It hardly seems like a whole 6mths has passed since Van, Lachy and I started GrandJDM, and it’s been a blast. We’d like to give our heartfelt thanks to all you readers for supporting us, and we hope you’ve gotten as much fun out of old JDM iron as we have. We’re all looking forward to bringing you more in 2008 (boy, do we have some surprises in store!) and we’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
This week’s news segment on the most hilariousest motoring show in TV-dom, Top Gear, has a guide to presents for the holidays. Unfortunately, despite the speed of teh Internets, by the time this could get across the Atlantic from the from the soccer-is-football bureau courtesy of tipster Madflava, it was too late for most major observances descended from druid solstice festivals.
Still, we couldn’t help but notice the lineup of Nissan paraphernalia, including a sled, Z-car aloha shirt, and – wait for it – a bobblehead of Yutaka Katayama! Yes kids, now you can have your very own desktop figurine of Mr. K, the man who brought you the 510, 240Z and a series of zany mid-90s car commercials, complete with cane and Cosby vest!
And, that’s still not enough Nissan-themed gear for you, there’s also a skateboard, barbecue grill, electric guitar and kayak. Shift_co-branding!
A couple of years ago Peugeot released the 1007, which is a funky subcompact city car with a unique feature: double sliding doors. So instead of conventional doors, you get van-like sliding doors which whizz back and forth electrically. Cool idea, the concept behind the 1007 being to allow easier ingress to the car in typically tight Euro cities.
Great idea….but just so you know, JDM did it first…
In the late 80s, Nissan went crazy on concept cars, almost all of which never went into production, like the Mid4 supercar. But another concept that made a favourable splash was the Saurus.
Unveiled at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, the Saurus was a pretty fanciful concept. Powered by a mid-mounted 1.0 supercharged and turbocharged engine (which later appeared in the Micra Super Turbo) it promised lots of lightweight sporting fun, and its two toned, roofless buggylike styling touched a nerve at the time (when JDM cars were nothing if not conservative).
Like wildfires, more great news keeps popping up from SoCal. The Toyota Owners and Restorers Club (or TORC) has announced the 2008 All-Toyotafest. The date on which the planets align for Toyota fans is Saturday, May 3, 2008. Once again, we’ll be bailing on the Queen Mary like Kate Winslet from the Titanic, and moving onto a bigger venue at Long Beach City College Veterans Stadium. 2008 is shaping up to be a great year for nostalgic car fans, and it hasn’t even started yet!
Coverage of the 2007 All Toyotafest can be found in our Events section.
Hot off the press, the Japanese Classic Car Show Association has announced the JCCS date for 2008. The fourth annual show will take place on Sunday, October 12, 2008. With nearly 11 months’ notice, there is no excuse not to go! But if you were hoping to chill by the tranquil waters of the Queen Mary, well, that ship has sailed. Not the actual ship, mind you, but the JCCS will now be held at a bigger and better location, Hidden Valley Park in Irvine, California. Be there or be square, mon frere!
Coverage of the 2007 and 2006 shows can be found in our Events section.
Hop on a bullet train headed west out of Tokyo and in about an 90 minutes you’re in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, smack dab in the middle of Triple Diamond Mafia turf. That’s right, the city is home to Mitsubishi’s R&D department, proving grounds, and collection of preserved milestones of the zaibatsu’s automotive history. For those who can’t make the trek, here’s an online version of the collection. From the police car drifter bureau, this tip comes courtesy of our dear reader DJ Powerhaus. Arigato gozaimasu! We’ve seen online galleries from Nissan and Mazda, so it’s only fitting that we tip our hats to Mitsu.
Ok, so we don’t know much about New Zealand except that some movie about Lords and Rings was filmed there. But we do know this: If those orcs had rode into battle on any these absolutely killer old bombs, they would have been wiping the floor with those elves. From the Oceania bureau, dear reader Snoozin brings us photos from the inaugural Oldschool.co.nz cruise that took place over the summer. A while back, yes, but his name is Snoozin! The important thing is, he posted them, so that we could have a look at their Isuzu Bellets, Toyota Crowns and Suzuki Frontes. Good on ya, mate! Thanks for thinking of us Yanks.
Here’s another wacky Toyota commercial from overseas, this time from South Africa. Apparently the release of the 1984 Corolla called for a hip music show countdown of Corollas past. But, seeing as how Apartheid was still in full effect, the moonwalking breakdancers have complexions that are a bit closer to Michael Jackson circa 2007 rather than the King of Pop, 1984.
SR20Store puts turbocharged Japanese four-bangers into our truck-engined 240SXs, but the shop owner’s an old school guy at heart. Here’s Marco and his beautiful C10 Skyline GT-R clone. Well, it’s a 20-footer, but even a rusting hulk of a hakosuka is a thing of beauty. The Wangan midnight blue color makes it stand out too (though he tell us that the original color was gray). His other car is an R32 GT-R that you may have seen in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car. And his wife drives an RB26-powered Silvia. His driveway makes Nissan fans wet themselves.
One of the great things about JDM tuners in general is that it’s quite common to find a tuner that caters for your particular model of car, and only that model. So if you have say, a Mazda Roadster, there are actually quite a few MX5-only tuners which you can go to, like Car Make Corn’s in east Tokyo for example. Everything you need from suspension and brake kits, to hard-to-find, out of production trinkets will usually be found at specialised tuners like these. So if you’re ever in Japan it’s worth seeking out the relevant tuner for your particular car.
But if you have a C10 Hakosuka Skyline, it seems that there is little point going anywhere else besides Victory50 (also known as Uchida Motor Works, or KGC10 Works). And in the best JDM Tuner tradition, it is a one stop shop for your classic Hako.
After going through the infectious US-market Toyota ads last week, we were inspired to see what catchy ad jingles would haunt our brains till we needed to bang our noggins against a fencepost to get them out of our heads. Well, here’s what we found – a pair of Toyota ads. You’ll thank us later. Or not.
The first, the 1979 Sprinter, chilling in all-white Grecian architecture by the Mediterranean Sea. Feta cheese, anyone?
To complement that, we have the ad for the 1980 Celica Camry. That’s right, the name affixed to the number-one selling American sedan was a sub-model! This was more or less a slightly redesigned Carina, but the Celica name was hot, and what better way to convince buyers they were buying a four door sports coupe?
Many apologies for the shortage of new posts in the past week or so, if you knew what we’ve been working on then you’d forgive us! Anyway, back to regular programming. A couple of weeks ago we did a piece on the short lived joint alliance between Nissan and Alfa Romeo. Certainly one of the most bizarre automotive joint ventures, but it is not the only weird JDM corporate marriage.
For a time in the 80s, Daihatsu had an arrangement with DeTomaso, to create an odd mix of JDM econo-hatch manufacturer with hardcore Italian supercar maker.
Great news, nostalgic car fans! Collector car insurance company JC Taylor wants to feature a Datsun Z Car or a Toyota Land Cruiser in an upcoming advertisement. They’re interested in the possibility of serving vintage Japanese car enthusiasts, so please help them with the ad and support their cause! Contact us via email or message in this forum thread if you’re interested.
Speaking of video, the Japanese Classic Car Show 2007 official DVD goes on sale tomorrow, December 15. Until time machines are invented, it’s the next best way to experience the madness that was the 2007 JCCS. To order, go here.
For those of you who may have missed it, several months ago we put together a video of nostalgics prowling the streets of Tokyo and posted it on this blog. But like a dinosaur carcass, as time progressed it got buried to make way for more civilized fare. Although some things are best left forgotten, we went ahead and created a Video section anyway, where our short film, which has been nominated for zero Oscars, will reside full time.
Reader extraordinaire gamby sent us a link to this BringATrailer.com, which posts on interesting classics up for sale, including some of Japanese stock. That got us thinking, one of the most frequent questions we get is, “How much should I pay for a [insert Japanese classic of choice here]?” to which we usually answer, “How ever much you want.” This usually results in, “Thanks for nothing.”
Perhaps it’s about time we started following the market and giving you, our dear readers, reports on how it’s looking for J-tin. After all, we’re entering the era when Japanese cars are truly being recognized as serious classics. If you think this would be useful, let us know in the comments. Without further ado, here’s the car that gamby sent us.
1967 Datsun Bluebird 411 Wagon. Predecessor to the iconic 510, the 411 was styled by Italian design house Pininfarina. This example is a not a pure survivor. It was repainted and reupholstered at least once in its lifetime, but the good news is it spent most of its life as an exhibit in a dealership showroom. 65,000 miles, aftermarket wheels of unknown brand, virtually rust-free. According to the owner, only minor rust exists, such as in the battery tray. Starts right up and runs, he says. It would take far more than the selling price to restore one to this condition (seller claims $8500 spent on restoration), if you can even find one. Sold at $4000 [ebay]. A very reasonable buy for a virtually one-of-a-kind car.
Here’s a rare bird, spotted by our resident Honda head reader colhogen, who heroically posted it in our forum. It’s an ultra-rare 1974 Honda Life, which, in Honda genealogy, succeeded the N360 and N600, and spawned variations such as the Life Step Van and, later, the Life Dunk. Although not mentioned in the auction, this example is actually a Life Van/Wagon, which has a larger rear and no sloping hatch. Either way, it’s scarcer than Bigfoot in a party hat, having never been officially sold US. As a result, it’s got RHD JDM exclusivity, and could be yours for the BuyItNow price of $2800. That way, the next time someone tells you to “get a life,” which happens to us frequently, you can say, “I already have one, so there.” That’ll show ’em.
Our blogospheric partners in crime over at Jalopnik are having way too much fun digging up old Toyota commercials in what they’ve dubbed “Oh What a Feeling Week,” featuring nothing but ads that conclude with people jumping for joy at the purchase of a brand new ‘Yota.
Who are these leapers? Well, they come from just about every walk of life you can imagine – manly pickup-abusing cowboy types, feral but fuel-economy- minded jungle dwellers and their pet chimps, Celica-driving yuppies/alien abductees, Ebenezer Scrooge with a team of Governator-esque body-builders, and sexy sophisticated ladies who are into RWD Corollas.
We have to give it to the Tercel ad, though, because there’s something to be said about not one, but two of the most intelligent species on the planet simultaneously endorsing a product with an airborne fist pump.
