We’re at a total loss for words right now, and needless to say Kev is just about devastated. Let this be a lesson: if you’re going to let your friends drive your baby, make sure they know how to handle an old, rear-wheel-drive car that does not have the benefit of electronic traction control. Continue reading
Project Hakosuka Crashes!
Event Horizon for the Weekend of Apr 16, 2010
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:
- Saturday, April 17 / Los Angeles, CA: 40th Anniversary of the Z Car
- Saturday, April 17 – Sunday, April 18 / Dowerin, Australia: Theo’s Run
- Saturday, April 17 / Las Vegas, NV: Island Chain Racing 5th Annual BBQ Potluck
Kidney, Anyone? 1976 IMSA GTU Champion Datsun 240Z
Not just a kidney, but you’ll probably need to part with a retina and a lung or two. For $285,000 you get a slice of motorsports history — the Datsun 240Z that straight up won the IMSA GT/U 2.5-liter championship in 1976. Along the way, it’s been touched by the the legends of American racing. Brad Frisselle, an accomplished driver who went on to race for Mazda, piloted the car. Aerodynamics expert Yoshi Suzuki, who would go on to design the legendary Nissan GTP cars of the early 90s, shaped this yellow and orange bullet. John Knepp and Mac Tilton of BRE fame built the engine and suspension. Dave Kent constructed it (and would later go on to build IMSA Mazda RX-7s). Even BRE driver John Morton took a spin during its championship season. And oh yeah, it makes 400hp. Can we strap a dialysis machine to it?
If you have the dough, contact the Canepa Collection. More photos below the fold, including some from its glory days. Continue reading
Posted in datsun, for sale, motorsports, nissan
Tagged 240z, brad frisselle, bre, datsun, dave kent, daytona, fairlady z, gtu, imsa, john knepp, john morton, mac tilton, mazda, nissan, rx-7, s30
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NUMMI: General Motors’ Wasted Golden Opportunity
Remember when everyone and their cousin was driving an AE82 Toyota Corolla/Chevy Nova? They were coming from Fremont, California’s NUMMI, birthing ground of more than 8 million cars, and it will build its last one tomorrow.
Twenty-six years ago, Toyota and General Motors entered into the joint venture during the height of the import wars. The Big T was destroying GM in quality and growing rapidly in market share. But in an unprecedented move, Toyota invited the General into its factories to observe exactly how every Corolla was built to such high-quality standards, and even trained GM workers in “The Toyota Way.”
Why did the Japanese company open its doors to its biggest competitor? Why did it take so long for GM to learn the lessons? If you keep up with industry news, you’ll likely know the answers — to learn how to build factories in the US; the UAW and GM management — but you’ll probably still learn something by listening to This American Life‘s fascinating hour-long podcast about the factory.
[Image: minkara]
Posted in toyota
Tagged chevrolet, chevy, corolla, general motors, gm, nova, nummi, this american life, toyota
6 Comments
The First Subarus to Rally in North America
Don’t let its humble physique and faded pumpkin orange paint fool you. Long before legions of metallic blue Imprezas, this was the first Fuji Heavy to rally in North America. The Subaru FF-1 took on the Baja 500, baby, and it wasn’t even all wheel drive! Continue reading
Posted in motorsports, rally, subaru
Tagged baja 500, ff-1, leone, mexican 1000, rally, subaru, subaru 1000
9 Comments
Quick Pic: Collection of Mitsubishi Badges
This collection of nostalgic Mitsubishi badges is on display at their corporate museum in Okazaki, Japan.
Posted in mitsubishi, museums, quick pic
Tagged badges, colt, fto, mitsubishi, museum, quick pic
3 Comments
Activision Enduro Datsun 280ZX Pace Car Contest
Hey, remember Enduro? Neither do we. But apparently it was the freakin’ Forza Motorsport of 1983, made for the Atari system. There was a contest where you could win a Datsun 280ZX Turbo pace car in the vein of the Star Wars Toyota Celica giveaway. Not that there was an actual S130 Z in the game: the “spectacular graphics” of the day made your car indistinguishable from a twelve-pixel fiddler crab scurrying across the bottom of your screen.
The pace car served at the Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix, an actual stop on the Formula 1 circuit for 1981-82. The race, which Nissan officially sponsored both times, took place in the casino parking lot. Along with the Z, the winner also got a trip for two to watch the event in Las Vegas. For those not quite as lucky, second place was a Datsun 200SX SL. Ouch, S110 fans. Check out the real car in the video after the jump and “shift into awesome.” Continue reading
Posted in cm, datsun, nissan, Video Games
Tagged 280zx, activision, caesar's palace grand prix, campaign, contest, datsun, enduro, fairlady z, las vegas grand prix, nissan, pace car, race for riches, s130
18 Comments
This week’s contest winning photo is actually a screenshot from Forza 3 for Xbox 360. If you play the game, you can now get a JNC Stamp Logo sticker for your ride!
Goto the storefront and search for “Paul Newman” or “Japanese Nostalgic Car”
Submitted by forum member Datsun-San. To enter our weekly JNC Stamp Contest, enter HERE.
Past winners.
Posted in contests, jnc, JNC Stamp Contest, nostalgic gear
Tagged contest, jnc, jnc stamp, JNC Stamp Contest, stamp
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No More Quarter Pounders: Replace Those Panels
The quarter panel is probably the most daunting section of body to replace on a car. But it doesn’t have to be that way. RatDat has a great how-to write up that makes it seem, well, slightly less daunting.
Friday Video: 1973 Mustang vs Motorcycle
Well now that we know the 1973 Ford Mustang was a real cop car in Japan, here’s a cop show chase involving one. Continue reading
Posted in Video Games
Tagged abunai deka, car chase, ford, japanese cop show, mustang, police car
4 Comments
Sliding Sunnys
The title says it all. Vids below the fold. Continue reading
Datsun 610 and My Adidas Do the Illest Things
How fresh is this? A new Adidas commercial prominently features a Datsun 610 Coupe, fender mirrors and all, beside a bird dancing in pajamas. We’ve been documenting the appearance of J-tin in advertisements for a while now because, well, it’s like a cultural signifier, especially when they appear in fashion commercials. Vid after the jump (Warning or perhaps encouragement: safe for work, but a gaggle of dancing women). Continue reading
The First Sporting Skyline
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.
Event Horizon for the Weekend of Mar 26, 2010
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com
This week:
- Sunday, March 28 / Issaquah, WA: Pacific Northwest Meet
- Sunday, March 28 / Los Angeles, CA: Datsun Nippon Swap Meet/Car Show
Yellow Torpedo: New Year Meeting Hino Contessa
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]
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.
