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.
Truck Turner
Posted in datsun, nissan, trucks
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Gramps Was a Genius
I tell ya, those folks back in the 20th century really had their heads screwed on right. We might make fun of them for sending “letters” through the “post” and “making their own dinner at home in the kitchen”, but they had some damn clever ideas. Not necessarily perfect, but definitely ingenious.
Give me an example, I hear you say? Alright pal, how about this one. A wood-powered truck! To quote grandJDM reader Jon Christall’s Flickr page (which quotes the Toyota Museum), we get this:
“During and after WWII, supplies of gasoline were low in Japan. To cope with this, a truck—equipped with a “wood gas generator”—went into production. Compared to gasoline-powered autos, the lack of power in this truck was impossible to ignore. People often had to get out and push them up hills. Approximately 26,000 of these trucks were produced (based on the Toyota BM model), and at the time were the primary type of available truck.”
You just can’t beat that. Badass, 1940s style.
Posted in Did You Know?, toyota
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Did you Know: Skyline, Ken and Mary
The C10 Skyline is commonly known as Hakosuka, and you think it might mean “Deadly Wind” or “Shark” or something like that because the word sounds tough….but actually it just means Box-Skyline, Hako means Box and Suka is just a truncation of the first syllable of Skyline (but given the Japanese pronounciation where you would pronounce “Sky” as “Su-ky”). But the following generation of Skyline, the C110 is commonly known as “Kenmeri” or “Ken and Mary”, which is even more bizarre.
Why, I hear you ask? It’s an excellent question.
Posted in Did You Know?, nissan
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The Hottest of Hot Hatches
Well before the likes of the MazdaSpeed 3 and the Civic Type R, crazy little funoboxes (hah, I totally just made that up) like the Starlet and the 310 were kicking around. I still see quite a few modified Starlets kicking around these days, and I’m sure there’s a lot of love for the 310 out there as well.
Auto Otaku has a short article, a couple of photos, and a video on the TS Cup; a racing series in Japan with a strong Starlet and 310 contingent. They look great, but even better is the video. The sound of these things… holy pants. These cars suddenly became a whole lot more appealing to me. Check it out.
Posted in nissan, racing, toyota
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Wagons, Ho!
Last week, we told you about a new Japanese magazine that just hit the stands, called Street Van and Wagon, with a longback S50 Crown and C10 Skyline gracing the cover. Being the wagon whores we are, we had to see more. Well there’s more, baby. A lot more, at their online gallery! The old gold Sunny and slammed crimson Carina are just an appetizer, so stab that mouse button with all your might, your eyes will thank you.
240Z owners rejoice! You now have a theme song
Alrighty then. I have absolutely no idea what this is. Just going by the Youtube comments, I think it’s got something to do with food…
Anyway, grandJDM takes no responsibility if this tune gets stuck in your head for the rest of your life, and before you ask, no you cannot have your 1min 28 seconds back.
Posted in Miscellaneous, nissan
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Enjoy the Ride
After we reminisced about the awesomeness that was the Dream Garage Nissan commercial, reader Dennis Currington notified us of a copy of said awesomeness on his website. Thanks for the memories, Dennis.
Posted in cm, datsun, nissan
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Vamos: Pop Quiz!
Ok, pop quiz! Name me a Honda convertible. 9000rpm redline. 4 seats. Mid engined. Ok, those of you who said S2000, go wash your mouth out with Mobil 1 right now*. Those of you who said NSX-Targa can do the same*.
Give up? Ok, then click and read on!
*don’t do this
Posted in honda
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Starion to Star in Upcoming JDM Film
Kev’s article a while ago on the Mitsubishi Starion, while being a great read and generally well-received, also fueled quite a bit of negative feedback from a couple of forums around the web. There seemed to have been some confusion about certain components and details on the Starion, with many Starquest owners swearing we’d gotten it all wrong. It was, after all, a Starion-specific article, and what is or isn’t fitted to a Starquest is well beside the point!
So back on the topic of Starions, Michael from Project Zero G has put me on to some news about a movie being released in January ’08, which will star a Group B Rally-spec Starion. The movie is called Special Stage, it’s Japanese, and you can read more about it here, or check out the Japanese-language official website.
You can also read more about the Starion’s rally brother here at GroupBRally.com.
Posted in mitsubishi
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I Just Saved A Ton of Money on Giken!
If you’re anything like me, your obsession with cars—classic or new—is more about the style and the driving pleasure than what’s happening inside the engine, behind the wheels, or in that long steel thing between the front seats.
Every now and then though, I do get to thinking that I’d like to know more about this or that particular thing that I’ve heard talk about here and there. One of those things is the OS Giken heads that were built for the L series of engines from Nissan. I’d heard that they don’t make them anymore, and that everyone with a passion for classic Nissans sadly laments this fact at least twice a day.
So for those like me who knew nothing about anything, here’s a great article I read earlier today.
Posted in Did You Know?, nissan
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Special Stage on Silver Screen
Our Aussie friends at grandJDM bring us news of a new movie about rallying coming out in Japan. SS, an abbreviation for Special Stage, is based on a manga of the same title, and while Sho Aikawa is the leading name on the credits, we all know the real stars are the cars.
The protago-mobile will be an AWD Mitsubishi Starion, and according to the official website, supporting roles will include a GDB Subaru Impreza WRX STi, R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, Techart Porsche Cayman, Ford Focus RS (that would be a hotted-up European Focus, not the Hertz fleet darling we get here), and the manga-biquitous Toyota AE86.
The trailer promises all manner of nighttime mountain racing and what appears to be the requisite underdog story. Check out the an English article here. The film opens January 12, 2008. We eagerly await the inevitable Tomica versions.
[grandJDM]
Posted in manga, mitsubishi, nissan, racing, rally, subaru, toyota, Video Games
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More March Madness
Last month we told you about the 25th anniversary of the Nissan March and the three limited edition cars going on sale to commemorate the occasion. In the consumerist-crazed culture of Japan, however, that’s not nearly enough, and Nissan has just unleashed three more of the mega cute compacts on the unsuspecting public of Japan. The official name is the Nissan March 25th Happiness, and comes in the exclusive color of Silky Beige and an “odor absorbing headliner.” Where that absorbed odor then goes, we do not know.
Next, is the March Plus Safety, which is everything the 25th Happiness is, in addition to side curtain airbags and xenon headlamps. Does that make the base version the March Minus Safety or March Plus Potential Head Injury?
Lastly, we have the Kisekae version, which offers something none of the others do – upholstery in two styles, bubbly or striped, with matching pedals. Kisekae means “dress up” in Japanese, and we guess it was inevitable, but the car as disposable fashion accessory is alive and well in Japan.
[Nissan]
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Nissan's Real Life Dream Garage
Remember those 90s Nissan commercials starring Mr. K as a magical Willy Wonka-like figure holding the golden ticket to an automotive wonderland? For young car nuts like us, those ads expressed, in full cinematic color, the entirety of what was going on in the section of our adolescent minds not devoted to girls or producing acne. The one that always had us gawking at the rapidly panning images (this was long before the days of Tivo) was the one where a boy stumbles upon a hidden lair called the “Dream Garage” stocked full of vintage and racing Nissans.
Well, it’s been long known that Nissan has a real life Dream Garage stashed away in a giant warehouse in Japan, and one lucky boy at twinturbo.net has indeed stumbled upon it, taking bunches of photos right before the oompa-loompas escorted him out. Located in Zama, just southwest of Tokyo, the Nissan Heritage Collection has over 250 classic, concept, racing, and emergency cars & trucks tucked away – everything from a 1933 Datsun 12 Phaeton to a 641-hp R390 GT-1 Le Mans homologated road car. Unfortunately, this is not open to the public, but the public can view the collection in the handy-dandy Heritage Collection database. Lastly, we are forever indebted to Stickerman for posting this in our forum. Thank you!
UPDATE: We just surfed over grandJDM to catch up, and discovered that they used the same photo and Willy Wonka reference in their post about the Zama garage. Great minds, mates, great minds.
Posted in datsun, japan, museum, nissan
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System of a Crown
At the Tokyo Motor Show, which is going on right now, Toyota is showing off a Crown Hybrid Concept. That name should sound familiar to you – it’s all we’ve been talking about for months, the very descendant of that plucky little Toyopet that was the first Toyota to appear on our shores. As for the last Crown to appear on our shores, that’d be the the fourth-gen kujira (pictured). At home and in other markets, however, the venerable Crown has gone on to spawn enough descendants to rival Genghis Khan. In Japan, they’re up to generation twelve, and you can now check out some cracking good archival footage, including old commericals, of all one-dozen generations at this new Crown Hybrid minisite. Just click on “Crown Evolution” (readers from Kansas are forewarned), and see the amazing progression from underpowered blunder to technopowered wonder.
Posted in cm, toyota
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If I Were Ever Going to Break and Enter…
…This would be the place.
I don’t know too much about this, but it looks like the owner of these photos took a trip to some sort of Nissan warehouse slash museum, and promptly wet himself. Well alright, he didn’t wet himself, but I’d forgive him if he did. Packed with examples of just about every Nissan from every generation—from track-specific builds through to regular road cars—this place is a-maz-ing. So go check out his photos, but make sure you slide a rubber mat under you first, huh.
Man, we really know how to pile on the Nissan stuff! But hey, according to the poll over there, that’s all good. And remember, if you’ve seen anything you think we should be mentioning, shoot us an email.
Posted in Galleries, nissan
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High Mile Club
If you’ve got a classic that’s been on the road for a while, some car companies want to hear from you. Honda recently launched its Mile Makers Club, which welcomes any dream-powered machines above 100,000 miles. Strangely, the near-million mile Civic has yet to appear.
Also, Toyota Truck Nation has been going on for a while now. Again, 100,000 milers get past the velvet ropes, but 200,000 milers are rewarded with a t-shirt, sticker, and license plate frame.
Most of the well-traveled vehicles on these sites are from late model cars, but hopefully some of you nostalgic Honda and Toyota truck owners can contribute your odometer readings.
Posted in honda, toyota, trucks
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The Skyline Supremacy: C10 GT-R Hakosuka
Hakosuka. What more can you say.
We all know that’s it’s cool and we all definitely want one….but what IS a C10 GT-R, and where did it come from? That’s a good question for a great many Skyline fans. For every 1000 guys who would gladly sell some internal organs to own one, there’s maybe only one guy who might be able to tell you anything meaningful about it.
So let’s change that right now. GrandJDM readers, welcome to the Cliff Notes on our favourite car, the C10 Skyline 2000GT-R.
Posted in nissan, prince, racing
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Racing Sim
Will Wright is the designer of the hugely popular life simulator video game, The Sims, in which you can command your virtual characters to eat, sleep, defecate and even play other video games, but the one thing they can’t seem to do is drive a car. Ironic then, that Wright was enough of a speed nut to compete in the US Express, the early 80s successor to the Cannonball Run. Competitors set off from Brooklyn, New York and headed for the finish in Santa Monica, California with only one rule – get there first. Not only did Wright compete, he won the inaugural illegal coast-to-coast race in 1980 with his electronically pimped Mazda RX-7.
Festooned with every gadget imaginable on the day disco died, the Mazda was Wright and co-pilot Rick Doherty’s mobile command center and could have served as the inspiration for Jackie Chan’s Subaru in the Cannonball Run movie. Stuffed into the 2-seater was a CB radio, radar speedometer control box, dash mounted computer for distance and fuel calculations, police scanner hidden inside the glove box, fuel cell that could fill the stock tank on the fly, refrigerator, night vision scopes, a radar detector, and a backwards mounted radar jammer to set off competitor’s radar detectors.
With an arsenal rivaling the Pentagon’s, the duo won the outlaw cross-country dash in 33 hours, 39 minutes, despite taking a longer route to avoid the fuzz while driving regularly at 120 mph. Keep in mind that because of the fuel crisis, the nationwide speed limit, regardless of state or straightness of road, was a strict 55 mph. Clearly, some moving violations took place. Needless to say, with today’s sensitive and litigious climate, the chances of an organized race on this scale happening again are nil. Wright’s escapades are part of the upcoming movie, 32 Hours 7 Minutes, named after the record time set in 1983.
[Wired]
Posted in mazda, streetracing, Video Games
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Old Charm
JDM-Freaks, we bring you today a bit of a curious website. This one is dedicated to the lesser-known old J-tin. It’s in Japanese of course, but thankfully there are lots of pictures to check out! The website states proudly on the front page;
“Funinki-kyushakai” feature customized unloved and worthless Japanese nostalgic cars for real enthusiasts.
You heard the man! We’re talking ugly old Toyota Crown, Nissan Laurel, Daihatsu Charmant amongst others. Not as popular as your S30Z or Celica, but for us, equally as interesting. We hope you find them interesting too.
There are lots of links on the site, so make sure to click everywhere! A lot of affiliated Japanese websites too, all of which are worth checking out. Yup, you can spend hours just looking around if you like!
Just make sure not to miss the gallery page.
Posted in Miscellaneous
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