After news broke this morning about the death of Scion and that existing models would be transitioned to Toyota, we wondered whether the Scion FR-S would now get a proper name to fall in line with the rest of the world. The answer is no. Continue reading
Scion is dead. After 13 years, Toyota announced this morning that the alternative, youth-oriented, no-haggle brand would be killed off and most of its products — some very recently launched — rolled under the Toyota marque. Continue reading
If the 2016 Scottsdale collector car auctions are any indication, it may be time to declare that Japanese classic cars have gone fully mainstream. All five of the major Scottsdale auctions (Barrett-Jackson, RM Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Gooding & Co. and Russo & Steele) saw J-tin cross the block at a wide spectrum of price points, but with few exceptions their sales results followed broader market trends that also affected more traditionally coveted cars from Europe and the U.S., indicating that nostalgics have been assimilated at last into the general collector car community. Continue reading
Jonathan Ward is the head honcho at ICON, a company known for its restomods of classic trucks. Ward started out restoring FJ40s and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of them. He says the North American market 1983 FJ40 is the best FJ40, of all the FJ40s sold around the world. Specifically, he calls it “the shizzle.” In this video, he goes through all the details and differences that separate it from lesser FJ40s. Only about 350 were made. Continue reading
As we reported back in September, last year a group of young Mazda employees and students from the local Hiroshima Technical High School embarked on the restoration of an L10A Cosmo Sports. It was part of an initiative to celebrate Mazda’s heritage as well as its Hiroshima roots, while the high school students got a heck of a summer vacation experience to boot. Here’s an update of the restoration. Continue reading
On eBay this week is probably the most well-preserved EA81 Wagon in existence. This particular 1981 Subaru GL 4WD is 4-speed manual-equipped, carburetor clad, and naturally aspirated. With 102,000 on the odometer the car has seen some use, but it has clearly been very carefully cared for. Continue reading
We’ve seen some pretty astronomical prices for J-tin in recent years. We always knew cars like the hakosuka and kenmeri GT-Rs, Toyota 2000GT and Fairlady Z432 were going to be rise in price. Frankly, they were never that cheap to begin with. This week, we saw even new-ish cars (like the R32 GT-R) and unloved stepchildren (like the 280Z 2+2) take a leap in price. Are you laughing all the way to the bank, or desperately trying to build a time machine? We suspect where you fall on will largely depend on whether you already own your dream car or not.
How do you feel about auction prices affecting JNCs?
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your greatest ‘in the wild’ JNC sighting?” Continue reading
Since 2011 or so, a very nice LSD unit has been sitting under a cloth in the corner of the JNC Hakosuka garage. I never finished gathering all the parts I needed to install it until I had some spare time before Christmas, and as luck would have it, the Sydney Datsun Club announced a day of fun at the skidpan for early January. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to test out the newly drift-compatible Hako. Continue reading
96 years ago today, Toyo Kogyo was founded in Hiroshima by Jujiro Matsuda. Predecessor to Mazda, it moved from making corks to precision machinery, eventually into motor vehicles, and onward to the rotary engine, sports cars, and racing. Here’s to another 96 years! Continue reading
If people are willing to dress up as country squires, high-mannered butlers, and Maggie Smith for Downton Abbey season premieres, then why not an Initial D-themed car meet? As the most popular work of Japanese automotive fiction of all time, it’s a bit surprising that such events aren’t more commonplace. For those fortunate enough to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, last weekend saw the third annual Initial D World Meet. Continue reading
Toyota has announced it will buy out Daihatsu in a stock deal worth about $3 billion. The Big T currently owns a controlling stake in the small car manufacturer, approximately 51.2 percent, and Daihatsu has served as Toyota’s kei and compact car arm since the companies began their alliance in 1967. Though they have shared many platforms in the past (the photo above is a Toyota Corolla-based Daihatsu Charmant), the formation into a single company will allow Toyota to take the Daihatsu brand global. Continue reading
Long before social media, Randy York was one of the first members of the Bluebirds email list. He ran United Five-Ten Owners (UFO) SoCal from the mid-80s through the 90s before it faded, and was a founding editor for the definitive 510 bible, Dime Quarterly, which started in 1995 and ran until 2008. It is with great sadness that we tell you that Randy York recently lost his battle with cancer. It is in his honor that we are re-running this story, originally published in 2008, today.
There’s no question that one of Nissan’s biggest sales successes in the USA was the PL510 series, sold from the end of 1967 until the end of 1972. Initially, the 510s had many features unique to the year they were built. The ’68 model was one-of-a-kind in many ways, such as hand-clap wipers. The ’69 model had several changes to make it singular as well, like the addition of round rear side markers and an updated dash. When the ’70 came along, it was changed up yet again with different lights, badges, an all new dash, and many other updates. For whatever reason, be it saving money on production, or cutting down on R&D time, from that point on they were essentially all the same. Very little differentiates a ’70 from a ’71 from a ’72. And then came the ’73. Continue reading
If you needed more proof that originality counts, here it is. In the JNC world, a 1975 Datsun 280Z 2+2 is a special breed. Its 5 mph bumpers and rooflines practically guarantee that no one but the kindest of owners will adopt one from the shelter. In the world of high-end auctions, however, bone stockness trumps all, and the ugly duckling of the S30 family shines to the tune of $50-grand. Continue reading
Another year, another round of auctions in which Japanese steel is dangled in front of bidders who wouldn’t have given a flying Figaro two years ago. This time it’s another Skyline GT-R, not the Hakosuka or Kenmeri but Godzilla himself, the BNR32, and it has fewer than 14,000 km on the clock. Continue reading
Imagine a winding touge packed with Japanese drift machines — Silvias, RX-7s, Supras, Fairlady Zs and AE86s. So. Many. AE86s. Last year we showed a video proving that underground drifting was already reaching fever pitch by the late 80s. By 1992, Hakone Pass — one of the birthplaces of touge driving and underground drifting — was a rush hour of sliding steel. Continue reading
Founded in 1976, Toyota Racing Development is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. At the Tokyo Auto Salon a video played on loop, showing highlights of the last four decades. From Starlets to AE86s to Celicas to Supras, this is straight up Toyotaku porn. There are shots of long-gone TRD accessories and body kits, a magnificent shop Toyota Van painted in team colors, and even a very young Mike Kojima (of MotoIQ fame) seen working at his desk. Rally cars, open wheel racers, street tuning kits, this video has it all, spanning TRD’s activities across the globe. It’s well worth watching if you have any interest in Toyotas or Japanese motorsport history. Continue reading
One of the most talked about cars from the Tokyo Auto Salon was the Rocky 3000GT, a scratch-built replica of the iconic Toyota 2000GT, but powered by a 3.0-liter 2JZ inline-six. It was the creation of Okazaki-based tuner Rocky Auto, whose mad builds have included a Lexus V8-powered Hakosuka and a different scratch-built 2000GT with a Prius hybrid drivetrain. Here’s a feature documentary on the Rocky 3000GT by a Japanese news station that gives a bit of a peek at how his amazing project was executed. Continue reading
For our final installment of our 2016 Tokyo Auto Salon coverage, we asked some of our JNC team Tokyo staff to identify the coolest whips they encountered at the annual mega-fest of Japanese automotive excess. Here’s what they came up with. Continue reading
When the Japanese builders at 09 Racing debuted their Hakotora at the 2013 Tokyo Auto Salon, it was easily one of the most talked-about cars at the show. The name comes from the blending of hakosuka and sanitora, the Japanese nicknames for the C10-generation Skyline and the B120 Sunny Truck, respectively. Who would’ve thought that one day, there’d be one driving around in Burbank with an SR20DET under the hood and Jay Leno behind the wheel? Continue reading
