And now for your viewing pleasure, a video packed with fantastic footage as it covers the history of rotary-equipped Mazdas in racing. Part 1 is an overview that culminates with the FC RX-7, apparently the newest rotary car at the time the video was made. Part 2 really gets cooking as the Savanna RX-3 takes on the hakosuka Skyline GT-R. In Part 3 we see the Savanna RX-7’s rise to international glory in the IMSA series, which just happens to be the subject of JNC magazine’s Issue 3 cover story. Parts 2 and 3 after the jump. (more…)

This week’s video is a clip from 1979’s Detective Story. The 27-episode series was a comedy-drama about down-on-his-luck private detective Shunsaku Kudo. You see, Kudo was once a good cop in San Francisco that somehow felt responsible for the death of his friend. Now he’s back in his native Japan and working as a private detective, afraid to get too close to anyone, including the trouble-prone fashion model that conveniently lives in his apartment building.

Kudo was played by Yusaku Matsuda, and perhaps his last name had something to do with the way he keeps finding himself behind the wheel of a Mazda. In this case, Kudo soon trades his Vespa scooter in for a classy Cosmo AP, aka RX-5. When Kudo and the dame snoop around a bit too much at a construction site, the bad guys give chase in two large dump trucks and a helicopter. Watch till the end to learn the proper etiquette after wrecking a woman’s car during a high speed pursuit.

Also, watch the opening credits to Detective Story, which has one of the best theme songs ever.

It’s Friday and you’ve made it through another week. We thought we’d end this one with another old Japanese clip featuring a nostalgic car. This time it’s Return of Ultraman, the fourth in the tokusatsu television series, running from 1971-72. If you’re not familiar with Ultraman he’s basically a regular bloke who, when needed, can transform into a 150-foot tall giant with superpowers to fight off monsters attacking Japan.

And what car does such a hero drive off to save the day in? Why, a Mazda Cosmo Sports, of course! Only the first ever mass-produced car with a rotary engine could be futuristic enough for a story that takes place in what seemed very far away at the time – 1993. A pity they didn’t foresee the FD RX-7! Also, in case you were wondering what the MAT logo emblazoned on the door stands for, it’s “Monster Attack Team.” Have a great weekend, everybody!

In 1968, Mazda took the world’s first ever rotary-powered race car, its brand new Cosmo Sports, racing at one of Europe’s toughest enduros, the Marathon de la Route 84 Hours at Germany’s Nürburgring. It finished fourth, behind a pair of Porsche 911s and a Lancia.

Forty years later, Mazda is still fielding pistonless endurance machines, most recently at the 2008 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona where it took the GT Class championship amidst a grid of Ferraris, a Corvette, a BMW M6 and yes, Porsches. In honor of this victory, Mazda Japan has created a website chronicling the race. Mazdafarians might want to take a look even though the site is in Japanese; the interviews are in English. Congrats to the Speedsource RX-8 team of Sylvain Tremblay, David Haskell, Nick Ham, and Raphael Matos.

[Source: Mazda]

On April 27th, the National Science Museum in Japan will be holding a special exhibition celebrating 40 years of Mazda’s rotary engine. The exhibit, called “Showa Rotary Engine Vehicles,” will look at the history and future of rotary engines. The National Science Museum is located in Ueno Park, Tokyo and will be open from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm.

[Source: Mazda]

With only 1,519 of the Mazda Cosmo Sports built, it’s rare to see one with heavy modification done, especially to the body. Although some might cringe to see one of these in anything less than original condition, we think this one looks pretty good, especially with what appear to be very low-offset Work Equips and a deep red paint job. Unfortunately, we don’t know any more about this car and could only find this one photo.

[RX-7 Convertible Blog (Japanese)]

Over at online magazine Winding Road, they’ve posted the pages of a 1967 Toyo Kogyo brochure. If you’ve been paying attention, that’s the manufacturer Mazda was formerly known as, and it made corks. Each company had its humble beginnings. For Toyota, it was looms; for Subaru, planes; and Honda, motorcycles. Hey, someone had to supply Hiroshima with sake stoppers. By 1967, however, the company had moved quite a bit beyond bottle bungs and had expanded their lineup to include Luce 1500s, Familia 1000s, vans, trucks, buses, three-wheelers and their pièce de résistance, the brand new rotary-powered Cosmo Sports. Fun times!

Well, it’s here, the final day of the year. Now before we all get hammered and pretend we know the words to “Auld Lang Syne,” let’s take a look back at all the nostalgic car happenings that took place during our planet’s latest orbit ’round the sun.

We think 2007 can be safely called a banner year for nostalgics. First of all, it marked 100 years since Komanosuke Uchiyama finished construction on the 1907 Takuri (pictured). It was powered by a 2-cylinder 1.9L boxer engine, but had the added effect of being the first ever Japanese-made car. Sayonara, walking!

But what about companies that still exist, you say? Well, in 1907 Daihatsu was also founded, and immediately began cranking out (ha!) engines. Their first car wouldn’t come along until 1930, and even then it only had three wheels, but the company had been firmly established. In honor of its centennial, this past May the Daihatsu museum opened in Osaka.

2007 also saw the 50 years of one of the most revered names in motoring, the Nissan Skyline. All 12 generations were put on special display at the just-completed $3 billion Tokyo Midtown, and the newest iteration embarked on a country-wide tour that culminated at the Ken & Mary tree in Hokkaido. Nissan’s Ginza showroom housed another exhibit, and in October, the reincarnated GT-R made its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show.

In May 1967, Mazda’s iconic rotary engine spun freely into the world in the form of the Cosmo 110S. Of all the Japanese automakers, Hiroshima-based Mazda has made the most aggressive and much-needed push towards making its history known, with a killer website and special edition RX-8s for Japan and the US. As a result, Mazda wins the completely unprestigious Japanese Nostalgic Car’s Manufacturer of the Year Most In Touch With Its Roots Award.

Yes, 2007 was a big year, but biggest most of all for the Big T. Not only was it Toyota’s 70th birthday, but also its 50th year in motorsport. Not that it noticed any of this, however – Toyota was too busy surpassing GM to become the biggest automaker in the world. At the end of October, Toyota USA celebrated its 50th anniversary, marking exactly half a century of Japanese cars in America. The very next day marked 25 years of Japanese cars built in America, with the anniversary of Honda’s Marysville, Ohio plant opening.

But enough about the manufacturers. What about the enthusiasts? You guys are the pioneers, baby! The nostalgic car universe is still in its infancy, but growing in leaps, bounds and jetpack-assisted flights thanks to you, dear reader. The Japanese Classic Car Show was bigger than ever this year. The mainstream media began to take a closer and much-deserved look at vintage J-cars. The Times, both LA and New York, published pieces on the emergence of Japanese classics. Shows like Motoring J Style stepped onto the scene, and even more events are planned for next year. Commercials and TV coverage too.

Oh yeah, and we started! Okay, technically we started in 2006, but the website you’re reading right now launched in January. It wasn’t just us, either – there were also our partners in crime at grandJDM and Old Japanese Car in what Hemmings called a “mini-explosion” of English language sites about old school JDM. We’ll be sure to mention this honor next time we’re going through airport security.

Explosion or not, we’re truly honored to have been a tiny part of the fast-growing world of nostalgics. As you may have heard, we’re coming out with a magazine for 2008, with unique content and full color photography. As with all our endeavors, we hope this will help support the scene, the shops, the enthusiasts and, of course, the cars. Look for a subscription announcement in the first week of January.

Wow, this is post is beginning to rival War and Peace in length, but we’d like to leave you with this. It’s a new year’s card originally sent out on January 1, 1936, and comes courtesy of our friend Dan Banks and The Dan Banks Collection. According to Dan, the 1935 Datsun Model 14 on the postcard was drawn by Ryuichi Tomiya, who did many of Datsun’s early catalogs and advertising materials. Hanging from the hood ornament is a shimenawa, a straw rope with paper strips warding off evil spirits and welcoming Toshigami, the Shinto god of the New Year. The card was sent by a Datsun franchise to a customer in Kamakura and says “Wishing you continued happy motoring in the Datsun this year!”

Happy motoring, indeed, with much more to come in 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As part of Mazda’s 40th anniversary tribute to the rotary engine, the Zoom-Zoomers invited a group of renowned journalists to stuff the very cars the company would display at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca up the California coast, just in time for the 34th Rolex Monterey Historics.

So while we were tooling southward on I-5 from Seattle in a dingy Toyota Cressida station wagon toward the Mecca-like assembly of vintage autos that is Monterey’s classic car weekend, Motor Trend and Car and Driver convoyed north from Paso Robles behind the wheels of two infinitely sleeker Mazda Cosmo 110 Sports and a new US-market 40th Anniversary edition RX-8. Now that’s arriving in style. We, on the other hand, simply arrived. Click here to read about the sweetest of vintage J-treks.

Source: [Motor Trend]

A couple of weeks ago, Mazda released a special edition RX-8 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the rotary engine. The only hitch was, the car had to be purchased in Japan. Well, now we Americans can get our hands on our very own 40th Anniversary RX-8 stateside. So there, Japan!

Shown at the Monterey Historics, our very own special RX-8 will come dressed in an exclusive Metropolitan Gray exterior, matched with Cosmo Red on its insides. Gunmetal finish wheels, a new engine cover, shift knob, and requisite fender badge further differentiate it from the standard RX-8. Performance-wise, urethane was injected into the rear suspension, front crossmember and rocker panels, working with Bilstein dampers to stiffen up the chassis. In other words, the same Japanese package except for the color of its duds.