BigJohn's Datsun: The Saga Continues

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Ben Hsu

bigjohnThe Pyramids of Giza. The Great Wall of China. These are just some of human civilization’s accomplishments that are nearly as epic as what we’re about to show you. Once in a while, you come across one of those projects that just makes your chin hit the floor like you’ve eaten a grenade. Such is our reaction upon seeing JNCer BigJohn’s ongoing restoration of his 1979 Datsun Stanza (or Violet, 160J, 510, 710 depending on what country you’re from). In case you missed it, this is a must-see.

We simply cannot describe the skill, dedication and thoroughness of this project in words. Neither can BigJohn. Being from Thailand, he doesn’t know much English, but his pictures and usage of a single emoticon speak for themselves. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, how to, howto, nissan | 2 Comments

Subaru 360 Driving Impressions

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Ben Hsu

subaru360 As part of Subaru’s continuing celebration of its 50th anniversary, its official Japanese blog has taken the car that started it all – the Subaru 360 – out for a spin. It’s short drive, but a rare glimpse into the O.G. kei car, and in case you were wondering how it feels to be behind its wheel, here’s our poorly translated version of their writeup.

First off, the author points out how surprisingly low the seating position is, yet visibility is excellent. The 360 was intended to seat four adults, and the author notes that this is possible, without mentioning specifics about comfort (or lack thereof).

Continue reading →

Posted in subaru | 4 Comments

Honda Super Cub’s 50th Anniversary

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Ben Hsu

Honda held a ceremony in Tokyo yesterday to celebrate a half century of the Super Cub motorcycle, which went on sale in August, 1958. Although its engines have grown in size and technology, the basic design of the bike has remained the same. The Super Cub has been sold in over 160 countries and in April, Honda sold its 60 millionth unit. Clearly, it holds the record for best selling motorcycle of all time. Continue reading →

Posted in Motorcycles | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Mitsubishi Owners Day 2008

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Ben Hsu

UPDATE: More pics in our forum.

Here are some pics from 2008’s Mitsubishi Owners Day. Although 99.9% of the cars on display were Lancer Evos of some Roman numeral designation, the triple diamond mafia did dust off some classics from their personal collection. Continue reading →

Posted in events, mitsubishi | 3 Comments

JNC Magazine Issue 2 Update

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Ben Hsu

datsunroadster_solvang2
Here’s a sneak preview of a page out of JNC Issue #2. We’ve all been hard at work on it – doing research, writing articles, editing photos, designing the layout, calling advertisers, promoting and marketing, shipping, and on and on and on. Therefore, we are sorry to report that despite many long hours, it will have to be delayed. The reasons are a combination of a sagging economy that has made finding advertisers more challenging (not to mention increased postage and paper costs) and a search for a new printer thanks to a botched delivery on Issue #1 that has some subscribers only getting Issue #1 now and some still waiting.

Our newbie status as an independent publisher failed to account for these possibilities and our aggressive schedule with a skeleton crew (some of which work full-time in addition to JNC) may have been a bit too ambitious. We know you’re eagerly anticipating the next issue, and it’s coming. Currently we plan to release Issue #2 in September. We’re deeply sorry for the wait and have each chopped off one pinky finger in repentance.

We are fully committed to bringing you the most thorough coverage of vintage Japanese cars because for us, above all, JNC is a labor of love. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us or ask it in the forum. Thanks for bearing with us as we go take our baby steps.

-Team JNC

Posted in jnc | 18 Comments

Rad Retro Rags from NoCarNoLife

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Ben Hsu

te27_nocarnolife
Being the graphic designer type, Van runs in some pretty creative circles. That’s how he spotted this series of positively righteous artwork from NoCarNoLife. However, we’ve locked the Vanster in a dungeon until he finishes the layout for JNC Issue 2, so he can’t post on this news himself.

Apparently, these beauteous renderings are intended for appearance on shirts, though the links on website seem to be dead. However, you can see the rest of the collection on NoCarNoLife’s Flickr Photostream. Let’s hope they get the site sorted soon, cause where else are you gonna get a T-shirt with a Datsun 610 or 710 on it? Of course, standard fare like the Celica, 510 and TE27 Corolla above are also available. For you 80s fans, there’s designs like the R30 and A60 Supra. If you like what you see, why not show them some support by letting them know how eager you are to order one?

UPDATE: Check out deadflo’s comments to this post. Be careful when ordering from this seller. We will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was not ready to deal with orders yet. Thanks for letting us know, deadflo!

Posted in datsun, mazda, mitsubishi, nissan, nostalgic gear, toyota | 11 Comments

Suzuki GSX1400 Goes Retro

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Ben Hsu

suzuki-gsx1400z
While this isn’t exactly a car, we like how Suzuki has recalled its historic triple blue on white racing livery for a new special edition GSX1400Z. With fuel costs going through the ceiling, motorbikes are looking more and more appealing as an alternative to four wheeled travel. Unfortunately, like many great Japanese vehicles, this one is unavailable in North America. Australian, European and Japanese readers can bike all they want.

With major Japanese manufacturers like Honda and Yamaha going retro with their motorcycles, why not some throwback cars as well?

[The Motor Report]

Posted in suzuki | 3 Comments

Tsukuba Summer Meeting

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Ben Hsu

tsukuba
The Tsukuba Summer Meeting is one of many Japanese vintage car events in which owners actually use their classic machines in the way their creators intended – on the track. There really isn’t much to say about it, except for the fact that we’ve wanted to go very, very badly for several years now. But with the magazine’s budgetary and time constraints, it’s just on possible. Maybe next year. In the meantime, check out these glorious photos on Speedhunters.

[Speedhunters]

Posted in events, japan, motorsports | 1 Comment

Subaru Fan! Fan! Festival

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Ben Hsu

subaru_fanfanfestival Here’s something for the Subie heads. Last weekend Fuji Heavy Industries officially celebrated the 50th anniversary of its automaking arm with the Fan! Fan! Festival, held in Yokohama. Here’s the only shot we could find of some truly old school Subes, a Sambar and a 360. Currently, the festival is touring across Japan. Incidentally, this year is Subaru USA’s 40th anniversary. Where’s our party?

[Image: Subaru]

Posted in events, japan, subaru | 2 Comments

Top Gear GT-R Cross-Japan Challenge

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Ben Hsu

topgeardatsun
One of the funniest thing about today’s highly recommended episode of BBC Top Gear was the fact that throughout the epic cross-Japan race that pitted Jeremy Clarkson in a Nissan GT-R against James May and Richard Hammond in a bullet train, Hamster kept calling it a Datsun. Continue reading →

Posted in datsun, nissan, Video Games | 3 Comments

Jolly Good News from the UK

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Ben Hsu

hakosukagoodwood
Not only is the Day of Too Many Events coming up this weekend, but our former masters across the pond are brewing up the Goodwood Festival of Speed. One of the first photos to filter in from this year’s event are from the chaps at Speedhunters. The lucky blokes captured this hakosuka GT-R G.C. replica on the hillclimb. As you know from last year when Toyota was the featured marque, we haven’t wanted to go anywhere this badly since we begged our parents to takes us to Disney World at age eight but we just don’t have the budget or time.

Seeing the original GT-R in action in England just makes this next bit of news all the more fitting. We’re big fans of BBC Top Gear, and this weekend takes the gang to Japan, where another one of their epic races will ensue. The contestants? New GT-R vs. Bullet Train. Banzai!

[Speedhunters]

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

New Items in JNC Shop: Sticker, T-Shirt

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Ben Hsu

jncstickershirt
When we first started, all we had to our name was this measly website. We were JapaneseNostalgicCar.com, a bunch of ones and zeros floating around on the hard drive of some distant server. The first sticker we made reflected that sad fact, but now that we’re a magazine too, we thought we’d replace the “.com” part of the logo with something as equally evocative of nostalgics as the existing four-spoke wheel and elderly driver’s mark – a fender mirror. The logo looks a bit different in other respects to, but that’s because it’s been touched by the hand of Van.

We’re down to the last few “.com” stickers so we’re putting the redesigned logo on new stickers and T-shirts, which are available in the Shop section. One complaint about the old one old sticker was that it took up too much real estate, so we’ve made the new one a bit smaller (which also saves you .0000000001 ounces in dead weight :P). Thanks for your continued support. We love you guys!

[JNC Shop]

Posted in jnc | 6 Comments

Photos from Englishtown, NJ Drags

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Ben Hsu

rx3englishtown
Speaking of events, not all of them happen on the west coast. From the Tony Soprano Bureau, JNCer pumaone brings us a trunkload of photos from last weekend’s Puerto Rico vs. mainland USA battle in Englishtown, New Joisey. Check out his post in our forum for a gallery of serious drag machines lining up to the Christmas tree at Raceway Park. Thanks, pumaone!

Posted in events, mazda | 2 Comments

Mitsubishi Owner's Day: July 19, 2008

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Ben Hsu


The annual gathering at Mitsubishi Motors North America HQ in Cypress, CA will be not this weekend (thankfully) but next Saturday, July 19. Although this has mostly been an event for Evo and Eclipse owners, a small but strong contingent of triple diamond mafia elders have been known to make an appearance. Mitsu themselves have also been known to dust off some museum pieces from their personal collection as well. More details here.

We’re trying to announce of every show we hear about on the blog but even so we can’t get to everything in a timely manner, so please check the Events, Meets & Gatherings section of our forum regularly for all the latest notices and post-event pics contributed by our wonderful JNCers.

Posted in events, mitsubishi | 1 Comment

July 12, Day of the Meets

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Ben Hsu

The notice was so short on this one we don’t even have a pic to put up, but there will be a pre-1986 imports meet a the Japanese Gardens at 6100 Woodley Ave, Van Nuys, CA on July 12 from 12-6pm. This, in addition to the Ove Andersson tribute and Super Autobacs show, this Saturday is shaping up to be the Day of Too Many Events. We want nothing more than to help you connect with other nostalgic car fans, so if you have any events you’d like us to announce, just let us know or post it in the Events section of our forum.

Thanks to PERTANO for the tip!

Posted in events | 1 Comment

Toyopet Crown Comes to America, 1956 or '57?

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Ben Hsu

toyopetcrown_licenseplate Loyal JNCers will know that Toyopet Crown came ashore in 1957, making it the first Toyota and first Japanese car to arrive in the US. If not, then you need to read our premiere issue, which looks back at the early days of Toyota USA, along with its trials and tribulations.

Fresh off the boat in Long Beach, the car received a small and rather unremarkable ceremony before being promptly whisked to the Los Angeles DMV by Toyota execs. After it was registered, this historic photo to the right was taken.

But apparently, if you zoom in for a closer look at the license plate, you can see that it actually reads “’56” in the upper right corner. So what gives?

Continue reading →

Posted in mazda, toyota | 5 Comments

Goodwood Festival of Speed Begins July 11

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Ben Hsu

goodwood2008z
One of the greatest gearhead events on the planet will commence this Friday. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is exactly what all of us would be doing if we were so stinking rich that we could invite manufacturers, car collectors and the world’s top drivers to our huge estate, complete with its own hillclimb course, forest rally stage and concours lawn. It’s al going down July 11 through 13 somewhere in England. And once again, we’ll be staying on this side of the Atlantic, envying the limey bastards from afar. Exactly which cars Japanese will emerge from their slumbers in museums and warehouses to make an appearance are not yet fully known.

Last year Goodwood celebrated Toyota‘s 50 years in motorsports and Mazda‘s 40th anniversary of the rotary. This year the flavor taste more like Europe as both Land Rover and Porsche celebrate their 60th birthdays. In the meantime, go to the Festival of Speed’s official website and watch the mind-blowing movie to get an idea of what this event is all about.

[Goodwood Festival of Speed]

Posted in datsun, events, mazda, motorsports, nissan, rally, toyota | 1 Comment

Show Some Love for Ove at the Toyota Museum

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Ben Hsu


As you know, the recent passing of Ove Andersson really hit the world of motorsports hard. If you’re in the Los Angeles area this weekend, please consider stopping by the Toyota USA Museum, where a tribute to the rally racer and founder of Toyota Team Europe will be held. Details after the jump.

Continue reading →

Posted in motorsports, rally, toyota | 2 Comments

Super Autobacs Car Show This Weekend

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Ben Hsu

superautobacs
Yes, it’s true. In addition to perpetually good weather, non-stop nostalgic car events and your pick of old cars on craigslist, southern California also has a Super Autobacs, the JDM aftermarket superstore. They’ll be hosting a car show this weekend and it’s free, so let’s see some old school representation.

Thanks to Burabuda for the tip.

Posted in events | 5 Comments

Datsun Fairlady Off Roadster II

Posted on July 6, 2008 by Ben Hsu

offroadster2
Let’s start the week off with another WTF moment. What’s with these things? Last month we showed you a Datsun Fairlady Roadster on a Jeep CJ5 frame. Now here’s another one spotted at Pismo Beach, sent in by an alert JNCer/quickdraw cameraman, who hypothesizes that the Datsun Fairlady’s body-on-frame construction has something to do with this phenomenon. Sad but true.

Thanks for the tip, Toygarage!

Posted in datsun, nissan | 6 Comments