Recently, we profiled some bizarre tie-ups between JDM and European car companies, like the weird alliance between Nissan and Alfa Romeo and between De Tomaso and Daihatsu. But one that we forgot, and to be honest, it’s the one that really takes the cake…is the alliance between Mitsubishi and AMG.
Great! You’re thinking. So AMG does a deep-skirted, big wheeled, boosted up Starion, right? Well….er, no. The vehicle of choice for AMG to work its magic on is the Debonair V3000 luxocruiser.
Lately I’ve gotten crazy for model cars, after the stupid night I spent turning my desktop scanner into a diorama. When a buddy linked me to these RC cars, I wasn’t instantly blown away—until I saw the number of shells they’ve got based on classic JDM cars. Hot damn. C110, C10, S30Z, RX-3, ooooof.
I can just see myself showin’ up at an RC race day with one of these, when everyone else is decked out with R34 GT-R and FD RX-7 shells. Aw yeah, haha.
Oh hell yes. I have no idea what these cars are (Charades? 121s? My knowledge of buzzboxes is minimal), whether they’re even Japanese, or where the hell this video was filmed, but it’s just too damn awesome to leave out. Forget drifting, this is where it is at. Click through.
While searching for something completely unrelated on the googles, I stumbled across this Kareha leaf t-shirt.
What it says, I have no idea – presumably something like “old driver for please be watching out” – but it’s cool nonetheless. Nice price, I think I will buy.
A couple of weeks ago, Auto Otaku – genius websearcher that he is – posted a link to a website he found in his stumblings; Kataoka Racing service. They’ve got a great gallery of photos from events all around Japan, covering the last decade or so, and showing all the usual suspects in the classic JDM back catalogue. A damn fine way to burn an hour.
Autoblog today linked to a video showing a replica of a Ferrari GTO, built off a 240Z donor body. This isn’t an all together unusual project, but each and every time, I find myself asking why. I suppose the answers to that question isn’t hard to guess at: Everyone wants a Ferrari. The GTO is a handsome looking classic. The S30 is a more than suitable donor body.
But still, with all of those things in mind, I can’t help but think of all of this as simply ruining a perfectly good Z. The GTO is a great looking car. Do I think it’s a better looking car than the Z? I honestly don’t. Alright, I’ll concede; it’s better looking than a stock standard Z. But when I think of a tastefully modified Z in the fan-favourite style of lowered, boltons, Wats, fender mirrors, and a nice dark paint job – I just could not take a GTO replica over that. And I certainly couldn’t allow myself to turn it into one.
At the end of the day, I have to salute a job well done, and the two linked examples are very well done.
How about you?
From the Christmas morning surprise bureau, our man in Japan Satoshi brings us photos from the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show.
It hardly seems like a whole 6mths has passed since Van, Lachy and I started GrandJDM, and it’s been a blast. We’d like to give our heartfelt thanks to all you readers for supporting us, and we hope you’ve gotten as much fun out of old JDM iron as we have. We’re all looking forward to bringing you more in 2008 (boy, do we have some surprises in store!) and we’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
This week’s news segment on the most hilariousest motoring show in TV-dom, Top Gear, has a guide to presents for the holidays. Unfortunately, despite the speed of teh Internets, by the time this could get across the Atlantic from the from the soccer-is-football bureau courtesy of tipster Madflava, it was too late for most major observances descended from druid solstice festivals.
Still, we couldn’t help but notice the lineup of Nissan paraphernalia, including a sled, Z-car aloha shirt, and – wait for it – a bobblehead of Yutaka Katayama! Yes kids, now you can have your very own desktop figurine of Mr. K, the man who brought you the 510, 240Z and a series of zany mid-90s car commercials, complete with cane and Cosby vest!
And, that’s still not enough Nissan-themed gear for you, there’s also a skateboard, barbecue grill, electric guitar and kayak. Shift_co-branding!
A couple of years ago Peugeot released the 1007, which is a funky subcompact city car with a unique feature: double sliding doors. So instead of conventional doors, you get van-like sliding doors which whizz back and forth electrically. Cool idea, the concept behind the 1007 being to allow easier ingress to the car in typically tight Euro cities.
Great idea….but just so you know, JDM did it first…
In the late 80s, Nissan went crazy on concept cars, almost all of which never went into production, like the Mid4 supercar. But another concept that made a favourable splash was the Saurus.
Unveiled at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show, the Saurus was a pretty fanciful concept. Powered by a mid-mounted 1.0 supercharged and turbocharged engine (which later appeared in the Micra Super Turbo) it promised lots of lightweight sporting fun, and its two toned, roofless buggylike styling touched a nerve at the time (when JDM cars were nothing if not conservative).
Like wildfires, more great news keeps popping up from SoCal. The Toyota Owners and Restorers Club (or TORC) has announced the 2008 All-Toyotafest. The date on which the planets align for Toyota fans is Saturday, May 3, 2008. Once again, we’ll be bailing on the Queen Mary like Kate Winslet from the Titanic, and moving onto a bigger venue at Long Beach City College Veterans Stadium. 2008 is shaping up to be a great year for nostalgic car fans, and it hasn’t even started yet!
Coverage of the 2007 All Toyotafest can be found in our Events section.
Hot off the press, the Japanese Classic Car Show Association has announced the JCCS date for 2008. The fourth annual show will take place on Sunday, October 12, 2008. With nearly 11 months’ notice, there is no excuse not to go! But if you were hoping to chill by the tranquil waters of the Queen Mary, well, that ship has sailed. Not the actual ship, mind you, but the JCCS will now be held at a bigger and better location, Hidden Valley Park in Irvine, California. Be there or be square, mon frere!
Coverage of the 2007 and 2006 shows can be found in our Events section.
Hop on a bullet train headed west out of Tokyo and in about an 90 minutes you’re in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, smack dab in the middle of Triple Diamond Mafia turf. That’s right, the city is home to Mitsubishi’s R&D department, proving grounds, and collection of preserved milestones of the zaibatsu’s automotive history. For those who can’t make the trek, here’s an online version of the collection. From the police car drifter bureau, this tip comes courtesy of our dear reader DJ Powerhaus. Arigato gozaimasu! We’ve seen online galleries from Nissan and Mazda, so it’s only fitting that we tip our hats to Mitsu.
Ok, so we don’t know much about New Zealand except that some movie about Lords and Rings was filmed there. But we do know this: If those orcs had rode into battle on any these absolutely killer old bombs, they would have been wiping the floor with those elves. From the Oceania bureau, dear reader Snoozin brings us photos from the inaugural Oldschool.co.nz cruise that took place over the summer. A while back, yes, but his name is Snoozin! The important thing is, he posted them, so that we could have a look at their Isuzu Bellets, Toyota Crowns and Suzuki Frontes. Good on ya, mate! Thanks for thinking of us Yanks.
Here’s another wacky Toyota commercial from overseas, this time from South Africa. Apparently the release of the 1984 Corolla called for a hip music show countdown of Corollas past. But, seeing as how Apartheid was still in full effect, the moonwalking breakdancers have complexions that are a bit closer to Michael Jackson circa 2007 rather than the King of Pop, 1984.
SR20Store puts turbocharged Japanese four-bangers into our truck-engined 240SXs, but the shop owner’s an old school guy at heart. Here’s Marco and his beautiful C10 Skyline GT-R clone. Well, it’s a 20-footer, but even a rusting hulk of a hakosuka is a thing of beauty. The Wangan midnight blue color makes it stand out too (though he tell us that the original color was gray). His other car is an R32 GT-R that you may have seen in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car. And his wife drives an RB26-powered Silvia. His driveway makes Nissan fans wet themselves.
One of the great things about JDM tuners in general is that it’s quite common to find a tuner that caters for your particular model of car, and only that model. So if you have say, a Mazda Roadster, there are actually quite a few MX5-only tuners which you can go to, like Car Make Corn’s in east Tokyo for example. Everything you need from suspension and brake kits, to hard-to-find, out of production trinkets will usually be found at specialised tuners like these. So if you’re ever in Japan it’s worth seeking out the relevant tuner for your particular car.
But if you have a C10 Hakosuka Skyline, it seems that there is little point going anywhere else besides Victory50 (also known as Uchida Motor Works, or KGC10 Works). And in the best JDM Tuner tradition, it is a one stop shop for your classic Hako.
After going through the infectious US-market Toyota ads last week, we were inspired to see what catchy ad jingles would haunt our brains till we needed to bang our noggins against a fencepost to get them out of our heads. Well, here’s what we found – a pair of Toyota ads. You’ll thank us later. Or not.
The first, the 1979 Sprinter, chilling in all-white Grecian architecture by the Mediterranean Sea. Feta cheese, anyone?
To complement that, we have the ad for the 1980 Celica Camry. That’s right, the name affixed to the number-one selling American sedan was a sub-model! This was more or less a slightly redesigned Carina, but the Celica name was hot, and what better way to convince buyers they were buying a four door sports coupe?
