Truth in Advertising, but Beauty Too?

Someone at JC Penny loves nostalgics. We think. It’s been said that if something happens once it’s an accident, twice and it’s a coincidence, three times and it’s a full-blown trend.

Well, we first noticed this JC Penny’s Father’s Day television commercial featuring a first-generation Honda Accord Sedan on 1stgencivic.org.

Then, while catching up with grandJDM, we saw this print ad linked from Auto Otaku with an E2 Corolla partially obscured by a leggy model.

corolla ad

What’s next, a catalog of muffin tins featuring a KPGC10 Skyline GT-R slammed on Wats? We can only hope.

[Sources: 1stgencivic, Auto Otaku via grandJDM]

Posted in cm, honda, toyota | 3 Comments

Deal with the Devil Perhaps?

s30_wangan_model.jpg If you’ve got a spare US$560 floating around, you might like to head over to Yahoo! Auctions Japan and place the opening (and probably the final) bid on this customised Wangan Midnight S30Z model, which I think is 1/18 scale. My Jada 240Z is 1/24 and that’s already big enough to sit prominently on the shelf. Buy yourself an early christmas present, moneybags.

Click: Translated original auction page.
Click: Translated grandJDM mirrored page.

[via JDM Ego]

Posted in nissan, Toys | 2 Comments

Dat's da Bomb

We live in dangerous times, people. At a moment’s notice, some total nut job with a chip on his shoulder could car bomb us back into the stone age, overstressed authorities are shooting suspected terrorists in the face, and bodies on fire can be found in lying in the streets. Naturally, we are talking about Hazel Dell, Washington.

Last Wednesday, a multi-agency team arrested Christopher Elioff, suspected of parole violations and numerous other minor crimes, at a local gas station, but not before Elioff tried to run. Police launched their taser darts, which promptly embedded themselves into Elioff’s right cheeks – facial and rumpal – and proceeded to channel 50,000 volts of pure blue lightning into both regions.

Unbeknownst to police, however, Elioff had a cigarette lighter in his back pocket, which, upon contact with the voltage of 4,200 car batteries, exploded before his body could hit the ground, and suddenly flames were literally shooting out of Elioff’s ass. The officer then had to repeatedly slap said ass to swat out the flames, and when all the commotion was said and done, a homemade explosive device was found in Elioff’s car. Police then had to evacuate the gas station, shut down the pumps, and call in the bomb squad to remove it from his gray 1979 Datsun 280z, says The Columbian.

Yeah, yeah, we know. By model year, that would make it a 280zx, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was the same car police had chased Ellioff in during a previous encounter when he “drove away at high speed and managed to escape.”

While we wouldn’t necessarily recommend trying to outrun the cops – or violating parole or electrocuting a plastic capsule full of lighter fluid, for that matter – and there are far better cars to use as a mobile Claymore, we secretly wish there was an OJ-style video of Elioff’s flight by Z.

[Source: The Columbian, Image: IMCDb.org]

Posted in datsun | Leave a comment

For Your Perusing Pleasure

nissan-510.jpg One good thing about the internet is that whenever you’ve got a hankering to sit and stare at something beautiful, you won’t have to look hard to find it.  Forums are an especially good place, because someone’s already done the searching for you, and posted it up for all to see.  So here’s a few links to a few threads over at JDM Style Tuning.

Nostalgic JDMRX-3 & RX-4, classic Skylines, classic Fairlady Z, classic Celicas, classic Corollas.

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Tenth Anniversary of the First Crusade

event_sevenstockx.jpg

The first crusade to Mazda HQ in California, that is. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Seven Stock event, wherein rotary fans from all around the US make an annual pilgrimage to California to stand around in the Mazda parking lot and gawk at each others rides.

As always, the lads at JNC have gone out of their way to make us Southern Hemispherians green with envy, and have got all the event coverage over on their site. Ben tells me they weren’t even planning to go, but when it occurred to them that it’d make us cry to know that they went and we didn’t, they immediately packed their Cressida wagon and hit the road. Jerks!

Check out all the hot shots at JNC.

Posted in events, mazda | 2 Comments

EVENTS: SevenStock X

seven stock x

More rotaries than you can shake a disembodied connecting rod at. [LINK]

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Classic JDM in Pop Culture and Advertising

corolla_girl.jpg Auto Otaku found this great advertisement for the American department store chain JCPenny, featuring a gorgeous girl standing in front of an even more stunning classic Corolla.

I’ve got little to no interest in whatever the store’s selling—and I’m pretty sure it’s not parts for classic JDM cars—but what a great photo! Makes me wonder if the art director for this shoot is a fan of old J steel, or if it’s just a random cute vintage car in their eyes, or… Well the possibilities are endless. Perhaps I should put in a call to JCPenny and find out which studio did the shoot.

There’s also a couple of screengrabs from a music video for a JRock band called FoZZtone, featuring a hakosuka sedan dumped on Wats. Looks fantastic.

Check ’em both out at Auto Otaku.

Posted in media, nissan, toyota | Leave a comment

EVENTS: Kanto Industrial College Summer Festival

kanto industrial college summer festival

Our man in Japan Satoshi Furuuchi recently attended the Kanto Industrial College Summer Festival. Check out his article here.

Posted in events, japan | Leave a comment

Mazda MX…what?

433_p1.jpg

Following on from Van’s article on the MX5-based 2000GT conversion, it reminded me of all the other MX5 retro conversions that have been available in Japan over the years. The MX5 (or Roadster as it is known in JDMland) is such a popular car that it’s a certainty that there would be a lot of aftermarket support for it. However it may be surprising as to exactly how much there is you can do to your Roadster to make it look a lot like a classic JDM car.

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Posted in mazda | 1 Comment

If That Plate Could Be Read

s30_wangan.jpg

It’d probably have the numbers 53-681. What’s the relevance? Those are the numbers on the plate of Wangan Midnight’s “Devil Z”, and frankly I’ve never seen a better replica than this one right here. It might not have been intentional of course, but it’s a hell of a coincidence if this S30 isn’t modeled after Akio Asakura’s Z.

Check out a couple more pics over at the JDM EGO blog. You may wet yourself.

On a sidenote, apologies for the Fairlady overdose lately! Frankly this stuff just keeps popping up, and I gotta share it as soon as I get it, y’know?

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On The Road

seven stockWe’re on the road like Jack Kerouac again, but instead of heading to Woodstock in a clapped-out VW Bus, we’re going to Seven Stock X in a slapped-out Cressida Wagon. The annual celebration of all things Mazda will be held at the company’s US headquarters in Irvine, CA. This year is the 40th anniversary of the Mazda rotary engine, so the gathering should be a unidirectional blast.

Posted in events, mazda | Leave a comment

The Devil Z’s in The Details

240z_austin-hoke.jpg

I wanted to link to this article a long time ago, but TunerZine overhauled their website, and the link I had to the article no longer worked. But hey, I’ve found it again, so here we are.

I’m sure that by now, you’re all familiar with Austin Hoke’s 240Z, and you might even be familiar with the video of him crashing his old white 260Z in a tunnel. Good times, good times. I was pissed at the time to see yet another classic Z consigned to the scrap heap, but two years later this blue beauty rolled out of his garage, the product of more sweat and tears than the the white 260 ever saw. I guess every cloud has an alloy lining after all.

Head over to TunerZine and read a little about this amazing car.
Then head to Austin’s personal build page.

Posted in nissan | 1 Comment

Seibu Keisatsu!

280_x330-5.jpgIn the 1970s it must have been awfully tough to be a criminal. In the 1970s, cops had flared pants, suits with wide lapels, big guns and equally big hair. In the 1970s cops could not walk out onto the street without a funky wah-wah guitar soundtrack. And, you’ll be gratified to hear….in the 1970s Japanese cops were no different. Well, at least the TV cops anyway!

From 1979 to 1984 one of the most popular TV shows was Seibu Keisatsu. A typical cop show of the period with the over the top soundtracks and the lurching car chases (ie, the good kind). However, the great interest in the show for us is that it was sponsored by Nissan, and hence there seems to have been an endless supply of Nissan Cedrics and Zeds to sacrifice on the altar of the Great 70s Cop Car Chase.

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Posted in Japan Stuff, nissan | 5 Comments

Win Stuff!

contest-thumb_main.jpg Hey folks, we’s got a prize for you!

That is, if you can correctly navigate your way through our contest before any of your fellow readers—or should I say; opponents! (dun dun dun)!

grandJDM have teamed up with J-style clothing gods Import Bible to give away two tees from their latest range, so if you think you might be likin’ to win some o’ their hot wares, click through to find out how.

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So That’d Make it a… MX2000GT?

mx5-2000gt.jpg Well, this might be the weirdest thing I wasn’t expecting to see this week.  Japanese outfit Roadster Garage are now offering a conversion package that transforms your MX-5 into a mutant Toyota 2000GT convertible.

This is the sort of thing that always catches me out.  On the one hand, I’m thinking “Wow, now that’s a pretty tight effort, kudos to them for a job well done”.  But on the other hand, I can’t help but think this is the stuff sacrilege is made of.  The 2000GT is a highly revered car around the world—is this merely an homage to a brilliant car, giving people who can’t afford the real deal the chance to own their own share of legend (albeit courtesy of a replica), or is it a stain on the car’s memory? We’d love to hear your opinion.

This news had definitely done the rounds today!  We caught this via JPCN and JNC, who caught it via CarScoop, who caught it via Jalopnik.  Sheesh.

Posted in Businesses, mazda, toyota | 4 Comments

Budget Nostalgia

For those of us who’ve always wanted a 2000GT convertible, but are not lucky enough to have $250,000, a sawzall, and the cajones to take said sawzall to the roof of extremely rare classic supercars, all is not lost. Thanks to Mr. Makoto Kobayash of Road Star Garage, this 2000GT lookalike, based off of a first gen Miata, is now our best option. While the finished product looks fairly decent from the front and rear three-quarters view, its profile looks strange and disproportionate.

Unfortunately, Road Star Garage’s website is in all Japanese so we don’t know the cost or availability of this conversion.

[Source: Road Star Garage via Carscoop via Jalopnik]

Posted in mazda, toyota | 2 Comments

Dictionary Definition of Dedication

c210-model.jpg

One could probably wonder how this guy finds enough hours in the day to do the crazy things he does to these models, but that’d be time wasted if you ask me. Just sit, click, scroll, and stare. That’s the best thing you can do when looking at these pictures. Then, I guess, you could justifiably look at your own spare time and wonder if maybe you could be doing something more productive too. That’s more or less the process I went through while looking at these!

Here’s some especially awesome picks: C110, MA61, C130

Check out the rest here!

Posted in Japan Stuff, Websites | Leave a comment

This Just in From the ’80s

boso-cressida.jpg

While grandJDM might generally be focused on the days of 60s and 70s Japanese steel, there’s no shortage of great looking boxes from the 80s that deserve a bit of a look in.

The boso/garuchan/yankee style is an especially keen genre for these cars, and lofreq over at the OldSchool.co.nz forums has an ongoing project happening to turn his ’87 Mark II into a low-ridin’ guard-scrapin’ pipe-extrudin’ boso beast. Reading the project thread has been a treat, so check it out.

Incidentally, what do you all think of the boso look? Awesome? Hilariously awesome? Or a freakin’ eyesore?

Posted in toyota | 5 Comments

Got MySpace?™

grandjdm-myspace.jpg Never one to dodge an opportunity for exposure and meeting new folks, grandJDM is now on MySpace!

We’ve actually been on there for a while, but we didn’t want to announce the fact until we’d found the time to pull the ugly stick out of its ass. So if you’re a MySpacer, why not make us your millionth friend?

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Cruisin'

As part of the launch for the new 200 series Land Cruiser on sale in Japan today, Toyota has put together a minisite all about the venerated 4×4 that has become the chariot of choice for soccer mom and third world dictator alike. As one of two models that Toyota sold upon setting up shop in the US 50 years ago, the oldest Japanese model the US is actually a truck.  The US version will go on sale later this year.

[Source: Toyota]

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