Here at GrandJDM, we’re great fans of the Toyota 2000GT, which is pretty well covered in our past articles here and here. Japan’s very first high-end sports car, it has an aura that belies its production numbers of only a scant 337 examples worldwide.
Part of that aura comes from the fact that the 2000GT was one of the few non-British cars given the “hero” role in a James Bond movie.
One of the things we love about vintage Japanese cars (although this tends to apply to all vintage cars) is the wild colors that adorned their sheetmetal. In contrast, everything on the road today is “champagne” or some hue between silver and gray.
Japanese colors have a curious history, however. Before Soichiro Honda came along to challenge MITI (Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry), common colors found in the automotive spectrum like red and white were reserved only for emergency vehicles. White eventually became the luxury color of choice, fueled in part by Toyota’s “White Crown” campaign to sell it’s luxury flagship to the emerging class of well-heeled Tokyoites. Naturally, no owner would be caught dead in a black Crown, used primarily as town cars for VIPs, because who wanted to be mistaken for a chauffeur after plunking down the cash for the Lexus of its day?
Unfortunately, many would be caught dead in black cars, because the only other use for the color was on hearses. For the American palette, however, especially on sports cars, black was de rigeur. First-gen Celicas came in Orion Turquoise and Scarlett Prominence, but it took until 1975, after prompting from a Toyota USA exec, for the Celica to debut in black. The story is detailed on Toyota’s Open Road Blog.
Similarly, while Datsun 240Zs were decked out in New Sight Orange and Sunshine Yellow, the first black Z-car didn’t appear until 1978, with the special edition Black Pearl 280Z, which, after a resounding success, persuaded Datsun to come out with the “Black Gold” 280ZXs for 1979.
[Images: Toyota Open Road Blog, Zhome]
Regulars on this site will know that Mazda celebrates the 40th anniversary of its rotary engine this year. The official birthday was on May 30, marked by the when Mazda’s first pistonless car, the 1967 Cosmo Sport, went on sale four decades ago, but ever since then the non-stop whirlwind of celebration, at venues such as Laguna Seca, SevenStock and JCCS, has rivaled the whirling capabilities of the engine itself.
Throughout, the company itself has been providing a website for anyone curious about its unique and sporting history, and the latest addition is a series of videos taking an in-depth look at the manufacture of a rotary engine. Although much of it is done by giant steel machines, there are still elements of old school craftsmanship involved, especially when a pair of human hands are employed to fit precision parts like the apex seals onto the rotors by feel. Check out the videos here.
[Source: Mazda]
I like to think I’m fairly obsessed with cars, old and new, but some folks really put me to shame. I’m not sure I could ever have the badge of my favourite car emblazoned across my skin in anything more than finger paint, so I’ve really gotta dip my hat to those who take that big step of having their automotive love declared in ink. I guess it’s not so unusual though; plenty of peeps get their favourite sports teams tattooed after they win the final, so is this really so different?
I mentioned Koich’s F20C-powered TA22 (an engine normally found humming away inside the Honda S2000) way back here, but today I came across his Flickr gallery for the car. It nicely chronicles in a massive set of photos the path the car has taken from ordinary everyday oldschool Celica, to the unique and crazy balls out machine that it became. Foamin’ at the mouth.
Check it out. You can also load up his blog here.
Hell, if you can’t own it in out here in the real world, you may as well own it online. And for the cost of a 360 and a few hours behind the wheel—so to speak—it’s a lot cheaper than the real deal!
I am of course referring to the Toyota 2000GT. The only Japanese car to star in a Bond movie has now achieved an even higher accolade; it’s in Project Gotham Racing 4. I’m not sure if any other classic JDM can be found in the game, but my good man Shaneus assures me that if there is, he’ll eat my hat. Wait ’til he sees the hat I’ve picked out.
If you’d like to check out just how amazing this car looks in its virtual form, head over to this thread at the NeoGAF forums, where a user has posted some shots from the “photo mode” in PGR4.
You know the drill. You find your dream nostalgic but the ad says “Ran when parked” and it’s been sitting in a yard somewhere for the last 10 years. You bring your new baby home only to discover that its funkifying your whole garage with the combined smell of sun-baked mildewy vinyl, rotting leaves, and possibly an animal habitat or two. And while all your passengers can agree that they don’t want to smell a peat bog, what if not everyone is a fan of “Fresh Pine”?
What you need is the SpotScents, a cannon that periodically shoots personalized smells in the cabin of your car. Developed by Subaru and unveiled over the weekend at the Japanese trade show Ceatac, SpotScents blasts two streams that converge at the head of one passenger to give him or her the aroma of their choice. Theoretically, the odor will remain in the general vicinity of one’s head, allowing other passengers to have their own personalized smell. Magnifique!
[Source: CNET Crave]
After seeing the carbon fiber Honda Z600 that wowed the JCCS crowd over the weekend, we wondered – out loud and to the dismay/puzzlement of other post office patrons waiting in line with us – what is the fastest Honda Z600 the world has to offer?
First, we have “Evil Tweety,” holder of the J/Pro record at the Bonneville Salt Flats with a 99.299 mph run, though its fastest time clocked is 101.5 mph. According to its owner, it retains its naturally aspirated air-cooled 2-cylinder underhood, albeit stroked to 700cc with Electromotive fuel injection, open exhaust, very high compression and a mild racing cam. Ladies and gentlemen, Evil Tweety.
Next up, courtesy of the Gebrüder Dorsch blog, a German entrant that appears to have a jet engine protruding from das boot. We turn to Babelfish to discover that, “These vehicles do hurt… One should possibly drastic penalties, when people of such cultural goods to make a mistake.” We think this means the Brothers Dorsch disapprove of the butchered Z600’s ersatz motor. They continue: “The poor little Honda Z600 a jet engine in the ****.” We would have to agree that jet engines in the **** should be strictly verboten. We imagine that any attempt at turning during full throttle in this thing would be as well.
Finally, we have the latest Frankensteinian Z600, the one that started this pointless line of questioning, a full-on race car built for solo B-mod with a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engine mounted between the front and rear axles, precisely in the driver’s right ear. And when you’re rebodying the entire car in carbon fiber, why not go with the widest widebody you can fit wheels under? This also gets bonus points for looking terrifying.
Well, we have no idea which one is fastest, but all of them are probably plenty scary, so we put the question to you, dear reader, how would you rather face death?
1.) Hurtling across the remains of an Ice Age lake ensconced in a 37-year old sheet of tin.
2.) Going warp speed in a home-built jet car that, despite its German engineering, is probably one-use-only.
3.) Snapping your neck with a quick flick of the steering wheel in something possessing the power-to-weight ratio of an electron.
Sound off in the comments.
[Sources: Jalopnik, Dorsch.com]
We had always heard stories about how Datsun promoted the 1200 Sunny in the US by some kind of giveaway prize at New York Yankees baseball games, but we never could find the photos. Thanks to our friends at Jalopnik, we have visual confirmation of the bogey. Apparently, this was used as a bullpen car in the 1972 season, and later, in a contest where fans could win this pinstriped Yankee Datsun, not to be confused with this Yanky Datsun.
[Source: Yankee Tradition via Jalopnik]
Those daft Poms from Old Japanese Car recently held a small meet – basically just mates getting together to take pictures of their aptly named rides together. Now whilst not all are widely recognised as classics, they certainly all have their certain appeal. Just a small collection of pics but we hope you enjoy all the same. These all are very rare cars especially in such great condition and in the UK!
As Robert Duvall’s character in Days of Thunder said, “He didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he rubbed you. And rubbin, son, is racin‘.” But to be honest, I don’t think I could ever let my classic JDM – or a classic car of any sort – get so much as a rubbin’, let alone any other form of less-than-loving contact.
Nonetheless, the racing of classic cars continues to be a favourite pastime of enthusiasts around the world, and one hell of a spectacle. So if you’ve got the time and you’re in the area, you need to get yourself down to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway to catch The Porsche – Datsun Challenge this coming weekend. Stylistically and mechanically, these cars are so wonderfully matched, and this should be an awesome day!
The racing world is full of legendary rivalries – Chevy vs. Ford, Porsche vs. Ferrari, even Ford vs. Ferrari, and now, Porsche vs. Datsun. In the early days of Datsun’s entry into the US market, the BRE 510s and 240Zs went doorhandle to doorhandle with the boys from Stuttgart. Now, the Vintage Auto Racing Association seeks to reignite the clash with its annual Porsche-Datsun Shootout at the Jeff Saltman Memorial Race in Las Vegas, October 13-14. For photos from last year’s event, look here.
[Sources: grandJDM, VARA, classicracingphotos]
Kev nicely covered this badass Japanese cop show back here, but this week Hirst from oldjapanesecar.com unearthed the first two episodes, as well as a few clips from episode 38. I thought American cop shows from the 70s and 80s were about as hilariously stupid as the genre gets, but these are just phenomenal in their awesomeness. That’s right, awesomeness. Check ’em out!
You may remember Brian Baker from an article we did on his Honda T500F. One of the most passionate enthusiasts we’ve had the pleasure of meeting, Brian Baker was the first person to come to mind when Richard Chang of the New York Times approached us, looking for a subject to profile for his series, “Auto Ego.” It’s great to see Brian get the recognition he deserves (he also previously appeared in Road & Track when the S2000 first launched), although we like to think that appearing in Japanese Nostalgic Car was the greatest honor of all.
Be sure to check out the audio slideshow for great pictures and to hear Brian take his S600 to a 9500rpm redline we thought would never come.
[Source: The New York Times]
Well, while two of the three grandJDM staffers were up somewhere in rural Australia thrashing various Japanese cars both new and old at a motorkhana, the Japanese Classic Car Show was taking place on the other side of the world in California, USA. We can’t say we didn’t have an awesome time, but we can pretty safely say we wish we’d been at the JCCS instead! Maybe we need to start advertising here, so we can afford flights to the US for all these awesome events, haha.
So, since we can’t bring you firsthand photos ourselves, here’s a bunch of links to galleries and reports on what looks like an awesome event. Hopefully we’ll be there ourselves next year!
The 2007 Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach! It’s no just an important event for vintage J-cars, but it also marks a whole year since we’ve been slogging our sorry selves all over the place to populate this site with our galleries. Time flies! To anyone who is interested in nostalgics, this is the place to be.
Well folks, here’s our very first wallpaper. The model that was gracious enough to pose for us, is Lachy’s C110 GT-R replica. We’d love to know what you think of it, so shoot us an email with your comments, or comment on it in this post. It’s available in 1280×1024 and 1024×768. We’re hoping to offer larger resolutions for future wallpapers.
Head over to the Downloads section to grab it!
Here’s a new feature on grandJDM for you; the “Did You Know?” post! Exciting stuff, huh? Alright, probably not, but let’s move on!
Here’s a little Toyota trivia that I stumbled across earlier today. Toyota used variations of the name Crown for models other than the Crown that we all know. For example: the Corona, which is latin for crown, or the Corolla, which is latin for small crown. There’s also the Camry (often regarded jokingly as a playful twist on “my car”), which is an anglicized pronunciation of the Japanese term “kan-muri” meaning crown. One of Toyota’s first cars sold in the US was also called the Toyopet Tiara.
Something of a fascination with royal headwear, over at Toyota HQ!
We’ve covered a lot of the early rotary Mazda history, especially the racing history of the Cosmo 110S, Familia Coupe, RX2 Capella and RX3 Savanna GT. It would lead you to believe that Mazda rotaries were all about performance and racing, but in 1975 Mazda took a sharp left turn with the RX-5 (or Cosmo as it was called in Japan).
The RX5 debuted with very Americanised, bloated chrome laden styling, very much like a Japanese Olds Cutlass or Chevy Monte Carlo. In the USA, the muscle car era petered out in the early 70s as all of the old muscle nameplates like the Charger and Mustang were weighed down with power sapping pollution controls and greater weight from customer demands for more “personal luxury”…to the point where former big-cube hero cars were reduced to chrome laden gin palaces for the disco generation that could barely wheeze across the quarter mile in 19 seconds. And so Mazda followed suit with the RX5.
The irony is, the RX5 sold very poorly in the USA (in fact it sold badly in all western markets) but the one market where it was a certified smash hit was Japan.
Among the classic beauty of the older Celicas, the oddball later model A40 and A60 series Celicas never get much attention. This is especially true for the A60 Coupe, which despite its typical 80s look is not a bad car. When Juha Kankkunen found this derelict but historic 1984 Group B Rally TA64 Celica still equipped with its 4TGTE engine, it was love. It went under a magnificent extensive restoration by Makela Auto Tuning in Finland, with many photos documenting the process. It just goes to show, anything is possible with enough love, time, money and damn fine skills.
Sure, this gallery was widely spammed across the Internet a little while ago, but in case you missed it the first time round, here it is in all its glory. If you did see it, check it out again! Simply amazing restoration work.
