The weather sucks in much of the country and/or world. Even SoCal is experiencing the strange meteorological phenomenon in which drops of water mysteriously fell from the sky and temperatures dipped into the low 60s. It’s hard out there for a JNCer.
How does a JNCer pass the winter?
Whatever you do, we hope it doesn’t involve salt.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s the rarest special edition JNC?”
Though MainstreaM made a compelling case for the Mitsubishi Starion GX, a bottom-rung trim level that was so ignored until it became rare, the winner this week is Kuroneko, who said:
My vote would be for the most incongruous, the Mitsubishi Debonair V 3000 Royal AMG:
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20361
If just for the brochure alone! Easily the most standout mis-match of ideas. While denim seats are perhaps the 1970s standout faux pas, body kits & color-coded wheels are definitely the 1980s worst gag-fest. Neko.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Image: Pinterest
Living in Canada, my car is only out 6 or 7 months of the year and sadly is in storage for the remainder. I pass the winters by going out in the garage and just looking at it. I go online and spend hours looking at photos, reading up on info and hunting for parts. I hate winter so I’m convinced I’ll someday live where I don’t need to freeze for nearly half of a year. I’ll take my car with me and will be giving the middle finger salute to winter as I drive off towards a better and warmer place.
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Spend winter time working on either my 1991 MR2 or my 1969 Toyota Corolla sprinter w/4AGE T50 transplant.
I drive my 1984 RX-7 through the winter. Being in Colorado, most people don’t realize, the winters are very mild. The dozen days or so that the weather is bad, I car pool with the wife. The LSD rear end really helps when there is a little snow. Ice isn’t all that common, maybe 2-3 days a year. Being that I have a GSL-SE, the FI helps with winter start up. Some people might think I’m crazy for driving a restored car through the winter in snow storms. Now and again they use mag chloride on the roads but they never use salt. I just take the car to the car was often. I fixed all the rust prone areas of the car when it was restored so I’m not to worried.
The last time the roads were icy, about 3 weeks ago, The car drove though everything mother nature put to it. It was fun climbing icy hills passing FWD cars stuck in the other lane. It is amazing where a good set of tires and conservative driving will get you.
Mag chloride is horrible man, as bad as sodium chloride, and possibly worse. In the 90s CO didn’t salt the roads with anything, and it was a better time. But at some point transplants reached critical mass and they insist on having the roads salted/”de-iced” just how they were in whatever backwards hellhole they emigrated from.
I sincerely hope that the use of de-icing agents comes to a screeching halt based on some “stop dumping toxic chemicals into the environment/water supply/nature/our city” campaign. If ever there was an “environmental” cause worthy of supporting that would be it. (Our old cars and their chassis being the most precious environments of all)
One of the reasons why I hate being in Colorado. No salt rusting my butt, my 4Runner has been developing rust since I got here. I miss California.
With salt on the roads here in the winter, I have no choice but to store my Celica. I would totally take it out for a few death rips in the snow if it weren’t for the salt. This winter I’m driving a free-to-me 1990 Jetta… How glamorous. Some day I will own a Subaru for a winter beater. Some day! And it will be greased up like crazy to survive the salt.
Winter is the time when you WORK on your JNC, summer is the time you DRIVE your JNC. What’s the mystery? Without winter, I’d never want to take my Z off the road to work on it!
I moved to arizona. haha.
Winter mean saving up cash for all the awesome parts you want to buy in coming spring or work on your always-in-progress-project JNC in your garage (Oh how I wish I have a heated garage, been there before. Doing an engine swap on a EF Civic during -20 degree Canadian winter without heat is not fun at all.)
Fortunately/unfortunately my 1979 Celica hasn’t run since 1992, when motorcycles suddenly became my #1 interest (they’re back to #2 at the moment). So my Celica sits in my garage year-round, nice and cozy, protected from the harsh SoCal winters….
To me winter is spent dreaming of the warmer months, the time I take her out to the coast and drive the windy roads. Its the time off that ensures that im always thinking about the next time I can take her out.
Easy, drive a Japanese Nostalgic 4×4!
’83 Hilux with annual oil undercoating, if you’re my neighbor.
The way my jnc spends it’s winter is by saving me money on gas as it does all year around but very grateful around this time of year because my 1980 Datsun 210 wagon starts up early in the morning with no hesitation and off we go to work so I can make some cash for holiday presents
Living in Australia, winter is the best time to drive,
cooler air for the engine, better performance.
It is a foreign concept to think people store their cars for winter.
After 10 years in SoCal I’m experiencing my first winter in a place that actual has winter…So I’m swapping a 2JZ running triple Webers into an MS51 Crown. Figured I should at least make the best of it!
By living in Hawaii. 😛
Yeah me too… although this place isn’t the greatest for JNC either. This salty film that gets on everything. I think that Arizona dude is on to something.
I’ve heard Hawaii is actually one of the worst places for salt, since it’s just islands… Somewhere I read/saw that they actually have to use galvanized nails for house construction.
Not really. The salt air doesn’t quite do a disastrous amount of rust if you live “far enough” from the beach.
I look at all the JCCS pictures I took and dream…..
I do the same as Pete…and dodge puddle’s of salty water.
(My 99′ Civic is not a JNC yet).
My ’92 240sx is not yet a classic, but I drive it year round and every day, unless there’s been a fresh dump of snow. I live in Tulsa, Ok where we get 100+ degree weeks in the summer and super cold, windy days in the winter with the occasional snow or ice “storm.” Once the plows have hit the main streets, so does my Nissan. Just passed 222,222 and shooting for 3s.
I buy an AWD JNC and do donuts in empty icy parking lots and purposely drift onto empty streets. Bewildering everyone else in their brand new behemoth SUVs or Subaru Legacy Outbacks as to how something built before 2010 can handle being out in the snow.
Winter is an especially long, somber time for Canadian JNCers. We secure away our Japanese classics, driving instead more modern cars through the long months of snow, ice and road slop.
Winter can be a time to catch up on repairs or maintenance on my X73 Cressida and Datsun 510. But the reality is that a quick, simple job during the summer can be a long, complex ordeal in a frigid garage. Winter is when I’d rather lay out my plans to fix/rebuild/replace things in the spring.
Sourcing out parts can actually be fun. But one fun thing I do every winter (especially after a heavy snowfall) is recall how these cars that we now isolate from the winter, were at one time, so much fun to DRIVE in the winter.
If youre old enough to have driven in the ’70s, winter time meant beefy snow tires on the back and all-seasons on the front. And in my city, snow clearing was less frequent than it is today. So “drifting” your Datsun 510 around a corner was just standard motoring through a turn (sideways) because that was the best way to negotiate the heaps of snow. (Not enough heat in the cabin? – slide a chunk of cardboard in from of the rad. LOL!). I’m sure we were driving at much slower speeds than we recall but they sure SEEMED faster and tons of fun. The AWD, ABS and ice radial tire-equipped winter car I drive today always gets me where I need to go. But driving those old RWD cars made every drive a potential story to tell.
I’ve still been taking the Hako out, but there hasn’t been any salt yet. I’m not afraid of rain and snow, but the salt is a car killer.So far except for a couple cold snaps, the Midwest winter has been pretty mild. January will probably be a no drive month, though I still plan to start it up every couple weeks and let it warm up. If the roads are clear, though, I will be on them! I own it so I can drive it, not stare at it (well, I do that as well).
Here in Finland Winter can be passed by doing work inside garage. Days are short and it is dark as iceman a-hole here during winter. Personally I spend alot time inside garage but also outside sliding around in my J-tin. This winter I use a c32 2.4e slx Laurel as a daily commuter. This car is going to get some serious track time on icetracks nearby 😀 Last winter I used to race around tracks with my 510. It survived so it is time to let it rest for this season.
In garage I restore c10 and c210 Skylines. Both need work so I do not have to think what to do with all my spare time 😀
Happy holidays to all !!