Last summer we informed you that the guys at Koyorad were working on yet another aluminum radiator for classic Japanese cars. This time, the beneficiary was the classic bantamweight street fighter known simply as the TE27. Well the development process has completed and they have just announced that the radiator is available for purchase. But wait, there’s more. It doesn’t just fit mangos, but peanuts and goons as well — the new cooler will fit all second-gen Corollas, including TE21 2- and 4-door sedans and TE28 wagons, from 1971-74. Continue reading
THE VAULT: That time Mr. K met Barbara Eden
Yutaka “Mr K” Katayama was a celebrity in his own right, but mostly in the automotive world of die-hard Nissan nut jobs. Barbara Eden, on the other hand (for those under the age of 25), was the Zooey Deschanel of her day, the ur-manic pixie dream girl whose character in I Dream of Jeannie was literally magical.
One of the things that helped Mr K, the outspoken president of Nissan USA during its formative years, put Datsun on the path to success was his embrace of everything American. To understand how to sell Japanese cars in America, he cast his observations of Japanese tradition to the wind and threw himself wholeheartedly into American culture. And if that meant taking Barbara Eden’s hand at a Datsun promo event, well then so be it.
This never-before published photo was shared with us by an ex-Nissan PR rep, who found the Polaroid in a desk drawer before Ghosn moved the automaker’s US headquarters to Tennessee. Had he not scanned it, it would have almost certainly been lost to history.
VIDEO: 8-second kujira Crown
So you find one of the rarest Toyotas ever to make landfall in the US, and what do you do? Tub it out, drop in a 2JZ bored .40 over with HKS 280 cams, and take it to the strip, of course. Although every fiber of my purist being is screaming in protest, I can’t help but like Shawn Cassidy’s whale in drag. It must be one of the craziest, most heavily modified MS75 Toyota Crowns in existence, but it can register an ET of 8.09 seconds at 171.12 mph. What do you say, yay or nay, to the fastest whale on Earth? Watch it in action below. Continue reading
VIDEO: Chris Forsberg drifting a Datsun 280Z
And now for your viewing pleasure, Chris Forsberg drifting his 500hp, RB25-swapped Datsun 280Z. Chris may be better known his day job as a Formula D champ and pilot of a near-1,000hp Nissan 370Z powered by the VK56 V8 from a Titan pickup, but for his own personal slider he’s got his own wicked nostalgic. Watch the video, a promo for his sponsor Clarion, in the video below: Continue reading
QotW: What’s your best high mileage JNC story?
One of the main reasons people buy Japanese cars in the first place is because of their ridiculous longevity. Ironically, Japanese roadworthiness inspections are so prohibitively expensive that it’s fairly common for many owners to ditch new cars after just three years of ownership. And yet, Japan’s automakers are still maniacally obsessed with building cars that will survive just about any apocalypse you can throw at them.
What’s your best high mileage JNC story?
If you ever visit the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology, you’ll see a well-worn X70 Toyota Mark II wagon in the middle of it. About 10 years ago, Toyota found the car for sale with something close to a million kilometers on the odometer. They bought it back from the owner, drove it across Japan, and arrived at the museum just shy of 999,999km. To reach that magic number, they drove it in circles in the parking lot until the odometer was just about to roll over to all zeros. Then they parked it in the museum as a monument to Aichi’s legendary dependability.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner of the last QotW, “What’s the most insane luxury feature on a JNC?” Continue reading
FAUX-STALGIC: The MX-5-based Mazda Cosmo 21
The 19th century naturalist Henry Walter Bates discovered caterpillars in the Amazon with gigantic heads resembling those of pit vipers. This type of mimicry is a clever and effective means of survival, but can it work on cars? Given the continued popularity of various “retro” designs — Mini, Mustang, Beetle — the answer is apparently yes. In this series, we’ll check out some of the less known examples of retro-inspired cars along with the JNCs they mimic.
These days, the fame and classic stature of the Mazda Cosmo Sport is perhaps second only to that of the Toyota 2000GT. Historically-speaking, the original Cosmo was important for having the world’s first production twin-rotor rotary engine (NSU began producing its twin-rotor Ro80 in the same year, shortly following the Cosmo Sport). Continue reading
EVENTS: 2014 Nostalgic2Days, Part 04
We start our final installment of our 2014 Nos2Days coverage with a beautiful butaketsu Laurel by Red Megaphone. The Nissan restoration shop is known primarily for its Skylines, but this white C130 hardtop showed that there’s more than hakosukas and kenmeris in the Nissan playbook. Continue reading
VIDEO: Japanese Nostalgia by Landin Williams
Our friend Ralph Constantino has a terrific collection of classic Japanese cars: a TE27 Sprinter, a couple of AE86s, and MR2 and some pre-Evo Mitsubishi Lancers. Basically, all the cars that many Filipinos grew up with back in the home country. He prides himself on keeping his car true to their original spec or with only period-correct mods. We actually photographed his fleet, but before we could share them with you the camera and laptop, along with the photos, were stolen. Luckily, Ralph’s story can still be heard thanks to filmmaker Landin Williams. Watch the video, appropriately titled “Japanese Nostalgia,” below Continue reading
MINICARS: Hot Wheels X JNC Mitsubishi Starion/Chrysler Conquest
StarQuest fans rejoice, as we at JNC are proud to announce the newest Hot Wheels to don our trademark inkan — the Chrysler Conquest! Our lips have been sealed shut for months, however with its imminent release to the pegs, we felt that it is time to break our silence. Continue reading
QotW: What’s the most insane luxury feature on a JNC?
Japan’s culture had always put a high priority on service, but along with new technologies came novel ways for automakers to provide some truly crazy luxury experiences for their customers. Therefore we ask:
What’s the most insane luxury feature?
Heaps of things come to mind, like the flip-down portal in the front passenger seatback of a Toyota Century (so you can extend your legs and rest your feet up there), the Mitsubishi Debonair’s height adjustable suspension, or Honda’s 1981 navigation system. DR30 Skylines had some sort of lane guidance thing, the Mark II/Cressida had an entire auxiliary stereo control module located about 8 inches closer to the driver than the actual stereo, and the Nissan President had anti-lock brakes in 1971. And that’s not even counting the cars with build-in fridges.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner of the last QotW, “Which JNC has the greatest grille?” Continue reading
EVENTS: 2014 Nostalgic2Days, Part 02
Welcome to Part 02 of our Nostalgic2Days coverage, as we make our way across the Pacifico Convention Center on Yokohama’s historic waterfront. In this installment we’ll see the displays kyuusha tuning houses, some of the famous cars that have graced Nostalgic Hero magazine, and classic Nissans from the automaker’s own collection. Continue reading
EVENTS: 2014 Nostalgic2Days, Part 01
Every year Nostalgic Hero magazine holds one of the very best classic car shows in all the lands, Nostalgic2Days. This is the sixth time they’ve held the event and for the past 4 years I’ve made the pilgrimage to Yokohama what classics Japan has to offer. Continue reading
KEI HERO: Remembering the Suzuki Fronte Coupe
Can you name a rear-engined Japanese sports GT with Italian styling and specific output of over 100PS/L? Such a car was real, and it came from Suzuki.
Suzuki is a marque with rather divergent reputations in the US versus Japan. Ask an average American their perception of a Suzuki car, you’d likely get a blank or even negative response (motorcycles are a different story). In Japan, Suzuki is a prolific automaker, purveyor of clever and high-quality vehicles like the Swift, Wagon R, and Jimny. All of these are marked by compact or diminutive size, making Suzuki an expert at producing mini cars. Fittingly, Suzuki is one of the originators of the kei sports car, its storied Cappuccino and Cara/AZ-1 among the most distinctive examples ever made. The subject of this post is an ancestor to these sportsters: the Fronte Coupe. Continue reading
QotW: Which JNC has the greatest grille?
Grilles. They provide airflow, set one model apart from another, and can even form become the corporate identity of a brand. Japan has produced some truly outrageous grilles in its time, so therefore we ask:
QotW: Which JNC has the greatest grille?
Instead of a large rectangle like most trucks, the Prince Clipper’s designers bestowed it with two ovals, the same size and shape as the headlight bezels, and fitted asymmetrical crosshairs in each one. The result is a bizarre Iron Giant visage that’s instantly recognizable.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner of the last QotW, “What’s the best shade of JNC green?” Continue reading
BOOK CLUB: Datsun 280ZX, by Nissan Motor Corp
I purchase books fairly infrequently thanks to libraries. Automotive books are the exception. Information in high-quality books on cars tend to be less immortal than, say, the words of Shakespeare. Sales and circulation tend to be limited, and photos and schematics make digitizing more difficult. Thus, automotive enthusiasts who are so inclined may feel the need to collect such books. In these occasional book reviews, my hope is to share interesting and valuable books that you might enjoy reading and perhaps owning.
A category of automotive literature that I particularly love is the development story. Many car books have sections on or at least elements of this, but there are certain Japanese models that have had entire titles dedicated to chronicling their behind-the-scene creation stories to painstaking detail. The subject of this post, Datsun 280ZX, focuses on the iconic S130. Continue reading
MINICARS: Custom 1:18 Models by Yordy Kolner
Today’s guest writer is Yordy Kolner, who hails from the Netherlands and, like Luis Aguilar, builds custom scale models of his favorite Japanese cars. However, Yordy starts with 1:18 scale cars made of diecast metal. Here’s his story in his own words. —Ricky
I got into Japanese cars because I always had a thing for Japan, and when I saw a video of AE86s drifting with mismatched wheels I fell in love with these cars, and I thought the drivers also looked so cool. Continue reading
ART CORNER: Sunny Vol. 1 & 2 by Taiyo Matsumoto
The 2013 Cartoonist Studio Prize has been awarded to Taiyo Matsumoto for his works Sunny Vol. 1 and Sunny Vol. 2, about a group of kids living at a Japanese orphanage. At first we thought Sunny was the name of one of the characters, but to our pleasant surprise, it is indeed referring to an old Nissan Sunny 1200. Continue reading
QotW: What’s the best shade of JNC green?
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we celebrate the color green, aka midori in Japanese. It was prevalent in the golden age of JNCs, from drab military olives to citrusy limes.
What’s the best shade of JNC green?
In 1983 Suntory Brewery’s Midori Melon liqueur sponsored a contest in which the grand prize was a brand new Datsun 280ZX, slathered in a bespoke shade of green. As far as we know there was only one like it, making it quite possibly the rarest S130 color there is.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner of the last QotW, “Which JNC are you never sellin’?” Continue reading