Every so often, a Hot Wheels comes along that melts the Internet. Collectors’ heads explode like they’ve just looked into the Ark of the Covenant. The next Nissan Fairlady Z is just such a car. Look, we’re not bragging just because the JNC inkan is on it. We’ve seen it in person, and it is an amazing piece of craftsmanship for a $1 toy car. Continue reading
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from JNC! Here’s some midori cars for you’re viewing pleasure. Continue reading
Since its inception in 1983, the Tokyo Auto Salon has been Japan’s showcase premier exhibition of automotive trends. Back then, it went by the very literal name of Tokyo Exciting Car Show, but the idea was the same — showcasing what Japanese tuners and tuning houses could do. The name has changed, but the goals have not. Continue reading
Update: Hi folks, sorry for not updating Monday’s QotW earlier, I was on assignment at Mt. Fuji for an interesting project that I cannot disclose yet. In the rush to get out the snow-capped icon, we left the actual QotW on the workbench. Never-the-less, the QotW challenge part 4 is below:
After juggling offers from your two admirers of the Shuttle, you decide to keep your chariot and instead give gymkhana a go. Knowing that we still have that $350 in our pocket, how would you prepare the Shuttle for its maiden voyage on the tarmac? The gymkhana event is going to be in a conned off parking lot on a Sunday, and you will need to make sure you can leave the in one piece. The tire are worn, but not bald. The suspension is functional, but soft. The engine runs, but let’s face it, it’s no rocket. So tell us:
How do you prepare the Shuttle for a gymkhana event with $350 in your pocket?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “QotW Challenge, Part 3“.
Vintage racing offers a glimpse into the past — a fantasy world in which all the most interesting and beloved cars don competition equipment and make music on race tracks. It’s like Downton Abbey for car enthusiasts. Needless to say, we at JNC are fans. But we’re not merely satisfied with the occasional appearance of a Hakosuka or R100 at the Motorsports Reunion; we want to see widespread involvement of Nihon machines in vintage racing across the US. Luckily, we’re one step closer to that vision with the inaugural SVRA Mazda Miata Heritage Cup. Continue reading
Happy Pi Day, the day in which we celebrate the mathematical constant π, or 3.14, the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference. According to people who know math, it’s very useful in all sorts of equations involving circles. It’s also one of those weird numbers whose digits simply stretch into infinity with no repeating pattern, which seems cosmically significant somehow. Why is there a picture of a bus, though? Because it’s an Isuzu P-LV 314, duh. Ironically, its model name is the Isuzu Cubic. Sometimes the universe is just too perfect.
Photo credit: Wakkubox
The world of motorsport lost one of its true legends last week. John Surtees, the only person to win World Championships in both motorcycles and automobiles, and an important player in the emergence of Honda as a racing power, died Friday at the age of 83.
Surtees’ competition resume is so extensive and successful that it beggars belief. Starting out in motorcycle racing at age fifteen, he would claim four world championships between 1956 and 1960 for the MV Agusta factory team, during which time he won the fearsome Isle of Man TT three consecutive years. Switching to cars in 1960 as a driver for the Lotus Formula One team, Surtees would earn his first pole position in only his third race. His first win would follow in 1963 after joining Ferrari, and in 1964 he would lead the Italian team to both the Driver’s and Constructor’s World Championships. Continue reading
Following on the heels of the Kmart-Datsun 510 promotion is another mail-in offer from Hot Wheels. This time, the free car (except for shipping) is an exclusive 1987 Toyota Pickup, complete with metal base and knobby, rubbery off-road tires. Continue reading
Update: Hi folks, sorry for not updating the QotW earlier, I was on assignment at Mt. Fuji for an interesting project that I cannot disclose yet. In the rush to get out the snow-capped icon, we left the actual QotW on the workbench. Never-the-less, the QotW challenge part 4 is below:
After juggling offers from your two admirers of the Shuttle, you decide to keep your chariot and instead give gymkhana a go. Knowing that we still have that $350 in our pocket, how would you prepare the Shuttle for its maiden voyage on the tarmac? The gymkhana event is going to be in a conned off parking lot on a Sunday, and you will need to make sure you can leave the in one piece. The tire are worn, but not bald. The suspension is functional, but soft. The engine runs, but let’s face it, it’s no rocket. So tell us:
How do you prepare the Shuttle for a gymkhana event with $350 in your pocket?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “QotW Challenge, Part 3“.
The New Year Meeting is an magical festival of vehicular awesomeness, but what happens when the party’s over? Most owners drive their cars home, but sometimes you want to ship your precious cargo. With many areas of Japan more crowded than the middle seat on a Spirit Airlines flight, you need some pretty ingenious ways of loading and unloading cars. There’s a reason why Transformers were invented in Japan. Continue reading
The New Year Meeting is an amazing show, but there is one element missing, one that’s just as much a part of Japanese classic culture as the cars we love: motorbikes. Unlike in the US, where two-wheelers are mostly a weekend toy, in Japan bikes have been used as transportation both personal and commercial for decades. As such, the diversity in type, modification style and aftermarket support run just as rich and deep as that of cars. Continue reading
With its debut at the Geneva Motor Show this week, we finally have news about the hopped-up Toyota Yaris GRMN. And great news — It’s going to be the full package that everyone was hoping for and potentially the most exciting hot hatch to wear the Toyota name since the Starlet. If you thought the car was going to fight a Fiesta ST, you’d be wrong. Apparently, it is going to be more even radical than that. Continue reading
We at JNC recently received a very special surprise from our friends at Hot Wheels — a JNC surf patrol wagon! These photos, taken from one of the conference rooms at the Mattel design center in El Segundo, California, show the 2017 mainline release of the ’71 Datsun Bluebird 510 Wagon casting in its latest colorway. We had no idea the design team was planning something like this, so forgive our inner 5-year-old as we embark on a complete freak out. Continue reading
Last month in Australia was the Bathurst 12 Hour, an enduro packed with Nissan GT-Rs, BMW M6s, Vipers, Porsches, and Lamborghinis duking it out for supremacy. Nobody cares, though, because the supporting races, filled with JNCs, were about a million times more exciting. Continue reading
As far as we know, the 1966 Prince R380 has never been shown on US soil. That’s about to change this weekend when this pivotal Japanese race car makes its North American debut at the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance. Continue reading
In honor of International Women’s Day, this is the story of Tomiko Yoshikawa, a race car driver and pioneer in the Japanese racing world. Born in 1954 in an Aichi Prefecture, Yoshikawa was a self-described furyou shoujo, a “bad girl” who dreamed of being a softball pitcher. When she realized this dream would not be achievable, she rebelled. She dropped out of high school, began wearing her hair in a hard perm emblematic of disaffected youth of the time, and spent her days “raging with no goal.” Then she got into cars. Continue reading
The Tokyo Auto Salon this year was its usual bacchanal of outrageous VIP luxury sleds, retina burning drift machines, and European exotics dripping money and diamonds out of their exhaust pipes. But in the midst of the madness, some companies actually brought out honest-to-god works of automotive art in the form of rally cars. Continue reading
This gallery contains 14 photos.
Honda is finally bringing the Civic Type R stateside. The production version was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show this morning, promising what Honda does best — blistering performance in a front-wheel-drive package. With the decades-long clamoring fanboys now answered, here’s all … Continue reading
One of the great things about the New Year Meeting is that in addition to all the brilliant classics and street machines, commercial vehicles are welcomed as well. There aren’t many places on the planet where you’ll see such a gathering of classic Japanese work trucks, vans and wagons. Continue reading
Imagine a world just like ours, except that RWD Toyotas are everywhere, people still refer to their cars as “good ol’ girl,” and the “Oh What a Feeling!” jump at the end of Toyota ads never went away. The dream of the 80s is alive in Australia. Continue reading
