On this day in 1967, sales began for the Mazda Cosmo Sport, aka Planet Earth’s first mass-produced rotary engine. Okay, so mass production is a relative term, with 1,519 hand built cars rolling out Hiroshima.

Nevertheless the car did put Mazda on the path of rotary R&D and 40 years onward, after numerous sports coupes, luxury sedans, the Le Mans winning 787B, hydrogen-powered concepts and even buses, the company is celebrating the momentous event.

Check out Mazda USA’s tribute to the rotary here.

Here it is, the last article from the recent trio of So-Cal shows. We have a small amount of stuff coming from Japan soon, so stay tuned!

You want Z’s? Huh, do ya? Here’s some.

Subaru’s Japanese website now sports a museum section, detailing the lives of 5 historic models, the 1958 Subaru 360 “people’s car”, stillborn 1954 P-1 1500, 1960 Sambar 360-based commercial vehicle, front-wheel-drive 1966 1000, and the popular 1969 R2.

A history page also follows the parent company’s from prop-plane builder Nakajima Airplane, Inc. in 1917 to post-war Fuji Heavy Industries, humble purveyor of rally-dominating all-wheel-drive horseless carriages.

Sadly, all the text is in Japanese but there’s a decent collection of monochrome pics to peep.

The first article from our recent journey to the west has been posted.

Gather ’round the campfire kids, it’s time to tell the legend of the lost Crowns. About 10 years ago, Shige Suganuma of Mooneyes was given a set of mysterious pictures taken at a junkyard in Northern California, one that served as the final resting place for many a Toyota Crown. Both zenki and kouki S50 sedans, suicide-doored Kannon sedans, and at least two who-needs-both-kidneys ultra rare Kannon wagons.

With neither address nor complete phone number to go by, years of research revealed nothing. That is, until the advent of Google Earth. Like a modern day Indiana Jones, Mr. Suganuma pored over grainy satellite photos galore until he located the exact building that marked the gateway to Shangri-La. And as luck would have it, a four day visit to the States for the All-Toyotafest in Long Beach afforded the perfect opportunity to bolt up the coast in chase of this booty.

Alas, upon arrival, not a single car remained. The man who owned the junkyard passed away seven years ago, the yard subsequently sold, and all the cars were carted away. The current owner of the property had no clue as to their whereabouts, but chances are they live on in the recycled fender of a new Tacoma, or your toaster. You can read the entire story on Shige’s blog.

Stories like this bring us to tears. Just think of the thousands upon thousands of nostalgics that have disappeared like this, unwanted and unloved. The prevention of such tragedies is one of JNC’s primary missions. Please, rescue those classics and if you can’t, post it in the forums for someone who can! Hell, just bring a camera every time you go to a junkyard. The nostalgics, and us enthusiasts, are depending on you!

The Honda Civic of legendary pinstriper, cartoonist and father of the Rat Fink, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, has come out of hiding and is for sale on eBay. Though Roth was a hugely influential figure in the Kustom hot rod culture of the 1960s he owned several Hondas including a N600 and pair of Civics, one of which is the car you see here.

The cars served as Roth’s daily drivers/work vans/canvases when was a painter for various movie producers and Knott’s Berry Farm. He often took the cars to hot rod events with a trailer in tow to sell his now-famous Rat Fink gear.

This Civic comes complete with tow hitch to accomodate said trailer and, according to the owner, Roth’s original pinstriping, paint drips and circles left by his cans. Artsy types love this stuff because it’s like being in the studio of a great master, and for Roth, the car was both his studio and his canvas.

Roth’s other Civic now resides in Japan, and the N600 is owned by a collector but was recently on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Autoblog for the tip!

Well, not really, but the leaving part is true. With the TORC All Toyotafest said and done, it’s time for us to haul ourselves back to the east coast, where the summers are humid and the nostalgics are sparse. We’ll get all our photos posted as soon as we can blur out all the license plates. Stay tuned!

To commemorate it’s 100th anniversary, Daihatsu has opened a museum (it’s the reverse-D-looking thing on the left)at its headquarters in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture. Called Humobility World, the four-story hall contains two floors devoted to milestone models such as the 1963 Daihatsu Sport (pictured), 1968 Japan Grand Prix class-winning P5 race car and 1977 Charade, as well as oddball three-wheeled contraptions with names like Bee and Midget.

The rest of the logo-shaped building houses exhibits of concepts, cars for the handicapped, modern Daihatsus and the technology involved in their production.

For our first few days in So-Cal, we found ourselves, lamentably, in a PT Cruiser. A rental, obviously, but not the most ideal mule for vast concrete expanses beginning with “The,” as in “The 405″ or “The 110.” It had plenty of cupholders but the trunk space was limited, much like it’s ability to accelerate. Turning radius? More like turning orbit. Quite a handicap when getting lost on unfamiliar streets and making lots of U’s. Our rental Chevy HHR for last year’s SEMA had better fit-n-finish and, in our opinion, a much better execution of the retro two-box motif.

After three days of such nonsense, we went back and up-downgraded for a 2006 Toyota Corolla. The color? Cactus Mica, duh! When this generation first debuted, much hubbub was made of the fact that Toyota now built the lowly Corolla to the same tolerances used on the original Lexus LS. Excessive, perhaps, but the difference shows. Nary a rattle could be detected, despite the fact that LA radio doesn’t really give dead silence much competition.

Snazzily upscale Lexus-like illuminated gauges were fine and dandy, but what we really enjoyed was discovering that even in one of the cheapest, lowest grade cars in the Toyota lineup we could reach speeds of 90 mph without even realizing it. Likewise, we could actually make swift illegal U-turns without throwing it into reverse, and the trunk could devour enough luggage to please a yakuza hit man. Maybe the mob should start using Corollas, especially if they need to cruise incognito on the way to the landfill. And despite hauling around our gear and our butts in spirited driving with A/C on full blast, we got about 29 mpg compared to the Chrysler’s 21. Neato!

Photo courtesy of Shige Suganuma.