Author Archives: Ben Hsu
Friday Video: Lotus Europa vs. Nissan Fairlady Z Police Car
The platypus-looking Lotus Europa is exactly the kind of oddball foreign car that the Japanese go nuts over. We’ve never see one in the flesh in the US, but we’ve seen several in Nippon. Is that weird? Anyway, here’s two … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, nissan, Video Games
Tagged 240z, car chase, circuit wolf, datsun, europa, fairlady z, hakone, japan, japanese, lotus, nissan, police car, s30
9 Comments
Project Hakosuka Crashes!
We’re at a total loss for words right now, and needless to say Kev is just about devastated. Let this be a lesson: if you’re going to let your friends drive your baby, make sure they know how to handle … Continue reading
Kidney, Anyone? 1976 IMSA GTU Champion Datsun 240Z
Not just a kidney, but you’ll probably need to part with a retina and a lung or two. For $285,000 you get a slice of motorsports history — the Datsun 240Z that straight up won the IMSA GT/U 2.5-liter championship in 1976. Along … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, for sale, motorsports, nissan
Tagged 240z, brad frisselle, bre, datsun, dave kent, daytona, fairlady z, gtu, imsa, john knepp, john morton, mac tilton, mazda, nissan, rx-7, s30
10 Comments
NUMMI: General Motors’ Wasted Golden Opportunity
Remember when everyone and their cousin was driving an AE82 Toyota Corolla/Chevy Nova? They were coming from Fremont, California’s NUMMI, birthing ground of more than 8 million cars, and it will build its last one tomorrow. Twenty-six years ago, Toyota … Continue reading
Posted in toyota
Tagged chevrolet, chevy, corolla, general motors, gm, nova, nummi, this american life, toyota
6 Comments
Activision Enduro Datsun 280ZX Pace Car Contest
Hey, remember Enduro? Neither do we. But apparently it was the freakin’ Forza Motorsport of 1983, made for the Atari system. There was a contest where you could win a Datsun 280ZX Turbo pace car in the vein of the … Continue reading
Posted in cm, datsun, nissan, Video Games
Tagged 280zx, activision, caesar's palace grand prix, campaign, contest, datsun, enduro, fairlady z, las vegas grand prix, nissan, pace car, race for riches, s130
18 Comments
No More Quarter Pounders: Replace Those Panels
The quarter panel is probably the most daunting section of body to replace on a car. But it doesn’t have to be that way. RatDat has a great how-to write up that makes it seem, well, slightly less daunting.
Friday Video: 1973 Mustang vs Motorcycle
Well now that we know the 1973 Ford Mustang was a real cop car in Japan, here’s a cop show chase involving one.
Posted in Video Games
Tagged abunai deka, car chase, ford, japanese cop show, mustang, police car
4 Comments
Datsun 610 and My Adidas Do the Illest Things
How fresh is this? A new Adidas commercial prominently features a Datsun 610 Coupe, fender mirrors and all, beside a bird dancing in pajamas. We’ve been documenting the appearance of J-tin in advertisements for a while now because, well, it’s … Continue reading
The First Sporting Skyline
You know what, we really don’t see enough pre-hakosuka Skylines either. Here’s a Prince Skyline 2000 GT from the New Year Meeting. Would you believe these were raced against the Porsche 904? Though it swept 2nd through 6th at the … Continue reading
Hondas at the Gate: A JDM Civic pace car with a grid full of vintage Hondas illustrates Jalopnik‘s model bloat theory.
Yellow Torpedo: New Year Meeting Hino Contessa
We rarely get to post a photo of a Hino Contessa, but here’s a slick little rear-engined torpedo found at the 2010 New Year Meeting. Obligatory black Wats and a dab of drop. [Minkara]
Nissan Cherry Cab & slammed B10 Sunny: BeeOneOneOh always has killer photos on his blog. That is all. [BeeOneOneOh]
Ghostly 1972 Nissan Calendar Lives On
For a nation as tightly packed as Japan, there’s a surprising number of abandoned buildings. In many cases, they remain in tact for decades — no wrecking balls, no fleet of Komatsus to build a new skyscraper, just items left … Continue reading
Datsun 510, Bob Bondurant Approved: If you attended Bob Bondurant’s School of High Performance Driving in 1973, you would have been put behind the wheel of a Datsun 510 with “minor modifications.” [Jalopnik]
Thai Fighters: Retro Car Meet in Bangkok
The Retro Car syndicate of Thailand has routinely given us some of the raddest nostalgics outside of Japan. Not only are there apparently massive amounts of J-tin in that country, there’s a deep appreciation of the JDM modification aesthetic as … Continue reading
An Afternoon at TA Auto: Check out this amazing story on Speedhunters, where they visit Chiba’s TA Auto, an S30 Z specialist. They even meet one of the members of the original S30 Fairlady Z design team! Hat tip to … Continue reading
Friday Video: Sigma Slaughterhouse
Another typical Guerilla Group 8 storyline, in which tons of Mitsubishi Sigmas get led to senseless slaughter before Watari-san saves the day by dispatching nearly all the baddies from a helicopter. Come on Daimon, pass the ball once in a … Continue reading
Posted in mitsubishi, Video Games
Tagged guerilla group 8, guerrila: tokyo police group 8, japanese cop show, mitsubishi, sigma
1 Comment
Nostalgic Japanese Police Cars
Here’s a collection of photos of nostalgic Japanese police cars strung together by an amateur, unidirectional Ken Burns. Some are equipped with high-power engine options and transmission pairings not available on civilian versions of the same model. Sadly, Japanese patrol … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, honda, mazda, mitsubishi, nissan, suzuki, toyota
Tagged 240z, 280zx, 300zx, 911, accord, alto, bmw, capella, cedric, civic, corolla, corona mark II, cosmo, cressida, crown, datsun, dyna, e30, e70, fairlady z, gloria, honda, japanese police cars, legato, luce, mark II, mazda, mitsubishi, montero, nissan, pajero, patrol car, police car, porsche, rx-4, rx-5, s130, s30 z, skyline, suzuki, toyopet, toyota, z31
7 Comments
Mazdas at Fuji Speedway, October 10, 1972
This video comes courtesy of oldschool.co.nz via Retro-Classics. It’s from the heyday of the Fuji touring car championships and is unique in that the narration is in English! No more picking handfuls of syllables out of rapid-fire Japanese commentary that … Continue reading
