It’s 2012 and that means another new model year has made it into the ranks of “classic.” The rolling 25 year cutoff for vehicles eligible for historic license plates and classic car insurance is now at the year of Iran-Contra, The Joshua Tree and The Simpsons. So we ask you, dear JNCers:
What 1987 car will be the next classic?
The most famous celebrity driver raced under Nissan’s white-red-blue colors, but their main rival had an Oscar-winner of their own flying the red-orange-yellow. Yes, Nissan may have had Newman, but Toyota had Hackman. After competing in the SCCA Formula Ford series in the 70s, Little Bill Daggett raced Dan Gurney‘s ’81 Toyota Celica in the 1983 Pepsi 24 Hours of Daytona. Continue reading
Car nuts in states which are not California may envy our perpetual sunshine and plentiful kyuusha stocks, but when it comes to our emissions laws they just point and laugh. Most states have a rolling cutoff for cars of a certain age that exempt them from smog testing, but the Republic of California has frozen that number at 1976.
That means all vehicles that year or newer must pass Cali’s notoriously picky tailpipe sniffers to be street legal, dooming many older, poorly maintained Japanese cars to the scrapheap. Thankfully, a bill has been introduced into the state senate that, if passed, will move the cutoff forward to 1981. Continue reading
After a long rumor parade, it’s finally happening. Early this morning Nissan CEO Mr. Bean officially announced the return of the Datsun brand. Sadly, for Nissan nuts, modern Datsun badges will likely be rebadged Dacias rather than retro 510s. The new entry-level marque will be offered only in developing markets like Indonesia, India, and Russia. No word on specific models as of yet. Rubbing more salt into the wound, Datsun devotees can now expect their googling to return a flood of Sandero lookalikes.
Read the disappointing press release after the jump Continue reading
Not only is today the first day of spring, but it’s also the opening of the 100th National Cherry Blossom Festival. A century ago the mayor of Tokyo gifted 3,000 sakura trees to our nation’s capital as a sign of friendship between the two countries. Sadly, Hayashi Yayoi do not grow on trees.
We’ve always thought that a vintage Japanese car show would be a great addition to the festivities, but nostalgics are nearly impossible to find in salty wintered DC. Instead, here’s a virtual one, starting with a Mitsubishi Galant GTO. Continue reading
Well it was only a matter of time. The cultural reach of the zokusha has extended to jolly old England. We saw a banzai flagged Lada last year, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect a turaichi shakotan Volvo 244 with sharknose, external oil cooler, and wild two-tone paint job. Interestingly, the old school Dunlop decal has managed to culturally circumnavigate the globe, returning home by way of Sumitomo. Continue reading
MX72 love emanates round these parts like rays of a dying sun. But with supplies of Cressida wagons dwindling on American roads, we have few opportunities to show our affection. That’s why we were fortunate to find this awesomely retro video called “VHS 1986″of Aleks Efremov‘s killer goon. Continue reading
How hard core a Mitsubishi fan are you? Hard enough to chew a pack of 42-year old peppermint gum? This beautifully packaged promotional item for the Galant GTO is suspected to hail from a Motor Show circa 1970 but, hey, it’s MIP and can be yours for ¥1000 plus shipping!
[YJA]
Nostalgic Hero‘s top 20 list has caused quite the stir among Mazdafarians, upset that the Cosmo Sport was the sole Hiroshima machine to make the cut. As we warned, the same car can mean different things in different countries and it’s true that classic rotaries are not nearly as common at shows like the New Year Meeting as they are at JCCS. So for this week, we ask JNCers:
What is the most underrated nostalgic car?
We think the Honda 1300 Coupe 9 is a strong candidate. Constantly overshadowed by the S-series and similarly-sized coupes from other marques, yet it was innovative and stylish and imbued with the spirit of Soichiro Honda. Plus it had one of the all-time most beautiful engines.
The best comment will win a little JDM tchotchke of unspecified make. Click through to see the winner of the last week’s QOTW. Continue reading
The 150th volume of Nostalgic Hero just hit the stands as a special edition in which the editors pick the Top 20 Nostalgic Cars of 2012. Back in 2007 they issued a Top 50 list, and some have risen, some have fallen.
There’s much room for discussion, and keep in mind that some of these cars represent different things in the Japanese market than they do in the US. But without further ado, the envelope please… Continue reading
What’s happening right now is the Geneva Motor Show, traditionally the unveiling venue for six-figure European exotics. To stand out ToMoCo had to do something special, and we’d say a pair of gleaming white RWD GT coupes fits the bill. The neo-hachiroku‘s angle-of-departure tilt perfectly illustrates the spiritual succession of the GT86 from the 2000GT, and the booth’s color scheme evokes Japan’s old national racing colors found on cars like the Toyota 7. Continue reading
We’ve seen some oddball Seibu Keisatsu match-ups over the years, but two evenly balanced foes is a rarity. Neither has the weight advantage. It’s a battle of sheer will as they sideswipe each other repeatedly down a strip of two-lane blacktop, paying no mind to the results of a terrifyingly dangerous stunt with a Japanese Eric Estrada. Continue reading
If you’re a die-hard diecast collector and know where to look, these beans have already been spilled. Otherwise, here’s your first look at the brand new 2012 Hot Wheels Mazda RX-7! We just got these samples fresh off the assembly line and, as always, are extremely proud to have Mattel’s support in the form of the JNC inkan on the B-pillar.
Blue, orange and white is the second color for this casting, succeeding black and gold, and it now rolls on white five-spoke wheels. Big ups to our nostalgic hero, Mattel’s Jun Imai for making this happen. The 1/64-scale SA22 looks fantastic tricked out with an IMSA kit, and looks right at home next to our Hot Wheels hako. Continue reading
It’s been a few months. Time for another cycle of Datsun revival rumors! The media has been awash with speculation on the return of the Datsun brand for the past week. We’ve heard it before, last October, July and beyond, so instead of just regurgitating the fact that Nissan president Mr. Bean neither denied nor confirmed the gossip and leaving it at that, we’re going to have some fun with it. Here is your Question of the Week:
If Nissan does revive the Datsun brand, what should be the first model to wear that badge?
If the Silvia hadn’t been killed off, it might have made a good 240Z, but its name would obviously conflict with the brand equity built on the 370Z. Perhaps the Cherry, since neo-Datsuns would likely be front-wheel-drive entry-level cars. Anyway, put your two cents in the comments below. The best answer one week from now will get a Nissan tchotchke from Japanland!
Ben says the RT90 Corona Coupe is ultra rare. However, I’ve found him about three to four examples floating on the lists of craig. This black-on-red ’72 is similar if not identical to the one owned by the Toyota USA Museum and boasts a documented 35,000-mile odometer. Like most, the 18R-C is paired with a Toyoglide three-speed auto. Though the wheels appear to be from a later Corolla, the owner assures speculators that the rest of the car is complete and a rust-free specimen from Phoenix. Buy it on craigslist for $6,000 and be twinsies with Toyota at the next TORC show.
Neal Bates is a four-time Australian Rally Championship winner, long associated with Celica GT-Fours and AWD Corollas that we didn’t get here in the states. Though retired, Bates spent the last 18 months building a replica RA40 Celica rally car inspired by Ove Andersson‘s 1980s WRC ride. There’s a few differences though, like the updated 3S-GE 2.0-liter twin-cam and a 5-speed Aussie dog box. Still, it qualifies for the ARC Classic Rally Challenge for pre-1986 classic cars like the A10 Datsun Stanza, Porsche 911, and Ford RS 1800.
Watch the beautifully constructed and freshly painted machine roll out of the shop and immediately onto some unpaved roads for maximum hoonage. Continue reading
Instead of the wanton destruction of 430 Cedrics, this week’s video shows them being created at the Nissan Technical Center in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture. Founded in late 1981, the NTC is the design and engineering hub of the Yokohama-based automaker, and the birthplace of everything from the March to the GT-R to, in an earlier cut of this video, the as-of-yet-unveiled 2013 Altima (oops).
As Ceddys, 910 Bluebirds and 720 pickups funnel off the assembly line and onto Nissan’s trademark red-white-blue car carriers, we wonder which ones were destined to meet an untimely end as Seibu Keisatsu chase fodder. Continue reading
Toyota USA has launched its new Facebook timeline, populating it with some rarely-seen vintage photos of its early years. Like many over 50, its run into a few snags with the newfangled technology. Continue reading
In exploring the non-traditional Japan, you quickly learn to identify markers to indicate you are on the right track to discover something old and special — narrow roads lined with closed shutters, anything made of red brick, disconnected power meters, less-than-eight-digit telephone numbers, blanked-out shop signs. Continue reading
At the beginning of each motorsports season Mazdaspeed gathers the press together to talk about their plans for the upcoming season and introduce some of the luckiest young men in the world, their new sponsored drivers. This year the event was held at Crevier Classic Cars in Costa Mesa, California, which was packed with machines far older than any of the talented young speed demons on stage. Continue reading
