With the Japanese Classic Car Show closing in on a decade, the theme of its 9th holding could be summed up in one word: More. More cars, more rarity, more stock survivors, more booths, more people, and more staggering Nihon steel gracing the lawn of Queen Mary Park.
In Part 01 we’ll look at some of the game-changing debuts, hard-to-find specimens and historically significant machines that make the JCCS a must-see event. Continue reading
Manabu Mitsumori loves drifting, but he also loves the 1970s. That’s why he got rid of his JZX100 Chaser and now drives two classic Corollas instead. Both E70s, one is a clean restomod two-door hardtop called Babyface, while the other’s a battle scarred drift rat sedan called Scarface. Watch the video by Yosuke Suga of SC Films below. Continue reading
You thought you drove a long way to get to JCCS? Meet Randy Lewis. Earlier this month Randy purchased a barn find 1972 Datsun 510 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and drove it 2,500 miles to his home in Phoenix, Arizona. Then he drove it another 400 miles to Long Beach for the big show. Continue reading
So the secret is out. This is the subject of our teaser pics last week and the car our friends at JDM Legends built and brought to JCCS. We were honored to have this replica of the legendary Prince Skyline 2000GT from the 1964 Japan Grand Prix gracing our booth at the big show this year. While we go through 1,900 photos from this weekend’s show, let’s wonder:
What’s the best 1960s JNC for vintage racing?
I’ve always had a soft spot for the S54 Prince Skyline. Prior to JNC, I would often daydream of running an iconic Japanese car in historic rallies like the Carrera Panamericana or any number of Mille Miglia tributes. The only thing was that many of those races had a strict cutoff of cars built 1965 or older (though many have since raised the cutoff). The answer I kept coming back to was the noble Prince. It may not be the most elegant car, but it was raw, powerful, and had racing pedigree.
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, “How would you like to see the JNC scene evolve?” Continue reading
Set-up for the 9th annual JCCS has mostly finished. If you’re not here tomorrow for the show you’re missing out. See you on the flip side!
Photo by Jason Kusagaya.
As long time readers know, it’s tradition for us to debut a new shirt at each JCCS. This year we’re paying homage to the rich car culture of Japan with the JNC Kaido shirt. Continue reading
Here’s some teaser shots of a car you’ll find at our booth if you come to the JCCS this Saturday. It’s being assembled by our friends at JDM Legends right now. Any guesses?
There are only five days to go until the 9th annual Japanese Classic Car Show. The exhibition at Queen Mary Park in Long Beach, California has been hugely influential event since its inception in 2005, a driving force in the acceptance of Japanese cars as classics.
This year, the show promises to contain even more unique debuts and rare cars never sold on US shores. We’ll have more details as the week goes on, but for now we can tell you that special guests will include editors and photographers from Nostalgic Hero magazine. Issues of the renowned Japanese publication will be available for sale at the main booth.
So clear your calendars for this Saturday and get ready for the premiere old school event of the year.
This coming weekend will be the ninth Japanese Classic Car Show. In those nine years, awareness of vintage Nihon steel has grown in leaps and bounds. They are acknowledged by mainstream media that used to willfully dismiss them, values of the cars themselves are rising, and we have heated debates about collectability.
How would you like to see the JNC scene evolve?
One of the things we enjoy about the Japanese car scene is that it has none of the snobbery that plagues traditional collector cars. Anyone can afford to join in the fun and mingle amongst fellow enthusiasts. Having said that, the cars we know and love will only increase in value and rarity as time goes on. We’d like to see more cars preserved for posterity, but we also realize that not everyone can resist the tuning bug. With that in mind, we’d like to see more faithful, period correct mods. Japanese car culture runs deep, and there is much heritage waiting to be honored and discovered. Each year there’s more of that at JCCS. We can’t wait to see what turns up this Saturday.
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 should remain stock?” Continue reading
Last month we were invited to Nissan’s global product showcase. After the Zama classics and Juke-R, the car we were most eager to see was the new Datsun Go. he first new model to wear the revered Datsun name in decades. Since much debate has raged in the comments about whether it’s a worthy successor to the marque and this would likely be the only time we’d see one in person on US soil, we felt obliged to report on it. Continue reading
We had mentioned before that 2014 was going to be a banner year for nostalgics in the Hot Wheels lineup, and here’s the latest proof. Hot on the heels of the new Hot Wheels X JNC Datsun 620 comes the first photos of the new-for-2014 EF Honda Civic. Continue reading
“Japanese cars will never be classics.” That was a sentiment commonly expressed by traditional collectors when we founded JNC in 2006. Despite huge strides in recognition made since then, there are people who still think so. Tom Knudsen is not one of them. Continue reading
Eiji Toyoda, the man who led Toyota from its formative years to a worldwide manufacturing empire, has passed away at the age of 100 years and five days.
His career at Toyota spans the time from the Toyoda AA to the second-gen Lexus LS400, but he is most known for developing Toyota’s just-in-time manufacturing technique that has since been adopted by every automaker around the world, from Auburn Hills to Zuffenhausen. Continue reading
Over the weekend the JNC forum experienced a catastrophic database crash equivalent to a con-rod through the block. For four days we worked with our webhost to trouble shoot the problem. At one point we thought we had lost 2½-plus years of data when a technician backed up and repopulated the database with an older copy. Thankfully, that was averted with the help of a very knowledgable (and patient) systems admin named George who was able to recover everything up until mid-August 2013. While not ideal, it’s a helluva lot better than reverting to January 2011.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. In the last month or so, if you created an account or changed your username/password you’ll have to recreate your account or use your old username/password. Everything has gone back in time one month. That big whoosh you hear is the JNC staff breathing a huge sigh of relief.
Deep within the corporate juggernaut of Nissan Motor Company there’s a team of 60 old school petrolheads. Many of them have been around for decades, bearing witness to the racing programs of the automaker’s most famous race cars. Next up on the restoration list: The Datsun 240Z that won the 1971 East African Safari Rally. Continue reading
Look, we know it’s fun to take a 2,200-pound car that doesn’t require any smog checks and shoehorn into it the biggest engine you can find. However, one day these cars are going to be rare (some would say they already are) and no one will know what it was meant to look like from the factory.
Which JNC should remain stock?
There were enough 510s, 240Zs and AE86s sold that chances are, somewhere out there, someone is preserving them for posterity. And now that the Toyota 2000GT is a million dollar car you can bet it and its ilk — Cosmo Sport, any S20 car — will be collected so it almost goes without saying. But a relatively affordable classic with storied racing heritage like the Mazda RX-3 Coupe? One day they will be rare. Some would say they already are. But it’s just ripe for modification on any continent it was sold, whether Japan, the US or Australia. In fact, we can’t remember the last time we saw a bone-stock RX-3 Coupe in person, unless you’re talking about wagons. Save the RX-3s!
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 do you most want to see in person?” Continue reading
Thus far our Nissan 360 coverage has focused on your rare but predictable classic and race cars. However, the global Nissan empire is built on stuff sold in reaches of the world you can’t even find on a map. So every four to five years Nissan assembles every last one of its products, from far-flung regions, in one place (which also changes — in 2008 it was was Portugal; next up is Brazil). Here’s the real meat of the Nissan-lympics: Driving insane stuff. From the Juke-R to dump truck, we pilot them all. Continue reading
In December Nissan will turn 80 years old, and in light of that milestone this year’s multi-day Nissan 360 press event was all about heritage. Part 01 of our coverage spotlighted the company’s rich motorsports lineage, including some race cars never before seen on US shores. However, Nissan’s bread and butter has always been street cars for you and me, and in that respect there’s an even longer history to study. Continue reading
The Mazda Furai is (correction: was) one of the greatest concept cars ever built. After debuting in 2007 it was everywhere. Then it was nowhere, making zero public appearances when the car’s very reason for existence was to make public appearances for Mazda. Now the cause for its sudden disappearance has been revealed by the news outlet that destroyed it. UPDATE below. Continue reading
For the Nissan faithful, the name Zama needs no introduction. The sleepy little town outside of Yokohama is home to Japan’s largest and most wondrous collection of classic and race cars, wholly owned by the Nissan Motor Company. For decades Nissan barely spoke a word about it and kept it closed to the public. So when the automaker brought select Zama cars to southern California and invited us to check them out for the first time on US shores, we jumped at the chance. Continue reading
