Remember the M. Yokota Collection, the vintage car museum/chocalatier/squirrel zoo in Gumna Prefecture? Clearly, a mind as active and eccentric as that of Mr. Yokota’s cannot be easily calmed. The latest manifestation of his love for nostalgics is the M. Yokota Fall Rally, one of the many car shows and rallies that he organizes. Open to Showa Era cars only, the rally had over 200 entrants and started at the Skyland Amusement Park near Mt. Haruna, the geological formation that served as Shuichi Shigeno’s inspiration for Initial-D’s Mt. Akina. Click on over to Urban Racer to see a hachiroku dicing it up with 2000GTs and Ferraris and the rest of their coverage.
M. Yokota Vintage Rally
Celica May Return
Open a new car magazine and you’d be hard pressed not to find some sort of speculation regarding upcoming sporty Toyotas. Here’s a rundown of the rumors so far:
Supra – a version of Lexus’s upcoming LF-A supercar
Supra – the production version of Toyota’s FT-HS hybrid concept
MR-2 – a disguised mid-engined sports car spotted on a Toyota car transporter in Japan
Corolla GT-S – a true, $13,000, 100hp, successor to the AE-86
And now, there’s a report that Toyota intends to return the Celica nameplate to Europe in 2009. Of all places, this was only briefly mentioned in an Automotive News piece about Toyota’s opposition to placing a speed limit on Germany’s autobahns. There are no further details.
Could this be one of the above mentioned cars branded as a Celica for the European market, or something completely unrelated that could also make its way to the States? Only time will tell, but with this many rumors floating around, there must be some truth in at least one (and hopefully all) of them.
[LINK]
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This is a Stick Up!
As you get ready to line up outside of your electronics retailer at 4 AM on Black Friday, we offer the comfort and convenience of ordering from your own home, the best holiday gift you can get this holiday season, second only to De Beers diamonds and Lexuses wrapped up in giant bows, JNC stickers! We’re selling these babies at cost, too. Can’t beat that with a bat. Our shop section is here.
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FEATURES: LA Auto Show
New article up. A couple of classics showed up at the ongoing LA Auto Show. [LINK]
Posted in Auto Shows, mazda, mitsubishi, nissan, rally
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Sambar: Subaru gets its funk on
Last week we did a short profile on the funky 60s Honda Vamos mid-engined convertible trucklet. But like all other JDM manufacturers of the same era, Subaru also had a range of funky little small-capacity commercial vehicles as well.
Subaru’s version was called the Sambar. The nameplate lives on today in the form of a Kei-class van but the 60s version was quite a cool little miniature version of the VW Kombi.
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Massive Z-Car Drag Race
Sorry about the lack of updates. Our computer suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure that we’ll be slowly recovering from. In the meantime, enjoy this video, in which Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson lines up almost every iteration of a Z-car ever made in one big drag race. The winner, not surprisingly, is a 1990 300ZX twin-turbo, which Clarkson calls an 80s car. Perhaps he was just phoning it in, since the rest of the show looks like the detritus that ended up Top Gear’s editing floor, but it’s entertaining nonetheless. The Z-cars are at 4:13. Thanks to Madflava for the tip!
UPDATE: The operatives at MI6 have taken down the videos to defend the honor of the Queen and the BBC. Luckily, tipster J found this link to the video on YouTube.
Posted in datsun, nissan
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Prince R380: Want One?
A couple of weeks ago, we touched on the topic of the Prince R380 racecar in our retrospective on the Hakosuka Skyline GT-R. As we take up the story, the S54B Skyline debuted at the Japan Grand Prix in 1964. That day, the Skylines won the Touring Car class easily, but was beaten to the flag by the Porsche 904, a purebred mid-engined tarmac racer. Dr Sakurai, head of engineering at Prince Motors, then took steps to ensure that Prince would have a purebred racing car of its own, to wrest back glory at this most prestigous of all Japanese motorsport events.
Posted in prince, racing
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Empire Z – Dec 1st
Empire Z will be holding a meet on December 1st.
Empire Z will be holding its First Annual Car Show located at Corona Nissan on December 1st from 9am to 3pm. There will be cars, music, food, raffle prizes, goody bags, and vendors present.
Entry Fee is $25.00 which will include T-Shirt and food. Awards will be given out for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for each category of Z (i.e. 240Z, 260Z, 280Z, 280ZX, 300ZX(Z31), 300ZX(Z32), 350Z). Datsun Roadsters are also welcomed and an award will be given out for them also.
Come join us for a fun day and great people. If you have any questions or comments please email them to empirezadmin@emiprez.com . Hope to see you there.
Location: Corona Nissan, 2575 Wardlow Rd, Corona, CA 92882
So check it out if you’re in the area.
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The Dome Zero Lives On
Well, at least in pop culture. And even then, only just barely.
Music mixing community The Mixing Bowl are, from what I can tell, in the process of putting together a compilation of mixes from artists on their forums. The album artwork features a Dome Zero on the cover, a car you may remember Kev discussing in some detail not too long ago here at grandJDM.
That’s about the extent of the car’s involvement with the album (unless someone’s decided to write a song about it. Now that’d be something), but I thought it complements the artwork pretty nicely and figured I’d share with y’all.
You’ll need to register if you want to see the forum thread, but there’s not really any great amount of talk about the car itself. Points go to user “Nifty” though for knowing his shit.
Click through to see the full album cover.
Posted in Miscellaneous
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Brand New MkIII Supra
Alright, so this isn’t strictly classic, but hey. It’s a slow news day.
I don’t know much about this car—suffice to say it’s virtually brand new, right down to the plastic sheets and covers over just about everything, and the sparkling new engine. With only 92 miles on the clock, this is probably the most pristine MkIII in existence.
Alas, at the end of the day, it’s only a MkIII. Forgive me if you’re a big fan, but come on. It’s got none of the style of the MkII (even with the shared hood), and it’s got the rubbish engine (which raises the question: Would you swap your old worn out 1JZ for this brand new 7m?). Someone find me a brand new MkII and then we’ll talk.
Posted in toyota
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Welcome back to grandNissan
Hot damn. I swear on your ma, we’re not as biased toward Nissan as you’d think—There’s just a frightening lack of happenings out there for the other marques that are worth mentioning. And as I always say, if we’re missing something fly, you need to be emailing that business to us.
So moving on. Auto-Otaku has gotten his hands on some shots of a bag of classic Neesahns out cruising through the hills of Nihon, with a spot of track time thrown in. If only there were some video of that shiz.
It’s a small bunch of photos, but damn nice nonetheless. Head over.
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RX-3 Redux?
Rumors (very, very iffy ones) are swirling in the ether about a Mazda RX-3 revival. Discovered on Ben Kraal‘s blog, Here’s a hideous Photoshop speculation of what such a car might not look like at all. If the platform idea is true, this may be Mazda’s attempt to do battle with the rumored Toyota-Subaru and Nissan lightweight RWD cars. We can only hope that this will spark a touge-drift revival in the next decade. It’s like the 80s all over again, without the frizzed bangs and legwarmers.
Nippon Classics in Germany
All around the world, there are total fanatics for classic Japanese cars. Today we bring you some great photographs from a recent German show – the Nippon Classic Day. There were some truly unique appearances, so well worth a looksie.
Posted in events
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Wanna Win Yourself a Stack of Cash?
Well, enter the lotto. But if you’d like to win a US$50 voucher to Lindbergh.com—seller of fine Nostalgic JDM car magazines, among other vaguely relevant swag—all you have to do is send us your favourite photo of a classic JDM car.
Things that will lead to a stunning victory include the angle of the shot, the beauty or badassness of the background, the quality of the car, and the quality and size of the shot itself. It doesn’t have to be a photo you’ve taken, it can simply be an amazing photo you found online if that’s all you’ve got.
Of course, if you took the photo, that might help your chances too. Who knows! These two shots, for example, are awesome. However, they’re also small-ish. So who knows if they’d be good enough to win?
If more than one of you send us the same photo, and it happens to be the winner, the prize will go to the first person who sent us the winning photos.
You can either link to the photo in the comments of this post (make sure your user profile has an email address we can contact you at), or you can email it to us. Entries close on Friday November 30.
Nippon Sturm und Drang
Guten Tag! The world of nostalgic car lovers gets ever smaller. Last week, we brought you news of an Austrian forum devoted to Japanese classics, and now forum member MrHijet brings us news of the recent Nippon Classic Day in Essen, Germany. Check out photos of the Autobahn-cruising nostalgics here, and the official site of the show here. The next show is scheduled for September 21, 2008, so if you happen to be in the area, why not check it out and then stay for Oktoberfest! We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again, old Japanese cars have the ability to bring about world peace.
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My Name is Hakosuka, and I’ve just been Overhauled!
Ever dreamed about finding a basket-case C10 Skyline in a barn, and then restoring it to perfection? Is it a recurring dream? You and me both, brother.
But the reality of old-car restoration is a lot less romantic than we’d like, and vintage Nissan specialists Star Road, located in Edogawa in east Tokyo, has got a great photodiary of their recent resto of a C10 GT-R rep. Check it out, it really does look like the base car was an absolute basket case, but it’s inspiring to see them restore it properly. I can’t imagine how much it all costed in the end but I’m sure you’ll agree the final result was worth it.
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Upcoming Gatherings
December’s here, but are our readers dreaming of a white Christmas? Not if they live in the great southwestern parts of the States. It’s time for a roll call of upcoming gatherings involving vintage Japanese metal.
First up, on December 1, for all you Datsun and Z-Car enthusiasts, the Empire Z Club is holding its first annual show at Corona Nissan in Corona, California. Check out the details here.
The following day, December 2, is the 2nd Annual Honda Car Show at Norm Reeves Honda in Cerritos, California. Details can be found in our forum.
Lastly, for those of you Longhorns, there’s the Classic Imports Gathering in Houston, Texas on December 8. Details are once again in our forum. Some of us JNCers are former Texans, and we remember fondly seeing the Dattos of our childhood baking in the sun, so we’re particularly excited about this one.
As for those of us on the east coast or north of the Mason-Dixon, it’s time to break out the Sta-Bil.
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The Z to end all Zs
Where do you reckon would be home to the most ridiculously awesome S30Z in the world? You might think it’d have to be Japan, with their crazy big turbos and ability to turn anything old and Japanese into a masterpiece… or maybe you’d think it would be the U.S.A., where some of the finest customs in the world are built, and supercharged V8’s are sold by the dozen in wooden crates at Wal-Mart. But you’d be wrong. You forgot about the country that brought us ABBA, Volvo and “bork bork bork!” (was that last reference too obscure?)
For over 2 years now, Philip (better known as Mull) has been hard at work with his 240Z, turning it into what can only be described as a piece of engineering magnificence. Graciously, he has documented the entire build from very beginning to its stage now (which involves welding in the suspension from an R32 into the rear end) with great photographs and very entertaining videos. The build is nowhere near completion just yet, but this is a testament to his dedication to create a car without compromise rather than anything else. The project is documented at one of our favourite forums, Classic Z Cars.
I have no doubt that when finished, this will be one of the best modified S30Z’s in the world. Possibly the best? We wait with baited breath…
Now For Something A Little More Relevant
As cool as a wood-fuel-powered truck may be, that example in my previous post is a little less classic and a little more ancient than we generally like to cover here. So here’s something a little more up our alley.
Loyal grandJDM reader and hitman, Mark, pointed us in the general direction of this club devoted to the Nissan Sunny truck thing, or more to the point, devoted to awesome. With a strong focus on the B110 and GB120 Sunny trucks, as the name Club Sunny Truck probably made quite clear for you, these guys know how to rock the tray.
In Australia, we refer to these types of cars as “utes”; short for “utility”. They’ve often got a couch sitting in the back so the owners and their buddies can take them to the local car races or football matches and comfortably sip beer from the couch while watching. I wonder if the Club Sunny Truck members sip warm sake in the back of their utes…
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Truck Turner
Back in August, Mini Truckin’ published an top-notch retrospective of all the small Japanese pickups that have basically created the segment that gives the magazine its namesake. A flat-green Datsun NL320 headlined that piece. Now, another one of the diminutive unibody pickups has made the pages, Scott Rupp’s 1964 NL320. Of course, this being Mini Truckin’, the truck was finished in House of Kolor blue and fitted with air suspension so it could be slammed within an inch of it’s life. A lot of hard work was put into this little hauler, and it’s very cool to see vintage Japanese vehicles getting attention from so many different types of enthusiasts.
Posted in datsun, nissan, trucks
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