It was the best of Zs, it was the worst of Zs. Well, not the worst Z in actuality, but perhaps the worst paint job. But the owner wouldn’t have it any other way. According to this video, there are only 140-150 Datsun 240Zs in the UK, making this father and son pair rather unique. Our friends at Petrolicious have produced another great video. Watch it below. Continue reading
We all know the level of difficulty involved in tracking down relatively unmolested AE86s and S13s, but for chasers of really rare plastic-bumper nostalgics, there’s even bigger game to hunt: the first-gen Isuzu Impulse. As ubiquitous as this car seemed in the 1980s — when the buff books were heavy with praise for its tasty Giugaro styling (and later turbocharged power and Lotus-tuned handling) — nowadays it’s nearly impossible to find even ratty examples for sale. Search the web for information regarding parts availability, and you’ll find one word repeated ad nauseum to describe the Impulse: “extinct.” Continue reading
If there’s one thing SEMA has no shortage of is new wheels. Most of them are so hideous you instinctively cover the eyes of any nearby children but once in a while there’s a new school barrel we can get behind. Behold, the SSR Mk III Neo. Continue reading
The Venn diagram of JNC readers and wagon lovers has a pretty big overlap, and it’s easy to see why. Both types of cars are practical, a lost art among automakers today, and Japan is one of the few places on Earth you can routinely see wagons as something other than family haulers. That is way we can scarcely believe we’ve never asked this before:
What’s the greatest Japanese nostalgic wagon?
I’m biased towards Cressidas because I own one but many may not know the reason why. In about 2005 I was walking along Route 246 through Tokyo’s upscale Aoyama Itchome district (The street was made famous in Gran Turismo as the long straightaway passing Honda headquarters in the R246 circuit). It was late and there wasn’t much traffic. That is, until a raucous straight-six roar blasted through, echoing off the skyscrapers. I turned, expecting to see a Supra or Skyline but was instead treated to the vision of a dark blue Toyota Crown wagon much like the one above, dropped millimeters above the pavement, scream through the high-rise canyon. I came back to the US and bought the closest thing I could find, an MX72.
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 tuning trend needs to stop now?” Continue reading
Noted Japanese automotive journalist Aritsune Tokudaiji has passed away a week shy of his 75th birthday.
In the early days of Japanese motorsports, the Tokyo native drove for the Toyota factory team. Upon retiring in 1969, he went on to co-found the racing accessories company Racing Mate with fellow driver Soukichi Shikiba.
After the company folded, he became an automotive journalist but found that his harsh reviews offended advertisers. So in 1977 he published his own series of books called『間違いだらけのクルマ選び』roughly translated as Choosing a Mistake-Ridden Car. The books became best-sellers for their critiques of the auto industry, in which Tokudaiji bemoaned the constant addition of features at the cost of performance. Continue reading
If there was one thing we learned from SEMA this year, it is that you must widebody all the things. From Beetles to Benzes, everything is being massively flared, often with bolt-on over-fenders, ducktail spoilers and turaichi shakotan stances. Bosozoku style has finally come to America. Continue reading
Toyota’s SEMA presence this year was all about the Baja 1000. Ivan “Ironman” Stewart and his perfect hair were hanging around at the booth along with a ground pounding Toyota truck in the old tricolor racing livery. Continue reading
Mazda relentlessly brags about how it’s the most raced marque in America. Now it’s apparently gunning for the world. Today at SEMA, alongside the world’s first Miata race car — built from one of the Chicago Auto Show display models — Mazda revealed the first ND race car. Continue reading
Speaking of tuning trends, the neon Lamborghinis are back, along with biker chicks, RWB Porsches, and a brief glimpse of bosozoku sleds. It’s the current state of Japanese car culture, as viewed through the lens of the mainstream west. Love or hate the content, you can’t argue that the production, shot entirely on GoPros, isn’t pretty impressive.
Got some time to kill? Perhaps the art of papercraft as applied to some JNCs will do the trick. These are the creation of a Japanese artist who goes by the name Metmania Fan, and cover a whole range of makes and models, from the popular (hakosuka Skyline, S30 Fairlady Zs, AE86s) to the obscure (Subaru 1000, A40 Toyota Celica). Simply download the templates from this website, print, and fold to your heart’s content. Here are some examples of the finished product. Continue reading
We’re headed to the SEMA show this week, and you know what that means. Insane amounts of customized cars, the latest auto fashions, and thousands of people shaking their heads muttering “money does not equal taste.”
What JNC tuning trend needs to stop now?
Oh, the sins committed to classic cars are legion. SBC swaps, too-large wheels, fender-bashing stance, overly sparkled paint, engines with more than three different colors of anodized accessories, the list goes on and on. We actually don’t hate the USDM Jam 510 pictured above, but only because there’s actually a pretty clean classic underneath its mostly reversible transgressions.
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 non-sports, non-luxe JNC is destined to be a classic?” Continue reading
In honor of yet another landmark vehicle turning 25, let’s all raise a champagne glass to Lexus, Japan’s most luxurious marque. Now, set that glass down atop a pyramid of other glasses stacked on the hood of a dyno-strapped LS 400 and gas it up to 145.
This was the way Lexus introduced itself to the world — with a tower of stemware balanced above its 250hp V8 humming at full tilt, serenely unperturbed as the sedan reached Autobahn speeds. Toyota USA was established on October 31, 1957. Thirty-two years later, in October of 1989, it would change the face of the automotive world once again. The Lexus LS 400 is officially a Japanese nostalgic car. Continue reading
The last Kidney Car we posted was a rare, 1980s turbocharged Mitsubishi. Here’s another one, the Starion’s less well-known sibling. This 1985 Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo is currently offered for sale in Raleigh, North Carolina and with just 30,328 miles on the clock, it’s surely among the finest examples left in the country. Continue reading
Koyorad has been a great support of both JNC the website and JNCs the cars, as they are one of the few aftermarket companies consistently releasing products for J-tin vehicles. The latest addition to their Japanese Classic radiator line is actually for trucks, first-generation Toyota Trucks and 4Runners, to be exact. Continue reading
We love it when JNCs pop up in unexpected places, especially when they’re obscure models never sold in the US. Last year, a hakosuka Skyline showed up in Adventure Time. More recently, we received an email from a friend that works in the music department of Universal Studios. He had noticed the image above used on a new album cover.
We tracked down its creator, Matt Spangler, who as it turns out has had his work featured on The Big Bang Theory. We asked him what inspired his art and whether he had any more automotive work. He did. Continue reading
Welcome to the final installment of our 2014 Japanese Classic Car Show coverage, a short one in which we scoured the parking area for J-tin whose owners had gone off to spectate. We begin with a clean Z20 Soarer and X80 Cressida, parked in tandem like an 80s who’s who of luxury Toyotas. Continue reading
Identifying cars like the GT-R or LFA as future classics is like predicting you’ll see a crash in a Russian dashcam video. It’s obvious, and you don’t get a cookie. It’s much harder to recognize a run-of-the-mill model that will achieve greatness. Therefore, we ask:
Which non-sports, non-luxe JNC is destined to be a classic?
Aside from a few specialty models, most Japanese cars were built by the millions. To make things challenging, let’s take sports and luxury models out of contention. That means no Truenos, Presidents, Fairladies, CRX Sis, or Lancer Evos.
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 People’s JNC is due for a remake?” Continue reading
Each year as part of our Japanese Classic Car Show coverage, we pick our favorites to highlight. We had six members of the JNC team at the show this year, plus one car that we voted on collectively to give the JNC Award. Here’s what we chose. Continue reading
Toyota is officially celebrating 50 years in Canada. Established in 1964, the story is similar to that of Toyota USA. From humble beginnings — just 755 cars sold in its first year — the company has grown at an amazing pace. Continue reading
Though sleds of chrome and Nihon steel will always be at the heart of JCCS, in 2011 organizers began accepting vintage Japanese motorcycles as well. It’s fitting, anyway, as two-wheeled vehicles are still hugely popular in Japan, and is how much of the Japanese motoring industry got its start. Continue reading
