QotW: What’s the story with your JNC’s keychain?

skyline heritage - keychain1 pgc10
Keychains. They will soon be a thing of the past thanks to fancy push-button starters and “smart” keys. Can something really even be called a key fob if there is no key attached?

Well, at least when you drive a JNC you can still get that visceral, at-one-with-the-machine thrill when you rotate a lock tumbler with a good, old-fashioned blade and bow. Plus, they provide another personalizable connection with the car because they can be unique, sentimental or a collector’s item unto themselves, rather than a uniform black oval designed specifically to fly out of your shorts pocket and into the driver’s seat-center console trench because it is smoother than a suppository. What symbol of motoring tradition sways from your steering column as you bomb down the streets of your town and what does it mean to you?

What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner of the last QotW, “Is Toyota making the right move?” 

Toyota Tundra Beijing

While the effects of Toyota USA’s move from Torrance to Texas will reverberate across SoCal for years to come, one thing is clear: Californians are sad to see it go and Texans are more than happy to welcome them with open arms. While we do not agree with most of this week’s winner’s assessment of our home state, the internet itself is JNC‘s home and r100guy‘s closing sentence rings truest of all (emphasis added by us):

The move to Texas is a good one. California is no longer is the car culture mecca it once was and is stuck in over regulation and self importance. Texas is a dynamic market with business friendly environment and a strong healthy economy. California is becoming less relevant all the time. The “car culture mecca” is now the internet with people all over the world sharing ideas.

Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!

JNC Decal smash

 

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16 Responses to QotW: What’s the story with your JNC’s keychain?

  1. Dchil says:

    I wish I had a piece of J-tin. No matter how rusted and decrepid it may be. It would still be beautiful to me (unless it’s a 280-300Zx, those just don’t get my motor running like a B110 or a C110).

    *sigh* I just gotta keep applying for jobs…

  2. Mazluce says:

    I found my MR2 aw11 key chain at a local auto show in a booth. The booth owner had no idea he even had it or what the screaming chicken stood for. I bought on the spot. Knowing how hard it is to find keepsakes like this I still have it even though its worn out from constant use.

  3. dickie says:

    I have 3 JNCs in my garage/driveway, each has its own keychain with a separate story attached.

    My X8 Cressida has an old wooden domino with a dragon carved into the back. When my grandmother passed away, my grandfather moved out of the house they shared for 50 years and entrusted my family with the contents. A lot of stuff was sold off, but I grabbed the set of dominoes I remembered playing with as a kid. Many of them were lost, but it was a tangible link to my childhood so I kept them anyway. As I started buying cars, I realized that these dominoes were the perfect shape and size to act as an anchor for my keys. I drilled one of the dots near the corner and stuck a ring through it, and every time I go for a drive I remember sitting on my grandma’s front porch lining up endless rows of dominoes and making elaborate paths to knock down.

    My X3 Cressida uses a buoyant foam keychain that originally held the keys to my brother’s first boat. It was a classic too, and the faded red paint and faux-wood paneling are a perfect match for my wagon. We spent many weekends tweaking the outboard to try to make it more reliable, but I usually ended up swimming back to shore with a rope in my teeth to pull him back to the launch ramp. Eventually it became a money pit and my brother needed cash so he sold it. All we have left as a memento of the summers spent dodging stumps on the lake is this floating keychain and his outboard shop manual.

    My Miata has a REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag that my dad brought home for me one day a long time ago. He’s worked in Aerospace since before I was born. The only thing that ever came close to cars in the competition for my attention as a kid was airplanes. Models, posters, die-cast toys, Lego sets, magazines… We always lived near an Air Force base and I was at every airshow and museum crawling in and around anything with wings. I’ve visited Wright-Patterson and seen just about everything on their exhibit list. Naturally some of this influence found its way into my cars, and the Miata sports a P-40 inspired paint scheme of olive drab with a toothsome grin spread across the radiator opening. My dad loved the scheme so much, he managed to find the aforementioned tag to make the key match the car. I think, along with the Revlimiter Version: Warbird gauges, it suits just fine.

    Lastly, I managed to procure a set of extra Toyota key blanks for my X8 Cressida a while back. The original key was some cheap storebrand blank and I wanted to have something a little nicer in my car. After having 2 of the keys cut for the car, I kept the extra five or six uncut keys in the original package and lost them in a move. When I finally unpacked and found the blanks again, I decided to put them on something that I would never lose or forget about. The Boba Fett Lego figure keychain I’d received as a gift from my girlfriend seemed appropriate… Even if I dropped them into the Great Pit of Carkoon, I could count on the Fett man to blast his way out of the Sarlacc’s gut to return them to me.

  4. Clint Weis says:

    I went to pick up my first Celica. I knew very little about cars at the time and thought it was going to be awesome. It ended up being a complete rust bucket and I ended up parting it out. It helped keep a few other Celica’s on the road included a few I found. The only thing that I have left is the key chain. It had a Bentley key chain. I put it on every JNC that I drive.

  5. Lupus says:

    From the beginning of my car adventure i use one keychain. It’s a constant for me, when i’ve got more then one car at a time, a had two keys attached to it.
    It’s a really personal thing. It was hand made by my grandfather, as i was about 4, mayby 5 years old. I still remember that day, when He cut the leather, sew it, punched the rivets. He used it for home keys. When my grandfather passed away few years later that keychain landed in my mom’s drawer for years. When i bought my first car I recalled that piece of leather. I don’t know why, but i felt that this is the perfect one. It will stay whit me forever.
    http://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p429/LupusA101/DSC00860_zps43c3f0a3.jpg

    Later i discovered that Ryosuke Takahashi from Initial D used a similair one. It’s seen in the opening in his hand, and in one of episodes laying on the table in restaurant. 😉

  6. Styles says:

    Mine is a red TRD carbon/leather key ring. I got it from a workmate when I was working at Nissan, he’d just come from a Toyota dealership, and had it. He figured he didn’t have anything to do with Toyota any more, so thought I’d appreciate it. Which I sure do!

    It’s like this one : http://www.nengun.com/trd/key-ring-leather but with red leather, which makes it awesome, because it’s two tone, red/black, just like my car!

  7. Matt says:

    I bought my Datsun key chain a couple years before I even owned my 510. I came across it in a local leather shop, and it held the keys to my Mazda truck in the mean time! Its pretty weathered already, but I feel that gives character. Now it modestly swings from the ignition and looks perfectly appropriate to my cars style.
    http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t657/mattyhacks/20140512_222613_zpsueagwnla.jpg

  8. I have no way of typing this in an interesting manner.

    I made mine.

  9. Tanner Stinson says:

    When I was 16, my parents bought me a Nissan Skyline Hot wheels key chain, one of those ones off of Ebay. They knew that they couldn’t afford getting me the car of my dreams, let alone a car, for my 16th, but the Skyline would at least give me hope and keep me company until I get one someday; just something to keep me pushing forwards through high school and college.

    I ended up buying my second-up dream car, a 1973 first gen Celica. While it is beat and crusty rusty, was it worth it? Most definitely. And that key chain will sit and wait, getting more and more worn until one day I have a C10/C110 Skyline key right there alongside it.

  10. Ash says:

    My keychain is a little Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, Because my hako is red and has four eyes, just like unit 02 and I like to pretend I’m driving a giant robot sometimes.

  11. Princeton says:

    I wholeheartedly agree that the key is a great part of that personal connection with your vehicle. In that mindset, it is a shame that the industry is moving towards keyless entry and turning vehicles into appliances of convenience.

    Its often said that the parts of the car that you interact with directly are the most important to personalize. So, for my hako, I had a bit of fun experimenting with making a keychain to my liking.

    Here is the little Gundam and its “blades” that I ended up with: http://vicariousgear.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/exiarotate.gif

    I found it fitting to use the first icon of Japanese mechanical design that captured my imagination to control my latest passion.

    My blog post on its design and construction can be found here:
    http://vicariousgear.com/2014/02/23/project-hako-the-keys-to-happiness/

  12. Tyler says:

    Ive made both of my keyrings. 1 for my 510 and another for my r33.

    They are both made out of 1/64 diecasts. The datsun has a Hotwheels 510 and the r33 has a kyosho BNR33.

    I also have a kpgc10 sitting there to be made into a keychain…hopefully one day Ill have one to hang its keys off…

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