Los Angeles has three major institutions on what the tour guides call Museum Row: one for art, one for natural history, and one entirely devoted to cars. The Petersen Automotive Museum is the Temple of the Car in what is considered the car culture capital of the US, possibly even the world. It reopened last week after a $125 million remodel, but for JNCers the news is that there’s a new push to have (slightly) more Nihon steel represented. Continue reading
Models come and go, and some generations are better than others. However, once in a lifetime, maybe twice, cosmic forces just align and an automaker knocks it out of the park like the 1996 Chicago Bulls. Wrong metaphor? I don’t know sports. Anyway, take Toyota in 1985, for instance. They had everything from a mid-engined sports car to a go-anywhere SUV, each and every one a winner. You could cold walk into a showroom and have your pick of the A-dub MR2, AE86, X70 Cressida, A60 Celica or Supra, solid axle Hilux, detachable top 4Runner, or FJ60 Land Cruiser. Thirty years later, all are highly sought after. But, like Levar Burton says, you don’t have to take our word for it.
Which Japanese automaker had the best single-year lineup?
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, “How do you prepare your JNC for winter?” Continue reading
If you’re watching the 25 Hours of Thunderhill this weekend you might see a very familiar livery blasting around the northern California circuit. Mazda has sent a quartet of ND Miatas into the longest enduro in America and, fittingly, they’re wearing the battle paint of the first Mazda endurance racer in North America, the 1979 RX-7. Continue reading
Remember Toyota’s close-to-production sports car concept from the Tokyo Motor Show? Now it’s a close-to-production race car concept. Either they modified the show car real quick, or there are multiple examples of these buggers floating around the studios. Continue reading
A couple months ago we showed you the first three cars in the 2016 Hot Wheels Japan Historics line. These premium models will feature the JNC inkan in classic red, along with features such as metal chassis, highly detailed paint, and rubber tires. Today we are proud to announce that the remaining two cars that will round out this 5-car series. Continue reading
Forget Deloreans, what would a time traveling car in Japan look like? A kujira Crown, apparently. In the drama Time Taxi an MS65 cab takes people back to rectify their mistakes — as long as they have the dough. Continue reading
Now that the dust from the 44th Tokyo Motor Show has settled and we’ve had a chance to contemplate the implications of the unveilings, there has emerged one clear winner: Mazda. For years, enthusiasts fantasized and clamored for Mazda to bring back the bad-ass rotary sports car. Pessimists insisted that it couldn’t be done, analysts mused that there was no bean-counting sense for it. Mazda itself played along, coyly denying plans for a future rotary sports car — until they dropped this striptease for the RX-Vision. Continue reading
And now for your viewing pleasure, a metric buttload of kyuusha leaving a car show in Japan. Every single one is a proper, old school Japanese sled. Also note the immaculate smoothness of Japan’s roads, which makes these shakotan rides possible. Watch the video below. Continue reading
As temps drop, weather gets precipitous and the dreaded salt spreaders come out, our driving patterns change. In LA the only difference is that we might have to actually check the weather report for the chance of rain. The rest of the world, however, may need to cope.
How do you prepare your JNC for winter?
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, “How do you park your JNC?” Continue reading
For most, the term “Sunday drive” means a leisurely excursion, to no place in particular, just a way to exercise the family car. In Japan, it can include a number of things — blissfully empty touge, kohi (coffee) and kuruma (car) at one of the many PA (parking areas), exercises in regional eating (this is Japan after all), straight line expressway blasts, and scenic seaside roads. For one Sunday drive, we decided to combine a few of these Japanese pursuits, including — I was promised — the best fresh fish breakfast in all of Kanto. Continue reading
Mazdafarians far and wide came to the recent SevenStock 18, the premiere showcase of rotary-powered Hiroshima heroes. Held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the all-day festival mixed a car show, track day, and basically anything that was Mazda rotary-themed. Continue reading
Given that we’ve just finished a three-part series on the art of parking, we’d like to hear how you park your JNC. Do you seek out the least ding-prone spot in the lot, or is it a garage-only, “point A-back-to-point A” scenario, or do you hard park it like a yak? Do you always back in, Japanese style, or do you pull in, nose first like some kind of barbarian? We want to know.
How do you park your JNC?
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, “Which concept from the Tokyo Motor Show should be built?” Continue reading
Welcome to the final installment in our multi-part treatise on short-term automobile storage in Japanese society. In Part 01 of the investigation we studied what was within and without the bounds of the law, as well as the ubiquitous steel-bar-rising-up-out-of-the-ground parking lots. In Part 02 of the dissertation we considered the boom-gate lot and the car elevator building. Here are the final three practices by which you can leave your vehicle unattended. Continue reading
As the broader collector car world has finally recognized the worthiness of Japanese classics, model car companies have followed suit. We’re seeing a steady increase in the number of nostalgics available in the more popular premium diecast scales (1:18 and 1:43), which is an exciting but not unexpected development — a model car collector can only acquire so many Ferraris and Porsches before they start to get a little stale. Continue reading
We’ve waited to talk about the Toyota Kikai because we were hoping to get an answer from Toyota about one of the most bizarre easter eggs we’ve ever seen on a concept car. We still don’t have it, but hopefully by raising the question we can find someone who has the answer. [UPDATE: Actually, we may have found it. Scroll to the bottom.] Continue reading
Sure, owning your own kyuusha in Japan sounds like a lot of fun, but where do you put it? In Part 01 of our damning exposé on the topic of parking an automobile in Japan, we illustrated what was legal and illegal, and did a deep dive into the most popular type of parking in Tokyo, the coin park. Today, we continue our series with two more… Continue reading
The Tokyo Motor Show may be over, but the concepts have a chance to live on. This year saw a return to the far-out concepts that you don’t see at any other auto show. From oddball Suzukis to a mid-engined Yamaha, bonkers Daihatsus to the stunning RX-Vision, as well as just about every type of sports car under the sun, Tokyo had it all. The only thing that’s missing is production.
Which concept from the Tokyo Motor Show should be built?
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, “If you could witness one automotive moment, what would it be?” Continue reading
Finding public or street parking in Japan’s major cities is sometimes chotto muzukashii — a Japanese saying for “a little difficult,” said through clenched teeth with a trailing “iiiii…” it essentially means, with typical Japanese subtlety, impossible. So there is naturally a range of inventive, complicated, and sometimes expensive options to parking your car in public. Continue reading
This video of a club-level race at Nakayama Circuit in 1985 has got everything: AW11, Gemini, Bluebird, R30, SA22, multiple generations of Truenos and Levins, and the smooth jazz of a Gran Turismo menu screen. Watch the video below. Continue reading
Though the exciting debuts of the Tokyo Motor Show have been covered, you didn’t think we’d go all the way to Tokyo and and not show you around, did you? Here’s what it’s like to attend the press days of the maddest Motor Show on Earth. Continue reading
