Category Archives: motorsports

Britcar 24hrs Toyota GT86 to revive BTCC AE86 Corolla livery

The car you see on two wheels above is an AE86 in its prime, campaigned by the UK’s Chris Hodgetts Motor Sports. With it, CHMS won the British Touring Car Championships during the hachiroku‘s heyday in both 1986 and 1987. This fall its … Continue reading

Posted in mitsubishi, motorsports, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Friday Video: Against All Odds, the story of the BRE Datsun 510s

Today’s video is required viewing for any Datsun enthusiast. If you don’t yet know why every vintage Japanese car show in the US is packed with 510s sporting twin stripes down their fenders, this movie will answer all questions. Against All … Continue reading

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Motorsports: The Honda S800-based Macransa Tojiro-III

Whilst roaming around the Speedway paddocks for our 2012 Fuji Jamboree coverage we spotted this FRP creation stamped with a vintage Mark of Soichiro below a Honda Twin Cam Club decal. What could this contraption be? Why it’s the 1966 … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2012 Fuji Jamboree, Part 01

If the sight of a Skyline and Savanna in nostalgic warpaint doesn’t stir your soul, we’ll go ahead and notify your next of kin. Add to that a sprinkling of Starlet, Sunny, and a snazzy Japanese-colors retro racing helmet perched just so, … Continue reading

Posted in events, honda, isuzu, mazda, motorsports, nissan, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Question of the Week: What nostalgic race car would you have driven?

Okay, so you’ve invented that time machine. Oddly, it can only serve one purpose — to put you in the cockpit of any classic Japanese motorsports machine. What nostalgic race car would you have driven? The JNC staff (except Kev) … Continue reading

Posted in motorsports, nissan, Question of the Week | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 52 Comments

Tomica R30 Skyline Super Silhouette is among the most detailed 1/64 cars ever

Since Tomica‘s sponsorship of Masahiro Hasemi‘s actual Group 5 R30 Skyline Super Silhouette back in the early 80s, the insanely be-winged racer has been replicated in countless forms. The latest iteration will be released this May in Tomytec‘s Tomica Limited Vintage Neo lineup and — … Continue reading

Posted in minicars, motorsports, nissan | 8 Comments

Friday Video: Gene Hackman, Toyota Celica racer

The most famous celebrity driver raced under Nissan’s white-red-blue colors, but their main rival had an Oscar-winner of their own flying the red-orange-yellow. Yes, Nissan may have had Newman, but Toyota had Hackman. After competing in the SCCA Formula Ford series … Continue reading

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Toyota’s awesome 2012 Geneva Motor Show display

What’s happening right now is the Geneva Motor Show, traditionally the unveiling venue for six-figure European exotics.  To stand out ToMoCo had to do something special, and we’d say a pair of gleaming white RWD GT coupes fits the bill. … Continue reading

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Aussie Rally Champion Hoons Rebuilt RA40 Celica Rally Car

Neal Bates is a four-time Australian Rally Championship winner, long associated with Celica GT-Fours and AWD Corollas that we didn’t get here in the states. Though retired, Bates spent the last 18 months building a replica RA40 Celica rally car inspired … Continue reading

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Friday Video: The Datsuns of New Zealand’s Shellsport Series

There’s an island nation halfway around the world where Sunnys and Starlets were regularly raced in a premier racing series back in the late 1970s. Fans flocked to see these small-displacement machines battle it out, and the cars achieved such … Continue reading

Posted in motorsports, nissan, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

The Vintage Japanese “OK” Hand Logo Explained

Few things in life are cooler than vintage racing liveries. The colors, the typefaces, and the long-extinct corporate logos (of often just-as-extinct corporations) capture a moment in time that can never be replicated again. Add to that the rawness of … Continue reading

Posted in japan, mazda, motorsports, nissan, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Kidney, Anyone? Toyota Celica TA64 Group 4 Rally Car

Even if you were a mere fetus in the mid-80s, you must know by know of the legendary Group B rally cars — machines like the Audi Quattro, Ford RS200 and Peugeot 205 Turbo — that kicked off the AWD … Continue reading

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Fuji-go and Sakura-go Ride Again

53 years ago, Nissan sent a pair of Datsun 210 sedans to compete in what was known as the “World’s Cruelest Rally.” The 1958 Around-Australia Mobilgas Trial was a tortuous, 19-day circumnavigation around the continent, over mostly unpaved roads. Named … Continue reading

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MOTORSPORTS: The not-so-famous Yoshimura-tuned Honda S800 racers

Like we said yesterday, the Honda S800 was one of the premiere Japanese race cars of the Sixties. The yellow-and-red 1968 S800 RSC is the most famous, but many more have buzzed down Suzuka’s main straight. Some of Japan’s most … Continue reading

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Friday Video: 1972 Japan Grand Prix Touring Car Race

It’s a sweltering day at Fuji Speedway and the grid is packed with TE27 Corolla Levins and Nissan Sunnys and (front-wheel-drive!) Cherrys. Watch Nobuhide Tachi win this round of the 1972 Japan Grand Prix Touring Car championships in his famous orange-on-white Toyota Celica 1600GT. … Continue reading

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Friday Video: Mazda 787B at the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans

As we get ready for SevenStock tomorrow let’s round out Mazda Week with a Japanese documentary chronicling the Mazda 787B‘s historic siege on Le Mans. We are so completely obsessed with this machine that we made a shirt. The film hails from … Continue reading

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SevenStock Preview: JNC Mazda 787B Anniversary Shirt

Orange and green. For Mazdafarians, the colors instantly evoke the livery of the Mazda 787B. You know the history — the 700-horse monster was the first and only Japanese car to win outright at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the only … Continue reading

Posted in mazda, motorsports, nostalgic wear | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Vintage Racing: SCCA GT4 TE27 Toyota Corolla

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Isuzu, here are some more vintage racing snaps. A couple of weeks ago at JCCS, we met a dude from T. Creations Paint Designs of Pasadena. He had collected some photos of this car, the … Continue reading

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Friday Video: Lexus LFA laps Nürburgring in 7:14:64

It’s official — Aichi’s first supercar since the 2000GT has made it into the Nürburgring’s record books with a time of 7:14:64. Watch Toyota test driver/racer/AE86 enthusiast Akira Iida fling the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition around the Green Hell during … Continue reading

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Friday Video: Suzuki Jimny SuperTrials

It always amazes us how unbelievably varied Japan’s automotive culture is. Here is an entire event, televised no less, dedicated to kei-class Suzuki Jimnys. In the Jimny Supertrials, these 660cc, oft-turbocharged little four-wheelers run a time attack in the snow. It … Continue reading

Posted in kei, motorsports, suzuki | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments