Tenth Anniversary of the First Crusade

Posted on September 23, 2007 by Van

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

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Ben Hsu

seven stock x

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

Posted in events, mazda | Leave a comment

Classic JDM in Pop Culture and Advertising

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Van

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

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Ben Hsu

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?

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Kevin San

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in mazda | 1 Comment

If That Plate Could Be Read

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Van

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?

Posted in nissan | Leave a comment

On The Road

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Ben Hsu

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

Posted on September 21, 2007 by Van

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!

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Kevin San

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Japan Stuff, nissan | 5 Comments

Win Stuff!

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Van

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.

Continue reading →

Posted in Businesses | Leave a comment

So That’d Make it a… MX2000GT?

Posted on September 20, 2007 by Van

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

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Ben Hsu

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

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Van

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

Posted on September 19, 2007 by Van

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?™

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Van

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?

Posted in Websites | Leave a comment

Cruisin'

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Ben Hsu

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]

Posted in toyota | Leave a comment

Wangan Midnight on PS3

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Lachy

Wangan Midnight Fairlady Z

We received a hot tip from Andy (owner of the Toyota Century we featured) earlier this week about a new game for the PS3 that’s been out in Japan for a little while, that I’m sure you’ll love. It is Wangan Midnight, and the basic pretence to this game appears to be racing up and down big highways of Japan narrowly dodging big trucks at insane speeds. So, true to the original then. And being produced by Genki, it’s bound to be awesome and cool and slightly disappointing. But mostly awesome and cool. The website is in Japanese but there are still videos and pictures to check out!

Click through to the website

Posted in media, nissan | 3 Comments

Sweet S Meet

Posted on September 17, 2007 by Ben Hsu


Brian Baker of Formula H Motorworks recently hosted his annual Labor Day weekend gathering of classic Hondas at his shop and was kind enough to send us some pictures. The green Accord hatchback (far right) was purchased in Minnesota with only 1,900 miles on it! It now has about 4,000.



These two have matching hardtops and “65 HONDA” vanity plates.



Brian also reports that the owner of the yellow S800 drove to the Middletown, NY meet from Erie, PA, a seven hour drive each way.


Check out the shop. All Honda, all the time, even the power products in the bottom left corner. Thanks for the pics, Brian! [Formula H]

Posted in honda | Leave a comment

Even More S130 Loving

Posted on September 17, 2007 by Van

s130_red.jpg Looks like we’re on an S130 roll today. grandJDM’s Kev has weighed in with his opinions on this particular brand of Fairlady love, so click through to read that, and to see the photos he ransacked his own hard drive for.

Continue reading →

Posted in nissan | Leave a comment

Speaking of Fine S130s

Posted on September 17, 2007 by Van

s130_silver.jpg

My previous post got me scanning the intarweb for other fine examples, and I came across this one on CarDomain. Very slick! The interior’s not much to my style, but the outside is brilliant.

Check it out.

Posted in nissan | Leave a comment