Nissan Cherry Cab & slammed B10 Sunny: BeeOneOneOh always has killer photos on his blog. That is all.
Ghostly 1972 Nissan Calendar Lives On
For a nation as tightly packed as Japan, there’s a surprising number of abandoned buildings. In many cases, they remain in tact for decades — no wrecking balls, no fleet of Komatsus to build a new skyscraper, just items left behind as if the inhabitants were all instantly raptured up to heaven.
A few years ago, we read an article about the discovery of an old man who had passed away quietly in his apartment. Because he had no surviving family, no one reported him missing. The owner of his building went belly up and abandoned the entire complex. When new developers finally came to tear the place down, they found everything in his unit left exactly as it was the day he died, including a newspaper and calendar dated sometime in the mid 80s. Continue reading
Datsun 510, Bob Bondurant Approved: If you attended Bob Bondurant’s School of High Performance Driving in 1973, you would have been put behind the wheel of a Datsun 510 with “minor modifications.”
[Jalopnik]
Thai Fighters: Retro Car Meet in Bangkok
The Retro Car syndicate of Thailand has routinely given us some of the raddest nostalgics outside of Japan. Not only are there apparently massive amounts of J-tin in that country, there’s a deep appreciation of the JDM modification aesthetic as evidenced by the Hayashi-shod Mazda Savanna RX-3 above. Some mean machines await beyond the jump, but be sure to see more photo sets in the JNC Forum and Bangkok Classic Car. Or see photos from previous years.
As this week’s contest winner, we couldn’t resist choosing this photo. Just look at those cute paws!
submitted by forum member e-at_me
To enter our weekly JNC Stamp Contest, enter HERE
view past winners
Posted in contests, jnc, JNC Stamp Contest, nostalgic gear
Tagged contest, jnc, jnc stamp, JNC Stamp Contest, stamp
Leave a comment
An Afternoon at TA Auto: Check out this amazing story on Speedhunters, where they visit Chiba’s TA Auto, an S30 Z specialist. They even meet one of the members of the original S30 Fairlady Z design team!
Hat tip to junglist.
Friday Video: Sigma Slaughterhouse
Another typical Guerilla Group 8 storyline, in which tons of Mitsubishi Sigmas get led to senseless slaughter before Watari-san saves the day by dispatching nearly all the baddies from a helicopter. Come on Daimon, pass the ball once in a while! Continue reading
Posted in mitsubishi, Video Games
Tagged guerilla group 8, guerrila: tokyo police group 8, japanese cop show, mitsubishi, sigma
1 Comment
Nostalgic Japanese Police Cars
Here’s a collection of photos of nostalgic Japanese police cars strung together by an amateur, unidirectional Ken Burns. Some are equipped with high-power engine options and transmission pairings not available on civilian versions of the same model.
Sadly, Japanese patrol cars that have outlived their usefulness are scrapped when decommissioned, not auctioned off to the public like in the US. You can safely bet that only a few of these have survived, with the remaining examples locked away in museums (Nissan’s Zama collection has a genuine S30 Fairlady Z patrol car, for example). What we wouldn’t give for a kujira Crown black-and-white, an unmarked RX-4, or even that ’73 Mustang! Watch the video after the jump. Continue reading
Posted in datsun, honda, mazda, mitsubishi, nissan, suzuki, toyota
Tagged 240z, 280zx, 300zx, 911, accord, alto, bmw, capella, cedric, civic, corolla, corona mark II, cosmo, cressida, crown, datsun, dyna, e30, e70, fairlady z, gloria, honda, japanese police cars, legato, luce, mark II, mazda, mitsubishi, montero, nissan, pajero, patrol car, police car, porsche, rx-4, rx-5, s130, s30 z, skyline, suzuki, toyopet, toyota, z31
7 Comments
Quick Pic: Honda 1300, Air Cooled Coolness
With its undulating cooling fins, the 1969 Honda 1300cc motor is a work of art. Not only does wind flow over its airfoils, but through the engine as well. Much like the way coolant is funneled through passages in a normal engine, Honda’s Duo Dyna Air Cooling system used a crank-driven rotor to force cold air through the block. Continue reading
Posted in honda, museum, quick pic
Tagged 1300, 99s, coupe 9, honda, honda 77, honda 99s, honda collection hall, honda museum, quick pic
9 Comments
Event Horizon for the Weekend of Mar 19, 2010
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com
This week:
- Saturday, March 20 – Sunday March 21 / Victoria, Australia Phillip Island Classic
- Saturday, March 20 / Pleasanton, CA: NorCal Japanese Classic Car Meet
Mazdas at Fuji Speedway, October 10, 1972
This video comes courtesy of oldschool.co.nz via Retro-Classics. It’s from the heyday of the Fuji touring car championships and is unique in that the narration is in English! No more picking handfuls of syllables out of rapid-fire Japanese commentary that might as well be an auctioneer having an argument with the announcer at the Kentucky Derby.
This was likely a bit of Mazda propaganda from back in the day but we get to see all the Mazdafarian greats — Yojiro Terada, Yoshimi Katayama, and Takashi Yorino. It’s really an all-out battle between the rotaries and the hakosuka Skyline GT-Rs. Plus, we’ve got roaring J-tin and women in hip-hugging bell-bottoms. Part two after the jump. Continue reading
Bless Your Car, JDM Style
Some Japanese believe that if you have your car blessed by a Buddhist priest, you will avoid accidents, tickets, and possibly even bird droppings. Kawasaki-Daishi is one of the temples that has a parking lot for this exact purpose. The white grid is where cars await their spiritual collision coverage, the yellow grid is where the blessing takes place, large enough for 110 cars. Narita-san in Chiba is another temple famous for these ceremonies. Such metaphysical peace of mind will cost you about $70. Continue reading
Suzuki Mario Bros.: Those Koopa Troopas don’t stand a chance when Mario and Luigi are behind the wheel of Suzuki Carry. The kei truck feasts on turtle soup tonight.
Posted in kei, suzuki, trucks
Tagged carry, kei, mario, super mario bros., suzuki, trucks
3 Comments
No Rotors Here: Mazda 616 Coupe
It’s March in SoCal. That means the weather is warming and meets are ramping up. We rolled down to Cypress, California (home of Mitsubishi North America HQ) in the ol’ JNC wagon on Sunday to check it out. It was a great meet with some gorgeous rotaries but a lone, faded Mazda 616 caught our eye for its sheer rarity. Continue reading
The Evolution of the JNC Stamp
With the recent discovery of black market JNC Stamp stickers, a lot of interest was drummed up about the JNC Stamp logo. The most popular question we’ve received is something along the lines of “Why did you change the sticker dammit, I liked the old one better!” Well, I’m here to provide you with some answers. There’s (a little) method to the madness here at JNC, so I’ll do my best to explain.
Posted in contests, jnc, nostalgic gear
Tagged contest, jnc contest, jnc sticker, stamp, sticker, stickers
20 Comments
Honda Love Cub 50 Bikes On Sale
You know the BMW Art Cars, Chicago’s Cows on Parade and Washington DC’s Pandamania, right? In 2008 the venerable Honda Super Cub had its 50th birthday, and to celebrate Honda gave 60 of these best-selling bikes — one for each million sold — to artists for customizing. It was called the Love Cub 50 project, and the bikes were on display at museums in Japan. Now they are being auctioned off on Yahoo Japan with proceeds going to UNICEF. Pics of the bikes currently available for bidding after the jump. Continue reading
Reader Build: Mitsubishi 360 Van
Congrats to JNC reader Nakazoto for getting his 1967 Mitsubishi 360 Van project featured on both Jalopnik and Speedhunters in the same week! David lives in Nagoya, Japan and came across this kei commercial vehicle rotting away in a field. He tracked down the owner and, after reassuring him that it would be in good care, took it off his hands by towing it home with an AE86.
It’s not often you can use the hachiroku as a stump puller, but the li’l wagon is so light that its normal mode of propulsion is a 360cc, air-cooled two-stroke that makes just 17ps. Estimated curb weight is 1100 pounds.
David has already begun disassembling the car, which has about a dozen bolts total, and is documenting the restoration in the JNC forums. Unfortunately, his new found fame has eaten up his Photobucket bandwidth, but we’ve re-re-purposed the images from Jalopnik in the gallery below. Also, check out David’s videos after the jump. Continue reading
Friday Video: Detective Story Corolla Crash
What is it about criminal masterminds? Even in Japan, they can’t just kill off the hero with a point-blank gunshot to the head. Instead they string him up to elaborate yet escape-able death traps, such as this runaway Toyota that is both silver-hued and topical.
However, in this case we are at a loss to explain exactly how Yusaku Matsuda frees himself from this KE30 Corolla Goldberg murder device. Teleportation? Sheer badassery? Maybe he could give Prius driver James Sikes a pointer or two. Watch this clip from Detective Story and see for yourself.
Posted in toyota, Video Games
Tagged corolla, corolla e30, detective story, japanese cop show, ke30, toyota, yusaku matsuda
1 Comment
JNC Sticker Contest: Post Your Photos
With the release of the Series 3 JNC Stamp sticker and the recent launch of our Facebook Fanpage, we thought now would be a good time to have another contest. All you have to do is take a picture of your JNC sticker in a cool place or in a cool way. We’ll periodically choose winners who will receive replacement stickers and if the photo is particularly good, we’ll send the winner something extra special. Also, the winner’s photo will appear in the photo contest album on our Facebook page. There’s only two rules:
- Your photo must contain at least one JNC sticker. Series 1-3 are welcome.
- Your photo must be posted in this thread on our forum.
Happy snapping!
Posted in contests, nostalgic gear
Tagged contest, Facebook, forum, jnc, jnc stamp, jnc stamp logo, jnc sticker, logo, photo contest, stamp, sticker
3 Comments
1976 Mitsubishi Galant GTO Brochure, in English
Mitsubishi announced today that they were all but killing off their Ralliart division due to the global economic slump. In honor of that once great performance arm, let’s take a look at the triple diamond mafia’s flagship nostalgic, the Galant GTO. Mitsubishi actually exported it officially to the UK of all places, and JNC reader dwlee even dug up the 1976 brochure.
Note that the official name is the Colt Galant GTO 2000GSR, and that the UK subsidiary is simply called The Colt Car Company. The catalog makes a big show of the 125hp 2.0-liter four’s counterbalancing silent shaft technology. And we also now know that the styling aesthetic is something called “Dynawedge.” How cool is that?
Continue reading
Posted in catalogs, mitsubishi
Tagged brochure, catalog, colt, dynawedge, galant, gto, mitsubishi
7 Comments
