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
In the Part 01 and Part 02 of the coverage from Team_Nostalgic’s Old School Love, New School Flavor show, we featured exclusively the cars of Toyota and Datsun, respectively. In our final upload we arrive at Mazda and include two less well-represented marques but ones that are no less important. Until then, lets bask in the glory of these angry triangles. Continue reading
Are grown men allowed to cry about cars? It was a normal Thursday evening just like any other. I sat down at my PC after work to check a couple of eBay auctions, and something caught my eye on eBay’s tailored (to me) homepage feed. What I saw was probably just a stock photo, I thought. But after a click, my palms started to sweat. How is this possible? Is it a scam? Continue reading
Last week Ricky wrote about a British builder’s 1968 Honda RA302 replica. That gave us fever dreams of apexing an old JNC racer full tilt through a chicane, preservation of history be damned. Oh, how we wish we could buy a vintage body-in-white to pound on harder than Justin Bieber’s face.
What JNC race replica would you buy?
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 JNC had the coolest taillights?” Continue reading
It’s summertime, time to go outside and play! Or, whip out those Tamiya paint cans and spray the plastic bodies of your favorite JNC model kits. Do it outside when it’s sunny and dry to avoid accidentally painting your furniture or carpet or, you know, getting poisoned by the fumes. Here’s a sampling of recent and upcoming plastic model kits that may be of interest to you. Continue reading
Fuji, 1971. The mighty Hakosuka was slated to reach its record 50th win in Japanese touring car racing, only to have that taken away by a plucky upstart from Hiroshima known as the Mazda Savanna (aka. RX-3). Years later, its spirit would be succeeded by the sleek RX-7, the first two generations of which also bore the Savanna name in Japan. Why did Mazda choose that name for such iconic cars? Continue reading
In a nondescript warehouse on the edge of Boyle Heights is one of the best kept secrets for a crucial part of Los Angeles life: the rim. The aftermarket wheel is an inalienable part of SoCal culture, more important than the wristwatch or necktie to the official LA wardrobe, and yet the region’s cratered roads are a hellscape for alloy circles. For years, LAX Wheel Refinishing has quietly kept the wheels of LA turning, so to speak, to the tune of 2,000 a day. We recently got a rare peek behind the scenes of this impressive operation. Continue reading
We’ve been told 2016 is going to be a great year for JNC fans that are diecast collectors, and here’s the first evidence of that. Photos of a Hot Wheels 1977 Chevy LUV have been leaked. Of course, JNCers know this car as the Isuzu Faster, a mini pickup built to go head to head against the likes of the Toyota Hilux and Datsun 620. Continue reading
The folks at JCCS have an announcement to make — a new show just for 80s and 90s Japanese cars. Street Neo Classics will give a owners of Bubble Era machines a chance to show off their rides.
Details have not been announced yet, but save the date: October 18 from 10am to 3pm at Toyota USA Headquarters in Torrance, California.
Now that we’ve determined which JNC had the coolest pop-up headlights let’s focus, like Sir Mix-A-Lot, on rears. Back in the day automakers were largely confined to sealed beam headlights, but out back designers had free reign to design insect, jet or spacecraft-inspired shapes. Some even tried to hide them altogether.
Which JNC had the coolest taillights?
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 JNC had the coolest pop-up headlights?” Continue reading
For almost as long as there’s been Hot Wheels, there have been customizers. Lately the trend in modified Hot Wheels, especially with the new generation of collectors, has been the use of patina to emulate worn out, barn find, or rat rodded cars. Some have been really outstanding, while others suffer from “Titanic syndrome” where the idea seems to be the more rust the better. With that in mind, we once again we turn to our friend Mark Jones (aka Scale-Master), for his take on weathering and adding patina to Hot Wheels cars. Continue reading
An image for the a recolor of the Hot Wheels Datsun 510 wagon was revealed online today. The second issue of the 2015 graphic scheme (the first one having been released earlier this year in yellow) is a sinister black with beige and green racing stripes. We are proud to report that the JNC inkan is featured on the rear doors. This is, of course, a diecast version of designer Jun Imai’s actual car. Continue reading
Do you wish you could have a 1960s Honda F1 car of your very own? A British outfit called Stuart-Taylor Motorsport is building a life-size replica of the 1968 Honda RA302, an interesting choice considering the original’s morbid history. Continue reading
In 1965, a motorcycle distributor named Pride and Clark became the first company to officially sell Toyotas in the UK. Toyota recently celebrated 50 years in the United Kingdom with a gathering of classics, many of which had their own local flavor and were models never sold in the US. Continue reading
