We’ve added a brief rundown of the first issue’s table of contents, which you can see here.
JNC Magazine Sneak Peek
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JNC Magazine Update
The last few months have been a monsoon of activity here. But finally, the magazine is at the printers! They will be mailed out directly from the printers at the end of next week to take full advantage of savings in terms of shipping time and cost (they get bulk rates), so expect it in your mailbox in mid-April! International orders may take a bit longer. Thank you all for being so patient with us. And for those of you who didn’t know, this was a team effort between us and Kev and Van from grandJDM. It was hard to work with a 15-hour time zone difference at times but we made it! Thanks guys!
Here’s a sneak preview at some of the article inside the first issue. Thanks for supporting the old school!
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Taisho My Ride!
Check out this image modifier. It makes any photo you upload look like it was taken in the Taisho Era, which lasted from 1912 to 1926. Make your own and share them here.
[Source: Wanokoto]
Posted in japan
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Mystery Toy Car Contest Pics!
In February, we had a contest where we gave away six mystery JDM toy cars. You guys might remember that the lucky winners would receive lucky-dip toy cars which are currently very popular in Japan. Buy a car from the History of Skyline series and you never know if you’ll get an R34 or an S54 Prince Skyline GT-B. So in fact, as I mailed off the prizes, I had no idea what they were either!
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Gas ‘N’ Mach GoGoGo with Speed Racer
In Japan, the 60s manga and anime series known here as Speed Racer is so popular that it’s even spawned a chain of service stations and used car lots. Everything is Speed Racer themed, including the in-store service computer menus.
Except it’s not really Speed Racer per se; the proper Japanese title is Mach GoGoGo, a pun on the word usually following “ready” and “set” and the number 5, which is pronounced “go” in Japanese. That’s why Speed’s car is called the Mach 5. Even Speed’s Japanese name is Goh Mifune.
Follow the jump to see more pics of the Mach 5 service stations. Continue reading
More Skyline Ads with Ken & Mary
Ok, by now you guys have all figured out yesterday’s post about a majority share of Nissan being bought out by Tata Motors was an April Fool’s joke. Sorry, we couldn’t resist! Well here’s some old Nissan Skyline that are almost as strange, and have the added bonus of being real. Though to be honest, they’re probably not as odd as the spacefish.
[Source: grandJDM]
Posted in cm, nissan
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Tata Motors to Buy Nissan, Revive Datsun Name
Not content with its recent purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, India’s Tata Motors is turning their sights eastward with a lock on Nissan. The Ford deal netted India’s largest conglomerate three other hallowed marques too – Rover, Lancaster and Daimler (this one, not that one) – for the bargain basement price of $2.3 billion. Buy two, get three free!
In a deal signed last night, the Tata Group will get a 37% stake in Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. for $4 billion. That, according to Japanese law, is enough for a controlling stake in the boardroom. As part of the deal, Tata will also acquire the Datsun and Prince names, which chairman Ratan Tata plans to revive, adding that they “still have a lot of cachet in nations like Kenya” thanks to the East Safari Rally of the seventies.
Tata was founded in 1945 by Jamshetji Tata and produced its first vehicle in 1954 with Daimler-Benz. The car pictured above is the Tata Sumo, a mid-size SUV that, to be honest, seems rather top-heavy. Which, really, is the first thing you think of when you hear the words “sumo” and “tata.”
Posted in datsun, nissan
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Skyline Drives Through Alien Desert with Spacefish
When George Lucas wanted to zazz up Star Wars with an automotive cross-promotion in 1977, he opted for a Toyota Celica Liftback. Say what you will about the prequels, but the man had vehicular taste.
A dozen years later in Japan, that 70s space opera and Japanese cars teamed up once again in this 1989 Nissan Skyline ad. The man you see at the beginning explaining his acid trip concept is John Dykstra, the special effects whiz responsible for all the far out visuals in Star Wars and a bunch of other space movies. The Skyline speeding through an alien landscape with a giant planet on the horizon was trippy and reminiscent of the Knight Rider intro, but the badly-dubbed spacefish totally lost us.
Posted in cm, nissan, Video Games
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Tokyo Daze: Cosplay gone wild!
One very unique Japan-ism is cosplay. That’s the practice of actually dressing up like a cartoon character and going out in public. Now, I’m not talking about dressing up as Sailor Moon for an anime convention….I mean dressing up as a cartoon character as a regular part of your weekend and going out. Doing something similar in any western city and you’ll feel very conspicuous within a few metres of your front door, but Japan is different.
Posted in Tokyo Daze
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GrandJDM Contest: WIN Fragrant Women!!
The last JDM Toy giveaway was such a great success that we simply had to do another one. By the way, each competition winner has received their prize and I’ll do a post soon with pics of everyone’s booty.
The prizes this time are dashboard air fresheners in the anatomically-acccurate shape of race queens in Ings (maker of JDM bodykits) livery.
Continue reading
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(Hayashi) Sakuras in Full Bloom
This weekend begins the National Cherry Blossom Festival in our nation’s capital. The sakura were a gift from Japan to the USA in 1912 and the first festival was held in 1935. We’ve seen some sweet old rides with the trees already, so let’s talk about the wheels they inspired.
Although sometimes called sakuras, we learned that the proper name is Yayoi. The originals stopped production in 1980, their rarity fueling an ascension to holy grail status among nostalgists with a full deep-dish set commanding $10,000 at auction. According to this user, in 2006 Hayashi Racing began reproducing 50 sets, in pink and gold alongside Techno Racings, “by hand,” whatever that means. Now, they’re a permanent fixture on Hayashi Racing‘s website, which makes no mention of any production limitation. All we know is that, pink or not, they look killer on this yonmeri (four-door kenmeri Skyline; yon = four).
[Image: RX-7 ‘Verts & Welsh Corgis (Japanese)]
Posted in bosozoku, nissan, wheels
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We'll Always Have Yatabe
Check out these sad photos from Yatabe Test Track, which the Japanese Automobile Research Institute opened in 1964. It may look like just another banked slab of concrete, but many a high-performance car was put through its paces here. And in 1966 it was the location where the Toyota 2000GT famously broke 16 world speed and endurance records, making the rest of the globe take notice of the nascent post-war Japanese auto industry. Today, the circuit lies broken and decrepit, overgrown with vegetation.
Posted in japan, toyota
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More Group A Lovin’
We’ve done a couple of articles on Group A before (here and here) and here’s a series of race highlights of Japanese Group A races which show why it was such a fondly remembered series of racing.
Posted in racing
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Project Hakosuka: we’re getting there….
The jobs that had to be done before we could go back for certification was to fit rear belts, convert the front belts to stalk buckles, fix the horn, and raise the front ride height. And some of those jobs more or less fixed themselves, and we’ll soon see.
Posted in project hakosuka
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Datsun 280ZX, Someday
Back when we were kids there was no Wii, MyFace, or whatever the hell kids are into these days. The bicycle was the king of birthday presents, and the freedom of movement it provided is probably what turned us into car nuts in the first place. And yeah, we’d put our grubby little paws all over sweet rides just like this kid. We didn’t know any better, but it helped fuel our lust for fine automotive machinery. Decades later, boom, JNC!
Posted in cm, datsun, nissan
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History of the Z Car Documentary
Here’s a great documentary on the birth of the Z car. It’s a 1995 documentary, and has very much a US-centric focus, but since the US demand was largely responsible for the success of the 240Z, this is hardly a criticism (although I can almost feel the incandescent rage that diehard Z fans will feel about Count Albrecht Goertz getting yet another undeserved credit for styling the car) 🙂
It covers the early history of Datsun in the USA market, and the conditions that led to the introduction of the 240Z in 1969. It also contains great racing footage of the BRE 240Z and later IMSA 280ZX race cars too. It’s rather imaginitively recorded, but well worth the 30mins!
Posted in nissan
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Cool Cosmo Sports
With only 1,519 of the Mazda Cosmo Sports built, it’s rare to see one with heavy modification done, especially to the body. Although some might cringe to see one of these in anything less than original condition, we think this one looks pretty good, especially with what appear to be very low-offset Work Equips and a deep red paint job. Unfortunately, we don’t know any more about this car and could only find this one photo.
[RX-7 Convertible Blog (Japanese)]
Posted in mazda
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Toyota Ghost Found on Toast
Today is Resurrection Day, and as everyone knows, long-dead spiritual figures just love to reveal themselves to the world via pre-sliced bread conveniently warmed by modern kitchen appliance. Toast is the medium of choice, in fact, for the likes of Jesus, Elvis, and even non-dead icons such as the King of Pop and Runaway Bride. The Virgin Mary‘s whole wheat visage pulled in $28,000 on Ebay despite having a bite taken out of it. What then, are we supposed to make of this 1936 Toyota AA that appeared on one slice of this ham and cheese holder?
The AA was Toyota’s first passenger car, and the company is quite proud of the fact that it was engineered and built entirely in-house at a time when many of its rivals were assembling complete knock-down kits. The styling is among several post-Chrysler Airflow designs, one of the earliest based on the principles of aerodynamics pioneered by Tatra designer Paul Jaray. Keep in mind that most cars at the time still featured bolt upright radiator grilles and long, swooping fenders with wide running boards, elements the AA unfortunately somewhat retained. So beauty wasn’t its strong point, but it’s the Toyota that made all the Celicas and Corollas we now love possible.
Anyway, about that toast… Continue reading
Posted in nostalgic eats, pre-war, toyota
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Proposed CA Bill Threatens Pre-1976 Cars
California State Senator Dean Florez has proposed a new bill that, if passed, will repeal the emissions exemption on pre-1976 cars in eight California counties. This means your classic car would have to pass California’s emissions test for the life of the vehicle.
Ok, so you might not live in those counties, or even in California, but the state is known for having the toughest environmental protection laws in the nation. Once all the research and debate has been done and the bill passed, it could be easily adopted statewide. Other states have also been known to piggyback on California’s laws. It’s happened before.
For the record, we here at JNC care very much about Mother Earth. It’s the only planet we got, and we should try not to wreck it. We do our best to recycle and conserve, but this bill is ridiculous. Pre-’76 cars, as owned by classic car collectors, comprise so little of the actual pollution going up into the atmosphere that it’s essentially nil. There are far greater polluters out there. For example, poorly designed, non-green architecture accounts for nearly 40% of greenhouse gases. Cow farts make up another quarter. Why penalize cars that, for the most part, don’t even see use on a daily basis?
SEMA believes lawmakers are scapegoating classics. In addition to putting on a big car show ever year, the Specialty Equipment Marketers Association also advocates for car enthusiasts on issues such as this. See their news release and the eight affected counties after the jump. Continue reading
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