ray

Mitsuoka is famous for giving Japan’s domestic cars weird, retro automotive costumes. For decades, its most popular offerings were the Viewt, which transformed a Nissan March into a British saloon, and the Le Seyde, Japan’s own Excalibur or Zimmer built … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mazda completes first factory NA Roadster restoration

Mazda has completed its first factory restoration of a Eunos Roadster. The program was launched in August 2017 to help owners get their beloved NAs back to new condition, as well as to manufacture discontinued parts for the first-gen Roadster. … Continue reading

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Sam Mitani put Tuner Era dream machines into the mainstream

If you grew up in the pre-internet age, “buff books” like Road & Track were your bible. Magazines of its ilk were the only reliable sources of automotive news, but they were mostly concerned about cars that came fresh off … Continue reading

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VIDEO: Mazda classics prep for a 5,000-km rally across Europe

Mazda Germany is back with the second season of its “Mazda Garage” YouTube series. Last year, the first season followed the restoration of a Mazda Cosmo Sport, which then went on to participate in the Hamburg-Berlin Klassik Rallye. This season the … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Nisei Week Car Show, 2018

The annual Nisei Festival in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles is a celebration of Japanese American culture. Nisei means “second generation” in Japanese, but with its 84 years since the inaugural festival, the event has already been passed … Continue reading

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MINICARS: A beginner’s guide to JNC Legos, Part 01

The popularity of Legos had exploded in recent years, leading to many fans going beyond off-the-shelf kits and building their own custom creations. We’ve posted about Legos before, starting from back in 2013, and while the Lego renaissance was already underway … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Radwood NorCal 2018, the Greatest Hits

Among the many examples of 80s and 90s Japanese cars that populated Radwood NorCal this year, there were a few that really stood out to us. We hesitate to call them the best; except for the actual “Best Of” voted … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Radwood NorCal 2018

The Radwood phenomenon is spreading faster than hairspray-induced polyester fire. The celebration of 80s and 90s autodom is now on its fourth show in just two years, and the organizers tell us it was the biggest one yet. We attended … Continue reading

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NEWS: Power to the people — Mazda confirms 181-horsepower Miata for US

Last week Japanese media confirmed that Mazda was giving the 2019 Miata a significant power bump from 155 to 181 horsepower, and raising the redline from 6,850 to 7,500 rpm. Now Mazda North America has confirmed that the more powerful version of the world’s most affordable … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mazda Miata gets major horsepower increase, high-revving redline

Mazda is about to give the MX-5 Miata a significant bump in horsepower, and a screaming redline to go with it. The move to increase output from the current 155 horsepower to a reported 181, all the while pushing the redline to … Continue reading

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VIDEO: Look at all the great driver’s cars you could get in 1991

At the height of the Bubble Era, every Japanese carmaker had a driver’s car. We’re not talking about high dollar sports cars like the NSX or Supra, either. In this Best Motoring video from 1991, a lineup of enthusiasts’ machines, sometimes … Continue reading

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NEWS: Leaked Mazda document reveals 181 horsepower for 2019 MX-5

A document disclosing mid-generational changes to the Mazda MX-5 has leaked. The paper reveals a fairly significant bump to 181 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque, up from the current 155 horses and 148 lb-ft. Here’s the details on how they squeezed more juice … Continue reading

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Tokyo Auto Salon: The awesome stuff we didn’t get to

In the past, the Tokyo Auto Salon has been pretty easy for us to cover. The show is still geared towards cars on the cutting edge of performance tech and style, so true chrome-bumpered classics were fairly thin on the ground. However, as time … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mazda starts Miata Roadster restoration program

On December 13 Mazda began accepting applications for its Roadster Restore program. Announced back in August, the program will revive first-generation NA Eunos Roadsters at classic centers throughout Japan, and reproduce about 150 select parts for sale. 

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EVENTS: Radwood 2 – Electric Boogaloo

From the moment co-organizer Art Cervantes told us the name of the event, we knew it would be incredible. Radwood. It was a car show exclusively for 80s and 90s machines. Like Goodwood but, you know, rad. 

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SEMA 2017: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As the largest trade event for custom cars in the US, possibly the world, SEMA can serve as a showcase for innovation and creativity, sometimes giving a spotlight for bloody knuckled backyard builds to shine. The flip side, though, is that SEMA’s high profile pressures talented craftsmen into pouring cash into cars whose sole purpose … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2017 Japanese Classic Car Show, Part 08 — Best Booths

JCCS has become an international show. For years, the event has been growing, with ever better builds and spectators coming from farther reaches of the globe. This year, however, many top companies from Japan attended, while US-based ones upped the ante with … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2017 Japanese Classic Car Show, Part 05 — 80s & 90s

This year the JCCS Street Neo Classics show was put on hiatus because its venue, an area of the Toyota USA campus, is no longer available. If you’ve been following the news the company’s move to Texas is underway, so soon the long-standing Torrance … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Automobile Council 2017, Part 02 – Mazda, with heritage guns blazing

Now in its second year, Automobile Council gives car companies a chance to flex their heritage a bit. Some seized the opportunity better than others, but none came out with more guns blazing than Mazda. 

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