Monthly Archives: April 2016
VIDEO: 2016 Cannonball Festival
Though billed as a music festival for greasers and rockabilly types, the Cannonball Festival includes an impressive car and motorcycle show as well. The show is held on opposite ends of the country, Hiroshima and Chiba, and draws a wide array of bosozoku bikes and sleds … Continue reading
MILESTONES: Neoclassic Magazine celebrates 50 volumes
Our friends at Kousoku Yuen magazine in Japan recently published their 50th volume. The bimonthly publication, whom some of you may know as NeoClassic, specializes in Japanese cars, but you’ll rarely see a 2000GT or Hakosuka GT-R on the cover. Instead, you’re more likely … Continue reading
Posted in Milestones
Tagged Daikanyama Tsutaya, Glory Akira, japan, kousoku yuen, minicars, tomica, tomica limited vintage, Yoshiaki Hamada
7 Comments
Registration for the 2016 Nissan Jam is open
Registration for the fourth annual Nissan Jam is open. The annual Datsun, Nissan, and Infiniti car show will be held on June 12. The event moves to a new venue this year, La Palma Park in Anaheim, California. Thanks to the … Continue reading
MARKETWATCH: The rise of Japanese collector cars is duly noted
We realize that here at JNC we sometimes get a bit too otaku for the casual Japanese car enthusiast, with liberal use of chassis codes, Japanese nicknames, and, well, words like otaku. For those of you just joining us, Hagerty Insurance, which … Continue reading
MOTORSPORT: Watch the fire-breathing Skyline Super Silhouette decimate Group 5
The Group 5 Skyline Turbo is one of the most legendary race cars in Japanese motorsport history. By now you know that its extreme Super Silhouette aero inspired a whole genre of tuning, but why was it so epic?
Posted in motorsport
Tagged dr30, fuji speedway, group 5, KDR30, masahiro hasemi, nissan, r30, skyline, super silhouette, Tsukuba Circuit
4 Comments
NEWS: One million Miatas and Counting
The Mazda MX-5 Miata (or Roadster if you’re in JDM-land), that modern symbol of the lightweight sports car, has just reached an impressive milestone: one million units produced.
QotW: What’s the rarest JNC?
We all know there were 351 Toyota 2000GTs made, but that does not make them rare. To see one, just walk into any car museum in Japan. There’s plenty of well preserved ones at US car shows too. How about a modernized … Continue reading
GRAND TOURING: Driving across Japan in a JNC, Day 09
With just two more days to go, our trip was winding to a close. We had just crossed from the southern island of Kyushu to Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Now were were headed back onto the … Continue reading
EARTH DAY: The Mazda EX-005 was a rotary hybrid built in 1970
In celebratin of Earth Day, here’s a rotary-powered Japanese nostalgic hybrid. The Mazda EX-005 debuted at the 1970 Tokyo Motor Show and was a bubble approximately the size of an office chair.
EARTH DAY: Nissan built a hybrid-electric pickup back in 1973
Long before the Leaf — back in 1973 to be precise — Nissan had already been messing around with electric cars for decades. However, while the prevailing idea of an electric car was an office chair-sized bubble on wheels, Nissan built a space-tastic … Continue reading
Prince’s Purple Rain Honda motorcycle was awesome
The artist known as Prince passed away today at the age of 57. His musical achievements are well documented, but if you were a young motorhead in 1984 when Purple Rain came out, his custom Honda was the coolest bike around.
MINICARS: So Hot Wheels went and made a dekotora…
Normally even the most hard core Hot Wheels collectors are happy to pass the tractor trailer sets onto their kids, but fans of Japanese steel are going to want to keep their eyes peeled for the latest rig. Because Hot Wheels has gone and … Continue reading
Behold the bonkers trippiness of these Yellow Hat commercials
Yellow Hat is a nationwide Japanese chain of auto service stores whose ad agency has clearly huffed one exhaust molecule too many. The completely Mr Sparkle-ized ads exist ostensibly to notify you of Yellow Hat’s tire and battery services, but the execution … Continue reading
NEWS: Mitsubishi admits to falsifying fuel economy data
Mitsubishi Motors admitted publicly this morning that its employees falsified fuel economy test data for over 600,000 vehicles. Production of these vehicles has halted and an independent investigation will be conducted.
VIDEO: Abandoned Hakosuka in Cyprus
The story of a Toyota dealership abandoned in Cyprus in the 1970s is well known to long time readers. Apparently, though, old Celicas and Corollas aren’t the only J-tin left to gather dust on the island republic. Here’s a very complete … Continue reading
VIDEO: Jay Kho’s Wild Card DR30 Skyline
A DR30 Skyline in signature red and black colors should be either a.) fighting crime on the mean streets of urban Japan or b.) in Hasemi livery tearing down the Fuji straight. So what’s it doing gliding down The Strip with the lights … Continue reading
VIDEO: Excellent clips from the Shakotan Boogie anime
Here are some clips from the anime adaptation of Shakotan Boogie, which came out in the early 90s. Animation-wise, it falls somewhere between Speed Racer and the original Initial D, but I think that we can all agree, that this … Continue reading
Posted in Video
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QotW: What’s your most heroic repair story?
The theme of this week at JNC was Things Breaking Down. Our webhosting company has installed some new software that will hopefully make things more stable from here on out but it just goes to show, not everything can be as clockwork … Continue reading
