My apologies gang; we’re a little late bringing you this info, but there’s still time! According to our good man Michael over at ToyotaGeek, The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races—presented by Toyota—is on this weekend in Monterey. You can get more info on this event right here. Word is that there’ll be twenty 2000GTs in attendance—so if you can make it, we’d suggest you do.
If you’re a fan of the old skool Honda Civics and were worried that you might be alone on that one, you can rest easy. Civic 77 has all the information and community you could possibly need. There’s some damn nice examples in the members gallery too, so check it out!
Welcome to part 3 of our Going To Japan series! By now you’ll be well sorted for the basics of survival in JDM-land and now we get down to business. Cars.
Let’s face it, when it comes to cars, everyone’s expectations of Japan are pretty damn high. You expect to walk down the street, see schoolbusses drifting and grandmothers pulling burnouts in Supras, you expect to see mint C10 Skyline GT-Rs parked on every street corner, bosozouku car parades on every block, you expect that every corner grocery store will have a special aisle for turbochargers, and they’re on sale, too! Free delivery!
Well….it’s not quite like that. But we can make sure that you get to see some car shows, visit some tuners and buy the cool JDM parts you want. Read on…
Every now and then, J-Spec Imports strays from the standard R32s, Soarers, and so forth, and goes mental and lists a pile of awesome JDM classics. Today is such a day. Check out these rides currently on offer. Beats scouring Yahoo! Auctions Japan for them.
Also, you should keep in mind that while J-Spec are located in Australia, these cars are in Japan until someone contacts J-Spec to put in a bid on the car they want. This means that J-Spec can cater to customers around the world, not just in Australia, and it’s something they have a good deal of experience with!
Today’s WTF moment comes right out of the 80s, as we bear witness to Michael J. Fox… jumping and somersaulting on a trampoline in a tuxedo and saying “whoa” (I think), before teleporting to the driver’s seat of a Honda Integra and informing us – in brief Japanese – about the all new car. All this to the backing track of Huey Lewis’ Power Of Love, and you’ve got yourself a Highlight of the Day video!
From Winding Road
Welcome to the second instalment of our guide on how to survive in Japan. You can find the first instalment here.
So by now you’re a pro at whizzing around Tokyo on a train… but where should you stay, where should you eat, and how do you actually find stuff when you’re on foot? We’ll cover these questions in this instalment.
Old Japanese Car have put together a gallery of the classic JDM cars that turned out to the inaugural Retro Rides 2007 show, and by all accounts it was a brilliant event. You can check out OJC’s gallery here, and you can head to the Retro Rides forum to check out the various photos taken by members of the forum.
Nothing will stop the JP Auto Enthusiasts getting through. The boys at JNC have dug out a link to a recent car show in Japan, the likes of which not even a hurricane could hold back. Personally I’m not sure I could stand to bring my pride and joy out in that kind of weather – despite their having been designed to handle that sort of thing just fine. I just don’t think I could do it. Nevertheless, I’m glad these dudes did, because we scored some great classic JDM (and a sport of Euro) eyecandy as a result. Hop to it.
Auto Otaku has slapped together a quick commemorative post to the glory of the Nissan Skyline, including a couple of the old TV commercials in this post over at his site. This business about the C210 being known in Japan by the nickname “Japan” is news to me, but hey, it’s all one big learning experience! Hit it.
JNC forum member Gamby linked to a couple of absolutely awesome boso/garuchan videos yesterday, and I just have to share them with you. The boso movement, as ridiculous as it is, has really struck a chord with me, as our regular readers are no doubt aware. So put aside about 15 minutes, and get stuck into these vids.
“If you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” says Doc Brown. Words to live by, except that a brushed stainless bird tainted by cocaine money
and a Renault engine isn’t really our idea of style. Instead, we direct you to the Time Machine Festival, a gathering of nostalgics held at Fuji International Speedway earlier this year in what appears to be the middle of a Class 5 monsoon. But, being the stalwart devotees that they are, these owners not only dared to expose their chariots to the elements, but also ran them on a waterlogged track. See the enormous gallery here.
Source: [Time Machine Festival Blog]
Here’s a post about a marque not often discussed in the nostalgic world, Suzuki. Like Toyota, the company started out making automatic looms. Like Honda, their first vehicles were motorized bicycles. And like Mazda, their first mass produced car heeded the call of the government’s mandate for a People’s Car. The 1955 Suzulight (pictured) was one of the first cars in Japan to feature front wheel drive, four-wheel independent suspension and rack and pinion steering, and slotted neatly into the kei class with its two-stroke 360cc engine.
More of Suzuki’s history can be found at SuzukiAuto.com.
Magazines come and go—especially car magazines—but from the 1960s to the mid 1980s, Australia had a great magazine in the form of Sports Car World. It was the “right” kind of magazine, written by enthusiasts and never, ever featuring anything as prosaic as family cars and hatchbacks! Sadly defunct since about 1987, SCW had some terrific articles that I’ve never seen anywhere else.
This is one of those articles.
Hirst from Old Japanese Car attended the Retro Rides Show in Kirby Mallory in the UK over the weekend and posted in our forum this fantastic shot of his Daihatsu Charmant parked beside what appears to be a replica of the race-prepped Nissan Skyline KPGC10 GT-R that won the Fuji Grand Champion Series race on October 10, 1971. For more photos of the event and pictures of great classic cars from the UK in general, why not visit (and join) the Retro Rides forum?
Image courtesy of Hirst from Old Japanese Car.
Speaking of clothing, we had the chance to meet Antonio Alvendia of Cipher Media Group while he was MC-ing at Motoring J Style. Antonio is a super cool guy who has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things nostalgic and drift. In fact, he’s written a book about the slide-happy sport called Drifting: Sideways from Japan to America. He also operates his own Cipher Garage label, which produces everything from a clothing line featuring old school wheel designs to reproduction Japanese license plates. Check out Cipher Garage’s myspace page here.
Thanks to forum member BuddyJ for digging up the shirt design pictured.
Last month, we covered a few nostalgic JDM clothing brands which embrace old school cars and bikes: Samurai Motor Club and Neighbourhood. And yet there is still more….Kaminari69, which has the same old-school hot rod influences with 60s cars and vintage graphics. Although Kaminari doesn’t seem to have a cool flash movie on their website like the other two!
Our compadres at grandJDM have unearthed yet another JDM clothing line. They’re Kaminari69, purveyors of “Japanese Badboy Kulture,” They like hakosuka Skylines, skulls, and horns that play music. They’ve been featured in the likes of J’s Tipo, Daytona, and Ignite magazines. Not to be confused with Kaminari USA, makers of body kits.
Source: [grandJDM]
Hot on the mudflaps of the recent news of an AE86 redux comes a report from Best Car via Autoblog that Nissan has a 60 percent chance of coming out with a lightweight FR sports car of their own. Expected to sell for $21,000 to $23,000, it slots in higher than the Toyota’s target price of $12,300, and there is some speculation that it will be based on the worst-named concept ever, the Nissan Urge. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to stroll down to the dealership to buy either of these cars before 2010.
A lot of people we talk to just love the idea of going to Japan for an automotive-themed vacation but the common vibe is always that Japan is a little intimidating. You can’t speak the language, you’re worried that it’s expensive. Well, it is expensive in the sense that you will blow lots of money on car-related stuff, but the other things like food, accommodation and travel are surprisingly inexpensive….which of course, leaves you more money to blow on car-related stuff! Can’t speak the language? Hey, neither can I, and I’ve been there 9 times!
So from us here at Grand JDM, this will be a series of articles to help demystify the wonderful country of Japan, and hopefully get more of you guys on a plane and onto JDM soil. We’ll also put together some suggestions as to how to plan your trip to take in some car shows, how to buy parts, visit tuners and other stuff. And along the way hopefully bust some of the myths about our favourite holiday country. Obviously, we can’t cover every destination in Japan so we’re going to focus on Tokyo.
A sumo in a Subaru 360. Well, not in, but almost. I’m not sure whether they’d actually be able to close the door…
[