Author Archives: Ben Hsu
One Kidney is Enough: 1971 Mazda Cosmo Sport
Robert Frost was right. Take the road less traveled, as the Autoblog reader/E-Type owner who submitted this story to them did, and you just might stumble upon a 1971 Mazda Cosmo Sport for $36,000. No location is given. Unfortunately, the … Continue reading
Posted in for sale, mazda
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Crown in 3 Seconds
Rarely do the words “Jay Leno” and “money shot” appear in the same sentence, but for fans of the Crown the planets aligned last night. Here it is, the 1958 Toyopet Crown on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as … Continue reading
Posted in toyota
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The Gray Lady Wants YOU
The New York Times is looking for an owner of a classic Japanese car in the New York area for a new section called Auto Ego. Penned by Richard Chang, it will explore not only the cars but each owner’s … Continue reading
Posted in media
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I Don't Know Much, But I Know I Love What You Do For Me, Toyota
Just when we had posted a complaint about Toyota ignoring their half century of history in the US, they go and turn us into liars. Keep your pants on, pilgrim, it’s nothing to write home about. It’s just that tonight … Continue reading
Crashdance
RIP My Computer, 1999-2007. That’s right folks, the electronic wizardry behind JNC was actually a 700Mhz Windows machine almost eight years old. Our budget is that low. It finally crashed for the last time yesterday, leaving us scrambling like chickens … Continue reading
Posted in jnc
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Skyline Surprise
The irreverent bloggers at Jalopnik have a garage that they’re trying to populate with the 50 coolest cars of all time. Alas, it’s a Fantasy Garage but the idea is so cool that we might have to steal it one … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, nissan
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Random Pic: Crown Town
It seems that Toyota is all too happy to promote their heritage in any country except the US. When the twelfth generation S180 Crown debuted in J-land, Toyota brought out eleven of its ancestors to promote one of the longest-running … Continue reading
Posted in japan, toyota
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Bye Bye Blogger, Welcome WordPress
Now, JNC is new and improved, with 10% fewer preservatives! As part of our recent revamp, we’ve added more details on the latest articles on our main page, provided an RSS feed subscription, and switched from Blogger to WordPress, which … Continue reading
Posted in jnc
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When Life Gives You LeMons
See that billowing cloud of smoke coming from the direction of Altamont, CA? It’s the 2nd annual running of the 24 Hours of LeMons, which, like it’s namesake from Sarthe, has cars. That’s where the similarity ends, however, as the … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, mitsubishi
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Happy Little Trees: The Joy of Painting with Ken & Mary
Ken and Mary are just a happy young Japanese couple who love nature, painting, and their Nissan Skyline. They are characters in one of the country’s most famous ad campaigns of all time, and the couple just couldn’t be more … Continue reading
Posted in cm, nissan
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Back to the Future Force
Many moons ago, drag racers actually bore a greater resemblance to the street cars they were built off of than a Black & Decker 9.6V Cyclonic Dustbuster, and privateers could compete and win with nothing but self-named machines that bore … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, nissan
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Fourth of July Fire Truck
We spent a rainy Independence Day with Dan Banks, Datsun fanatic, Z Car Club of America historian, and owner of a mint ’71 240Z, a 1990 300ZX Turbo, and the oldest known Datsun truck in private hands, which happens to … Continue reading
Posted in datsun, nissan, pre-war, trucks
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The MOD Squad
The press release about the 2007 Mitsubishi Owner’s Day has dropped, inviting Mitsu owners from all over the continent to converge on their headquarters in Cypress, CA. Although Evos and Eclipses comprised most of last year’s 700 cars, the organizers … Continue reading
Posted in events, mitsubishi
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Impending Redesign
Do not adjust your screen. If you’ve been noticing some screwy behavior in the blog, it’s just because we are in the process of tweaking the look and feel of the site right now. We will return to your regularly … Continue reading
Posted in jnc
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Number One Crush
Ok, so this warning about various municipalities putting modified cars into the crusher may be only tangentially relevant to owners of Japanese classics, seeing as how many of our cars are not even capable of breaking the speed limit (or … Continue reading
Posted in streetracing
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Pip Pip: Goodwood Wrapup
On Sunday, the Goodwood Festival of Speed of 2007 drew to a close. We’ve been waiting for pictures to filter in, and Autoblog, which has made no secret of how badly they’ve wanted to go after missing last year’s (sort … Continue reading
Posted in honda, nissan, racing, toyota
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I Say: More Goodwood Goodness
The second day of the Festival that keeps on giving has drawn to a close. Autoblog actually has men on the estate, snapping photos and broadcasting them across the pond. The one that will probably be of most interest to … Continue reading
Posted in mazda
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By Jove: Goodwood Updates
The news keeps trickling in from West Sussex. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is going on right now, as we are simulataneously typing this and kicking ourselves for not scraping together the cashish we needed to go. Autoblog has just … Continue reading
Posted in nissan, racing, toyota
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Ming Fling
Perhaps Ming the Merciless would have been more successful in his fight against Flash Gordon if, instead of being an evil Asian caricature, he was actually Tim Mings and had a fleet of Honda N600 and Z600s at his disposal. … Continue reading
Posted in honda
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