You know the drill. Boy meets Fairlady Z, boy restores Fairlady Z, boy learns Fairlady Z is possessed by a need to kill its owner. Wangan Midnight, the story of the Devil Z and its rivalry against the Blackbird Porsche has been told and retold in manga, anime, live action and video game form. Christine this is not, but you do wonder who is the one possessed, the Z or its owner. Continue reading
Some of you may be wondering what the deal with the two-door sedan is. Isn’t that just a coupe, and didn’t we already see the classic coupes at JCCS? The answer to that is, confusingly, no. Continue reading
Formula D isn’t the kind of event we here at JNC normally cover, but in recent years stateside drifting has grown tremendously, and with that growth it has welcomed with open arms the nostalgics that made all this tail-sliding possible. Continue reading
Graphics. Livery. Warpaint. Originally meant to identify the country of origin and visually distinguish fast-moving cars on the track, they are now the domain of corporate sponsors. Either way, there have been some darn cool ones. Therefore we ask:
What’s the greatest Japanese racing livery?
As tempted as we are to score another one for the Mazda and the 787B’s so-garish-it’s-cool Le Mans scheme, we have to go with the Honda RA272‘s simple red circle on white. Not only did it invoke the hinomaru, but after Honda won the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965 Championship White became the color of choice to distinguish Soichiro’s foremost feats of engineering from plebeian conveyances for the masses.
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 best sequel?” Continue reading
God Speed You! Black Emperor by award-winning director Mitsuo Yanagimachi is a documentary following junior members of Black Emperor, the infamous bosozoku gang, or “touring club,” as they prefer to call themselves. This is not a car movie by any means. However, if you can tolerate the subtitles and plotless, meandering pace, you might be able to catch glimpses of Tokyo’s automotive landscape circa 1976 — everything from kujira taxis to shakotan Celicas — captured in raw 16mm. Continue reading
Today’s guest writer David Lovett lives in Japan and works at Classic Car Nagoya. Here is a dispatch about what it’s like to be employed at what most of us would consider the ultimate dream job. Enjoy. —Ben
Just about halfway between Nagoya and Toyota City is the town of Togo, home to a little shop called Classic Car Nagoya. As the name implies, CCN specializes in classic cars. It’s very much a family run operation with six full time employees, three of whom are related, plus one part time gaijin — me. Continue reading
Thought we were done with our barrage of 2012 JCCS photos? Think again! From mini trucks to land crushers, trucks have been part of the Nihon nostalgic scene for decades. And like their car counterparts, they have just as many varying styles of build. Continue reading
At the 1972 Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan unveiled what would become the next generation of the famed Skyline GT-R racers. The KPGC110 in racing livery and gold RS-Watanabes was intended to carry on the winning tradition of the previous generation’s famed touring cars. Unfortunately the 1973 Oil Crisis and emissions regulations forced Nissan to reevaluate its racing program and the GT-R itself, leaving behind the show car as a stark reminder of what could have been. Many replicas of it have been built; here’s JNC and Mark “ScaleMaster” Jones‘ take on it. —Ricky
Thank you, Ricky, for the intro and for providing the direction and reference for this piece. I used the Hot Wheels Nissan Skyline 2000GT-R released in 2011 for this project. Mattel made it in only one color, pearl white, and it quickly became my favorite nostalgic casting. Continue reading
Rarely is the follow-up better than the original, but when it is, it’s not just slightly better — it blows the original away. That is why we ask:
What’s the best sequel?
We just spent a weekend at 86Fest, so there was much AE86 and Scion FR-S co-mingling. However, it remains to be seen whether the latter will out do the original in the annals of history to come. Our choice is Toyota Supra. It only got better with each of its four generations, from quasi-luxurious GT to paradigm-shifting sports coupe, to turbocharged Wangan beast to supercar-destroying icon.
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 best Japanese car emblem?” Continue reading
We all know why the BRE Datsun 510 rules, but what’s it like to actually drive? In this fantastic video by Road & Track, professional IndyCar racer Alex Lloyd gives viewers a seat-of-the-pants rundown on what makes the car so magical. This is likely the closest most of us will ever get to driving the magnificent beast ourselves, and the ridealong is absolutely soul-stirring. Continue reading
As the name implies, SevenStock was originally a gathering for Mazda‘s iconic sports car, the RX-7. Over the years it’s evolved to include all rotaries, and this year they teamed up with MazFest to throw one giant celebration of all cars flying under the zoom-zoom banner. Continue reading
It’s no secret that many of us on the JNC team are certifiably nutty about wagons, yours truly included (There are a couple that aren’t, and they look at us as if we’re the weird ones when it’s clearly the other way around. Sheesh.). The Wagon section is always my favorite part of our JCCS coverage, so let’s jump right in like an excitable dog through the rear hatch. Continue reading
Mazda likes to brag that on any given weekend there are more of their cars on America’s road-race circuits than any other marque. It’s true that Mazdafarians love wringing their cars out, and MazFest has been one of the best events to offer them cheap track time. SevenStock, on the other hand, has been one of the premier rotary-themed car shows in the US for 15 years. For 2012, the two joined forces for one massive shindig. Continue reading
Japanese automakers love emblems, and we’re not just talking about those for the various marques. In Japan, each model often has its own as well, and these badges are highly desirable to those of us who want to JDM-ize our cars. Thus we ask:
What’s the best Japanese car emblem?
As a Toyotaku I’m tempted to pick the MR2 eagle or the Soarer gryphon, but actually I would have to agree with Matt and say Mitsubishi‘s reigns supreme. The three diamonds represent the family crest of the Iwasaki clan, after Mitsubishi founder Yataro Iwasaki, and their arrangement came from the Tosa, a samurai clan that Iwasaki was part of. So not only is it geometrically simple and easily recognizable, but it has history too. See the evolution here.
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 was the greatest Mazda?” Continue reading
Jay Leno is in Japan. What comes of this trip should be interesting, but for now, watch as he tours the Nissan DNA Garage.
UPDATE: Leno goes to Toyota and drives the Lexus LFA Spyder as well! Continue reading
While plebeians consider the DeLorean the “cool car” from Back to the Future, JNCers know that the real gem from the series was the jet black 1985 Toyota 4×4 Pickup that Marty McFly owned in his new-and-improved future. Now an outfit called Time Machine Restoration has acquired the movie truck and is starting a thorough restoration. Continue reading
You want Zs? You got Zs. We begin Part 05 of our 2012 JCCS coverage with the seminal Japanese sports car, the one that forever changed perceptions of what it meant to be “J-tin” and swept America by storm. Here in the Cruise Nisei corral are the matching Datsun 240Zs of Kelvin Hiraishi, Tod Kaneko, and Raymond Lui, proving once and for all that yes, there are indeed three separate bright orange Zs in SoCal, not one insane owner that rotates wheels and engines. Continue reading
Last year at SevenStock JNC debuted “LeMans” in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Mazda 787B‘s historic win at the French enduro.
This year we follow it up with “Daytona,” the second in the series, celebrating the Mazda RX-7 that won its inaugural race in IMSA’s GTU class at the 1979 24 Hours of Daytona.
The car, driven by Yoshimi Katayama, Yojiro Terada and Takashi Yorino, was the first the RX-7 in a long line of successors that went on to dominate the IMSA league. By the time the series came an end in the early 90s, Mazda had won over 100 races, becoming the winningest marque in IMSA history.
This year saw the release of our Hot Wheels X JNC Mazda RX-7, which was inspired by this car. That subsequently led to a life-sized RX-7 by JDM Legends and Brandon Ozaki inspired by the Hot Wheels. It’s been a fantastic year for JNC and Hot Wheels, so this is our thank you to the fans.
As always, we will debut the shirt to SevenStock attendees first. We will add it to the JNC Shop after the show. See all you Mazdafarians on Saturday!
This is just a friendly reminder that SevenStock and Mazdafest have joined forces this year to form one mega-celebration of rotary power at Willow Springs Raceway this Saturday, September 29!
By the mid-70s Japanese automakers had their sights firmly set on comfortable long-distance runners that could eat up highway miles. They were often luxurious too — well, more luxurious than a Datsun 510 at least — and built for the new Japanese pastime of road tripping. In previous years most of these cars you’ll see in this article were absent from JCCS, but as the show and scene grow, that’s changing. Continue reading
