And now for a bit of shameless self-promotion. We were recently asked by the Japan Times, the largest English-language newspaper in Japan, to write a piece about the increasing interest in Japanese classics here in the US. The short article, titled “Nostalgia drives Japanese classic car scene,” pretty much sums up how we here at JNC feel about the scene, while covering a bit of very general history. It’s probably nothing regular readers don’t already know, but keep in mind this is for a broad audience who isn’t necessarily into nostalgics, or cars at all. Is there anything you take issue with? Anything we left out? Let us know.

[Japan Times]

This is sad news. Sport Compact Car, one of the most authoritative and well-written magazines about small engines and tuning tips for compact cars has been killed off by its parent company, Source Interlink, along with Truck Trend, with 115 employees cut loose. It’s one of the few import scene titles out there that had informative articles about the import scene, with no fluff about bikini girls and rap albums to distract from its core content. They even did the occasional story about an old school ride. This comes hot on the heels of Source Interlink discontinuing Turbo magazine as well, and rumor has it that more are on the chopping block. This kind of thing makes us uneasy, being small-time publishers still in the process of starting a new magazine. (more…)

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]

We’ve always said Mazda is the Japanese automaker that’s most willing to get in touch with its heritage, particularly in the US market. Late last year they began publishing Zoom Zoom magazine, for Mazdafarians interested in what’s going on at the company. We just received our first issue recently and one article that really caught our eye is the cleverly titled “The Maedas’ Touch.” It profiles the Maedas, a father and son team of designers that both worked for Mazda. Matasaburo, the father, was responsible for shaping the iconic first-gen RX-7 and 24 years later Ikuo, his son, penned the RX-8. It’s a great read and you can find the article at the Mazda USA website.

We were flipping through the radio dials when suddenly our ears perked up to the phrase “Toyota Museum” on American Public Media’s Marketplace. It was part of a segment on how corporations are recognizing their heritage.

Those who have been to the Toyota USA Museum in Torrance, CA know that it’s actually a warehouse with no markings whatsoever to indicate that there are classics galore housed inside. So far, the company has kept mum about whether a proper gallery is in the works.

Of note, the story mentions the fact that it was 10 years ago on Toyota USA’s 40th
birthday that they began to take an interest in preserving their history. Then they started buying back cars and restoring them. Today, the museum contains eleven million dollars’ worth of Toyotas, both production cars and concepts. You can listen to the story here, which includes an interview with curator Susan Sanborn talking about the Toyopet Crown.

[Marketplace]

What the hell’s this, spamming for the competition? Or perhaps the JNC boys have hacked grandJDM, posting their own content?!

Not quite!

For the past few months, Kev and I have been working hard alongside Ben and Dan at JapaneseNostalgicCar.com to get their magazine out. Why are we helping the competition? Frankly, we just don’t think of them that way! In such a small community of lovers of classic japanese cars, we’ve always thought it important to maintain close ties rather than to work against each other.

So, in the interests of bettering the community’s position in the greater automotive enthusiast picture, we decided it’d be a hot idea to team up with them on their magazine. So Kev contributed a simply brilliant feature article on the history of the Skyline, and I helped them put together the visual design of the mag. We’re all really proud of our efforts, and we hope you’ll support JNC by picking up a copy or grabbing an extremely well priced subscription!

Head over to JNC to get a look at what to expect inside the magazine.

Word on the street is that Snoop Dogg is putting together a band, called Snoop Dogg and the Datsun 510s.

So alright, that was a lie. I have to confess (happily) that I’m not in even the slightest way a fan of this guy’s droll styles. But when the man’s got a 510 wagon on the cover of his new album, props have to be given.

Is this evidence of a heretofore unknown secret love for Datsuns? Snoop, if you’re reading grandJDM—and we know you are—holla at us.

[via A Hot Mess]
[also check out ratsun.net forums discussion on this]