Category Archives: 25 Year Club
25 YEAR CLUB: Third-Generation Acura Integra
Regardless of income, gender, creed or species, when asked what the greatest front-wheel-drive car of all time is, the answer is almost unanimously the DC2 Integra, specifically the Type R. However, the Integra story is more than its race-ified trim … Continue reading
Watch some classic Acura sports cars get abused for a mediocre ad
For its last several generation cycles, Acura has been trying to find a brand identity. The cancellation of the Integra/RSX, the long hiatus of the NSX, and the adoption of various corporate grilles haven’t done it any favors. More recently, … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: JZA80 Toyota Supra
In the pantheon of Japanese cars, none is more synonymous with brute power than the Toyota Supra Twin Turbo. A legend in its own time, it is one of those rare cars whose status as classic was cemented long before … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
Our last inductee to the 25 Year Club for 2017 is arguably the crowning achievement of Mitsubishi Motor Company’s illustrious 100-year history, the Lancer Evolution. Birthed as a pure homologation model for rally racing, it transformed an otherwise innocuous economy … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Mazda Autozam AZ-1
Kei cars are cool. Slow and small they might be, but they are feats of engineering ingenuity that extract the most space, efficiency, and usability out of a tightly defined set of rules. And sometimes, the most fun as well. … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Lexus SC
It was somewhere just west of Omaha that I said to myself, “This car was made for this shit.” I was in the midst of a cross-country drive with nothing but a Lexus SC, a toothbrush, and fewer changes of underwear than days on … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club
Tagged 25 Year Club, calty, Erwin Lui, lexus, lexus sc, soarer, toyota
35 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: 5th-Generation “EG” Honda Civic
As Honda gets ready to unleash a new generation of high-performance Civics — including the long-awaited Type R — upon us, it is only appropriate that the car that propelled the 90s tuner movement into mainstream America finally join the 25 … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club
Tagged civic, Civic EG, Civic Ferio, del Sol, drag racing, honda, jtcc, mugen
31 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: FD3S Mazda RX-7
Here we are at the end of 2016, twenty-five years since 1991. Think back, what do you remember of MCMXCI? The Gulf War? The end of the Bubble Era? Many of us remember the year quite fondly because it represented a kind of … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Celebrating the Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B, Part 04
Twenty-five years ago today, the Mazda 787B started on a 24-hour journey that would change Japan’s motorsport history. As you know, Mazda won the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, and in parts 01, 02, and 03 of our tribute to this … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club, motorsport
Tagged 24 Hours of Le Mans, 787b, le mans, mazda, mazdaspeed, R26B, racing history, rotary engine
3 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: Celebrating the Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B, Part 03
In the previous installments of our 25th anniversary commemoration of Mazda 787B’s historic Le Mans win, we looked at the race car’s genealogy as well as the origin of its team. With the rules change imminent, it was the last year … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club, motorsport
Tagged 24 Hours of Le Mans, 787b, le mans, mazda, mazdaspeed, R26B, racing history
6 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: Celebrating The Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B, Part 02
The 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans is now underway — a perfect occasion to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic victory of the Mazda 787B. If you’re listening to or watching the race live, join us on a … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club, motorsport
Tagged 13G, 13J, 24 Hours of Le Mans, 717C, 727C, 737C, 757, 767, 767b, Endurance Racing, Kenichi Yamamoto, le mans, mazda, Mazda Auto Tokyo, Mazda Sports Corner, mazdaspeed, Mooncraft, Nigel Stroud, R25B, racing history, rotary engine, Takashi Yorino, Takayoshi Ohashi, Takuya Yura, yojiro terada, Yoshimi Katayama
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25 YEAR CLUB: Celebrating the Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B, Part 01
The 24 Hours of Le Mans begins tomorrow. This year marks the 84th running of the iconic endurance race. For racing fans and JNCers in particular, 2016 is especially significant as it is the 25th anniversary of the first and, … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club, motorsport
Tagged 787b, le mans, mazda, Mazda Auto Tokyo, Mazda Sports Corner, mazdaspeed, racing history, rotary engine
5 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: Mitsubishi GTO
If you had to rank the social pecking order of JDM performance cars, then the Skyline GT-R would be the king. No matter what marque you favor, it’s hard to argue against the decades of motorsport glory and performance folklore … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Acura NSX
Today at JNC we welcomes another inductee into the 25 Year Club, one that launched exactly 25 years ago, on September 14, 1990. Yes, it’s a car, it’s Japanese, and it’s beloved. But we’re going to go one step further and … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: The Mazda Eunos Cosmo is officially a Japanese Nostalgic Car
“Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us,” Carl Sagan once said. If there ever was a car as awe-inspiring as the stars, it is the Eunos Cosmo. A forbidden fruit of formidable engineering to those outside of Japan, it’s … Continue reading
25 YEAR CLUB: Mitsubishi Eclipse
The Mitsubishi Eclipse was launched in 1989 as a 1990 model. Known as the DSM cars by enthusiasts, the Plymouth Laser, the Eagle Talon, and the Mitsubishi Eclipse were a combined project between Chrysler and Mitsubishi built under the program name of … Continue reading
Posted in 25 Year Club
Tagged 25 Year Club, DSM, Eagle Talon, eclipse, mitsubishi, Plymouth Laser
28 Comments
25 YEAR CLUB: The Infiniti Q45 is officially a Japanese Nostalgic Car
Flipping through the channels on your massive cathode-ray television in the fall of 1989, you probably came across a mysterious commercial for a yet unknown brand of new automobile. Only instead of the actual car, the spots cast your living … Continue reading
25 YEARS of LEXUS, Part 01: The Lexus LS 400 is officially a Japanese nostalgic car
In honor of yet another landmark vehicle turning 25, let’s all raise a champagne glass to Lexus, Japan’s most luxurious marque. Now, set that glass down atop a pyramid of other glasses stacked on the hood of a dyno-strapped LS … Continue reading
