So as we’re sure you all know, the biggest Japanese kyuusha show of the year took place last weekend. The 2010 New Year Meeting has come and gone, and we just received an incoming transmission beamed across the Pacific from our operative Derek Y! Continue reading
EVENTS: 2010 New Year Meeting, Part I
Rotary Power Prevails at Daytona!
The icing on Mazda’s 90th birthday cake must be the SpeedSource Mazda RX-8‘s victory a few hours ago at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona enduro. Drivers Jonathan Bomarito, Nick Ham, David Haskell, and Sylvain Tremblay repeated their 2008 win amidst a field of Porsche GT3s and Camaros.
Of course, Mazda has some experience at this venue, having conquered all at the 1979 Daytona 24 Hours during the inaugural run of the IMSA SA22C Mazda RX-7. See JNC #3 for the full story. Who says rotaries aren’t reliable?
[RX-8 image courtesy of The Epoch Times.]
Mazda 90th Anniversary Website Launched
A little weekend browsing for you guys: Mazda just launched its 90th Anniversary mini-site. Timeline photos abound, including some rarely-seen commercial vehicles.
Friday Video: Shakotan Boogie, The Movie
Don your headbands, hang your friends out your side windows and get ready for Shakotan Boogie. In 1987 Japan apparently made a movie out of the manga that celebrates the bosozoku lyfe. Plot points include cross-cultural drag racing that ends in some hard-to-watch hakosuka and F-body carnage, but the parade of boso’ed cars is worth the suffering. There are more Japanese lowriders than you can shake a takeyari exhaust at — Soarers, Cedrics, Glorias, Crowns, Skylines, and even some other not-so-boso cars like an AW11 MR2 and Honda CR-X.
Anyone who can name all the cars in this clip will win either an Apple iPad or our eternal admiration (prize to be determined).
Mr. K Talks Z-Cars: Yutaka Katayama opines on the Nissan 370Z, Toyota FT-86, Datsun 200SX, toy ponies, and the future of driving. Full article at Racer.com.
Event Horizon for the Weekend of Jan 29, 2010
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com
This week:
- Thursday, January 28 / Santa Clara, CA: Nor Cal Old School Import Meet #6
- Sunday, January 31 / Odaiba, Japan: New Year Meeting
Future events: Continue reading
BRE Reunion Dinner Video Availalble Now
From the video description:
Experience the BRE Reunion! In the Fall of 2008, BRE (Brock Racing Enterprise) team members reconnected en mass for the first time since the end of the 1972 race season. The BRE team changed the perception of Japanese cars as they won the SCCA D Production Pacific Coast Championship in 1969 with the BRE Datsun 2000 Roadster, the C Production Championships in 1970 and 71 with the BRE Datsun 240Z and won the professional Trans-Am 2.5 series Championships in 1971 and 72 with the BRE Datsun 510s. If you want to hear insider stories of what it was like to be on the BRE team and some of the crazy things that happened, you can get a two hour DVD of the reunion at www.bre2.net. Also a favorite moment of the night was when each team member shared what they are doing today. Don’t miss it!
Watch and learn. Available at BRE2.net.
Mazdas at the 2010 Retromobile Show: Retromobile 2010 is one of the biggest classic car shows in Paris. They have all sorts of vehicles showcasing the history of locomotion, and this year Mazda had a big display. Check out photos at LeBlogAuto and ClassicMotor.se.
Strong Nostalgic Showing at the Tokyo Auto Salon: This year’s TAS had more J-tin that we can remember for a long time. Check out Speedhunters’ coverage here: Old School Style @ TAS 2010.
Hat tip to DegreE.
Kyuusha Dealership Found Outside of Japan: We’ve seen plenty of nostalgic car dealerships in Japan, but this is the first one we’ve heard of on the outside. Sadly for us ‘Murrikins, it’s still on the other side of the ocean — Christchurch, New Zealand to be specific. But it’s a start! Check out the post on Retro-Classics.
Mazda Celebrates 90th Anniversary
In just a few days Mazdafarians will begin rejoicing in honor of their chosen marque’s 90th birthday. It has been ninety cycles of the sun since Toyo Cork Kyogo Company, Ltd. was founded in in the city of Hiroshima. Continue reading
Nissan Skyline & Electric Vehicle Postage Stamps
If you’re expecting mail from Japan you might be lucky enough to receive a Nissan Skyline or two. The automaker is teaming up with the Minami Kanto Regional Office (Nissan’s home turf) of the Japan Post Network to offer these postage stamps depicting the history of the Skyline model. The sets will be available from February 1 to August 31 and will be limited to 5000 sheets. Continue reading
Friday Video: Toyota Starlet Driving Lessons
Here is Japanese comedy troupe Katoken in a sketch about driving lessons behind the wheel of a four-door Toyota Starlet. Hilarity and havoc ensue. Surprisingly, there appears to be a Pontiac Fiero GT at one point. It escapes unscathed. However, the same cannot be said for unfortunate JNC reader favorites like the Mitsubishi Sigma and Mazda 626 at the end.
Hat tip to cesariojpn.
Wednesday Wall: Original Feature – Datsun 240Z & 510
For today’s Wednesday Wall, here’s a blast from the past – our very first photoshoot for JNC. Back then, I was still pretty inexperienced with automotive photography and only had the bare minimum of proper equipment. The photo would’ve benefited from a circular polarizer filter, but overall I like the way it turned out. The orange really pops, and the blue background provides a very nice contrast (bonus points to anyone who can figure out where this photo was taken).
The two things I wanted to highlight with this photograph are the cars’ incredible stances (seen in the 510), and the tremendous attention to detail the owners put into their construction (seen in the closeup of the Z’s front end). These traits best exemplify the spirit of the cars, and that’s why this is my favorite photo from the series.
An interesting thing to note is the Z’s pointed nose. Its sharpness is something I never really noticed before, but from this angle it looks as finely honed as a samurai sword.
See the rest of the photos in JNC Issue 1 available in our shop.
widescreen 1920 x 1200
standard 1600 x 1200
Event Horizon for the Weekend of Jan 22, 2010
There’s no shows we know of this coming weekend but be sure to check the list of future events after the jump!
If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com Continue reading
Rust in Peace: J's Tipo Ends Magazine Publication
Sad news from Japanland today. It’s the end of the road for J’s Tipo magazine. The publishers have announced that Issue 180 will be the last for the long-running automotive periodical.
They covered mostly new cars but always had a good amount of nostalgic car content. Henceforth, they will be a web-only publication.
We don’t know the fate of their sister titles like J’s Tipo Speed HistoriX, which was devoted to vintage Japanese cars and was only launched in November of 2009.
You can check out the current J’s Tipo website here. Be sure to spend some time browsing the section of old JDM brochures, all of which are downloadable in PDF format.
Rust in Peace to a great magazine.
Rotary Overload: New Zealand Summerdrags 2010
Listen up, Mazdafarians! If you want to see over 300 pics of vintage kiwi-style rotaries at the recent 2010 Summerdrags, click right here and braap your brains out.