Category Archives: museums

A first look inside the remodeled Honda Collection Hall at Twin Ring Motegi

If you’re a Hot Wheels collector, sometimes you just have to pull everything out of storage and go through it. Honda has been doing a similar thing, except with its entire car collection. It recently opened a new Racing Gallery … Continue reading

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A first look inside Suzuka Circuit’s Honda Racing Gallery

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Honda’s entry into Formula 1 at the 1964 German Grand Prix. Today, April 5, Honda is using the occasion to open a new museum dedicated to Honda motorsports at Suzuka Circuit, which began … Continue reading

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Honda to open motorsports museum at Suzuka Circuit

Add another destination to your next trip to Japan, because Honda will soon open a new museum at Suzuka Circuit dedicated to motorsports. The Honda Racing Gallery’s grand opening this spring will coincide with the company’s 60th anniversary in Formula … Continue reading

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Honda Collection Hall in Japan to reopen March 1, 2024

If you need another excuse to visit Japan, Honda announced today that the Honda Collection Hall will reopen March 1, 2024. One of the great car museums of Japan, the three-story building has been closed for renovations since the beginning … Continue reading

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The Toyota Automobile Museum has acquired a Celica XX, successor to a debated speed record

The Toyota Automobile Museum in Japan has a new acquisition, a 1983 Celica XX. We know it stateside as the second-generation Celica Supra but technically speaking this is a GA61, which is considerably different than the MA61 we got in … Continue reading

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Japan’s oldest domestic bus is now on display at a Nagoya museum

Japan’s oldest surviving domestic bus is part of a new exhibit at the JR Tokai Maglev & Railway Museum in Nagoya. In fact, it’s so significant that it was the first bus to be designated as an important cultural asset … Continue reading

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The Mazda Museum in Hiroshima will soon open its newly renovated halls

If you ever find yourself in Hiroshima, you owe it to yourself to visit the Mazda Museum. It’s easily accessible by either car or train, and is located right at the heart of the company’s headquarters. Recently, Mazda renovated their … Continue reading

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A Honda NSX joins the Toyota Automobile Museum’s permanent collection

Last month the Toyota Automobile Museum unveiled a new addition to their permanent collection: a 1991 Honda NSX. As those who have visited the museum know, Toyota’s museum not just a showcase of Toyotas, but a comprehensive look at the … Continue reading

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A 510 Nissan Bluebird SSS Coupé has been restored… by Toyota

The 510 Nissan Bluebird is one of the most important cars in Japan’s motoring history. So it should come as no surprise that an automaker would want to restore this important automotive legacy and put it in a museum. Recently, … Continue reading

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VIDEO: A virtual tour of Toyota’s Motorsports Biography exhibit

The Toyota Automobile Museum’s excellent “Toyota Motorsport Biography: Everlasting Challenge Spirit” exhibit is scheduled to end on April 11. Sadly, travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented most overseas travelers from seeing it in person. However, the museum … Continue reading

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GALLERIES: The Honda Collection Hall’s “Civic World” exhibit

The Honda Collection Hall in Japan is currently holding a special exhibit called “Civic World” that spans every generation of the ubiquitous everycar. The 17-car display includes both bone stock and race cars, covering five decades of Civics since the … Continue reading

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GALLERIES: A virtual tour of Japan’s impressive Isuzu museum

Isuzu Plaza, the official Isuzu museum was opened in 2017 in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, next to one of the company’s oldest factories. It’s currently closed through April 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but thanks to Isuzu you can still … Continue reading

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GALLERIES: The Petersen Automotive Museum opens an unprecedented exhibit honoring Japanese cars

Perhaps it is only fitting that the Petersen Automotive Museum is now located in what was once the only Seibu department store in the US. Where rows of Japanese home goods resided in 1962, today in 2018 stands this hemisphere’s most comprehensive museum … Continue reading

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Does your classic Subaru belong in a museum?

Do you have a classic Subaru? Do you want to display it in the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum’s upcoming exhibit of all-wheel-drive Japanese cars? Our friends at Subaru of America recently alerted us to the fact that they were loaning several of their own cars … Continue reading

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MUSEUMS: LA’s shrine to the automobile reopens with (slightly) more Japanese representation

Los Angeles has three major institutions on what the tour guides call Museum Row: one for art, one for natural history, and one entirely devoted to cars. The Petersen Automotive Museum is the Temple of the Car in what is considered the car culture … Continue reading

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GALLERIES: The American Honda Collection, Part 02 — Soichiro’s Dream

From a shed in the middle of a burned out lot in 1946 to a small US subsidiary selling motorcycles in 1959 to their first US-sold car in 1970, the company Soichiro Honda founded has come a long way. In Part 01 of our visit … Continue reading

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GALLERIES: The American Honda Collection, Part 01 – Small Beginnings

Soichiro Honda was born on November 17, 1906 in a small Shizuoka Prefecture village. If you had told his parents, a blacksmith and a weaver, that one day their son would put the family name on a worldwide automotive empire responsible for some of … Continue reading

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MUSEUMS: The Petersen has a 130 Datsun Cedric in its Vault

So the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles apparently has a Nissan Cedric 130 Custom Six. What’s more, it’s is a LHD example badged as a Datsun, with black California license plates. Was this staple of Japanese streets circa 1965 actually meant for US import?

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The most well preserved Datsun 720 pickup, ever

A couple of months ago Nissan threw a key party at an old ivy-covered mansion in the woods crammed full of taxidermied animals. But even better than some Eyes Wide Shut-type masquerade, they let attendees grab the keys to anything in their product lineup, including several items … Continue reading

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MUSEUMS: Motoring Mysteries of the Far East

If you’re on the East Coast and looking for a place to get your JNC fix this weekend, may we recommend the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The museum has gathered a fantastic and diverse cross section of Japanese vehicles … Continue reading

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