The car Gran Turismo players have been waiting for was unveiled a couple of hours ago via live webcast and the bras are off! Not that that kind, although we’d probably be tossing ours onto the stage if we wore them. Which we don’t. No, we’re talking about the black mask the car’s been wearing forever as part of the least concealing disguise since Clark Kent’s glasses. Actually, that mask looks more Bat than Super. Man, if Bruce Wayne drove one in the next Batman movie that would RULE! But we digress.

The new GT-R is everything its predecessors have been, except a Skyline. The legendary name was unceremoniously dropped like cell phone call going through a tunnel, but at least the car resembles the KPGC10 through R34 GT-Rs in spirit. What’s that? Oh, it has a V6 instead of a straight-six? And it has a DSG-type transmission instead of a manual too? Okay, but other than that, it has everything.

Unbelievable performance? Check. It’s beaten a Porsche 911 Turbo on Germany’s Nürburgring and some sources are quoting a 3.5 second 0-60 time. In fact, video proof (click on GT-R Detail > Movie) was replayed on gigantic curved flatscreens during the moments before the conference began. Will Porsche retaliate swiftly like it did with the 2000GT?

Aggressive design? Check. With those distinctly Japanese creases running down its flared fenders and muscular haunches, obligatory four round taillights, and a snout that looks likes it’s swallowing a VW, the styling should get instant intervention in any anger management class.

Insane power? Check. All wheel drive, twin turbos, and a now-confirmed power rating of 480PS (473.33333… hp). Keep Nick Hogan away from this one.

Still, we’re not sure whether we can adamantly say it’s a true spiritual successor to Skylines of yore. If you have an opinion, please chime in. Yeah, that’s a cop-out answer, but maybe the fact that we can’t give a resounding yes is a problem. Time will have to tell. Regardless though, with Honda’s new NSX and Toyota’s Lexus LF-A coming down the pipeline, we’re hoping this is just the opening salvo in a new horsepower war about to be unleashed from the isles of Japan.

By the time you read this, the Tokyo Motor Show will be in full swing, with concepts revealed by the minute. Unfortunately, our Cressida can’t drive on water (yet?) so we’ll have to admire the festivities from afar.

That said, we are both happy and sad to report on this next pair of concepts. Happy, because they are retro-styled. Sad, because they are not cars. Like the Yamaha XS-V1 Sakura, Honda is unveiling two nostalgic bikes for the ToMoShow, the CB1100F and CB1100R.

With a face reminiscent of Asimo’s saucer-eyed mug, the CB1100R concept is a tribute to the 1981 bike of the same name. While the design is all retro, including the red tubular frame, classic Honda racing colors, and gold painted five-spoke wheels, the mechanicals are all modern, with an inverted fork, radial mount calipers, and an air cooled engine that appears to be a stressed member of the frame.

The CB1100F, likewise based on the 1983 high-powered standard of its namesake, has a broader appeal, with a cushy seat for long haulin’ and styling reminiscent of the CBs from the early 80s. The F uses the same engine as the R, although if they make it to production, they’ll most likely exist in slightly different stages of tune.

While these bike are labeled as concepts for now, they seem pretty much ready for production, at least more so than the show’s automotive concepts. For those counting, retro bikes: 3; retro cars: goose egg.

[Images: Honda, Bulldock-MC]

Although we’ve been harping about Toyota USA’s upcoming 50th birthday, this year is actually Toyota Motor Corporation’s 70th anniversary, established as a spinoff of Toyoda Automatic Loom in 1937. There’s a new book coming out in November called How Toyota Became #1 by David Magee, which charts the company’s meteoric rise over the past seven decades.

Businessweek columnist Keith McFarland recently previewed the book, noting that curiosity seems to be one of the key distinguishing aspects of Toyota’s success. McFarland mentions that Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota Automatic Loom and father of TMC founder Kiichiro Toyoda, got his start trying to improve the efficiency of weaving looms, which led to over 100 patents and the Toyota manufacturing empire. He then goes onto say “Not content just to build the best looms in Japan, Toyoda traveled to Europe, toured leading Western loom makers, and carried key ideas back” and that’s the extent of the column’s depth.

However, Autoblog’s Chris Tutor picked up on the editorial, saying that Toyoda sought to create the world’s best looms “by checking out other company’s looms around the world and using their advancements to improve his owncompany’s [sic] products.”

Hold on, here. Tutor completely neglects to mention that Toyoda first spent years developing looms in Japan, and only after getting many of his own patents did he venture out to the West to see what other loommakers were up to. Instead, Tutor makes it seem as if Toyoda first examined other looms before even starting his own company.

In actuality, Toyoda already invented the world’s first non-stop shuttle change automatic loom, the Type G (pictured), in 1924. Toyoda already had 50 other inventions under his belt and several of them were combined to form the automation and safety features of the Type G.

McFarland says “a visit to a Detroit auto plant in the 1920s inspired [Kiichiro Toyoda] to move a renamed Toyota into the car business.” Correct! But what was he doing in Detroit? The column doesn’t say. In fact, Toyoda stopped there on his way back to Japan from the UK where he had just sold automatic loom patents to Platt Brothers & Co. in 1929 for the price of 100,000 British pounds. After seeing Ford’s then state-of-the-art River Rouge plant, completed in 1928 and the biggest factory in the world at the time, Toyoda was convinced that he could do even better, and established Toyota Motor Corporation a few years after returning home.

It’s easy to regurgitate the same old “Japan copies everything” line, but come on, this is 2007 (although you wouldn’t know it from reading some of the comments in the Autoblog post). The truth is that in every country, in every industry, competition is so fierce that everyone cherry picks ideas from everyone else. GM, Toyota, and every other carmaker buys their competitors’ products and tears them apart to learn. That’s just how it’s done. And yes, some Japanese firms did copy established Western companies, but not all. Let’s give credit where it’s due.

Anyway, before another misconstrued “fact” got circulated, we felt obligated to nip it in the bud. Or attempt to, at least. Autoblog gets millions of hits per day compared to our five, but we’ll continue to do our best to dispel these kinds of myths.

Last Month we posted on a the Honda S2000 Type-S, which looked suspiciously like the US-market Honda S2000 CR that was unveiled in New York. Now the production version of the Type-S has gone on sale, and there are a few minor differences. Less of a track-ready car than the CR (that’s Club Racer to you, bub), the Type-S has a suspension somewhere between that and the regular S2K. The Type-S also keeps the folding soft top rather than the aluminum hardtop affixed to CRs. And oh yeah, the Type-S has the steering wheel on the right.

The Type-S/CR is widely regarded as a final hurrah for the long-toothed roadster. Depending on which sources you believe, the next iteration of the S-car may come in 2009 or not at all. The last of the originals like the S800 pictured was in 1970, a full three decades before the S2000.

[Honda]

The 2007 Tokyo Motor Show is about to kick off in a matter of days now, and concept photos have been hitting teh internets like a celebrity sex tape. We’ve already noted the Honda CR-Z concept that may portend a CR-X revival, but the design, while admirably swoopy, sadly lacked any hint of nostalgia. In fact, the show was looking pretty bleak fans or vintage style until we remembered that the ToMoShow isn’t just a flaunt-fest for four-wheeled transport; a huge wing of Makuhari Messe is devoted to motorcycles, man!

And that’s when we saw this. Pure, undistilled beauty on wheels, thy name be Yamaha XS-V1 Sakura! We rarely mention Yamaha here at Japanese Nostalgic Car because it doesn’t build, you know, cars. However, it does deserve credit for helping craft some truly legendary nostalgics like the Toyota 2000GT and Nissan Silvia, and now it’s gone and stolen our hearts with this gorgeous machine.

The Sakura concept pays homage to the company’s first four-stroke motorcycle, the 650cc 1970 XS-1. Like its predecessor, it’s powered by a V-twin and, according to the sparse press release, embodies “Japanese style” and “a retro-modern aesthetic.” True that, Jehoshaphat. The grayish-pink paint job alludes to the name Sakura, Japanese for cherry blossom, and further evokes that grainy, soft-focus waft of yesteryear - but with a roaring, contemporary 1,000cc engine between the pegs. Modern mechanicals, classic look. Doesn’t get much better than that. We need a four-wheeled equivalent, now. But even if that happens, sign us up for one of these babies.

[Yamaha]

Younger readers would associate Nissan sporting heritage with circuit racing and of course, the ubiquitous Skyline GT-R. But on the international stage, Nissan’s earliest motorsport successes were in the rallying arena. In the late 60s, Datsun had very successfully campaigned the 510 sedan in the European rally championship. And while the 510 never actually won any championships, it won enough events to make a name for itself and the (then) fledgling Datsun brand.

So when the 240Z was introduced, Datsun immediately pressed it into action in European rallies with full factory support. Its first event would be the 1970 RAC Rally in Britain, and so keen were Datsun to show off their new car, that its rally appearance was before sales of the roadcar actually began, so as it rolled onto stage, nobody knew exactly what it was…Datsun was nothing if not determined.

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The onslaught of media attention to Japanese classics continues towards crescendo.  This time around, it’s CNN Money with their slideshow recalling significant Toyotas from the past half century.  Toyota otaku will surely be able to find a few mistakes in there, but we will only see more of this as  as we march ever closer to the 50th anniversary of Toyota USA on October 31, 2007.  Meanwhile, Jalopnik asks, “What is your favorite Toyota?”

[via Autoblog]