Let’s close off the week with a sneak peek of JNC Issue 2. It should be in your mailboxes shortly. Have a good weekend, everybody!

Unbelievable!! In lieu of nostalgic car news today there will instead be a rant about my Apple laptop. It’s where a good chunk of JNC’s content comes from, and it has died for the second time in just over a year of ownership. I’m furious, and also a freaking out a bit because we are on a tight deadline. Thankfully, I’ve been doing frequent backups ever since learning the hard way last December when the first crash happened.

Why am I writing about this publicly? On the off chance that some nostalgic-loving Apple employee reads this and decides to give me a new computer after all the trouble this Macbook has caused for me (and JNC readers). To be fair, Dan has an even older model and that has never experienced so much as a hiccup. Anyway, I’m off to buy a replacement hard drive first thing in the morning (conveniently, this falls out of warranty range) and will then begin the arduous task of restoring as much data as possible. We will return to your regularly scheduled coverage in a couple of days.

Also, AAARRRGGGH!!!

The August 15 isue of Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald had a terrific article about collecting Japanese cars. It appears that no matter which hemisphere you’re on, the plight of the long-suffering Japanese car aficionado is same.

We’ve all experienced the sneers that Ray Ferguson, founder of the Brisbane Classic All Japanese Car Show, did when taking his ‘65 Prince Skyline to vintage car events dominated by the Big Three. That’s what prompted him to start his own damn car show.

And of course, we’d all like to have a garage full of rolling art like Sydney collectors Al Palmer (Century, Corona 1600, ‘72 Corolla and formerly 2000GT) or Mark Griffin (NSX, R32 Skyline, Series 2 RX-7 and 5 more).

And last but most definitely not least, JNC’s very own Kevin San was heavily quoted throughout the piece, tellin’ it like it is and schooling greater Sydney’s newspaper readers about nostalgics. That’s him on the cover standing next to his ‘86 Luce. Good on ya, Kev!

The article goes on to make some bold predictions about where the scene is headed, and offers up a list of top 10 collectible Japanese cars. We’ve never been a fan of these types of lists (see the ones from the Chicago Tribune or Forbes), but the rest of this article seems to accurately describe what you JNCers have known all along - that our cars are cool, as worthy of collecting as any European or American car, and about to hit the prime time, baby.

[Sydney Morning Herald]

Don’t cha just love it when you manage to get some free time over the weekend to spend with your car? While the JNC workhorse wagon is not exactly slammed like a mamma jamma, it is somewhat lower thanks to RS-R springs. It also now sits on a random set of old school wire-spoke wheels minus the baskets. What did you do this weekend?

Here’s a sneak preview of a page out of JNC Issue #2. We’ve all been hard at work on it - doing research, writing articles, editing photos, designing the layout, calling advertisers, promoting and marketing, shipping, and on and on and on. Therefore, we are sorry to report that despite many long hours, it will have to be delayed. The reasons are a combination of a sagging economy that has made finding advertisers more challenging (not to mention increased postage and paper costs) and a search for a new printer thanks to a botched delivery on Issue #1 that has some subscribers only getting Issue #1 now and some still waiting.

Our newbie status as an independent publisher failed to account for these possibilities and our aggressive schedule with a skeleton crew (some of which work full-time in addition to JNC) may have been a bit too ambitious. We know you’re eagerly anticipating the next issue, and it’s coming. Currently we plan to release Issue #2 in September. We’re deeply sorry for the wait and have each chopped off one pinky finger in repentance.

We are fully committed to bringing you the most thorough coverage of vintage Japanese cars because for us, above all, JNC is a labor of love. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or ask it in the forum. Thanks for bearing with us as we go take our baby steps.

-Team JNC

When we first started, all we had to our name was this measly website. We were JapaneseNostalgicCar.com, a bunch of ones and zeros floating around on the hard drive of some distant server. The first sticker we made reflected that sad fact, but now that we’re a magazine too, we thought we’d replace the “.com” part of the logo with something as equally evocative of nostalgics as the existing four-spoke wheel and elderly driver’s mark - a fender mirror. The logo looks a bit different in other respects to, but that’s because it’s been touched by the hand of Van.

We’re down to the last few “.com” stickers so we’re putting the redesigned logo on new stickers and T-shirts, which are available in the Shop section. One complaint about the old one old sticker was that it took up too much real estate, so we’ve made the new one a bit smaller (which also saves you .0000000001 ounces in dead weight :P). Thanks for your continued support. We love you guys!

[JNC Shop]

Hello JNCers, just a quick announcement about the magazine. Starting July 1, prices are going up. Mostly it has to do with the increasing cost of paper, and the fact that we set our introductory prices very low because we were asking you to take a plunge into the unknown with us.

It’s not going to be a huge change, something you could easily recover by making a few less trips to the vending machine or by following our gas saving tips. This is only for new subscribers. Current subscribers will see no change. But we wanted to inform you anyway so all the lurkers and procrastinators out there could have one last chance to get in on the good deal. Thanks for understanding and thanks for supporting us!

Sincerely,
Team JNC