We posted some vintage Japanese wheel ads a while back. Here’s some more spotted on Riverside. Many have a similar theme: modified OG J-ride, night time shot, the wheel in question and a glimpse of asphalt lit dramatically. The message is clear, get out there and race, foo! This Techno Phantom-shod RX-7 just beckons. (more…)

We went with high art and how-to for the last two Friday Videos but this week is a return to the roots – more Seibu Keisatsu madness.

The video appears to be clips from two episodes spliced together. In the first one, our heroes’ R30 Skylines and S130 Fairlady Z give chase to a C230 Laurel. Look out for the rare Toyota sighting in the Nissan-sponsored series.

In the second vid, the crew pursues a 330 Cedric/Gloria through Nissan Sunny Miyagi, an actual dealership. Car carriers full of brand new Nissans become embroiled in the melee. A perfectly good B210 hatch gets its door shorn off, and the finale results in some serious cringe-inducing carnage.

According to the internets, on July 16, 1981 Nissan execs officially changed their brand in the US market from Datsun to Nissan. The campaign to notify the public began in earnest that fall and for three years badges like the “By Nissan” one on this 1981 Datsun 210 (actually a B310 Sunny) appeared on the rumps of various cars.

Even back then, the rebranding effor cost the company over $500 million dollars, says Dan Banks of the Z-Car Club or America (read this for a detailed history). With a sticker price of just under $4000, that could have bought 125,000 Datsun 210s!

[Image: Jalopnik]

Here is the first of a series of vintage race videos that we’ll be posting this week. We stumbled upon this while catching up with beoneoneoh, who can always be counted on to unearth the Sunny-related. This is footage from a race that took place at Tsukuba Circuit almost exactly 32 years ago, on May 29, 1977.

In the hotly contested TS Class all the major players came to the fight: Nissan with the Sunny, Toyota with the Starlet, Honda with the Civic, and Mazda with the Savanna RX-3. Sunnys saw much success in the series and this race was no exception. According to the video’s notes, factory Nissan driver Kenji Tohira took first place in the No. 15 Sunny 1200GX.

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This backyard stash of J-tin was just sitting about on a quiet suburban side street. The owner of this trove may not want to be revealed so I won’t mention any names, but he did say that the majority of these cars will, one day, be restored. A few are too far gone, like the black S30 Crown and the blue Sports 800, but the rest should keep him busy for a while. Amazingly, he said that the neighbors don’t complain at all. Instead, they think it’s cool to see the old cars. Nobody tell them about HOAs.

More pics after the jump. (more…)

Cheater_5, the JNC reader who introduced us to Auckland’s Tama Autos, has a another great post about Pitroad, the Chiba-based Sunny tuning house responsible for the pulse-quickening B310 TS Cup car pictured above. They make everything from suspension parts to bottom end internals, and can even ship you a built A-series engine if you’re serious about it.

You gotta love those squared off fender flares. Not every car can pull it off, but the B310 took Sunny styling in a boxier direction and they suit it perfectly. Even if you aren’t into the Sunny per se, there’s a large gallery of lovely TS Cup race photos on the Pitroad website. We’ve put a selection of our favorites after the jump, and also check out cheater_5’s take on the subject as someone who lives and breathes Sunnys, in other words A B110 Perspective. (more…)

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?

According to one Datsun Enthusiast who was visiting relatives in Pakistan, one of the most prestigious taxis around is the Datsun Sunny B110 4dr. Yes, we’re talking currently, not 20-30 years ago.

Here’s a nice example that was spotted last year:

If you’re not B110 savvy, this is a JDM GL spec “face lift” specimen, circa 1971.

Sure, it’s a little beat up, but considering it’s haunts, it could be a lot worse. Most importantly, the car is precious to its owner; it’s not just another piece of metal. (more…)

Congrats to Team B210 Racing for winning the Index of Effluency award at the 24 Hours of LeMons‘ Arse-Freeze-A-Palooza this past weekend. While technically not car that placed first (that honor goes to a Geo Metro powered by a Honda CBR900RR motor), this award is given to “the team that accomplishes most with the crappiest car.” (more…)