In recent years, the biggest disappointment for Japanese car enthusiasts has been the lack of fun, especially the affordable kind. Gone are the RSXs and MR2s, and aside from the Mazda MX-5, what else is there for the average Joe?
Enter the B-spec class for cars in the sub-Civic class. If you think the use of economy cars for racing is strange, the principals behind it are even stranger. This new racing series was jointly created by new bedfellows Mazda and Honda. Continue reading
This time last year Rays Wheels unveiled the Volk TE37V, a version of their iconic tuner wheel sized especially for RWD nostalgics. They couldn’t keep ’em on the pallets, so in 2011 Rays is following up with the new Gram Lights 57V! Continue reading
Did you spend your January first running from the cops? Then you are probably a fine, upstanding citizen because that’s the preferred New Year’s tradition of the bosozoku. Continue reading
Welcome to the brand new JapaneseNostalgicCar.com! It’s a new year and a website redesign is something the JNC team has been wanting to do for a long time. The goal was to get the look of site in line with the look of JNC magazine and update the back end with modern software.
Our next step is to update the forum and the shop, which will be much easier to use and contain many new treasures. Like any project, there will be a few errant gaps to close and bolts to torque, so please bear with us in the coming weeks. We hope you like the new site, and if you have suggestions or see any missing nuts, be sure to let us know!
The 1971 film 3000km Trap tells the story of a young man, played by Jiro Tamiya, whose wealthy businessman father has just lost a golfing bet with the president of a large Hokkaido department store. The wager? The “best sports car on the market,” a Mitsubishi Galant GTO. Continue reading
After the 2000GT, the second-most valuable vintage Toyota is not a car at all, but one of the original SUVs, the FJ40 Land Cruiser. Some have exchanged hands for $50,000 plus, and they are one of the few Yotas that are regularly restored to the exacting level typically reserved for high-end sports coupes.
Most wouldn’t buy a Land Cruiser unless the intent was to either go off into the great unpaved wilderness or preparation for a zombie pandemic, and workhorses are usually thrashed until the last limp. Then it’s off to the great glue factory/recycling yard in the sky, making any rust free and un-dinged examples rather difficult to come across. This one on eBay boasts only 53,800 miles on the original engine and a three on the tree manual. The opening bid is a “mere” $22,670.
We see images of incredible nostalgics all the time, but rarely are they captured so beautifully in dramatic lighting, unhurried tracking shots, and high-definition video. Check out the work put into these historic machines by our friends at JDM Legends in the video below the fold. Continue reading
In Japanese tradition, one should visit your local temple for New Year’s. There, for a small donation, you can get a wide assortment of omamori, amulets of silk, wood or metal that will bring you good luck in their respective categories. Typically people seek fortune in the realm of love, prosperity and health. And then there are ones concerning the not-so-ancient rituals of, say, driving an automobile. Continue reading
The 1935 Datsun Model 14 was Nissan‘s first factory production vehicle and the management deemed, as was appropriate for cars of the era, that a sculpture be affixed to the vehicle’s prow. Luckily, the choice of a figure was right there in the car’s name. Continue reading
Nothing goes together like a funk bass and car chases. Seibu Keisatsu has been known to pit its various Nissan products against Detroit iron before, often to disastrous effect. This time, the Nissan Cedric 330 puts up an admirable off-road fight against a Jeep. It’s hard to imagine a modern mid-size sedan taking this much abuse without immediate spraining of control rods. Unfortunately, plot devices require more action after the commercial break, so the good guys couldn’t call a Nissan Patrol out of the arsenal. Watch the video below the fold. Continue reading
Poor Isuzu, known mostly for diesel trucks, perhaps the Bellett, and a weasely 80s spokesman. But from the late 70s to the early 90s, it was master of its own one-make race series. Like in Gran Turismo, this often made for interesting competitors when both front- and rear-wheel-drive generations of the Isuzu Gemini (aka Buick Opel / I-Mark) went doorhandle to doorhandle on the circuit. We’ll let Isuzu guru JT191 take it from here with video of the race action below the fold. Continue reading
The chinchilla is a squirrel-like creature that has the misfortune to possess a thick, warm, velvety coat of evenly-colored fur. As a result, this native of the Andes Mountains region in South America has been nearly hunted to extinction. Around 2001 the rodent experienced an upsurge among rap lyrics in hat and coat form. But long before that, bosozoku were lining their dashboards and seats in Andean mouse fur. Here is a typical if ill-fitting dash cover, shown on an MS125 Toyota Crown. Peek below the fold to see seat covers. Continue reading
Being the semi-old farts that we are, we do not know why purveyors of electronica have flocked to the Datsun 240Z as the automobile of choice for their music videos. First it was “Like a G6” and “Rocketeer”, both by the Far East Movement. Now there’s this fellow by the name of Russ Chimes who released an EP called “Midnight Club”.
Don’t get your hopes up, though. The three-part story in the music videos have nothing to do with either the Devil Z nor the legendary Japanese hashiriya team Mid Night Club. Instead, it’s about some hipster kidnapping plot whose only saving grace is that it features a yellow 240Z fairly prominently. Watch the videos below the fold if you must. Continue reading
Nowadays nostalgists regard the MX73 Toyota Cressida as a RWD four-door Supra for the shakotan/bosozoku/drift/VIP crowd, but it spent much of its existence as an understated executive sedan, a Japanese alternative to Benzes, Bimmers and Jyaaags in the pre-Lexus days. For evidence, watch this 1985 commercial from Quebec, Canada, complete with “Oh what a feeling, Toyota!” leap in French. Continue reading
May your travels be safe and stockings filled with rare JDM parts. And may they arrive by Mazda Bongo, a rear-engined van that is retro-futuristic in a Jetsonian kind of way.
The year of Mazda’s 90th Anniversary is almost over, and the company from Hiroshima has commissioned some nostalgic wallpapers for all you Rotorheads and Mazdafarians out there. Download them below the fold. Merry Christmas from all of us at JNC! Continue reading
Car and Driver claims to have uncovered the logo that will adorn the upcoming lightweight RWD Toyota FT-86 sports coupe. If this is true, hachiroku fans will be happy that the nickname for their beloved mid-80s RWD steed is now is now forever enshrined in Toyota canon. Buuuut they will also be sad, because this reminder that a Subaru 2.0 flat four — and not a traditional Toyota-Yamaha twin-cam — powers the FT-86 is too forever enshrined, right there on the car. Continue reading
As we’re waiting impatiently for the Hot Wheels hakosuka to debut next year, here’s something to hold us over until it does. While browsing YJA, John, our resident Datsun 510 freak, spotted this diecast Nissan 510 Bluebird, customized in a way that would haunt our dreams were it real. This minicar is heavily customized, with incredible detail for a 1/64 scale car (equivalent to a Matchbox or Hot Wheels), and it shows in the selling price of ¥17,500 (approx. $209)! Continue reading
Just another SB1 Honda Civic shell? Look closely… Continue reading
