Japanese Nostalgic Car

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 →

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 →

Here in SoCal, we take a lot of things for granted. One of them is the fact that we get to see some of the rarest Japanese cars ever built. Several times a year, we feast our eyes on sheetmetal that most readers have to travel hundreds of miles or cross borders for. It’s easy to forget how good we have it.

Which JNC do you most want to see in person?

We’ve had numerous occasions to lay our eyes the Toyota 2000GT in person, it’s one of the most-photographed JNCs ever, and you might think you know every line on that car. But trust us, you still owe it to yourself to travel to whatever museum, show, or even the JCCS later this month just to see it in person. There’s no other way to witness the fineness of its craftsmanship, observe the light dancing off each curve and crease as you walk around it, or inhale the smell of 1960s Japan emanating from its rosewood dash.

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 hardest work you’ve put into a JNC?”  Continue reading →

This long weekend was Labor Day here in America. In theory, you’re supposed to be free from work during its observance, but most car guys spent it wrenching.

What’s the hardest work you’ve put into a JNC?

This is not our hardest work, just the most recently frustrating, especially during a sweltering heatwave of 90-plus degrees in LA county. We moved a ’77 Corvette into storage, helped a friend buy a 5-speed Subaru wagon, and then attempted a routine brake line job on the JNC Cressida.

Sadly, a hard line broke during the process, resulting in (in no particular order) a barrage of expletives shouted into the night, a bath of brake fluid/sweat/undercarriage grime, and a walk to Autozone to rent a double flaring tool which provided juuuust enough false hope to keep us working past the closing time of any store that could help before twisting itself into a pretzel. Even sadder, everyone we knew was out of town, on vacation like a normal person. With no way to return home, our only option was an old AE86 that had been awaiting wiring harness work for over a year. But like a good old Toyota, it fired right up after everything was reassembled. Total time out: 28 hours.

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 non-car Japanese nostalgic vehicle would you love to drive?”  Continue reading →