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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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]
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
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
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
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
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
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
We have absolutely no idea where this video is from, what is going in it, and why it is happening. All we can say is that it’s from approximately 1976 and shows the senseless wreckage of many rare vintage Japanese cars, including what appears to be a MS51 Toyota Crown Coupe. Sadness. Bonus points to anyone who can identify all the cars in this chaotic clip. Continue reading
It seems like every few months now a new article is published claiming the return of the Datsun brand. It’s the same old story. It would be Nissan’s bargain-price brand, likely for developing markets, and not in the US. The last spike of interest in this topic occurred in July. Another inning took place in 2008.
Each time, the automotive media collectively takes the news nugget and passes it along like a cursed monkey paw, until its sheer prevalence gives the story credibility. For this round of specious wildfire, it looks like Auto Express was the one who flicked the cigarette butt out the window. They’re not exactly known for judicious use of the “publish” button, so yeah, lets not hold our breaths for this one.
There’s an adage that says once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend. If that’s the case, then old Toyota Land Cruisers are about to become fashion icons. Just in the last month alone, we’ve seen a trio of advertisements featuring vintage FJs.
In the case of the ad above, there are no less than two FJ40s trekking through the jungle, surrounded by models, which is a pretty good situation to be in actually. This life-sized mural festoons Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, heralding the future home of an American Eagle Outfitters franchise. Fluke. Continue reading
