W-W-W-Welcome baaack to WJNC, bringin’ you the best nostalgic tunes and old school jams! Hope you’re enjoying your Fridaaaay! Put on your dancing shoes and crank up the volume, because coming up next we have back-to-back tracks from the Crazy Ken Band! Here’s “Bellet 1600GT”:

Thanks to JNCer JT191 for tipping us off to these videos of the Crazy Ken Band, a Japanese music ensemble that completely rocks the house when signing about old cars. The video above is a live performance of “Bellet 1600GT,” named after Isuzu’s 60s coupe. Their jazzy beats and funky rhythms make us wish Isuzu actually sold the car here in the US so we could jam to this while cruising around in one. Although, we don’t have threads that look nearly fly enough. (more…)

Check out these sad photos from Yatabe Test Track, which the Japanese Automobile Research Institute opened in 1964. It may look like just another banked slab of concrete, but many a high-performance car was put through its paces here. And in 1966 it was the location where the Toyota 2000GT famously broke 16 world speed and endurance records, making the rest of the globe take notice of the nascent post-war Japanese auto industry. Today, the circuit lies broken and decrepit, overgrown with vegetation.

[Auto-Otaku]

Today (January 11) is racing legend Carroll Shelby’s 85th birthday. Although mostly known for his hopped up Mustangs, AC Cobras and cowboy hat, his racing contract with Ford ended in 1967. For the 1968 season, he helped prepare three Toyota 2000GTs for competition in SCCA C-production class.

Unfortunately, Toyota discontinued the program after just one year. In that year, however, the cars Toyotas racked up a slew of podium finishes and ended the season second in points only to long-established Porsche.

We will be featuring the #23 car in the Spring 2008 premiere issue of Japanese Nostalgic Car magazine. Click here for more images from our Monterey Historics gallery. Happy birthday, Mr. Shelby!

See what we mean? The amount of attention lavished on antique J-rides simply continues to grow. As a result, the most expensive nostalgic, the Toyota 2000GT, is getting more ink than a yakuza lieutenant’s torso. It’s been making the lists at Forbes, Jalopnik and Winding Road, but the latest - and possibly the most pointless - example comes from Motive Magazine, which has named it one of the top 10 cars whose silhouette resembles a giant donger (NSFW if the word “phallic” in 150-point font would be deemed impolite at your office).

Now, we’re sure this is a real honor for the guys back in Nagoya, but the point of this post is to illustrate how the notion of Japanese classics has permeated the collective psyche of the mainstream media. If the 2000GT is on the tip of every auto journalist’s tongue, suddenly the idea of a Japanese collector’s cars won’t seem so far-fetched any more. It wasn’t always this way, even as recently as a couple of years ago. In other words, better buy ‘em while you can. [via Autoblog]

Over at Autoblog today, they have a post about Spanish design firm SURE’s Toyota 2000SR Concept. They, and we, want to make it crystal Pepsi clear, this rendering is in no way connected to Toyota at all. Got it? Good. Moving on.

Clearly, the car is meant to evoke Toyota’s legendary 1967 2000GT, and from certain angles, it does. The sharply creased fenders and haunches and “Chinese eye” side glass certainly do, but we’re not quite sure about the rear 3/4 shot. Some things seem like they’re of limited practical value, such as the minuscule rear window, lack of any apparent doors, and a raisable spoiler that will surely be the focal point of much derision.

Initially, we were jazzed about more 2000GT love, but a little snooping on SURE’s website reveals that this is probably just a touched up version of their SR1 fantasy design. Check out the rest of the pics in Autoblog’s gallery.

Unless you’ve spent the last two years being probed in an alien mothership, you know of the triumphant return of Nissan’s GT-R, which (finally!) debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show this week. But at the recent Motorsport Japan 2007 festival, Nissan unveiled another GT-R, sure to be of more interest to you nostalgic fans - their very own KPGC10 GT-R, which just underwent a thorough restoration. Check it out, in all its original splendor, complete with high ride height and blacked out wheels. It was all part of the ongoing party honoring the 50th anniversary of the Skyline.

Held in Odaiba, Tokyo, Motorsport Japan is a celebration of racing, with live runs of everything from Toyota’s own replica of the yellow and green 2000GT that broke 16 world speed records on a 72hr endurance run in 1966, to modern F1 cars like the planet Earth-schemed Hondas. Other notable classic race cars included the massively-winged Nissan R381 and turbocharged Toyota 7.

[Nissan]

For those of us who’ve always wanted a 2000GT convertible, but are not lucky enough to have $250,000, a sawzall, and the cajones to take said sawzall to the roof of extremely rare classic supercars, all is not lost. Thanks to Mr. Makoto Kobayash of Road Star Garage, this 2000GT lookalike, based off of a first gen Miata, is now our best option. While the finished product looks fairly decent from the front and rear three-quarters view, its profile looks strange and disproportionate.

Unfortunately, Road Star Garage’s website is in all Japanese so we don’t know the cost or availability of this conversion.

[Source: Road Star Garage via Carscoop via Jalopnik]