Last week our intrepid editor Ben Hsu was invited to the Petersen Museum‘s CarStories podcast. The topic was classic Japanese cars in general. The producers thought it would be a good followup to the landmark auctions at the Monterey Historics.
Recent guests have included Wayne Carini, Bruce Canepa, Adam Carolla, the founder of Singer Porsches, Indy driver Ed Carpenter and Sir Jackie effing Stewart, but please listen to his episode anyway despite a significant downturn in guest quality. You can subscribe to CarStories on iTunes as well.
Incidentally, the photos above are from the Petersen’s current exhibit on the world’s greatest sport coupes. Though the Acura NSX is the only Japanese machine to make a physical presence, note the car in the poster on the upper right of the lead photo.
You can listen to Ben’s episode of the Petersen’s CarStories podcast here.
I didnt know Jackie Stewarts middle name was effing, learn something new every day 😉
Funny, I had that exact same Hot Wheels car. It was far from my first one, of course. 😉
For the record, I knew Ben from before he became famous.
Yes I see the 2000GT. I liked many of the cars at the museum in 2012
however the lack of Japanese cars did surprise me. A Z-car or 2000gt needs to be in the
collection. Ben is the guy to make that happen I think.
The Hot Wheels display was very cool also.
Dont think its the 2000gt. Front view looks off and also the wheelbase. looks more like the 800 sport but don’t think that’s it either. Looks more english to me.
It’s a 2000GT. I may have taken the picture (of a picture) at an angle if the proportions look off.
I see it now, wasnt looking @ the lead picture, my bad!
Speaking as an Englishman, I find it interesting – if not quite frustrating – that ‘Chris’ and ‘A.J.’ seemed to find it so difficult to view Japanese cars any other way than through a USA-oriented prism.
When discussing Japanese classic cars, why do so many non-Japanese people seem to forget to imagine what these cars meant to the Japanese, both in period, and now?
With the understanding that no man can be an expert on all Marques, I also thought that the interviewers had perhaps not done their homework as well as they could have. There is clearly much the mainstream players can learn about Japanese car culture and significance from a more global perspective. Hearing one interviewer basically say “I don’t understand why a 2000GT is so special” exposes the typical level of ignorance we’ve been accustomed to in years past, which could be cured with a few minutes of reading about what this car signifies to the Japanese.
That said, IMHO Ben came across as having an answer to everything, no matter what the topic or period in history, even to the questions that were not even related to Japanese cars. Nice job!
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