An image of a new Hot Wheels S30 Z have surfaced, but there is a bit of mystery surrounding it. Since the JNC inkan appears on the door, we are privy to some extra information that was was leaked. First, it will show up as a 2016 basic model, and it is patterned after Hot Wheels designer Jun Imai‘s own 260Z, complete with massive flares and G-nose done up in true kaido racer fashion. However, like Jun’s real car, the model was supposed to be blue. Continue reading
Go grab your Gerry Rafferty cassette and your turtle neck because this week’s Kidney Car is the closest thing to a yacht rock poster car Toyota ever made: the 1980 Toyota Celica Sunchaser. From 1979 to 1981 Toyota commissioned the Griffith Company to create 500 convertible Celicas for the American market. Griffith took it one step further creating a car that was both a full convertible and a targa top. Continue reading
RS Watanabe has revealed their latest wheel design, and it’s a gorgeous revival of the famed Toyota Works racing wheels of the 1960s and 1970s. The classic four-spoke crosshairs pattern is back, and is now available in a 15-inch size. Continue reading
It has no engine, no wheels, and never won any races, but the Hotel Okura is an icon of the Showa Era. Since opening its doors in May 1962, it has hosted every US president since Richard Nixon. In 1976, JVC unveiled the world’s first VHS videocassette there. Royalty, rock stars, and even a particular fictional spy arriving in a Toyota 2000GT convertible can be counted among its guests. And as of yesterday, its lights were turned off for the last time. Continue reading
Last week we learned that an R35 GT-R is not the only Nissan that knows how to steal a supercar’s thunder. It’s hard to believe, but we haven’t yet asked what the greatest nostalgic Nissan is. We’ve inquired about the greatest Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi, and even Suzuki (your winning answers here, here, here, here and here), so let’s rectify that right now.
What’s the greatest nostalgic Nissan?
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 car of the Nineties will be the next sought-after classic?” Continue reading
The O-Bon is an annual festival that honors the souls of one’s ancestors. Many Tokyoites head to their hometowns to visit the graves of their forebearers, leaving the city strangely free of its dreaded logjam traffic. In other words, it’s the perfect time to go for a drive. With the start of O-bon, I took a recent Thursday off with the intention of squeezing in a few errands and a little bit of kyuusha time. Continue reading
One of the great things about customizing Hot Wheels or building model kits is that you are free to create cars that you can’t build in real life. In the modern automotive universe, drifting is probably as close to the epic World War II dogfights that took place in the skies. That why I wanted to imagine a Zero Celica drift car. Continue reading
You might have heard that Monterey Historic Car Week is great, and it’s true. You can’t swing a monocle without hitting a million-dollar supercar or legendary racer. Then there was us, tooling around behind the wheel of a Datsun that cost less than $2,000 when new. Continue reading
In the second of a series, JNC is teaming up with our friends at Petrolicious to launch simultaneously a video and an article about historically significant Japanese cars. Be sure to check out the excellent Petrolicious and their beautiful short films about vintage cars.
For the uninitiated it’s a “just a Corolla,” but the AE86 goes by many names. Anime star. O.G. drifter. Hachiroku. Overhyped. AE86 itself is perhaps the nerdiest of them all, named after Toyota’s internal chassis code for the model. Even as recently as a couple of tears ago, one could still make the claim that the 1985-97 Toyota Corolla GT-S was unappreciated or underground for most of its life. Now, as it turns 30 years old, that’s no longer true. As if you needed another reminder that you’re getting old, the AE86 has spent more than half its existence hoarded, hooned and fanboy’ed as one of the most important cars Toyota’s ever built. Continue reading
Jay Leno was is probably the most famous Mazda Cosmo Sport owner out there, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still get his socks knocked off by a bridgeported 13B turbo RX-3. In the latest Jay Leno’s Garage video, the host meets Savant Young and his LA street racer-style restomod. Watch the video below. Continue reading
With cars like the R32 Skyline GT-R increasing in price, other Bubble Era sleds are sure to follow suit. Though the Nineties are not quite nostalgic, we can already predict what might be the next sought-after rarities (a 320hp, AWD, 6-speed folding hardtop convertible that cost $65,000 in 1995, perhaps?). There’s even an upcoming show specializing in such machines,
What car of the Nineties will be the next sought-after classic?
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 JNC design has aged better with time?” Continue reading
We are proud to welcome Japan-based artist San Mamiya as a regular contributor to JNC. After we featured his brilliant artwork in March, some of the JNC staff commissioned him to draw their own cars. That project snowballed into a deeper collaboration, and we hope readers will enjoy the first San Mamiya X JNC illustrations. Continue reading
Watch as the purveyors of Japanese shakotan style head to a meet in Shiga Prefecture. Words cannot do these cars justice so you’ll just have to watch the video itself. Continue reading
A 1973 Nissan Skyline GT-R sold for $176,000 at auction at the recent Monterey Historic Car Week. As the first Kenmeri GT-R sold at auction in the US, it’s a significant milestone. We were fortunate enough to be able to witness the historic moment first hand. Here’s what it’s like to sit in on a high end auction at one of the world’s most expensive automotive events. Continue reading
According to several Japanese car importing businesses, prices of the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R have doubled in Japan. This is not surprising, as the R32 is one of the most sought-after cars from the tuner era and it is now federally legal to import to the US, after officially turning 25 last year. It’s also because Japan’s stocks are pretty well depleted at this point. Continue reading
Like many JNCs, when it debuted the X70 Cressida was an utterly nondescript family hauler. The ur-Avalon’s boxy lines were dismissed as typical Toyota conservative styling and it sat completely unrecognized for decades. Now we’re in a Cressida renaissance, and it’s the darling of tuners, VIPers and drifters alike. Somehow, its shape even seems to have aged better than that of its contemporaries, such as the Audi 5000, Volvo 760 and E28 BMW.
What JNC design has aged better with time?
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 JNC race replica would you buy?” Continue reading
In the far western outskirts of Tokyo, Okutama-ko (Lake Okutama) has been a popular weekend destination for many years. The scenic touge on the north and south sides of the lake provide a popular destination for weekend motorcyclists and kyuusha drivers accordingly. With weekend work reforming our minka, we decided instead to grab an old camera and use some long-expired film on the cars at Okutama-ko. Continue reading
Racing Mate, the Japanese motorsport accessories company, founded in the 1960s by race car drivers Soukichi Shikiba and Tokudaiji Aritsune, is back. While the relaunch has been planned as early as 2013, they have just recently released the first complete kit, and it’s for the retro-styled Honda N-One. Continue reading
A couple of Kujira Crowns, both in wagon and sedan form, have popped up in the most unlikely of places — in a K-pop video. At first glance this may seem unusual because, according to the Toyota South Korea website, the company didn’t even officially have a presence in the country until 2009. However, if this video of the song “Sober” by the band Big Bang was really filmed in South Korea, it is likely these were Shinjin New Crowns, knockdown kits of the S60 Toyota Crown built under license. Continue reading
Hey ladies, do any of you want a ride in my diesel Mitsubishi van? That might not sound like the best pick up line ever used, but once you see today’s Kidney Car, you might change your mind. Browsing through my Facebook wall of endless “my Honda got stolen” and “look at this pho I’m eating” posts when a link to this 1989 Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon Turbo-D Chamonix hit me in the face. Continue reading
