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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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]
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]
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.
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.
…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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
Way back when (and by when we mean 2001), it was the dawn of a fresh millennium, our new president Dubya had yet to make a mess of the country, and the nation was still riding high on the dotcom boom. So say your corporate overlords at ebubble.com had given you enough stock options to make you a paper gazillionaire, but you still had to wait till they vested to cash in. What reasonably priced Japanese car would hold you over until payday, or would ensure itself future classic status in case the economy turned south? You were probably too busy to find out, thanks to overtime at the office because you spent the day playing foosball in the lounge. Luckily, Forbes came to the rescue, listing their greatest Japanese cars of all time, circa 2001.
1917 Mitsubishi Model A
1951-80 Toyota Landcruiser
1958-66 Datsun 1200 Pickup
1967 Toyota 2000GT
1968-74 Toyota Corolla/Tercel
1968-73 Datsun 510
1969-73 Datsun 240Z
1974 Honda Civic
1976-79 Honda Accord
1977 Subaru Brat
1978 Mazda RX-7
1979 Toyota Celica Supra
1984 Toyota MR2
1986 Acura Legend
1989 Mazda Miata/MX-5
1990 Lexus LS400
1990 Mitsubishi 3000GT
1990 Acura NSX
1992 Infiniti J30
A few glaring omissions, uh, glare, though. What about great milestone cars like the Mazda Cosmo Sport, or the Nissan Skyline of any vintage? Still, for a list came before the whole nostalgic craze, it’s not bad, which means it’s way better than the Chicago Tribune‘s recent compilation. Click over to Forbes to see the slideshow.
I first mentioned Austin Hoke’s S30Z way back in September (I remember it like it was just over a month ago), but I discovered this week—I’m a bit slow sometimes—that he’s in the process of slotting a VQ35DE into it.
While not exactly an M3-beater when in its standard form in the 350Z, the VQ35DE is no slouch either, and when I think of it sitting in the belly of the much lighter S30, I’m reminded of this Mallrats line: “Do you know why Lois Lane could never have Superman’s baby? His Kyrptonian biological makeup is enhanced by earth’s yellow sun. If Lois gets a tan the kid could kick right through her stomach”. I’m sure the VQ won’t be kicking holes in Austin’s car, but the metaphor’s a good one right? Right? Ah screw you guys!
Check it out at www.vq240z.com
Firstly, folks, thanks for all the responses to the sticker poll. We’ve got a good idea now of how to go about our plan for world domination hooking you all up with stickers, so that’s ace. But now, we want more feedback.
We need to know which Japanese manufacturer is, in your eyes, responsible for the best, most memorable, and most inspiring range of classic JDM steel. Are you all big Daihatsu fans and we’ve failed to give you enough love? You get the drift. So hit the polls over in the far right column there, and let us know!
One of the first articles we posted here on GrandJDM was a quick piece on some of the more oddball rotary-engined concoctions that Mazda cooked up in its early years (here).
The most unexpected one was of course the 13B engined Parkway 26. Now 26 doesn’t mean that it has two 13B engines, although it probably needs two since it’s a big, 2750kg 26 seater bus. Alas, it only has one rotary engine, the poor pollutionised REAPS 135hp 13B struggled to power it to a top speed of 125km/h (no word on how long it might take to get there). Mind you, two 13Bs would have been a good start, since the Parkway weighs as much as an RX3 Savanna…towing a trailer with two more RX3 Savannas on it. Load it up with 25 of your best friends and you can add yet another two RX3s to that hypothetical trailer (but look on the bright side…maybe they’ll spring for gas).
We’re back from SEMA week, and as you all know, Toyota celebrated its 50th anniversary during that time. Our previous post was made minutes before rushing over to the Toyota display at the Vegas Convention Center for the press release on the very morning of the momentous occasion. Unfortunately, only the briefest of passing mentions referenced the 50th at all, as the focus was the unveiling the 2009 Corolla and Matrix.
But even if Toyota themselves aren’t talking about their half-century in the US, other people are. Thanks to the Classic Toyota Town group, here’s a roundup of stories regarding the Big T: Toyota’s Open Road Blog, PRI’s The World, Automotive News, CNN Money, DailyBreeze, and Toyotageek.
