SEMA is all about the vast automotive aftermarket, from the tallest donk to the lowest drift machine. One category that has been notably absent is the Japanese nostalgic car, but things are moving in the right direction. One of the pioneers of bringing old school flavor to the biggest car show in the world is Enkei Wheels. Continue reading
SEMA 2011: Datsun 510 at Enkei Wheels Booth
A big company like Enkei Wheels could have just about any car they wanted in their SEMA booth. We are right chuffed that they chose a JNC for this year’s display. It also happens to be wearing their sexy new Apache II…
Photo: Sebastian Hill
UK Barn Find unearths massive Toyota Celica collection and a Mitsubishi Galant GTO
So you found a Cressida owned by a little old lady who drives it to church once a week? Big deal. An enthusiast lucky bastard in the UK who goes by ra28gt on Retro-Rides was looking for Celica parts and got a tip about a guy who might have some. What he found instead was a dusty barn packed with so much J-tin he needed two car carriers to take them home. Continue reading
Posted in for sale, mitsubishi, toyota
Tagged a20, a40, a60, Barn Finds, celica, galant, gto, mitsubishi, toyota
28 Comments
What should Toyota name the C-Pillar found on leaked production FT-86 photos and the 2000GT?
Over the weekend Teh Intarwebs was alight with photos of the production Toyota FT-86, seemingly leaked from a Japanese brochure on FT86club.com. While not as extreme in styling as the Scion FR-S concept, initial road tests say it delivers on everything promised, with handling like that of a Mazda MX-5. UPDATE: Specs leaked. 197 horsepower, 2662 pounds.
But the thing that caught our attention is a comparison to a sports car from Toyota’s past, and it’s not the AE86. Continue reading
Friday Video: Mazda 787B at the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans
As we get ready for SevenStock tomorrow let’s round out Mazda Week with a Japanese documentary chronicling the Mazda 787B‘s historic siege on Le Mans. We are so completely obsessed with this machine that we made a shirt.
The film hails from the early 90s, probably not long after Mazda’s historic win in June twenty years ago. It follows the team during the lead-up, prep, and ultimately the race itself. Ear drums will shatter. Women will weep. Cheesy 90s pop songs will be played. Watch all four parts below the fold. Continue reading
Mazda Luce RX-4 Lost in Time
The Mazda Luce still stands as one of the most beautiful coupes to come out of Hiroshima. Its American market equivalent, the RX-4, is extremely rare but here’s one just cold sitting in a Japanese barn waiting to roar again. Judging by that dust blanket it hasn’t been touched in decades, not even for a peek inside. Heck, even the Cyprus DMZ Toyotas have seen more action. Continue reading
SevenStock Preview: JNC Mazda 787B Anniversary Shirt
Orange and green. For Mazdafarians, the colors instantly evoke the livery of the Mazda 787B. You know the history — the 700-horse monster was the first and only Japanese car to win outright at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the only non-piston car to do so. Mazda entered three 787s, but only the winning #55 car wore Japanese clothing company Renown‘s over-the-top warpaint.
For SevenStock this year, JNC is honoring the 20th Anniversary of this legendary feat. Our tribute shirt will have orange ink over green fabric — look closely, there is no outline — and with three color screens it will be our most complex shirt yet. Continue reading
Wednesday Wall: Mazda Cosmo Sport & Familia Rotary Coupe
Are you enjoying Mazda Week here at JNC? As we approach SevenStock 14 this Saturday, October 29, we wanted to give you this beautiful wallpaper to decorate your desktop. This is probably the single most famous photo ever taken of Mazda‘s first two rotary cars, the 1967 Cosmo Sport and the 1968 Familia Rotary Coupe (or R100). Continue reading
Posted in mazda, Wednesday Wall
Tagged 110s, cosmo, cosmo sport, familia, familia rotary coupe, mazda, r100, Wednesday Wall
8 Comments
This Mazda Familia is a Korean Nostalgic Car
Guess what kind of car this is. Go on, guess. If you said Mazda Familia you’d be only sort of right. Mechanically, its a second-generation Familia with a cheap eggcrate grille, quad headlamps, and either a 1.0 or 1.3 liter Mazda inline-four under the hood. But technically, it’s a Kia Brisa. Continue reading
What’s in a Name? Mazda Savanna RX-3 and RX-7
Mazda knew it had something special when it created the RX-3. Back in the early Seventies Mazda was dropping rotaries in everything it could get its hands on. The Familia Rotary (R100) was getting on in age and had been named so because it started out as a family sedan. The bigger and heavier Capella (RX-2) was named after the brightest star in the Auriga constellation. The RX-3 would slot right in between them, the sportiest rotary yet, and Mazda was sending it into battle against the Celica 1600GT and hakosuka Skyline GT-R. So how did Mazda choose its name? Continue reading
Posted in mazda
5 Comments
Friday Video: No Honor Among Stop-Motion Diecast Thieves
Our friend Luxe37 is back with another brain-churningly awesome action short, creating with stop motion animation what was really going on in our childhood minds as we made vroom-vroom noises across the kitchen floor.
Well, actually this is quite a lot darker than that, but who knows what would’ve happened if we had grown up with Seibu Keisatsu and an unlimited supply of Tomica Nissans and Mitsubishis! Watch the video below the fold. Continue reading
Posted in minicars, mitsubishi, nissan, toyota
Tagged 810, bluebird, crown, datsun, galant, laurel, minicars, mitsubishi, nissan, tomica, tomica limited vintage, toyota
11 Comments
Flared Toyota Corona T100 is nobody’s pet
The Toyopet name lasted a lot longer in Japan than the US. That’s the badge on the back of this purple people eater, but it ain’t no pet. Looks more like a wild animal. Continue reading
Somebody Buy this 1971 Toyota Corona RT90 Coupe for $1200!
Listen up, Toyotaku. There’s an extremely rare RT90 Toyota Corona coupe for sale in Fresno. The Corona is kind of Toyota’s red-headed stepchild, having continued on with a leaf sprung rear long after the rest of the line from Corolla to Cressida evolved a four-link setup. And obviously, anyone looking for a sporty Toyota coupe in 1971 would have gone with the Celica.
The succinct seller promises only 60,000 miles, new tires and current tags. Also, it “runs good.” What more do you need? It’s not your typical kidney car either because the price is a just-an-old-Toyota $1,200. Buy it. You’ll be the only one at the next Toyotafest.
Wagon Want: KP37V Toyota Publica Van
Show of hands, who would rock this? “This” being a Toyota Publica Van that is the exact reason why we love old Japanese cars. Look, it’s barely larger than an OG Mini but has funky-sleek lines, looks totally bitchin’ on SSR MkIIs no bigger than your dinner plate, and is RWD. Plus it’s a two-door wagon. Who doesn’t love two-door wagons? Fascists, that’s who.
[Minkara]
Hot Wheels Datsun Bluebird 510 is “Faster Than Ever”
Are you tired of seeing yellow 510s and a billion different Mustang variations at your local Hot Wheels rack? Soon this mean red and black Datsun Bluebird 510 will be showing up at your local toy store in the “Faster Than Ever” line. That means these will have nickel-plated axles that help them scoot down the track a bit faster. We like this graphic scheme a lot — the black hood on red body reminds us of the East African Safari Rally livery worn by Nissans of yore. More images after the fold. Continue reading
Friday Video (sort of): S40 Crown in Reborn Toyota campaign promising “Fun to Drive, Again”
Toyota has launched a mysterious website called Reborn-Toyota for the Japanese market. The sparse page has nothing but a slideshow depicting actor “Beat” Takeshi Kitano and singer Takuya Kimura dressed as 16th century daimyo warriors looking gangster behind the wheel of a piano black S40 Toyota Crown. UPDATE Continue reading
Posted in cm, toyota
Tagged beat takeshi, cm, crown, hideyoshi toyotomi, ms41, nobunaga oda, reborn, s40, shuto, takeshi kitano, takuya kimura, toyota
7 Comments
Kidney, Anyone? Vintage TE27 Toyota Corolla Levin Rally Car
Here’s something we wish we saw more of in the States — a vintage Japanese race car with well-documented motorsports provenance. According to the auction, this TE27 Toyota Corolla Levin is one of three imported to New Zealand in 1973 to compete in the Heatway Rally. It had old school work done to its valvetrain and bottom end and seems to have retained many of its period mods, like twin 45 Dellorto carbs. And since it came directly from Japan, that motor is a 2T-G. Continue reading
Join JNC at the 2011 Art Center Car Classic
The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena is among the most influential transportation design schools in the world. Noted graduates include Chip Foose, Ford VP of design J Mays, head of Nissan design Shiro Nakamura, former head of Pininfarina Ken Okuyama and renowned GM/Ford designer Larry Shinoda. Every year, the Art Center holds the Art Center Car Classic, a special exhibition to show the next generation of car designers the best of the best. Continue reading
Posted in events
Tagged art center car classic, art center college of design, datsun, events, nissan, toyota
7 Comments
Bosozoku Toyota 2000GT answers the question no one asked
The Toyota 2000GT was a little too early for the golden age of the Fuji GC series, and for that we are thankful. But in an alternate universe here’s what a gurachan MF10 might look like. Continue reading
Posted in minicars, toyota
Tagged 2000gt, bosozoku, gurachan, longchamp xr-4, longchamps, mf10, toyota
21 Comments
Behold the bridge of the USS Mazda Cosmo
This is the interior of a third-generation Mazda Cosmo. The first generation 1967-72 Cosmo Sport had space-age styling on the outside. Then Mazda brought back the Cosmo name in 1975 for the Mazda RX-5, and the only thing spacey about that was the idea of a Cosmo with Landau roof.
In 1981, the third-gen was modernized to look like, at least from the inside, a bridge station on the USS Enterprise. The instrument pod is really pod-like, attached to an otherwise pancake-flat dash. What would you do with the space behind it? Hidden radar detector? Beanie Baby gallery? The possibilities are as endless as the number of buttons on the pod itself! Continue reading
