Now in its second year, Nissan Jam is quickly becoming SoCal’s go-to event for Nissan and Datsun fans of all stripes. Take one look around and you’ll see everything from ever-popular 510s and 240Zs to B210s and 240SXes. But forget the alphanumeric soup, let’s look at some of Nissan Motor Co.’s greatest hits. Continue reading
One day you’re sitting on the most expensive real estate in the world, the next day the Asset Price Bubble pops. You’ve been forced out of your swanky Aoyama penthouse apartment and the banks have repo’ed your collection of late-80s Wangan monsters.
What JNC would you live in?
Sweating out the Lost Decade might be more bearable in one of Japan’s one-box vans, but in hindsight it might have been wiser to invest in a Toyota 2000GT. In 1999 I saw a Belatrix Yellow flagship on eBay. With nothing by my first full-time job to my name, I asked the seller his reserve. Surprisingly, he wrote back with an answer: $150,000. 15 years and one curved spine later, I’d be rolling in — pinky to mouth — one million dollars.
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 the last QotW, “What would you tell automakers to do?” Continue reading
Every four years citizens of the world gather around their TV screens to cheer their countrymen on as they compete in sports contests Americans otherwise don’t give two petrified turds about. Of course, we’re talking about the Olympics. For over a decade starting in 1976, Subaru sponsored the US Ski Team, decking out a fleet of all-wheel-drive wagons in a patriotic red-white-blue livery. Some years, they even had the tagline “Subaru. An American Company.”
At the time, Subaru was the only import automaker publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. That changed in 1990, but it was true when this 1987 GL shuttled American skiers to mountaintops across North America. Some of these wagons were apparently sold to the public, but no one knows how many. Needless to say, they are very, very rare. If you’re lucky enough to have one feel free to shout, “USA, USA, USA!” while driving it around this weekend.
Oh boyohboyohboyohboy. And in case you were wondering, here’s what you can expect from the next Miata’s chassis.
In Part 01 of our story about M2, we delved into how Mazda set up flashy building in Tokyo’s posh Setagaya neighborhood and invited customers to give them feedback. What resulted was the 1001, a clubman-themed Miata modded straight from the factory. In Part 02, we see how the grand experiment concluded. Continue reading
Sometimes life throws you lemons. Or, perhaps, an entire lemon tree aimed squarely at your Toyota 2000GT. Other times, the car nut friend you meet in college turns out to be Akio Toyoda.
To be clear, Javier Quirós‘s family was already knee-deep in Toyotas before the two met. Quirós’ father imported two FJ25 Land Cruisers for his Costa Rica banana plantation and before you know it, had become the world’s fourth-oldest Toyota importer, in charge of all the ToMoCo products sold in the region. Family fortunes grew and Javier eventually acquired his dream car, a 1967 Toyota 2000GT. Now he’s restoring it to what he believes is “the most original 2000GT in the world.” Continue reading
The 2014 Japanese Classic Car Show opens for registration today, July 1. This will be a landmark year because it will be the 10th annual JCCS.
That’s right. It’s hard to believe, but the show that paved the way for nostalgic car gatherings of all sorts has been going strong for an entire decade now. The organizers, Koji and Terry Yamaguchi, tell us they have something special planned in honor of this special occasion.
In addition to the cars and motorcycles that have been eligible in previous years, the first-gen Mazda Miata is now a classic and thus welcome at the show.
Special guests will include designer and BRE founder Peter Brock, as well as race car driver John Morton. JNC will also be there with a very special car never before seen at JCCS, so stop by our booth and take a peek.
This year, Toyotafest registration filled up in a record four days. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to display your car or bike on the lawn at Queen Mary Park in a banner year for Japanese nostalgics. You can register at the JCCS website.
Last week Dave wrote about M2, the Mazda specialty shop designed to hear feedback delivered directly from the customer’s mouth. If only more companies would do that.
What would you tell automakers to do?
Japanese automakers once made the most perfectly ergonomic dashboards known to man. Some still do, but the one automaker that’s fallen farthest from its heyday tree is Honda. Look upon in wonder at this Honda dashboard from the days when Old Man Soichiro still had a hand in his company: the thin-spoked steering wheel, the trio of logical gauges, the well-bolstered and gorgeously upholstered seats. Compared to modern-day Honda’s Romulan warbird consoles it is a thing of utter beauty, so minimalist and functional, and even has a small tray formed by negative space. All this in an Accord, no less! And if you ask us, there’s a tragic dearth of blue interiors these days. So yeah, we’d tell Honda to make more of these, less of those.
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 the last QotW, “What’s your favorite period-correct license plate for your JNC?” Continue reading
As enthusiasts, many of us feel the urge to voice opinions about our favorite marques. “Honda should do this,” or “Toyota should build that.” If only the they would listen the (automotive) world would be a better place, no?
In fact, automakers do listen. Back in the glory days of the Bubble Economy, Mazda, in particular, even created a whole entity for this purpose. It was called M2, Inc. Continue reading
Ivan Shkirev knew that the 1962 Toyopet Stout he had purchased was unique, but not how unique. Upon receiving delivery to his home in New Mexico, Shkirev found the faded declaration “Tokyo, Japan to Chicago, Illinois” painted across the Stout’s tailgate, along with the names of various countries that it had apparently visited decorating its flanks. Continue reading
Not too long ago a low-mileage pignose S13 that had somehow not been drifted to death came up for sale in Pennsylvania. The sleek, red hatchback caught was a real eye-catcher, but if it were our money to spend on a Nissan sports coupe that revolutionized the drifting world, we’d snap up a 1989 240SX coupe, in two-tone. Continue reading
In addition to the hakosuka GT-R at RM Auctions, there will also be a 1967 Mazda Cosmo Sport at Gooding & Co.’s Monterey Historics auction this year. The Cosmo Sport has been restored by noted restoration shop The Finishing Touch of Fountain Hills, Arizona, the same shop that restored the one in Mazda USA’s collection. Continue reading
Thanks to California’s Legacy License Plate program we’ve been talking a lot about the proper period-correct license plates for your JNC recently. We’ve been Cali-centric, but we’d like to open the question up to our readers worldwide.
What’s your favorite period-correct license plate for your JNC?
A visit to Nissan resto-mod specialist Rocky Auto last year revealed a hakosuka GT-R with a a very unique plate. To quote David, “In Japan, whenever a car changes owners or is de-registered its plates are sent in to the rikuunkyoku, or vehicle registration center, and subsequently destroyed, whereupon new plates are made and re-issued. This plate, however, was the original plate, with only one digit on top rather than three, from when the car was brand new. That means that this KPGC10 GT-R is a one owner car!”
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 the last QotW, “Just the tip of the iceberg, or last of a dying breed?“ Continue reading
The hottest concept of the 2013-14 auto show season was the Nissan IDx. A lightweight, rear-wheel-drive car with heritage styling cues from the Golden Age of nostalgics? Take our money, please! Now one of the designers of the actual concept car has created this shirt in collaboration with JNC, which we will be debuting at Nissan Jam. UPDATE: The IDx shirt is now available in the JNC shop. Continue reading
California’s unique blend of arid weather, car culture, and state law forcing license plates to stay with the car, even when it changes hands, have created a perfect storm for a unique otaku obsession. For sale ads in all corners of the US use the term “California car” as shorthand for salt-, moisture- and thus rust-free sheetmetal.
Buyer beware, of course, as cars registered in the Golden State weren’t necessarily California cars to begin with, but here’s the thing — cars coming into the state don’t get the original plates, making the period-correct ones a telltale indicator of exactly how California the car really is. Thing is, California doesn’t even know its own license plate history. Continue reading
We were all saddened by the recent loss of a Toyota 2000GT in Japan, crushed when it passed under a tree at the exact instant the aged beech decided to fall. The good news is, the owner has decided to rebuild it. We have the technology. Continue reading
If there’s one marque that does not get the love it deserves in classic car circles, it’s Isuzu. Despite never producing a 510 or Civic, a car that really took the Japanese motoring world by storm, vintage Isuzus are ripe for crossover collectability from the concours d’elegance crowd. Continue reading
Welp, it’s happened. A 1972 Nissan Skyline GT-R will be offered at RM Auctions this year at the Monterey Historics, the week-long celebration of the automobile during which sheetmetal is admired, coveted and traded amongst kajillionaires like Picassos. After last year’s record sales of a Toyota 2000GT crossing the block at $1.2 million at auction, the floodgates to Japan have been opened. Continue reading
Last week we saw several nice Hondas come out of the woodwork, including newfound appreciation for a Mugen CRX Si with customizing styles way ahead of its time.
Are these just the tip of the iceberg, or last of a dying breed?
It’s a truth as old as the ages: Any Honda with even the slightest hint of performance pedigree has been snatched up and customized, thanks to their affordability, Old Man Soichiro-infused driving dynamics and complete lack of resemblance to modern Hondas. Some have been modded tastefully, some not so much.
We don’t have a problem with putting personal touches on Hondas as long as stock ones continue to exist, and in great enough numbers that the occasional errant beech tree attack won’t dwindle their numbers by too much. Did we just see a few unicorns, or are there more, squirreled away in garages waiting to cross the auction lines at Barrett-Jackson 2020?
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 the last QotW, “What’s your greatest JNC tragedy?” Continue reading
To all the daddy JNCers out there, Happy Fathers Day.
