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
We have no idea what’s going on in this manga. All we were told is that it’s from a very short run, most likely a self-published doujinshi. In it, Honda Z600 travels through the cosmos and a Toyota 2000GT is rendered as a wheel-less space fish. If anyone knows more about it, let us know in the comments. Continue reading
As we near the end of our 2014 Japanese Classic Car Show coverage, we delve into the crux of what it means to have a classic car show. Here are some of the rarest and best preserved Japanese nostalgic cars you’ll see all year. Continue reading
On March 14, 1972 the Vanlene freighter was engulfed by fog and ran into the so-called Graveyard of the Pacific, a treacherous area off the west coast of Vancouver Island. On board were 300 Dodge Colts, built by Mitsubishi, bound for North America. Continue reading
Italy had a Beetle; It was called the Fiat 500. So did Britain, the Mini. The VW Beetle was Germany’s Beetle, obviously, but it was America’s too. What all these cars had in common is that they started out as affordable, economical People’s cars and ended up as icons. What’s more, they’ve all been reborn in modern times as fashion statements capitalizing on nostalgia, European cool, and design.
Which People’s JNC is due for a remake?
The best example to come out of Japan is likely the Honda N-One. The modern kei car was inspired by the 1967 Honda N360. Since they’re already halfway there, we’d jump for joy if Honda did a similar take on the N’s sportier sibling, the Z360. Honda Z-One, anybody?
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 is not worth preserving?” Continue reading
The latest installment of our massive 2014 Japanese Classic Car Show coverage takes a look at the haulers of the J-tin world, whether they be carrying cargo, kids, or chicken tax exemptions. It’s the trucks, vans and wagons of JCCS.
Continue reading
