You know what, we really don’t see enough pre-hakosuka Skylines either. Here’s a Prince Skyline 2000 GT from the New Year Meeting. Would you believe these were raced against the Porsche 904? Though it swept 2nd through 6th at the 1964 Japan Grand Prix beating Japanese and British entries, it lost to the mid-engined Porsche. Which motivated a slightly more aerodynamic Prince R380 the next time around.
[Minkara]
Hondas at the Gate: A JDM Civic pace car with a grid full of vintage Hondas illustrates Jalopnik‘s model bloat theory.
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This week:
We rarely get to post a photo of a Hino Contessa, but here’s a slick little rear-engined torpedo found at the 2010 New Year Meeting. Obligatory black Wats and a dab of drop.
[Minkara]
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]
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
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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.
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
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
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
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com
This week:
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
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.
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
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.
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
