Japanese Nostalgic Car

I’m more than a little in love with this car. After I saw it in the round of photos from this year’s Japanese Classic Car Show, I was stuper keen to feature it on grandJDM. But, alas, JNC had beaten me to it. Those guys! I got an envelope stuffed with powder and their names on it, I tells ya. I kid, I kid.

Wake up, grab a cup o’ caff, and head over to JNC to check this bit out and the great write-up that goes with it. So damn hot.

“Oh you!”

If you’re hoping to jump into the classic JDM market and snap up a bargain, one possible obstacle could be the ol’ ball-and-chain. Otherwise known as the wife. Some of us are lucky enough to have understanding partners (and some of us can just buy them off – “car for me, diamonds for you, engine for me, shoes for you!”), but for those who aren’t, this seller on eBay has got just what you need.

What better way to convince the other half that buying a bit of classic J-tin is the right move, than to show her how great she’d look in it? “Look honey, this chick looks great in the car, so you probably would too!” Okay, a little more tact perhaps.

[eBay link]
[grandJDM mirror]
[Thanks to DatsunFreak for the link!]

In 1985, Nissan stunned everyone by releasing a mid engined prototype called the Mid4. The first thing you notice of course is that it looks a hell of a lot like a Ferrari 308. Back in the day, this was quite a bone of contention and the Mid4 designer Hiroshi Itoh received some criticism for it. However the really exciting thing was that Nissan had made several prototypes that were quite fully engineered and were convincing, driving cars. These were not just stylish concept cars built to look good on car show stands: Nissan invited car journalists from all around the world to its test track in Oppama to give its small fleet of fully engineered and trimmed prototypes hell and everyone was blown away.

The vibe at the time from all the car magazines around the world was that, here was a revolutionary high tech supercar that was just about to go into production.

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By far one of the more bizarre automotive dalliances was the very short lived alliance between Alfa Romeo and Nissan in the early 80s. Alfa Romeo needed a small and cheap new model to accompany it’s new Alfa33 compact, and Nissan needed a way to break into the European market.

Back in the 1980s, JDM manufacturers were subject to import quotas in most Europoean countries, which limited the number of cars they could sell in any given market. Today, Japanese manufacturers all have plants in Europe anyway, so the import quotas are no longer an issue. But back in the early 80s, Nissan saw a way around the quotas by tying up with Alfa Romeo. And Alfa Romeo would begin to manufacture Nissan Pulsars in its old Alfasud factory near Naples, and that plan was that Nissan would have golden opportunity to expand its European market share, free of the constraints of import quotas.

Well…..it didn’t quite work out that way.

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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.