Honda Recreates 1959 Storefront in HQ Lobby

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Ben Hsu

Honda's Pico Building
Honda’s 50th anniversary in the US is fast approaching. The magic date is June 11, but in preparation for that they’ve remodeled the lobby of their Torrance, CA building to recreate the first Honda USA storefront.

This is what it looked like in 1959. It would be many decades before the Ridgeline (Honda’s first pickup that bigger than kei-size) so they used a 1960 Chevy Apache to deliver SuperCub 50s! What did you expect, a Datsun? Who would have guessed that 50 years later, the little bike builder would be making jets and the manufacturer of that pickup would be in bankruptcy?

Photos of the recreated storefront after the jump. Continue reading →

Posted in honda | 10 Comments

Worldwide J-Tin Meets' Photos

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Ben Hsu

mazda_r100_rx2
Sadly, the weekend is over, but at least you’ll have plenty of J-Tin to ogle as assorted galleries from this weekend’s gatherings roll in. Pictured above is congregation of Mazdafarians from the Vintage Mazda Owners Club of NSW in Sydney, Oz. Down in Melbourne the Toyota Owners Club of Australia had their own little shindig. And then let’s hop on over to the northern hemisphere for the Bay Area Classic Meet and the Texas Classic Japanese Car Meet.  Happy browsing!

Posted in events, mazda, toyota | 1 Comment

Torrance Old School Japanese Car Meet

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Ben Hsu

torrance_old_school_meet15
Oh look, here are some photos from a jam-packed weekend for J-tin enthusiasts. We hit up the Torrance Old School Japanese Car Meet last night and witnessed this sexy party of nostalgics going on.

As much as we’d like to take credit for this oh-so-rebellious act of vandalism to the No Loitering sign, the gathering was actually quite the civilized summit of mutual automotive appreciation. Honest, Officer, it was like that when we got there!

Anyway, Let’s let Dan’s camera do the talking. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, events, nissan, toyota, trucks, wagons | 12 Comments

Friday Video: Seibu Keisatsu Pursuit Car Bonanza

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Kevin San

If there was one video, one single clip, with the Skyline Japan Machine-X, the 280ZX Super-Z, and not one but three DR30 Skyline Machine-RS pursuit cars in it, would Youtube… nay, would the fabric of the internet itself be able to withstand so much awesomeness in one place?

Will your PC stay hard, like a Sgt Daimon stare? Or will it flip over and spontaneously combust like a black and white C230 Cedric?  Close all other open programs and click above to see.

While we’re on the subject of Seibu Keisatsu, did you know there was a 2004 movie that tried to remake the series for our troubled modern times?  Click past the jump for more info!

Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, nissan, seibu keisatsu, toyota, Video Games | 8 Comments

Silhouette Racing Glory Days

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Ben Hsu

silhouette_racersLet’s see, we’ve covered the Japan Grand Prixs of the 60s and the Touring Sedan Cup battles of the 70s. How about we finish off our racing vids series with some 80s-tastic silhouette racing? Kev has written about Group 5 before so we won’t rehash the details but if you click this link you can see some of the cars that inspired the bosozoku/kyushakai craze in all their glorious action.

Posted in datsun, mazda, nissan | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Event Horizon: Coast-to-Coast J-tin Meets

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Ben Hsu

Just a quick reminder, there are lots of Jtin events going on this weekend no matter where you are. Continue reading →

Posted in events | Tagged | 3 Comments

Japan Grand Prix, The Early Days

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Ben Hsu

japangp
Continuing on the motorsports theme, our next stop is at the Japan Grand Prix. This one comes by way of banpei and appears to be a DVD about the race. Unfortunately embedding was disabled so you’ll have to click on the links below to watch the videos. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, isuzu, motorsports, nissan, prince, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

TS Class Warfare: Civics, Sunnys, Starlets, RX-3s

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Ben Hsu

Here is the first of a series of vintage race videos that we’ll be posting this week. We stumbled upon this while catching up with beoneoneoh, who can always be counted on to unearth the Sunny-related. This is footage from a race that took place at Tsukuba Circuit almost exactly 32 years ago, on May 29, 1977.

In the hotly contested TS Class all the major players came to the fight: Nissan with the Sunny, Toyota with the Starlet, Honda with the Civic, and Mazda with the Savanna RX-3. Sunnys saw much success in the series and this race was no exception. According to the video’s notes, factory Nissan driver Kenji Tohira took first place in the No. 15 Sunny 1200GX.

Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, honda, mazda, motorsports, nissan, toyota | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Holdin' It Down in Chi-Town

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Ben Hsu

mazda-rx3-sp_chicago
JNCer lwrdr2121 just posted some pics from last weekend’s Chicago-area old school Japanese car meet. Head on over to his photo album to see the rest.

Posted in events, mazda, toyota | 4 Comments

New Nissan Heritage Collection Website

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Ben Hsu

nissan_zama_heritage_collection
Ready to kill off a few hours? Nissan has created a user-friendly, navigable catalogue of their legendary Heritage Collection (see coverage in JNC #3), simply called Nissan-Heritage-Collection.com. The Zama warehouse is still not open to the public, but here’s the next best thing. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, nissan | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Hot Wheels Datsun 510, Now in Brown

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Ben Hsu

First it came in metallic blue, which was so scarce we never actually found it in stores. Then you could buy one in whatever color you wanted, as long as it was black. Now Hot Wheels is releasing what I personally think is the coolest color of them all for the Datsun Bluebird 510, metallic brown! Keep your eyes peeled and if you see one, let us know where you found it.

Posted in datsun, minicars, nissan | Tagged | 13 Comments

Honda Z600 Appears in Sprint Commercial

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Ben Hsu

We’ve been waiting for the Palm Pre to go on sale so we can ditch our horribly outdated five-year-old Sony Ericsson Z500. And even though Sprint’s “Now Network” campaign is now on heavy rotation, we didn’t realize that it was for a product we actually want until we caught this Honda Z600 (not to be confused with our P.O.S. phone) in the latest commercial and started paying attention. Funny how that works, isn’t it? This isn’t the first time some vintage J-tin has shown up in an ad, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.

Posted in cm, honda | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Friday Video: Unmarked Toyota Crown vs. Rambler American

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Ben Hsu

So perhaps Toyota fans are feeling a bit left out, what with all the Nissan-heavy chases from the likes of Seibu Keisatsu, Abunai Deka and this still-unnamed film. Well fret no more, thanks to JNCer a121 we have another Japan vs. Detroit showdown! This time, it’s an unmarked Toyota S50 Crown police car in pursuit of some gunmen in a Rambler American. And because this film, whose title we sadly know not, takes place in the Philippines there’s plenty of Toyota and Mitsubishi background candy for you to ogle. Happy viewing!

Posted in toyota, Video Games | 10 Comments

Toyota 2000GT in Hemmings

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Ben Hsu

toyota2000gt_hemmings
This month’s Hemmings Sports & Exotic has a Toyota 2000GT on the cover with the title “Bullet Train.” How appropriate! It emerged from the same boom era as the Shinkansen and made just as big an impact. Besides, more press on the most sought after piece of J-tin in the world can’t be a bad thing. Unless you’re saving up for one, we suppose.

[Source: Toyotageek]

Posted in media, toyota | 10 Comments

JCCS Demo Reel

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Ben Hsu

By the way, the crew at JCCS have released a demo reel to get you primed for the 5th annual show. It’s scheduled for Oct 3, 2009 in Irvine, CA. Mark your calendars now!

You can also play Where’s Dan? by watching this vid.

Posted in datsun, events, honda, isuzu, jccs, mazda, mitsubishi, nissan, subaru, toyota | 8 Comments

SEMA x ToyotaFest

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Ben Hsu

toyotafest2009
SEMA’s most recent e-newsletter included a link to an article about Toyotafest! This should be of particular interest to those of us in the nostalgic car scene, as the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer’s Association is always keeping a pulse on where the car hobby is headed.

Continue reading →

Posted in media, toyota | 4 Comments

Toyota Publica Starlet 1000

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Ben Hsu

toyota_publica_starlet_1000
Before the Toyota Starlet became a hot RWD hatchback, it was part of the Publica line, chassis code KP40, like the Celica Supra. Before that, there was this, the KP30 Publica Coupe, sold as simply the 1000 in Europe.

Continue reading →

Posted in toyota | 9 Comments

Ode to a 1979 Honda Civic Wagon

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Ben Hsu

honda_civic_wagon_1979
Why is it that most classic car enthusiasts love station wagons? Is it because they’re symbolic of a time gone by and all but extinct from new car lots? Do we just fondly remember going on family road trips? Or maybe it’s the car-like stance combined with the practicality of an SUV. Many of us at here at JNC are certified wagon nuts and so are the guys at Hemmings. We hope their Wagon Snippets become a regular part of the blog, and we’re stoked to see them start off with some J-tin, a 1979 Honda Civic!

Posted in honda, wagons | 7 Comments

Mazdafarians Get Down at MazFest 2009

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Ben Hsu

mazfest01
We’ve been so hung up on the Mazda T2000 that we almost forgot that today was MazFest 2009! Imagine rolling into the car show with that behemoth. Or better yet, taking it on the road course at Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway! Actually, we were content just to observe and report on the cars that were there. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, events, mazda, nissan | 6 Comments

Friday Video: Nissan President Getaway

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Ben Hsu

This video has all the signs of Seibu Keisatsu, such as a fleet of Nissan Cedric police cars led by an S30 Z, but it’s not: Daimon doesn’t make a heroic appearance at the end to dispatch the enemy with a single blast of his shotgun. Our closest guess via Google Translator is that these are scenes from a movie called Big City, or something like that. Whatever it’s called, it proves that nothing can stop a big steamrollin’ Nissan President except maybe lighting its gas tank on fire. Have a great weekend!

Posted in datsun, nissan, Video Games | 4 Comments