QotW: What JNC emblem/logo needs to come back?

Recently, we saw a great example of an AE82 with 10k on the odometer. It reminded me of the car in which I learned how to drive: our family’s 1985 AE82 in the same color, same interior, but with a manual and I believe it was a DX grade. The grille was different but the emblem was the same. “TOYOTA”. Simple, clean and undeniable.

Now, I’m a fan of emblems. I have a box of emblems that I’ve gathered over the years from junk yards and late-night eBay purchases. There are some excellent badges that I won’t say to keep the discussion free-flowing. The TOYOTA badge is not the best one out there, it’s just something from my early driving years. I do wish we got back to some of the “classic” badging… I’ll allow models that may not be in production now (but maybe could be coming back!) What do you think?

What JNC emblem/logo needs to come back?

The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What JNC would make a great mobile office?

Last week we asked what JNC would make a great mobile office. Ant suggested the sexy Skyline Super Silhouette which does have the diving board front bumper that could be used as a conference table, but highly impractical (the money spend on gas would kill the company credit line!).

Cesariojpn scoped a rare ’72 Nissan Caravan that has the space for a full office or a CIA sting operation… but boy oh boy is it going to be hard to find repair parts if it breaks down. Not sure a client will be wooed with the bright colors either…Randy nearly changed my mind with the renovation ideas complete with sound deadening and pop-up roof vents and suave red wine shag carpeting! but alas..

The winner this week is Dimitry with the slam dunk suggestion of the Toyota Century. The classic lines are, well, classy and can impress any client when you roll up in silver blue (black is too simple for your tastes). The smooth ride makes on-the-go paperwork a breeze. Add in that it comes in a V12 and has modern equipment makes it practical for entertaining guests–even with a few rounds of karaoke. Congrats!

Do you need a presentable, spacious vehicle to work from? Toyota Century
Do you have a business meeting at Wall Street? Toyota Century
Do you need go on a business lunch after the said meeting? Toyota Century
Do you need to continue the meeting after lunch? Toyota Century
Do you need to go on a date after the meeting? Toyota Century
Do you need to sleep somewhere but no money for a motel? Toyota Century
Do you need a unique vehicle, that truly encompasses the spirit of JNC? Toyota Century

Omedetou! Your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop.

JNC Decal smash

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21 Responses to QotW: What JNC emblem/logo needs to come back?

  1. Mike says:

    One classic logo is still around, more or less.

    Remember when all the Japanese car companies “modernized” their logos and replaced nice attractive and sensible logos with strange shapes that sympolized things you had to look up on Wikipedia to figure out? Well, one company not named Suzuki stayed true to its great original logo: Subaru. The basic idea of putting a constellation in an oval really hasn’t changed since Fuji Heavy Industries stuck it on the hood of all those little 360s they sent to America to die of rust. OK, Subaru did eventually rearrange the stars in the Pleiades cluster logo a little, but then they weren’t exactly right to begin with. And who knows. As we move around the center of the galaxy constellation shapes change as seen from Earth. Maybe in a million years the current Subaru logo will look just like the constellation from which the company gets its name.

    Point is, astronomy is cool and Subaru’s are cool and good on them for keeping the original logo going…more or less.

  2. Mike says:

    Um…give me an A for grammar and a c- for editing.

  3. SaveTheDragons says:

    Without a doubt – the Celica dragon !

    http://cartype.com/pics/1648/full/toyota_celica_supra_71-72.jpg

    The celica needs to return, be affordable, be fixable, be rear wheel drive.

    Now the entire set of old rear wheel drive Celica’s are starting to be saved.
    Tag is #savethedragons

  4. slammy says:

    Only one emblem comes to mind, the Celica dragon.

  5. Fifty5engineering says:

    It’s not really an emblem, but I’m a fan of oem decals that boasted 80s and 90s performance technology. Decals like DOHC, Super HICAS, Active Aero, and 4ws rule!

  6. Jac Cottrell says:

    The vintage, lowercase Mazda ‘M’ in the circle…you know the one!

  7. rizqidawami says:

    The old corolla logo like c*** and 12 valve, twincam decal

    • Chris says:

      This is what first came to my mind, but you beat me to it. I love this logo. On my ’73 it’s actually embossed, very ornately, into the vinyl seats. What happened to details like that?

  8. Nathan says:

    Any car can have a V6, V8, V12, etc. badge. Such engine type badges show that the car is more “special” than the Plain Jane variant in some cases and is a way to showcase the pride of the manufacturer in others, a way to market power even when the vehicle is standing still (e.g., Ford’s old V8 badging).

    Turbo badges that seemed so cool in the ’80s have lost their meaning in today’s context, when so many cars are offered in turbo variants, many of them with fuel-sipping motors that don’t push much boost at all, the complete opposite of the power the turbo badge was originally supposed to convey, so reviving any variant of that seems, sadly, a waste. Even in vehicles that weren’t terribly powerful, ’80s turbo-badged cars at least had the excuse that they often weren’t the Plain Jane non-turbo motor when they debuted and that the technology was just starting to take off in mass production at the time. On almost any car made in the last 10 or so years that isn’t a Porsche 911, with perhaps just a few exceptions, if the word “Turbo” appears across the back, it’s there as a way to make the car look cooler than it is, a way of overcompensating, telling the owner, “Hey, it’s OK that your [presumably fragile] ego is hurt that you didn’t buy the more powerful V6. To compensate, here’s a turbo badge.”

    Reviving various emblems manufacturers had or that their models had sounds great until one realizes they will likely be slapped on a characterless jelly bean of a car that no one save for a few nuts will want to remember in a few years. The company logo badges from almost any automaker’s past were more stylized and interesting than the more-boring-than-Vanilla scripts and shapes used by many today, but would look out of place on a car with modern lines more often than not, as many of these are also more boring than Vanilla.

    My vote goes to the Mazda rotor badge. The rotary represents something more unique, a motor found almost nowhere else, not a variation on the same technology everyone else is using but with a higher cylinder count or a few extra gizmos (variable valve timing, turbocharging, etc.). The rotary engine conveys ingenuity, a willingness to break with the herd, and thanks to the heritage of the Cosmo, from the original through to the JC series, the RX-3, and the RX-7, performance. Just seeing a rotary badge is enough to evoke the unique sound in one’s mind. There aren’t many other badges that do that. Can you imagine a production car inspired by or based on the RX-Vision in Soul Red with one of these [http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Mazda-Logo-Cosmo-Sports.jpg] on the back, perhaps with a color update (e.g., Soul Red instead of blue)?

    Are you getting any of this Mazda? Please work to make the drop-dead gorgeous RX-Vision a reality! …and if you could, please put a trademark rotor badge on it. Thanks!

    • Nathan says:

      I would like to point out that “a few nuts” should be taken as an enthusiast’s compliment. You’re collecting a mundane car? There’s arguably something wrong with you, but thank goodness for that loose screw or two! Enthusiasm for automobiles is a disease for which there is no cure, even though “treatment” drains the wallet, but somebody has to preserve history, and if we are to do so accurately, we can’t just pick and choose what gets saved.

      • Randy says:

        Thing with the “mundane” cars is that, while there were TONS more made, they were used, abused, and scrapped, leaving the future to think that EVERYBODY drove the GT/Type-R monster versions.

        That Corolla from last week? I’d consider voting for that for 1st place – “Fan Favorite” – at a show before any of the ROWS of hi-po models that get all the love, but don’t reflect their time accurately.

        I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’d bet there were LOTS more Toyota vans sold than Supras. Which reflects their time better? Which is going to be all over the show field?

  9. jivecom says:

    Gimme that katakana TO-YO-TA back.

  10. Bryan Kitsune says:

    Throw me in with the lot who would love to see the return of the mythical beast: the rwd Celica dragon. Also give me twin round headlights with it.

    And uh, can I throw a tertiary suggestion (which now I see is also mentioned)? Go ahead and use the katakana TO YO TA トヨタ “teq” logo on the new dragon Celica. Dragon emblem/headlights/トヨタ all shown on this beautiful old dragon (just found via google, no affiliation): http://www.sub5zero.com/sites/default/files/uploads/2012/05/IMG_7790.jpg

  11. Punto8 says:

    The Corolla “C” with the three stars to represent the Corolla, Camry and Corona! Of course, that would require for Toyota to bring back the Corona too!!!! How ’bout dat!?!?! 🙂

  12. John Moran says:

    N-I-S-M-O
    N-I-S-M-O
    N-I-S-M-O
    And NISMO was its name-o.

    Yes, the early logo.
    Although it came out before the Godzilla nickname, it had that feel. You can almost hear the Godzilla music when you see it.
    1984 was a great year, but it wouldn’t be long before this logo could be seen making noise at Le Mans, Spa, and Daytona.
    Aside from the hp it adds, the NISMO decal just looks kakkoii. It even made the R33 look cool.
    I still enjoy seeing that font on a horn button or shift knob that occasionally pops up.
    With the announcement of the heritage parts program and NISMO’s birthday just ahead, it would be great to see this logo come back.

  13. SwiftSport says:

    I recently added Sports Mind decals to my ZC32S Swift Sport, as featured on the ’97 Alto Works Suzuki Sport Limited and they set it off a treat. Full deco packages rarely work on modern cars, but the odd logo certainly does.

  14. speedie says:

    The Mazda RE badge from the RX-3. It conveyed all the information you needed to know in a simple clean design. RE at the top of a rotor shape with the classic Mazda M inside a circle placed in the center of the rotor (in racing red of course). Now they would also need to bring back a rotary car to display the badge, which would be a double sweet deal.

    http://cartype.com/pics/1607/full/re-emblem_mazda_rx2_2_74.jpg

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