We have absolutely no idea what movie or TV show this car chase is from, but at least the scene isn’t dominated by the marque that forked over the most sponsorship yen. The main cars are a TE71 Corolla Levin versus a 2+2 Fairlady Z, with a ton of random nostalgic goodness in the background. Who will win?
Sai. Nunchucks. Shuriken. These are the ancient weapons of the ninja, lurker of shadows, trained in the arts of illusion, stealth and assassination. But did you know there was another closely guarded secret weapon in the ninja’s arsenal that has evaded scholars and historians for ages?
Why, it’s the 1968 Toyota Corolla 1100! See, once a hero (you can tell he’s a good guy cause he’s dressed in white) has swooped in and rescued his damsel from a gang of heavily armed baddies, there’s the small problem of actually escaping. Well the obvious answer is to produce a pokeball and shout, “KE10, I choose you!” The best part is, once you throw it at the ground and the getaway vehicle magically appears, the ninja’s teleportation abilities ensure that he will already be in the driver’s seat. And then it’s sayonara, suckas!
Unfortunately, the ninjas have also disabled youtube embedding for this commercial but you can see it in full on YouTube. And in case you were wondering what William Tell’s favorite car was, your answer is after the jump.
Southern California hardly ever disappoints for the sheer number of nostalgics it contains. Case in point is the Old Skewl Meet today in gorgeous (overcast) Mission Bay in San Diego. This was just a get together, a free event, but it attracted not only locals, but a few guys from Los Angeles and even the Bay Area!
510’s and Ae86’s always show up to these events, but there were a few other surprises as well. (more…)
If you happened to see a blue Cressida wagon and blue AE86 pulled over on the 710 by the California Highway Patrol on the way to Toyotafest last Saturday, that was yours truly at JNC. We were running late and, shall we say, briskly, but an irate Officer Poncharello thought we were street racing. Somehow, we were able to convince him we weren’t and made it to the show to take the photos in this gallery. Unfortunately, each of us still got one of these: (more…)
On a trip to California in the late 60s, Jack Safro was introduced to the RT40 Toyota Corona, a car then unheard of in his native Wisconsin. But everyone in California seemed to know it, and a dealer told him the quality was so good customers weren’t even bringing them in for the 1000-mile service. Before long, Safro had his own Toyota dealership back in Milwaukee.
According to this article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, his franchise sold just 42 Coronas their first year, but it was enough to make Safro Toyota the midwest’s largest Toyota dealer. (more…)
Perhaps the Skyline vs. Cougar video from two weeks ago was a bit too much excitement for your delicate sensibilities. If so, this week’s video is another Japan vs. Detroit matchup that flexes considerably less muscle. In 1985’s My Lucky Stars, a Mitsubishi Minica kei car chases down, of all things, a Ford Mustang II!
That’s right, the red-headed stepchild of the Mustang family tree was actually a hit in Japan, where the Mustang I was just too wide for its narrow streets. As a side note, if anyone is yearning for Mustang II models, focus your search on Japanese model kits and old Tomicas.
Back to the chase. Okay, so the star cars themselves aren’t that exciting, but as they cat-and-mouse it through an unnamed Japanese town (which for some reason has white picket fences), there are plenty of Toyota Corollas, Carinas, and Nissan Violets used as chase fodder. The bad guys – well, we assume they’re bad because one of them is wearing an eye patch and they’re being pursued by Jackie Chan – even ram a Mazda Familia and a Mitsubishi Galant. What background J-tin you can spot?
We love checking out sites created by JNC readers and lately we’ve really gotten into cheater_5’s A B110 Perspective. As you can guess from the title, the man is obsessed with Sunnys, and he owns an uber-cool sanitora, or Sunny Truck. But in a recent post he visited Tama Autos, an Auckland, New Zealand-based Toyota AE86 specialist, where he snapped this E70 Corolla panel van on the lifts.
I don’t know what it is, but this car just calls out to me like a siren. Yes, it’s a Toyota, it’s a wagon, and it’s a vintage work vehicle — three things that instantly get my heart pumping — but there’s more to it than that. Maybe it’s the classic Techno Phantoms or that perfect shade of retro powder blue, brilliantly matched to the two-door wagon body style. Whatever it is, I want to see the completed car on the asphalt.
One more pic of the Tama Autos garage after the jump, complete with another dangerously enticing wagon. (more…)
We know not all JNC readers baby their nostalgics, so here’s some examples of nostalgics behaving badly from a couple of blogs we like. Nori Yaro’s gallery of drifting remind us of the guys from the Japanese KE70 drift team Motorfix. And from JNCer BeeOneOneOh here’s a couple of video galleries of sliding Sunnys and a chorus of ITB-equipped Sunny Pickups revving their engines. Also, more drifting AE71 action on Speedhunters. Could the E70 chassis be the next AE86?
Speedhunters was at the Tokyo Auto Salon last weekend, and one of the many galleries they’ve assembled happens to cover the old school cars that were there. Perfect!
The biggest concentration of classics came from the G-Works booth, like this retro street racer style Nissan Fairlady Z, complete with G-nose, Techno Shadows, fender flares, racing number set askew, and awesome purple paint.
The versatility of old Japanese cars never ceases to astound us. They can be meticulously restored and taken to classic car shows, modified to be an absolute blast to drive, just plain old safe and fuel efficient transportation, or as in this case, drafted into service in the world’s most hostile road conditions. Here’s a quote from the Corolla taxi’s hapless passengers:
I am not sure how vehicles make it over what passes for a “road” here (which is basically an uneven gravel road riddled with large rocks, potholes and frequently flooded right over, shared with trains of donkeys and lots and lots of pedestrians… all of this running along a steep cliff next to a precipituous drop into a large rushing river!!)…
We travelled in ancient Toyota Corollas older than ourselves, I am sure, with broken tail lights, broken mirrors, doors that wouldn’t shut properly… and a wheezy old engine that barely made it up the steeper slopes…
Somehow we got to Pokhara in one piece, though I had reservations throughout the trip, especially when we flew through flooded roads as though we were in 4WDs instead of worn-out Toyota Corollas!
We have to wonder, what would those Nepali taxi drivers think if they saw Patrick Ng’s TE27 that was on the cover of JNC Issue 2?
Also, be sure to check out Tom Carter’s website for lots more information about the TE27 Corolla.
On a trip to California in the late 60s, Jack Safro was introduced to the RT40 Toyota Corona, a car then unheard of in his native Wisconsin. But everyone in California seemed to know it, and a dealer told him the quality was so good customers weren’t even bringing them in for the 1000-mile service. Before long, Safro had his own Toyota dealership back in Milwaukee.
Bura’s post last week about 