France’s Automobile Club de l’Ouest, the organizing body behind the 24 Hours of Le Mans, recently announced the 10 race cars they believe to be most emblematic of the legendary race. One car was chosen to represent each decade of the 90 years Le Mans has been running. However, it was deemed that the 1990s could not be defined by just one car, and thus the honor was shared by the 1991 Mazda 787B and the Peugeot 905 (the sole Japanese and French cars on the list, respectively). Continue reading
Many of you loved the cars in the last video we posted but found the music controversial. Prepare yourself for the opposite. It’s hard to take offense to a Temptaions-esque free use Motown groove, but the accompanying car is one of Japan’s most revered classics, the hakosuka Nissan Skyline, powered by a 1UZ Lexus V8. Continue reading
Remember to go to DaBox Toys and get 7.5% off any order with the coupon code JNC2013.
If there’s one thing about Japanese collectibles that’ll drive you crazy, it’s the blind box. Found in toy stores and konbini across Japan, blind boxes are packages that are completely sealed so you can’t see what’s inside. All possible contents are listed on box itself, tempting you like diecast sirens, but there are usually so many model and color combos that it’s near impossible to get exactly what you want on the first try. Continue reading
Many readers were plunged into the world of nostalgic cars thanks to Japanese video games. The fact that those machines were made of pixels and polygons rather than glass and steel didn’t make our lust for them any less fierce, and in many cases fueled our passions for the real thing. Therefore it’s about time we ask:
What’s the greatest video game JNC of all time?
Tokyo Xtreme Racer was the English name for Shutoku Battle, a game in which you prowled a highly accurate rendition of Tokyo’s famous Shuto loop and Wangan expressway, looking for street races. Rivals came in teams with wildly creative names like Dreaming Apparition, and once you’d defeated all underlings the team leader suddenly appear in your rear view, headlights flashing, for a showdown.
The cars consisted of everything from Subaru Legacy Wagons to S13 Silvias, but if you wanted to rise through the ranks you’d eventually have to upgrade so an FD or JZA80 Supra. Once all known rivals in the game were defeated and just when you thought it was all over, the end boss to end all end bosses — called NoName (or “???”, depending on the iteration) — would appear in a nearly impossible-to-defeat S30 Z. It was a definite nod to Wangan Midnight‘s Devil Z (and in some versions it even came with an inverted cross and “666” on the hood just to drive the point home), but because the game was released in 1999 few players were familiar with the manga. All they knew after weeks of mashing buttons against virtual R34 GT-Rs that the numero uno top dog killer was a classic Fairlady Z.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining or inspiring comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner from last week’s question, “Which car should Japanese automakers sell again exactly as they were?” Continue reading
In Part 01 of our Chubu grand tour, we escaped Tokyo by expressway northwest into the mountains. Our return trip took us on roads less traveled, over some of Japan’s most famous winding passes known as touge. We had made it as far as Matsushiro, Nagano Prefecture, but had a long ways to go yet. Continue reading
Forget the Tokyo Auto Salon. You know the best place to be in Tokyo in January is really the New Year Meeting. We dare you to watch this video of the event in Odaiba, Tokyo and not drool all over your keyboard. Continue reading
Today’s kidney trade is not even a complete car, but it could cost much more than one. The Nissan L20 Group 1 cylinder head is perhaps the rarest, most unobtainable piece of Datsun metal in the world. A race-only part sold by Datsun Competition in the 70s for L-series motors, Nissan only made made a few and it was obscenely expensive even back then. Continue reading
With an extended weekend available and being rather tired of Tokyo one tedious week, we decided to explore Chubu. North of Tokyo but with its name meaning “central”, Chubu is the region between Kanto (the greater Tokyo area), and Kansai (the greater Osaka area), and it includes many highland prefectures like Gunma, Nagano, and Niigata. Continue reading
If you were one of the lucky ones who ordered one of 500 Lexus LFAs before production ended in December 2012, you could have ordered it an any color under the rainbow. Pearl Yellow wouldn’t have been our first choice, but pair it with a green hood and we’d just might reconsider. Continue reading
In 1998 Nissan embarked on an unprecedented program to buy back 1970-71 Datsun 240Zs, restore them, and sell them through dealerships with an official warranty. Only about 40 of the 250 planned cars were sold, and even at nearly $28,000 Nissan lost money on each and every one. Suffice it to say, nothing like this will ever happen again. But if it did,
Which car should Japanese automakers sell again exactly as they were?
There were many good candidates for this question. Who wouldn’t love a 1967½ Datsun Fairlady 2000 roadster? Then again, it’s hard to argue against the Miata. AE86? Well there’s the Scion FR-S already. That’s why our staff pick is the 1987 Honda CR-X (specifically, the second-gen version that debuted in Japan that year) Heck, it doesn’t even have to be the hotted-up Si or SiR. Give us a orgasmically fun-to-drive runabout with a double wishbone suspension that, in various guises, can get 50 miles per gallon, Honda, and we’ll forgive all your sins since the demise of the S2000.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining or inspiring comment by next Monday will receive a toy. Click through to see the winner from last week’s question, “What Japanese car is the best investment?” Continue reading
Thailand is a hotbed of nostalgic car activity these days, and @Speed Garage is the perfect example of exactly why that is. From classic Skylines to a race-ready Toyota Starlet, it’s the stuff our most fevered dreams are made of. Although vintage Benzes and an Alfa make appearances, owner and current record holder for coolest name ever published at JNC A-Thummanoon Pornrojanagoon‘s first love is still the Japanese nostalgic cars that harken back to his earliest purchase and, presumably, the one he would “borrow” from dad at the tender age of eight. Watch the inspiring video below. Continue reading
Yesterday we saw Toyota FJ40s fetching some high prices at the recent Arizona auctions. These, on the other hand, are the cheapest Land Cruisers you’ll ever encounter. They’re also some of most easily destructible ones too, as they’re made completely out of paper. Continue reading
Earlier this week we asked what classic Japanese car would be the best investment. Turns out the answer may not be a car at all, but a Japanese nostalgic truck. During the height of the Arizona auto auctions this past week, FJ40 Toyota Land Cruisers continued to fetch ever-higher prices. When all was said and done at Gooding & Co. the 1979 FJ40 above went for $61,600 including fees. Continue reading
Before we get started, we’re excited to announce that DaBox Toys has offered JNC readers a 7.5% discount if you purchase with the coupon code JNC2013. Now let’s take a look at this week’s minicar.
Most of you probably know Kyosho as the maker of plastic model kits and R/C cars, but since the early 2002 they’ve also been making some of the highest quality 1:64 scale diecast cars money can buy. Continue reading
It’s car auction season, and collectors with more money than sense are flocking to Arizona to pay the highest possible prices for the cars of their dreams. Our buddy Jeff Koch is covering the auctions for Hemmings and reports that an FJ40 Land Cruiser just sold for $56,000 at the Gooding auction. We don’t necessarily condone the practice of buying and flipping or stowing your car away from the world like a prized Van Gogh, but if you were…
What Japanese car is the best investment?
As a result of it being the last of its kind, its status as a pioneer of drifting, and a star of its own anime series, we think the Toyota AE86 will be hugely desirable sometime in the near future. The fact that so many were destroyed in failed attempts at said drifting make them only rarer, and its fan base is world wide. Will we see them trading for ridiculous sums at Barrett-Jackson 2030? Only time will tell.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining or inspiring comment by next Monday will receive a random toy. Click through to see the winner from last week’s question, “What’s the most significant “new” nostalgic car from 1988?” Continue reading
One of the greatest rivalries from the heyday of Japanese motorsports was that of Nissan versus Mazda. After the Savanna RX-3 snatched Nissan’s much anticipated 50th victory from the Skyline GT-R in December 1971, a blood feud was born. The following year that fight grew even more heated, with roaring rotaries and fierce hakosukas duking it out throughout the 1972 season. Here’s a Mazda promotional video setting the scene for the 1972 Fuji Masters Super Touring Race, which pitted RX-2s and 3s against fearsome GT-Rs in a thrilling display of wheeled combat around the 30 degree banks of Fuji Speedway. Continue reading
In the last installment our series on nostalgic collectibles, we looked at the Tomica Limited Vintage Toyota Crown. The TLV line pumped out casting after casting of stupendously detailed models of 60s and 70s cars for two years, and its success led to the formation of the Tomica Limited Vintage Neo line for 80s cars in 2006. Continue reading
There’s no event on Earth that captures the the fusion of Japano-American car culture quite like the Mooneyes Hot Rod & Custom Show. Everything from Baja Bugs to T-Buckets are represented, with the majority of cars shown are imports to the Japanese. However, this being JNC, we’re going to focus on the Nihon Steel and the particular subset of showgoers who like to apply traditional American modifications to said steel. Continue reading
You would think that being the absolute top dog of a country known for building spectacular vehicles would provide Emperor Akihito with a garage to end all garages. Instead, when the head honcho of the Japanese royal family is not being driven around in his Nissan Prince Royal or Toyota Century Royal, he slips behind the wheel of a mauve second-gen Honda Integra. Continue reading
It’s 2013, and that means a new lineup of vehicles has officially crossed the magical 25-year threshold to become nostalgics. Cars built when INXS and Arsenio Hall ruled the airwaves can now officially qualify for historic tags and and collector’s car insurance in most places. Therefore we ask:
What’s the most significant “new” nostalgic car from 1988?
Our staff vote goes to the S13 Nissan Silvia. As other manufacturers abandoned the affordable RWD sports coupe, Nissan doubled down and created one of the most iconic Japanese performance cars ever made, still sliding at any given drift event a quarter century later.
What say you, dear reader? As always, the most entertaining or inspiring comment by next Monday will receive a random toy. Click through to see the winner from last week’s question, “What’s your New Year’s resolution?” Continue reading
