Author Archives: Kevin San
240Z owners rejoice! You now have a theme song
Alrighty then. I have absolutely no idea what this is. Just going by the Youtube comments, I think it’s got something to do with food… Anyway, grandJDM takes no responsibility if this tune gets stuck in your head for the … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous, nissan
2 Comments
Vamos: Pop Quiz!
Ok, pop quiz! Name me a Honda convertible. 9000rpm redline. 4 seats. Mid engined. Ok, those of you who said S2000, go wash your mouth out with Mobil 1 right now*. Those of you who said NSX-Targa can do the … Continue reading
Posted in honda
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The Skyline Supremacy: C10 GT-R Hakosuka
Hakosuka. What more can you say. We all know that’s it’s cool and we all definitely want one….but what IS a C10 GT-R, and where did it come from? That’s a good question for a great many Skyline fans. For … Continue reading
Posted in nissan, prince, racing
9 Comments
Mazda Parkway: Rotary Power for you and 25 of your best friends
One of the first articles we posted here on GrandJDM was a quick piece on some of the more oddball rotary-engined concoctions that Mazda cooked up in its early years (here). The most unexpected one was of course the 13B … Continue reading
Posted in mazda
3 Comments
Group A Division 1: Racing the Shopping Trolleys
A few weeks ago, we had an article on Group 5 racing (here). And while that era gave us some wonderfully flamboyant racing cars, everyone could agree that Group 5 didn’t quite achieve its goals. It had originally been intended … Continue reading
240Z: Early US Racing Success with BRE
BRE stands for Brock Racing Enterprises, which is Pete Brock’s race shop that dominated all the classes of US racing that it competed, from the late 60s until 1974 when it was disbanded. BRE was also a contracted racing team … Continue reading
Posted in nissan
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240Z: Early Rally Exploits
Younger readers would associate Nissan sporting heritage with circuit racing and of course, the ubiquitous Skyline GT-R. But on the international stage, Nissan’s earliest motorsport successes were in the rallying arena. In the late 60s, Datsun had very successfully campaigned … Continue reading
240Z: Super Samuri
Now this is weird….considering that the 240Z is Van’s favourite car and that it’s resplendent on the GrandJDM banner itself, it’s a little surprising that we haven’t done any historical articles on the 240Z yet. Well, hopefully we can rectify … Continue reading
Posted in nissan
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S800: Small Wonders
One of the magazines we religiously collect is Thorougbred and Classic Cars. Probably the oldest classic car magazine, it often throws up a fantastic article or comparison that you wouldn’t have expected. One of them is this one, which pits … Continue reading
Posted in honda
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240Z: 1971 (Performance Car Magazine)
One of my favourite magazines was Performance Car, a UK title which sadly closed its doors and issued its last magazine in 1998. Don’t feel too bad, however, most of the writing and photography staff went on to form EVO … Continue reading
Posted in nissan
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2000GT: When Shelby raced the Toyotas
With the recent flurry of articles on the Toyota 2000GT (here, here and here), it got us to thinking about the great car’s racing history. Oh sure; it had the usual smattering of victories in JDM races at home, but … Continue reading
Posted in toyota
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Toyota 2000GT: Bond. James Bond.
Here at GrandJDM, we’re great fans of the Toyota 2000GT, which is pretty well covered in our past articles here and here. Japan’s very first high-end sports car, it has an aura that belies its production numbers of only a … Continue reading
Posted in toyota
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RX5 Cosmo: Mazda’s rotary shiny disco ball
We’ve covered a lot of the early rotary Mazda history, especially the racing history of the Cosmo 110S, Familia Coupe, RX2 Capella and RX3 Savanna GT. It would lead you to believe that Mazda rotaries were all about performance and … Continue reading
Posted in mazda
6 Comments
Import Bible Contest ANSWERS!
It’s all over folks! For those that didn’t get their entries in, you can always jump over to Import Bible, whip out the ol’ credit card, and snap up a few choice tees from the collection. Thanks to everyone who … Continue reading
Posted in contests
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Fire Breathing Monsters: When Group5 ruled the racetracks
In the mid 1970s, big banger sportscar racing (and hence Le Mans) was in the doldrums. In the heady days of the 1960s, Ferrari, Porsche and Ford battled it out for supremacy, creating legends out of cars like the Porsche … Continue reading
Posted in racing
3 Comments
Power Politics: The Nissan FJ20 Engine
It’s not often here at GrandJDM that we do a feature on just an engine but the FJ20 motor deserves special mention. Built for only a few years in the early 80s, the FJ20 motor was unique in that it … Continue reading
Posted in nissan
9 Comments
Starion: Mitsu’s lost RWD mojo
With the release of the impressive new 2008 Lancer, it got us here at GrandJDM thinking about great Mitsubishis of the past (hey, we’re not just Nissan and Mazda whores here!) In 1982, Mitsubishi’s best sports car was the Starion. … Continue reading
Posted in mitsubishi
13 Comments
April 1997: When Nissan started selling new 240Zs again
In 1996, production of the Z32 300ZX was coming to a close, and the word at the time was that its successor would be a couple of years away. This news was not received very well in the USA, which … Continue reading
Posted in nissan
7 Comments
Sports 800: Toyota’s forgotten sporting roots
The 1965 Sports 800 isn’t Japan’s first production sports car (the Honda S600 predates it by a couple of years) but it is definitely Toyota’s first foray into a sporting vehicle. With a compact 45hp, twin carbed, pushrod boxer-twin 790cc … Continue reading
Mazda MX…what?
Following on from Van’s article on the MX5-based 2000GT conversion, it reminded me of all the other MX5 retro conversions that have been available in Japan over the years. The MX5 (or Roadster as it is known in JDMland) is … Continue reading
