Category Archives: racing
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
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
Return of Nissan's Own GT-R
Unless you’ve spent the last two years being probed in an alien mothership, you know of the triumphant return of Nissan’s GT-R, which (finally!) debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show this week. But at the recent Motorsport Japan 2007 festival, … Continue reading
Shootout at the BRE Corral
The racing world is full of legendary rivalries – Chevy vs. Ford, Porsche vs. Ferrari, even Ford vs. Ferrari, and now, Porsche vs. Datsun. In the early days of Datsun’s entry into the US market, the BRE 510s and 240Zs … Continue reading
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
Bosozoku BRE Bluebird
We came across this absolutely insane bosozoku-looking Datsun 510 while browsing the web. Complete with vintage BRE paint scheme, flared fenders and a grille-eclipsing intercooler channeled through the headlight openings, this Bluebird possesses serious fear-striking potential. Unfortunately, there was no … Continue reading
TRD, Just TRD
Despite millions of TRD stickers gracing the flanks of everything from pickups to Priuses, nothing street-legal has ever had the gall to jettison the “Toyota” part of its name and go only by TRD. Well leave it up to the … Continue reading
Gift Box
While looking through the photos from the UK’s recent Retro Rides Show on Old Japanese Car, this hakosuka Skyline GT-R done up in the paint scheme of the legendary Grand Champion series car that took the checkered flag at Fuji … Continue reading
Dark Continent Datsun
Old pros Jayant Shah and HW “Lofty” Drews ran their Datsun 260Z in the Tanzanite One Arusha Rally recently, which served only as a warmup to the upcoming Kenya Airways East Africa Safari Classic Rally in November. You might remember … Continue reading
Honda’s First Win on Four Wheels
We’ve had quite a few articles on the Honda S600 sports car lately (here and here), which reminded me that there is a great story about the S600 winning its class and coming 13th outright in the 1964 Nurburgring 500km … Continue reading
Japan’s Stillborn 70s Supercar
Ask anyone to name Japan’s first mid engined supercar and most people would nominate the Honda NSX. Change tack and instead ask about JDM prototype mid engined supercars and the extremely well-informed would say, ok, Nissan Mid-4. However. Japan’s very … Continue reading
Racing the Rotary (Part 2)
From 1969 to 1970, Mazda had a successful foray into European touring car racing, where their Euro counterparts had been caught off guard. The screaming little Familia Coupes were not short of power and if it weren’t for a lack … Continue reading
Racing the Rotary (Part 1)
Mazda was one of the many car companies that paid Dr Felix Wankel and the NSU car company to buy a license to produce the rotary engine. And while many other licensees (including Citroen and GM…and eventually NSU itself) struggled … Continue reading
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
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
Suspended Admiration
Each year, the Goodwood Festival of Speed pays tribute to the featured marque by suspending an assortment of its million-dollar race cars several stories above ground on a huge piece of outdoor art. With Toyota taking the honors this year, … Continue reading
A Wonder from Down Under
Our friend toyotageek has the most comprehensive collection of Toyotabilia we’ve ever seen, and it’s all on his blog. We’ve been so busy that we let our visits to his site lapse (sorry!) but recently we were pleasantly surprised and … Continue reading
Toyota Motorsports History
A couple of weeks ago Toyota launched a motorsports history section on their Japanese site to mark 50 years in motorsport. It’s all in Japanese and there are only a handful of photos ranging from a racing S30 Toyota Crown … Continue reading