Well, I guess I better tell you guys a little more about the car! And I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.
It was almost three months ago that I decided to take the plunge and buy a JDM classic. I’d owned JDM imports before (there are plenty of second hand imported JDM cars in Australia) but nothing this old. So on 12th November I send an email to our friends at J-Spec.
Down at the JNC ranch, one of our favorite dead horses to beat has been the fact that Toyota, the richest and largest car company in the world, did nothing to celebrate their 50 years of business in America except affix a small badge to a Camry Hybrid sedan. Nothing to honor the legions of fans who have painstakingly restored Corollas, Celicas, Crowns, Coronas and Supras. How sad!
Recently, this mysterious logo has appeared on the Nissan USA website. 50th Anniversary already? Well, although Nissan Motor Corporation, USA wasn’t an officially established US company until 1960, exports began as early as 1958 with the Datsun 1200. Right now, the only thing they appear to be celebrating is the desire to move a few leftover Muranos, but hey, the year is still young. Let’s hope Nissan can throw a better party than Toyota.
It’s been quite a long time in the making, but I think we can now let the cat out of the bag. Late last year we hinted that we had some surprising big plans for 2008, and this is one of them. I’ve bought a Hakosuka!
She arrived on the back of a tow truck today, fresh from her long journey from Japan, and I can’t tell you how excited I am. I’ll tell the whole story soon, but getting this beauty into my garage was a very long journey that began in October last year.
We came across Love Ear Art the other day, an airbrush artist in Japan who does a lot of work on JDM classics in a true 70s style. Check out his Blog for more of his awesome work.
Wow, we got quite a lot of entries from all around the world, including Poland, Brazil, Netherlands, New Zealand, Canada and the USA but most of the entries came from Australia. Thanks to everyone who participated, and if you didn’t win, don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll think of more giveaways very soon!
Click on to see if you WON!
We did a piece on the DR30 Skyline and the FJ20 engine quite a long time ago, but a cache of old Group A racing videos on YouTube brought some memories flooding back. I used to have one you see.
Here are some videos from the 1987 Japanese Group A season, the year after the DR30 won the All-Japan championship. The videos include a time attack between a stock R31 GTS-X roadcar and the Advan Group A DR30 racecar (um…the racecar wins!) as well as highlights from a race at Tsukuba. This looks like an very early episode of Hot Version. Ahh…the memories.
If we received this Carmania set of chocolate shaped tools from Japanese confectioner Frantz Kobe Sweets, we’d totally put out. Last year we took this photo (right) of the 2007 set at Tokyu Hands department store. The much better pic below is an official image of the 2008 collection, which cost $35. Though jilted, we’re still posting these pictures along with a happy V-Day wish from JNC to you, and we mean that in a totally platonic way so don’t get any funny ideas. Continue reading
We were just checking in with our compadres at grandJDM and nearly died laughing when we came across this post on rapper Snoop Dogg’s new album cover.
If you’ve had your eye on one of these cars you’d better grab it quick, cause once the MTV crowd figures out exactly what ride this album is pimpin’, Datsun 510 Wagons will be selling like they’re made of gold, and probably end up plated in it too. Clearly, the utter old school coolness of a five-tizzle is what the label in the bottom right corner is advising parents of.
We have to wonder, is this Datsun what Mr. Dogg was talking about in his 2000 composition, “Hennesey N Buddah,” featuring his colleague KoKane, when he said:
I never ever dropped a dime, sheeeit
Nigga might cop a dime
Never hesitate to pop a 9, bah
And always come up with the proper line
A modern-day Chaucer, if you ask us. How long before the garages of MTV Cribs are teeming with Datsuns? Place your bets now. Thanks for making our day, mates.
We kinda alluded to it last week, but in Japan, heaps of people get around on bicycles.
That in itself is not so unusual…in Tokyo there are so many train stations and the various lines all criss-cross each other so much that you are never really that far from a station. So lots of people will ride their bikes to the station, and then take the train to work. But there certainly isn’t any room in a crowded JDM train….so what do they do with their bikes?
First Japan got one. Then we got one. Now our mates down under have their very own Mazda RX-8 40th anniversary edition. If you haven’t been following the saga of Mazda’s year-long rotary engine birthday bash, check here. The spec list looks about the same as the Japanese and American versions, with Bilstein shock absorbers and a foam-filled crossmember being the most notable items differentiating it from the base RX-8. The rest is just garnish, but that 40th anniversary badge does look mighty tasty. Only 200 will be made.
Yesterday we did a feature on the ultra-cool (and ultra expensive) TLC Icon recreation of the classic FJ40 Landcruiser. If you really want a Landcruiser now, but the Icon was too rich for your blood (and you are in Japan) then perhaps this might be of interest.
Utilitas is located in Fukuoka, Japan and is in the unique position of being a specialist dealer in Toyota Landcruiser and Nissan Skyline DR30 RS. Yes, really.
Will the madness never end? The Nissan Skyline’s 50th birthday party is still going strong, and throughout it we’ve had minicars, CDs, a reproduction Ken & Mary T-shirt, and everything in the Nissan Heritage Collection. Now, the company is releasing a collection of commemorative pins. There will be only 62 sets, given out randomly to those who enter the contest. The entry deadline is February 18, 17:00 Tokyo time. And oh yeah, you have to live in Japan. Nuts.
During our recent journey to Japan, there were plenty of new cars to drool over too. We snapped a ton of photos, but since this is Japanese Nostalgic Car, we gave the photos to our friends at Jalopnik. This Toyota Century is pretty much the most nostalgic of the bunch, since even though it’s a 2008 (we think) model, it looks, for all intents and purposes, identical to the 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004… all the way back to 1967 versions. Evolved from the 1965 Toyota Crown Eight, it stayed that way for 30 years until 1997, when Toyota shoehorned an exclusive V12 into it. For more check out Dan’s photos and Ben’s quote in the Jalopnik post.
There’s no doubt that the FJ40 Landcruiser of the late 60s is a very cool thing. To just look at one, it just oozes offroad mojo, rock-hard toughness and indestructibility. But an FJ40 also has a softer side too. See one at the beach and now it’s a picture of laid-back, surfie-dude charm. It’s an unlikely JDM classic, but its credentials are sound.
But to drive, they’re pretty crude and primitive, with bouncy suspensions and asthmatic engines. But now a California outfit called TLC has refreshed the FJ40 Landcruiser for the 21st century.
To paraphrase George Peppard’s John “Hannibal” Smith, “We love it when the world comes together.” Especially around nostalgic cars. One of the most rewarding experiences about Japanese Nostalgic Car is when we see old school love coming from all corners of the globe. This time, dear reader pecx has posted a mind-blowing thread of some serious nostalgic car hotness from Thailand. We’re talkin’ five chili peppers here! You want fender mirrors? Check. Bolt-on fender flares? Check. Fat-lipped rims with stretched tires? Check and check. Look out world, Thais know how to keep it raw, like a kickboxer’s shin!
Word on the street is that Snoop Dogg is putting together a band, called Snoop Dogg and the Datsun 510s.
So alright, that was a lie. I have to confess (happily) that I’m not in even the slightest way a fan of this guy’s droll styles. But when the man’s got a 510 wagon on the cover of his new album, props have to be given.
Is this evidence of a heretofore unknown secret love for Datsuns? Snoop, if you’re reading grandJDM—and we know you are—holla at us.
[via A Hot Mess]
[also check out ratsun.net forums discussion on this]
We apologize for the short notice, but we just discovered Subaru of America will be celebrating their 40th anniversary at the Philadelphia Auto Show. A small show, yes, but Philly is right next door to Subaru’s Cherry Hill, NJ headquarters.
Subaru of Japan, on the other hand, is celebrating their 50th anniversary. More on this later.
Cars on display in the City of Brotherly Love will include the 360, FF1, Brat, SVX PPG Pace Car and STI 22B. Tomorrow, Sunday, is the final day for the show. Times and directions for the show can be found at the Philadelphia Auto Show website.
For our dear readers who are observing the Lunar New Year by partying hearty this weekend, we at JNC would like to wish you a happy and prosperous Year of the Rat. To celebrate, here’s a photo of one of our favorite firecrackin’ SEMA cars ever, a Toyota FJ45 Land Cruiser done up in rat rod style, powered by a 750-horsepower Toyota NASCAR V8. The door says, “Toyota Motor Sales. New Cars since 1957. Hollywood, Ca.” How cool is that? Go here for more photos of this beast.
One of the things you notice in JDM classic-car magazines lately is that there is a lot more interest in the older JDM vans. The scene is still in its infancy to a certain extent, but one of the JDM dealers/parts stores catering to the oldschool one-box fans is Barracuda. And why not when these things make such cool cruisers.
Check out their blog for photo galleries of past one-box events.
One of the cool things that you will see plenty of in Tokyo is the BIG Scooter. Most of us are used to the idea of a scooter being a tiny little thing, pushed along by a putt-putt motor and with tiny wheels the diameter of frisbees.
But the Japanese do it quite differently, and in Japan you see plenty of low, long, fat scooters with big-cube thumper engines. They’re still twist n’ go automatic, but have a lot of presence and are extremely popular. And extremely popular for modifying.
