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This week:
We see a lot of cars, but the Morimoto Celica still gives us funny feelings every time we look at it. Continue reading
Did you know Nancy Sinatra drove a Datsun? A 1966 1600 Sports roadster, to be exact. It was a gift from her guitarist Lee Hazlewood when their song “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” hit #1 on the pop charts in 1966. Continue reading
As we’ve mentioned before, Guerilla Group 8 was Mitsubishi‘s attempt at throwing vehicle sponsorship behind an action cop show to spice up their image (a la Nissan and Seibu Keistasu, Abunai Deka, and many others).
Since Mitsubishi was footing the bill, we learn that: a). a convertible Galant Sigma makes a great clown car; b.) the staring Pajero, Debonair V 3000 Royal AMG, and gullwing Starion must remain unscathed but it is perfectly okay to blow an E70 Toyota Corolla to high heaven; and c.) Daimon is even more awesome than usual when he brings down bad guys at point-blank range because d.) we still hate clowns, including Japanese ones. Video below the fold. Continue reading
Outside of Japan, any one of these nostalgic Nissans would make heads explode. There, it’s par for the course. Just a little inspiration for Skorj.
The first real hot day of summer. I’m looking at a few options in buying a nostalgic car, so we took a quick drive on the Shuto to a reasonably well stocked shop near Yokohama. While I’m interested in one of their hakosuka Skylines, I was also taken by a few of the other options available. All relatively sound, in nice honest condition. Continue reading
Welcome to Part Two of our coverage of the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals. As we mentioned in Part One, this show often blends American and Japanese customization styles, as evidenced by this army-themed van.
If you think a US military motif, complete with kill markings indicating bombs dropped, is a bit incendiary for a Japanese car, count the number of Rising Sun flags at your next Datsun meet. Vans are the biggest thing in Japan right now, and there’s no reason why old schoolers should be left out. Continue reading
Put on your shades and slick back your hair because it’s the 80s, and the dangerous cops of Abunai Deka simply will not tolerate your lousy escape attempt to escape by boat. Perhaps Infiniti would have sold more M30s if Crockett and Tubbs drove an F31 Leopard instead. Full video below the fold. Continue reading
You can tell by its name that the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals is an event heavily influenced by American hot rod culture. You won’t find much, if any, of the typical stuff we crave from JDM shows. Sorry, no negative offset 14×9 barrels, ground-scraping shakotan sleds, or sky-high takeyari pipes here.
Instead, as automotive trends ping-pong across the Pacific, mods range from the clean and subtle — as in the movement of mirrors from fender to door on the Crowns above — to the, shall we say, darker side of USDM car culture. Here are some photos from our intrepid operative Satoshi. Continue reading
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at the feedback address at the bottom of this page.
This week:
You don’t have to see Michael Emery’s face to know that he’s grinning from ear to ear in this picture. His road-rally prepped Datsun Sports 1600 was born to carve down steep mountain passes, so coming up with the concept behind this photo was easy. Finding a suitable location was another matter. There’s no better place to photograph a car than in its natural habitat, so climbing up the rocky hill, through the thorny bushes and over a rusty barbed wire fence was well worth it to capture this shot. I needed the high vantage point to make sure the road would still be visible where it wound past the next hill. If I had taken it at ground level, the road would have disappeared well before reaching the second curve.
The Tokyo Nostalgic Car Show took place at the bizarre inverted ziggurat known as Big Sight convention center last weekend. The annual event isn’t limited to Japanese classics, and this year focused on high end Italian exotics. Ho-hum, right? But like the trooper he is, Skorj was on location with a camera getting up close and personal with some of Japan’s top nostalgics. Continue reading
If you’re going to be in southern California this summer, be sure to stop by the San Diego Automotive Museum for an exhibit called “Datsun/Nissan: The American Story.” In addition to classic Datsun and Nissan cars, there will be tons of memorabilia on display, including racing footage and vintage advertising materials.
The museum has never devoted an entire exhibit to a single Japanese marque before, and they giving “Datsun/Nissan” the prime museum-going summer months, so please show your support!
The exhibit is made possible with help from our friends at the Datsun Heritage Museum and will run from May 27 to September 27, 2010.
In addition, on Saturday June 12, there will be an opening reception from 5 to 7pm, and Mr. K himself will be present via satellite feed from Japan. Please RSVP to the museum by June 7.
You may recognize some of the faces here, but this is not Seibu Keisatsu. Rather, it’s Daitokai (“The Big City”), a Japanese television series that preceded the car chase-filled antics of Tokyo’s western district.
Tetsuya Watari (Sgt. Daimon in Seibu) plays Raisuke Kuroiwa, a different Nissan-driving, sawed-off shotgun-toting, aviator-wearing badass. Although the big city has no shortage of Cedric sedans screeching around narrow streets, knocking over fruit stands and empty baby prams, we learn a very valuable lesson here: do not to get taken hostage by armed criminals in Japan. The cops tend to shoot first and check if you’re okay second. Watch the video below the fold. Continue reading
Laguna Gamagori is a seaside amusement park in Aichi Prefecture. JNC reader Nakazoto went to a vintage car show there recently and snapped a metric buttload of photos. Somehow, a light blue hakosuka looks simultaneously oh so wrong and oh so right. Some of our favorites are below, or you could click here to see the CPU-melting totality of his photos. Continue reading
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at the feedback address at the bottom of this page.
This week:
Thirty-five kilometers north of Tokyo is Ageo. A once semi-rural area, its main inhabitants are now mostly daily commuters to Tokyo — the famous Japanese salaryman and the odd OL — trudging off via their packed trains to slave away in the data-mines of mindless corporations. Continue reading
If you’re a regular viewer of SPEED Channel on cable/satellite, well… you’re probably not reading this blog. They do seem to go overboard to cater to the NASCAR crowd these days. But one of their regular programs is called My Classic Car and on last week’s episode they stopped by Jay Leno’s shop and took a few test drives of some of the cars in his fleet. Fortunately for us, the star of the show was his blue Honda SM600 Roadster. He seems to be very proud of this particular car, and why wouldn’t you be? Continue reading
The first ever Datsun meet put on by the San Diego 510 Crew (Ismael, Miguel & Ramon). This meet was conceived not only as a tardy 5-10 day celebration, but as a way to get any other Datsun models out of the garage. Word got out to the Toyota boys too, and some of them crashed the party (not referring to the black Camry that moved the cone to park there). Continue reading
