Author Archives: Ben Hsu
Happy President’s Day from JNC
What better way to leave it all behind than with the memory of your last ride, a black Nissan President hearse? Get carried away by its grace, class, and dignity, and forget your troubles back on Earth. ‘Cause at the end of … Continue reading
Happy Year of the Dog from JNC
For all those that celebrate the lunar new year, we at JNC wish you a happy Year of the Dog. Look at those li’l P’ups coming down the ramp, so eager to see you!
You can now get Honda-branded fashion at Forever 21
Most of us at JNC are what the kids today call “old” and therefore our fashion tastes very rarely converge with those who consider Snapchat a news channel. However, fashion retailer Forever 21 has a new collaboration with Honda that we finally get.
VIDEO: This stunning Mazda collection goes beyond rotaries
When you hear Mazda collector, typically that means a fleet of rotaries or Miatas. Danny Irvine has one of the most impressive Mazda collections around, precisely because it goes beyond RX-7s and Cosmos. In fact, his stable includes everything from K360 … Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day from JNC
Fall in love with the Nissan Skyline 1800 this Valentine’s Day. This series of commercials from the late 1960s can’t get any more romantic, with a walk along the beach, warming up in front of a fireplace, and attempts to push a … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso
If you’re into tiny hatchbacks and Italian sports cars with Ford V8s, in 1980s Japan you could get a car combining both of these worlds. The Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso melded the work of Toyota’s compact car subsidiary and the Argentinian-Italian car builder into one … Continue reading
VIDEO: The origins of Suzuki in anime form
Suzuki has released a new animated video showing the origins The origins of Suzuki go back to the late 1800s, when founder Michio Suzuki was finishing up an carpentry apprenticeship at the age of fourteen. He devised an automatic loom, as … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: Honda goes retro, announces plans for used car refurbishment
Continuing the tour of Auto Salon automaker booths, we arrive at Honda. The company has its fingers in almost as many types of auto racing as Toyota, but perhaps more overall thanks to its motorcycle division. It also debuted an unusual retro design to whet the appetite of vintage Honda … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: A gorgeous restomod Hakosuka shows off Yokohama’s vintage tire revival
Draped in the company’s trademark colors of black and red, the Yokohama Tire booth at the Tokyo Auto Salon was among the best of the show. A gleaming white Hakosuka Skyline stood proudly at its center, and while the goal was … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: A woman-run tuning house’s ultra-Japanese custom creations
The car world is still, unfortunately, very male dominated, with few woman-run shops anywhere on the planet. At the Tokyo Auto Salon this year, however, one of the most striking booths was that of L-Tide, a woman-led shop located in western Tokyo, and its … Continue reading
Happy TE27 Day from JNC
Have a mango today, for it is TE27 Day. Take your Corolla Levin or Sprinter Trueno out for a drive to celebrate!
Tokyo Auto Salon: Nissan, Mitsubishi show cars with American roots
We’ve seen how Japanese tuners glean inspiration from vintage American styles, but it’s interesting when actual automakers do the same. Though Nissan and Mitsubishi are of the same family now, their branding is still very separate. Coincidentally, both showed cars whose … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: Banzai Sports SSS-face Sunny Truck
If there is one thing people will seemingly never get tired of it’s putting other Nissan noses on a Sunny Truck. The latest example, shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon recently, was by Banzai Sports and features a Bluebird SSS face on the evergreen … Continue reading
VIDEO: Toyota’s football game ad had some vintage Aichi steel
The unavoidable championship football game that happened Sunday night isn’t a place you’d normally see some vintage Aichi steel, but if you were watching closely during the Superb Owl commercials, you might have caught some in Toyota’s “One Team” spot.
QotW: What’s your favorite JNC underdog story?
Unless you emerged from a coma this morning you know that the underdog Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl last night. It was a fantastic close game down to the final minutes. Of course, JNCs often had their own underdog stories and a … Continue reading
Tokyo Auto Salon: The championship-winning TOM’s KP47 Starlet was rebuilt around its original engine
Toyotaku know the name TOM’s well. Tachi Oiwa Motorsport is the has been Japan’s premier tuner of Toyota and Lexus cars for decades, serving as something of an unofficial performance arm for the Big T. For the Tokyo Auto Salon this year, they brought out … Continue reading


