The onslaught of media attention to Japanese classics continues towards crescendo. This time around, it’s CNN Money with their slideshow recalling significant Toyotas from the past half century. Toyota otaku will surely be able to find a few mistakes in there, but we will only see more of this as as we march ever closer to the 50th anniversary of Toyota USA on October 31, 2007. Meanwhile, Jalopnik asks, “What is your favorite Toyota?”
[via Autoblog]
I know a guy, right, with a stunning S30Z right here in my town. You might recall seeing it way back in this wallpaper post, actually. A couple of weeks ago, he and a buddy of his hit the suburban hills of ol’ Melbourne town, and got some video along a stretch of road popularly known as “the boov”. It’s pretty damn tasty, so check it out. Incidentally, I’ll be featuring his car here on grandJDM in the not too distant future. So keep an eye out for that!
Click through to check out the video.
Just another bunch of clips from Seibu Keisatsu.
Last week the Los Angeles Times ran a story on the recent Japanese Classic Car Show and the growing interest in classic J-rides. That story has been picked up by the Detroit News, one of the two major newspapers serving the greater 8 Mile metro area. Unlike the recent Chicago Tribune piece, this article actually brings the attention of our hobby to the Midwest, deep into the heart of Big Three turf no less. Think domestic manufacturers will take notice? They’ve enjoyed a healthy halo effect from the booming popularity of muscle cars in the past few years. Perhaps now it’s the J-cars’ turn.
Now this is weird….considering that the 240Z is Van’s favourite car and that it’s resplendent on the GrandJDM banner itself, it’s a little surprising that we haven’t done any historical articles on the 240Z yet. Well, hopefully we can rectify this situation in the next few weeks!
We’ll start with the Super Samuri, which is real period piece. In the early 70s, the 240Z was hot property everywhere, and given that its drivetrain was very heavily based on the 510 sedan used widely in motorsport, it was only a matter of time before Zeds were modified for speed. One of the most notable 240Z modifiers are the Samuri Motor Company, who in the early 70s, built modified 240Z for sale as turnkey offerings.
Howdy cowboys and cowgirls, if your travels this weekend happen to take you to the country music capital of the USA, Nashville, Tennessee, be sure to mosey on down to the Lane Motor Museum‘s “Nissan Z Cars” exhibit. The cars, including a yellow 260Z once owned by Yutaka “Mr K” Katayama’s himself, from the Nissan Heritage Collection, will be on display from October 2007 to July 2008.
In fact, this is the third such exhibit since Nissan decided to move its North American headquarters from sunny So-Cal to “Music City USA.” Before this, the Lane Motor Museum had a “Historic Nissans” exhibit that featured, among others, a 1960 1200 pickup, 1961 Fairlady, 1958 1000 sedan, 1967 Patrol, a B-210 with only 200 miles on it, and a super-rare 1937 Konut roadster (pictured). This one ended, uh, back in June (sorry, we really dropped the ball on that one) and before that, there was an exhibit of Nissan Race Cars, which included the 510 driven by John Morton (our excuse for not mentioning this is that we didn’t exist yet. Yeah, that’s it…)
For further reading, check out NICO’s visit to Historic Nissans here. Admission to Lane is $5 buckaroos and it is closed Tues-Wed.
[Image: NICO Club]
The new and improved Honda Fit was recently unveiled to the public in Japan, and apparently the Friends of Asimo have resurrected the RS moniker for the new hatch. You know what that means – it’s time to go “Road Sailing.”
Buying a Civic RS in 1974 meant that while mere mortals were simply driving, or whatever it is that plebes do, you could be really hauling through the bends, as one with the curves, the open lanes your oyster – aka Road Sailing, man! Oddly named, perhaps, but keep in mind that Japan is a maritime nation. With oodles of go-fast goodies like a tuned head and dual Keihin carbs, Honda bumped up power to a whopping 70hp. That doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize the original car had only 50. Some Civic RSs had flared fenders. Most were orange. All had a special “H” badge with a red background, the calling card of future Type R cars.
And since the Japanese Civic is no longer a hatch but a mid-size sedan, the Fit inherits Road Sailing duties and rubs it in the faces of lesser Fits and their 1.3L engines by getting a 1.5 with about 20 extra horses. It also comes in a more aggressive body and an optional 5-speed manual. Can you hear the asphalt waves beckoning?
Update: It’s not a genuine GT-R after all! Snap. Who feels like an idiot then eh? That’d be me.
I nearly wept when I saw this C10 listed on J-Spec this week. It’s a genuine C10 GT-R (though with an L28 and an R32 gearbox among other modifications, so it’s far from standard), and even more awesomely, the L28’s been bored out to a 3ltr. I wish I could get my hands on some audio of this thing—it must sound phenomenal. And with only 3500km on the dial, this is about as good as it gets. If you’ve got about 35 grand burning a hole in your rising sun emblazoned wallet, your search is over!
We approached Brian months ago to see if he’d be interested in having his stunning RA29 Celica featured here at grandJDM, but he mentioned that he’d just contracted to have it featured in Super Street magazine, and that exclusivity was a major condition. Our loss, Super Street’s massive gain!
So if you’re able to get your hands on this month’s Super Street, I think it’s fair to say you won’t be let down. I’ve never read it before, so I can’t comment on its quality in general, but I’m pretty sure this month’s ish will be the hotness. You can also read about it on their website, right here.
If you want to see a bit of a photo diary of the car’s buildup, head over to the JNC forums!
A few weeks ago we told you about the Mazda Design Challenge, which allowed you – the user! – to submit a design for the Mazda 3 of 2018. Well the submissions are in, and now the top 10, as decided on by Mazda, have been selected. Now Mazda wants you to vote on your favorite. The winning design will be executed in full 3-D at the LA Auto Show next month. Doesn’t sound like much time, does it?
Anyway, we are sad to report that not a single retro theme made the cut, as Mazda is going full steam ahead with the alien cocoon look. Can we still dream, or is it In Pod we Trust from now on?
If you’ve seen our coverage of TORC’s All-Toyotafest or the JCCS, you’ve no doubt noticed a super-clean ’77 Celica Liftback reflecting rays of pure orange light directly into your pupils. The owner of this beautiful machine is Brian Karasawa, who goes by “1977ra29” in our forum. We’d like to congratulate Brian on having his car in the pages of Super Street magazine. Anyone who’s seen this car knows how gorgeous it is in person, allowing him to walk away with top honors at JCCS. Moreover, check out the condition of the car when he first picked it up in this thread and appreciate how hard it must have been to rescue this car and bring it back to life. Kanpai!
[Image: Super Street]
If you’re keen to get your hands on some classic JDM, but you’d rather something a little more unique than the tried and true S30, C10, TE27, RX-3—and so on—this might be just what Doctor Jay D. Emm (see what I did there? ho ho ho) ordered.
The 2door Nissan Laurel SGX is a stunning looking car—and hard to come by, especially in such amazing condition. Rory – aka idahospeed – over at the JNC forums is now selling his Laurel (pictured above), which took home first place honours at this year’s Japanese Classic Car Show for Best JDM Car. Head over to the JNC forums to find out more, and if you want to buy it, you’d better be quick. This sale isn’t going to last long!
For the past few days, the Hot Rod Reunion has been happening over in Bakersfield, California, and Monday was the final heat for the nostalgic funny car drag races. This is a venue that usually takes to Japanese car fans about as well as a quilting bee to Sturgis, but we thought it was amusing to see Bucky Austin’s Plymouth Arrow (aka Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste) stretched out and flattened in funny car style. Not only that, but this particular Plym went home with the title. For an Australian Celeste-ial bodied drag racer click here. For a Datsun 280ZX, click here.
[Image: Bucky Austin Racing]
That’s right folks, I been slavin’ over the Photostove for unthinkable hours yet again, pullin’ some more desktops outta the oven. The photos for all of these wallpapers were of course taken by the owners of the cars – Arnel, Jerry, and Mike – so I can’t take any credit for that. They’re damn good photos though, and they make for some crazy good wallpaper. So jump over to the Downloads section to get yer mitts on ’em.
Apologies for the lack of resolution options, the photos weren’t quite big enough to venture into widescreen/large-res territory.
Japanese classics have always been a bit of an underdog in the car scene—in fact some would argue an oxymoron—but without a doubt, that cannot be claimed any longer. Finally we are seeing these automotive masterpieces gain the attention they deserve. On the one hand it’s great to see more and more people fall in love with these fantastic machines and give them the care and attention they deserve, but on the other you can’t help but feel a bit selfish: surely with all these new fans, it will have an effect on one of the great things about Classic JDM—their relatively modest value!
Anyway, it’s unstoppable now, so time to stock up on rotaries and Celicas while you can!! LA Times recently published this article, which further boosts the classic Japanese car image that has really exploded recently in the States.
One of the magazines we religiously collect is Thorougbred and Classic Cars. Probably the oldest classic car magazine, it often throws up a fantastic article or comparison that you wouldn’t have expected. One of them is this one, which pits a Lotus Elan against the little Honda S800. It’s one of the very few recent articles which offer a road test review of the S800, so this is a rare find. The conclusions may surprise!
Last week, both the east and west coasts chimed in with their takes on vintage Japanese cars and their increasing value as classics. Some of our readers expressed dismay at the inevitable price hike that would come with more exposure to our community. To help us out, the Chicago Tribune published their take on the scene today.
Seemingly devoid of any in-depth research (no mention of last week’s JCCS at all), the article says Japanese cars are overlooked by the collector car market, but then in the very next paragraph says, “Most 1950s and 1960s Japanese autos will never be collectibles because they were resolutely ordinary, “disposable” economy models.” Hmm, where have we heard that before? Chevys? Fords? Every muscle car that ever existed?
It then goes on to proclaim “The following Japanese autos are collectible,” a 13-car list that includes the Subaru SVX, Isuzu Impulse and 1992 Mitsubishi Galant VR-4. Now, we’re not saying that a those cars aren’t worthy – surely they are – but if you’re putting together a list of the 13 top J-classics of all time and opening up the field to a 1999 end-date, surely you can think of better examples than that. We might even have to come up with our own list sometime. Oh well, at least while Midwesterners snap up the 1999 Mazda Miata we’ll have a little more time to amass our collections of true classics.
Not to be outdone by ToyMods, VicZcar.com are also organising a weekend away for their members on the 10th to the 11 of November. If you’re interested in going along, jump over to their forums and check it out.
So, we’re thinking a neat idea would be to offer some grandJDM stickers. We’ve had readers ask if stickers are on the cards, and we just weren’t sure if classic JDM enthusiasts are the type to have stickers on their precious rides. But after seeing more than a few cars at JCCS with stickers galore adorning the windows, we figured what the hell, let’s do it.
So, I’ve put together three possible versions, and it’d be ace if you could vote on your preferred sticker so we have a good idea of which one to run with. We’ll offer different stickers in the future, but let’s see how these ones go for now! And please, if you wouldn’t be inclined to buy one, please don’t vote. Thanks folks!
Click through to see the options, and you can vote either in this post, or in the sidebar over there on the right!
The Australian Toyota community Toymods have organised a weekend away in November, so if you’ve got a classic Toyota, jump over to their forums and check it out.
