Category Archives: mazda

EVENTS: 2011 Japanese Classic Car Show Part 01, Best of the Best

We’ll get to the cars that we normals can afford in a minute, but first let us dream a little. The 2011 JCCS completely elevated the bar, bringing together several ultra-rare, six-figure machines that few Western eyes have gazed upon … Continue reading

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JCCS 2011 Preview: JNC Best of the Best T-Shirt

It’s become sort of a tradition for us at JNC to debut a new T-shirt design at each JCCS show. This year, JNC‘s designer and Project Z owner Yee Chan came up with something really special, what he calls “Best … Continue reading

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Friday Videos: Sayonara, Rotary Engine

This week Mazda announced the death of the RX-8. That means that for the first time since the Cosmo 110S debuted in 1967, there will be no rotary powered car sold anywhere in the world. Currently about 300 unsold RX-8s … Continue reading

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Nostalgics at the 2011 Historic Acropolis Rally

Watch a parade of Corolla, Celica, Starlet, Gemini, and Mazda RX-7 rally cars rip through the dusty roads of Athens alongside Lancias and Porsches in the 2011 Historic Acropolis Rally.

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EVENTS: Eagle Rock Swap Meet

Aaah, SoCal. We know the rest of the country hates it when we gloat. But sorry, it’s just damn nice to be able to take a leisurely Sunday morning cruise to an old school Japanese car bazaar. The Eagle Rock … Continue reading

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What the Mazda 787B Sounds Like

We mentioned a few weeks back that the Mazda 787B was making a return to Le Mans for the 20th anniversary of its victory there. One of its drivers, Johnny Herbert, was on hand to take it for another spin … Continue reading

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Kidney, Anyone? 6,757-Mile Mazda RX-7

The Mazda RX-7 is one of the few cars that can truly be called iconic. When it debuted in 1979, it rocked the motoring world with its sleek looks, rotary powerplant, and stellar handling. It also came out of the … Continue reading

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Friday Video: KPGC10 Nissan Skyline GT-R vs Mazda Savanna RX-3

Last week we saw a meeting of some Japan’s best road-going GT cars. This Friday let’s look at two no-limit track machines. The KPGC10 Nissan Skyline GT-R and the Mazda Savanna RX-3 are old rivals, and Best Motoring brought them … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Mooneyes Mania Cruise

Every couple of months our friends at Mooneyes holds an informal gathering near their HQ in Yokohama called the Mania Cruise. The great part about these shows is that you get to see oddball machines that tend to get crowded … Continue reading

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Mazda 787B Returns to Le Mans for 20th Anniversary of Victory

Twenty years ago, the Mazda 787B became the first and only rotary-powered car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s also the only Japanese car to win overall what has been called “the most demanding endurance race in … Continue reading

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Friday Video: Mazda Story – The Challengers

Mazda released a video this week called “The Mazda Story – The Challengers”, which is all about Hiroshima pride. You can see glimpses of the Genbaku Dome (the only building to survive the A-bomb) and glimpses of the Mazda Museum. … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Nos2Days 2011, Part 03

Nos2Days is filled with wondrous machinery, but one of the mind-blowing cars on display was the legendary Dome Zero. Conceived during the supercar boom, the mid-engine marvel had the power-to-weight ratio of a Porsche of the era and was supposed … Continue reading

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Pre-Digital Camera Kobe Kyuusha Meeting

We here at JNC love photos taken in pre-digital days. Clearly it’s not the photo quality, it’s that these authentic time-warp photos probably lived in some Japanese bloke’s personal photo album until one fateful day when it met with a … Continue reading

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Toyo Kyogo Instructional Video on the Mazda Rotary Engine

What starts out like an episode of Schoolhouse Rock is actually a 1960s Toyo Kyogo video about the Mazda rotary engine. We get a lesson in the operation of the Wankel, and its advantages over its piston counterpart. Best of … Continue reading

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Narusawa Village Showa Version 2 Gallery

Reason number 4,197 why Japan is awesome. No matter how miniscule the meet, wicked metal still shows up. Here’s a small gathering called Showa Version 2 that took place at the base of Mt. Fuji last November.

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Gallery of Japanese Concept Cars

We’ve talked about many of these cars individually, but Pink Tentacle recently collected a bunch of Japanese concept cars all in once place. Here are some of Nihon’s wildest from the golden age of show cars. Above is the 1971 … Continue reading

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How the Earthquake is Affecting Japan’s Automakers

In the aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake of March 11, the Japan’s great automakers are mostly at a standstill.  Supply chains, transport and shipping facilities have all been affected by the quake and subsequent tsunami.  There’s also rolling … Continue reading

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Friday Video: Pentax Commercial Starring Honda N360 and Japan’s 1960s GT Legends

Check out this commercial for Pentax Cameras, which has many things making it awesome. Let’s see: chick is cute drives a mod looking rally-modified Honda N360 Toyota 2000GT Mazda Cosmo Sports Nissan Fairlady Z Toyota S40 Crown police car vintage … Continue reading

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900,000 Mazda MX-5 Roadsters and Counting

The 900,000th Mazda MX-5 rolled out of Hiroshima last week, extending its lead as the best selling two-seat sports car in history according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The Miata got that title back in 2000 after surpassing … Continue reading

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EVENTS: New Year Meeting 2011 Part 05: Sport Coupes

Sedans and kei cars might be nice, but we know most of you old schoolers came to see the sports coupes. These compact and lightweight machines are what makes Japanese cars so much fun. Let’s start with what most Americans … Continue reading

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