Tag Archives: mark II

EVENTS: Houston Morningstar Meet

You might have heard there was a football game in Houston over the weekend. We were in town for the epic clash — something about classic Fords versus Jeep crossovers — but before the big game the local JNC community welcomed us to a Sunday morning meet. 

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EVENTS: Kiryu Classic Car Festival, Part 02 — The Parade

By any standard the Kiryu Classic Car Festival is a memorable and diverse gathering of kyusha with no shortage of charm. Even better, however, is that after the car show part of the event concluded, the cars go for a parade through the streets … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 Classic Japan show in Australia

One of our favourite nostalgic car shows in any country is Classic Japan, which is held in Melbourne, Australia in December every year. Melbourne is 1000 km away from JNC‘s Australian HQ in Sydney, so it’s also an opportunity to … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 Meiji Jingu Classic Car Festival, Part 02

In Part 01 of our coverage of Tokyo’s Classic Car Festival at Meiji Jingu Gaien Park, I had just finished rolling up my tongue back into my mouth from which it had dropped, Tex Avery style, due to the cars brought out … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Mt Fuji and the Toyota 2000GT, a meeting of Japan’s icons

Mount Fuji holds a unique position in the minds of both Japanese and visitors alike. There is nothing else quite like it anywhere else in this world, and even many of those who have never visited the country are aware of … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Chubu and Kinki, Part 02

Part 01 of our grand tour through central Japan took us to Toyoma, a city that revealed not only castles but a trove of classic Toyotas. After prying ourselves away, we headed inland. 

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GRAND TOURING: Chubu and Kinki, Part 01

After a longer than usual break between our tours, we decided to take a full week off and continue our Western Coast explorations through the Chubu and Kinki regions. As we embarked, the outer bands of a seasonal typhoon loomed over Japan. … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Nostalgic2Days 2016, Part 04 — Odds and Ends

One of the excellent things about a show like Nos2Days is that there are plenty of things for sale. You never know what you’ll come across, which can make browsing the aisles rather dangerous to your wallet. From new-old-stock center … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 All-Toyotafest, Part 02 — Straight Sixes

As engines go, the Toyota straight-six is one of the best conceived by humankind. Smooth as Suntory whiskey, as long-lived as a mountain, and capable of stupid amounts of horsepower in later iterations, they are a triumph of automotive engineering. It’s no wonder the … Continue reading

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An interview with NeoClassic Japan’s editor-in-chief

Japan’s Kousoku Yuen magazine recently celebrated their 50th volume. Written for fans of all the lesser loved, non-Skyline, non-2000GT specimens of the Japanese automotive kingdom, it is perhaps the most otaku title of the JDM magazine world. To mark this momentous occasion, as well … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: Driving across Japan in a JNC, Day 04

By the end of Day 03 we’d arrived at Shimonoseki, the southernmost point of Honshu, Japan’s main landmass. As the island on which most of the nation’s major cities — Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima — are located, Honshu contains about 60 percent of … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 04 — The Streets

In the last two installments of our 2016 New Year Meeting coverage, we prowled the parking area to find as much diversity in marques and models as there were in customization styles. In our final installment of the 2016 New Year … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 03 — This is Japan

A life-size Gundam robot towers above the trees. Giant windowless shopping centers operate like small cities. In this snapshot of a hyper-futuristic metropolis floating on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, tradition comes in the form of a parking lot teeming … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Old Car Heaven, Part 02

While Part 01 of our Old Car Heaven coverage concluded with a mob of rare Mitsubishis, we begin this installment along the perimeter of the show and a bevy of box vans. The Nissan Caravans were part of the Nissan Commercial Car … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 Tokyo Auto Salon, Part 01 — A Preview

The Tokyo Auto Salon kicks off this weekend, and that means it’s time for the craziest builds the Japanese aftermarket has to offer. While gold-plated GT-Rs and VIP vans are still very much a part of it, looking past the glitz this year … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Hachimaru Meeting at Fuji Speedway

If it wasn’t for its glorious motorsports history, Fuji Speedway would be just about the worst place to hold a car show. It rains seemingly half the time there, and while that makes for cool photography, it can’t be pleasant for the … Continue reading

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VIDEO: Shakotan car show rollout

And now for your viewing pleasure, a metric buttload of kyuusha leaving a car show in Japan. Every single one is a proper, old school Japanese sled. Also note the immaculate smoothness of Japan’s roads, which makes these shakotan rides possible. Watch … Continue reading

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GRAND TOURING: The Onsens of Yamagata Prefecture

Having toured Aomori and Iwate Prefectures previously and discovered many interesting sights along the way, we decided to again return to the northern coasts, this time to explore the Prefecture of Yamagata and the Sea of Japan Coast Road. 

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EVENTS: 2015 Mooneyes Street Car Nationals

Take a dollop American car kulture, filter it through the distance of 5,500 miles and 12 time zones, sprinkle in a dash of home grown Japanese cars, and you get the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals. 

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EVENTS: 2015 New Year Meeting, Part 06 — Trucks, Vans and Wagons

There’s nothing like a good, honest work truck. In fact, many of the earliest forms of four-wheeled transport in Japan were commercial vehicles, but precious few, like this row of forlorn-looking Mazda Porter Cabs, have survived till retirement without major wear … Continue reading

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