So despite popping awake at 4am due to ungodly jetlag and traipsing all over the Nos2Days show, I went to check out Mooneyes’ cruise night on Saturday, where I nearly passed out from a mixture of gasoline fumes and exhaustion. Here’s a Mitsubishi Debonair stealing away into the night.
Continue reading
The full event report is up. Enjoy!
So this is why I’m in Japan and posting Friday videos on Thursday – the first ever Nos2Days show in Yokohama. As you might have guessed it lasts two days and is sponsored by the best selling Japanese classic car magazine, Nostalgic Hero! You know you’ve drooled over the pictures (but probably not understood the words if you’re like us), but this was a chance to see the magazine’s cars in person. Ok, enough chit-chat. Onto the pics!
Here is your Friday video. But it’s Thursday, you say? Yes, there will be no Friday post this week because I’ll be on a plane to Japan! Hopefully the forthcoming pictures will make up for it.
This clip is once again from Seibu Keisatsu, the Japanese cop show that has destroyed more Nissans than Formula D. The story arc of this chase is a bit unclear, but you basically have the West Tokyo Police Force mobilizing against bad guys in a pair of car carriers. As the gullwing 280ZX, R30 Skyline and a random unmarked Cedric give chase, the trucks – hauling a Fairlady Z and kenmeri Skyline, I might add – cause all sorts of havoc for Bluebird and Cedric drivers unfortunate enough to be in their path.
And oh look, the cops can flip a switch to turn any traffic signal green! Despite a computer that looks about as advanced as a Texas Instruments graphing calculator, they manage to divert the perps into a roadblock. But the real question is never answered. What happened to the hostage cars on the carriers!?
See you on the flipside!
Surely you have noticed the Japanese cell phone strap craze. Why you’d want a bouquet of plastic cartoon characters dangling from your mobile, we do not know. But if you’re looking for a cell deco with an automotive theme, peep these Japanese license plates.
They’re available in six styles, including gold for “VIP.” You can select the issuing city and four numbers, which is all the space a Japanese license plate has. Vanity plates in Japan typically consist of the car’s chassis code, so if you cruise around town in a TE27, the plate would read “. . 27”.
[Strapya]
Calling all Toyotaku! Registration for the 2009 All Toyotafesti is now open! Come celebrate the joy of ‘Yotas ownership with your fellow enthusiast. This year the show is back at the Queen Mary in Long Beach due to popular demand. We wouldn’t miss this for the world and will be there with the JNC wagon, meeting folks and taking pictures. Remember, May 9, 2009. Mark your calendars (And if you don’t have any, you can order one here). You won’t want to miss it!
Click on over for coverage of the 2008 and 2007 Toyotafests.
We opened up a can of worms last month when we questioned the conventionally held belief that Albrecht Goertz designed, among others, the Toyota 2000GT and Datsun 240Z. If you want to see yet another misinformed article about this piece, or are simply looking for an excuse to bash your head against your desk, by all means read on. Continue reading
If you like dogs and nostalgics, this Honda Dog wallpaper gallery has everything you need. Full gallery after the jump.
For those of you who are looking to upgrade from Choro-Qs…here’s your chance!
It’s a billet alloy KPGC10 Skyline. And if you have to ask, no you can’t afford it. Details after the jump.
I’ve been on a SA22/FB RX-7 kick recently. I think it’s because the styling was so radical for its time, and the rotary engine suited that theme perfectly. It was practically born to race, and began taking checkered flags as soon as it was unleashed at events like the 24 Hours of Daytona, Spa 24 Hours, and various touring car championships in Australia, Great Britain and the US.
That’s why this 1978 RX-7 found on NZ Performance Car caught my eye. It has a 13B turbo running 20 pounds of boost and a list of mods almost as long as Chile. That translates to a terrifying 514 wheel hp and it looks absolutely evil. Actually, I think it’s exactly what a Series 1 RX-7 endurance car would look like if Mazda still made SA22s new.
Mark Burgess built it for New Zealand’s OSCA, or Open Saloon Car Association, series and began winning races with it as soon as he stepped onto the track, just like RX-7 drivers of yore. Remind me, why don’t Americans watch touring cars again?
Due to the scarcity of old school Mitsubishi videos out there, we must content ourselves with whatever we can get:
Should this fail to get your pulse racing, feel free to review the previous blog entry for a more explosive pyrotechnic display.
Whew, it’s 2:30 AM and we just got back from a ridiculously long but productive day writing articles, scoring a free desk on craigslist for the JNC office, and attending important meetings about ad sales. Just one more day until the weekend, during which we will write more articles. Time to unwind with your Friday video!
It’s a scene from Seibu Keisatsu, the ass-kickingest Japanese cop show ever. If you thought last week’s Toyota Crown wagon jumping over an exploding police car was improbable, how about an entire box van? Did we mention it was full of bad guys lobbing grenades at hapless Nissan Cedric police cruisers? There’s some glimpses of C210 and R30 Skylines too, and of course our hero Daimon arrives in a gullwing 280ZX to save the day.
If you want more Seibu Keisatsu, and we think you do, check here, here, here and here.
Cheater_5, the JNC reader who introduced us to Auckland’s Tama Autos, has a another great post about Pitroad, the Chiba-based Sunny tuning house responsible for the pulse-quickening B310 TS Cup car pictured above. They make everything from suspension parts to bottom end internals, and can even ship you a built A-series engine if you’re serious about it.
You gotta love those squared off fender flares. Not every car can pull it off, but the B310 took Sunny styling in a boxier direction and they suit it perfectly. Even if you aren’t into the Sunny per se, there’s a large gallery of lovely TS Cup race photos on the Pitroad website. We’ve put a selection of our favorites after the jump, and also check out cheater_5’s take on the subject as someone who lives and breathes Sunnys, in other words A B110 Perspective. Continue reading
We love checking out sites created by JNC readers and lately we’ve really gotten into cheater_5’s A B110 Perspective. As you can guess from the title, the man is obsessed with Sunnys, and he owns an uber-cool sanitora, or Sunny Truck. But in a recent post he visited Tama Autos, an Auckland, New Zealand-based Toyota AE86 specialist, where he snapped this E70 Corolla panel van on the lifts.
I don’t know what it is, but this car just calls out to me like a siren. Yes, it’s a Toyota, it’s a wagon, and it’s a vintage work vehicle — three things that instantly get my heart pumping — but there’s more to it than that. Maybe it’s the classic Techno Phantoms or that perfect shade of retro powder blue, brilliantly matched to the two-door wagon body style. Whatever it is, I want to see the completed car on the asphalt.
One more pic of the Tama Autos garage after the jump, complete with another dangerously enticing wagon. Continue reading
Well whaddya know. Randy Rodriguez, one of the key designers of the Nissan 370Z, is an S30 fan at heart, according to this Canadian Press article. He’s owned 10 of them, in fact, and currently drives 1977 280Z that he restored himself. He says that his sketches were heavily influenced by the 240Z and the new GT-R. You might take issue with his statement that the 240Z and 350Z were the best Zs, but it’s good to know there such die-hard Datsun enthusiasts working at Nissan.
Hachiroku, the digits 8 and 6, are legendary in the annals of Toyotaku by simply being the chassis code for last of the great FR Corollas. The car’s demise left a gaping hole in Toyota’s lineup that couldn’t be filled by FF Celicas and high-dollar Supras. Eventually, those disappeared too. For 20 years fans pleaded for a comeback, and in 2007 rumors of a modern-day revival for the bare-bones touge-runner, built jointly with Subaru, began circulating.
But when the global economy entered meltdown, its fate was questioned. Our hopes were pinned on Akio Toyoda, self-professed car enthusiast and racer that was favored to take the reins at Toyoda. Well he got the job, and apparently one of the new President’s first orders of business was reassuring fans that the project was still on during a speech at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Continue reading
NOTE: please DO NOT contact us requesting the address, email or phone # for this farm!
Southern Norway that attracts tourists year round with its scenic hills, valleys and waterways:
However, deep in the backwoods rests an improbable Toyota Crown “Farm.” Continue reading
Back by popular demand, here’s the continuation of our Airborne Nostalgics series in which we post nothing but pictures of J-tin momentarily defying the forces of gravity. We also urge you to free any similar images you have from the confines of your hard drive and share them in Drew_TSi_Si_STi’s J-Tin Raced in Anger thread that started it all.
We just love this Datsun 610. With the sun-bleached dirt of a rally stage as a backdrop, it looks like it drove straight off the set of Mad Max. All aboard the Bartertown Express! Continue reading
Any car nut who has been to Tokyo has surely passed through the doors of Mr. Craft, a five-story building full of toy cars in every scale, brand, and material you can imagine. Radio control, plastic model kits, diecast, wind-up toys, it was all there.
Sadly, it shuttered its decadent doors for good last September due to bankruptcy. The only remnant that remains is the Mr. Craft blog, on which you can find a ¥150,000 Choro-Q Nissan MID-4 (approximately $1500). It’s a loss to collectors everywhere, but at least we won’t be tempted to blow our life savings next time we visit Tokyo.
Collectors with minicar withdrawal can now get their fix at Ikeda Minicar Shop near Nippori Station or the Yodobashi Camera mega-retailer in Akihabara.
We all know there are few things sexier than stretched tires flush mounted on an old school Japanese car, right? The problem has been trying to figure out how a particular tire will look on your rim without a bunch of trial and error, or tracking down someone with a similar setup.
Well fear no more, zetozeto99 has come to the rescue by digging up TyreStretch.com. It’s a site that takes the guesswork out of tire stretching, with a long list of wheel widths and the tire models and sizes fitted to them, complete with pics of each setup.
Amusingly, the disclaimer says “This site is for entertainment purposes only. Under no circumstances should tyres outside of manufacturers recomendations be used on the road.” Haha, shyeah right! Like you’re not gonna slap those bad boys onto your car as soon as you’re done. Just remember that if something happens to the tire, you can’t sue them. Or us. Now pass that brake cleaner!
