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.
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.
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]
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!
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?
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?
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]
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!
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]
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.
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.
During my weekly trawling of the various car classifieds websites here in Australia, I came across this S130 Fairlady (aka 280ZX) for sale. Two-seater S130s aren’t very common here, so it caught my eye straight away. It’s a relatively good asking price the owner is chasing, and with a bit of effort, you could find yourself with a pretty handsome Z.
At a time when one of the most popular classic Nissans to be buying in this country is the S30, a slick S130 could definitely help to set you apart. Click through to see my horrible Photoshop effort!
A forum member over at JDM Style Tuning has raised the question: When does an old car become a classic car, and when it does, are future generations going to be able to find one in decent condition? With all the AE86s and other 80s and 90s cars getting around in varying states of repair and style, are we ruining the fun for the next generation of enthusiasts, or are we simply continuing an age-old legacy in the expected fashion?
Alright, so that sounds a little more full-on than it oughta, but hey, go check out the thread and maybe sign up and throw in your 200 yen.
Fans of the bosozoku/garuchan/yankee movement rejoice: AusZoku, an online community focused specifically on the scene, is here. If you’ve read everything you can find on the boso style and now you need somewhere to chat about it, this might be your lucky break son.
Our own Kev pointed me to this awesome thread on how to hang your prized grip ring, and that’s just a small sample of the ludicrous awesomeness at AusZoku.
…For this emergency broadcast. Alright, so there’s nothing emergency about it, and I’m a few weeks late to the party on this news anyway, but… The Fast and the Furious 4 is in the works.
I wouldn’t normally post about anything to do with new cars here on grandJDM, but as an unashamed fan of the technically pathetic but visually delicious Fast and the Furious franchise, I just have to share this.
There don’t appear to be any shots of the Japanese cars yet, but you can nonetheless feast your eyes on the very tough (and yes, painfully over the top) USDM cars set to feature in this fourth installment.
We now return you to your regular grandJDM broadcast.
Speaking of nostalgic Nissans that have made the cyborg-like switch to modern hardware, here’s a wicked hakosuka by Osaka tuning shop Ignition, which combines no less than four generations of Skyline goodness into one lethal package – R31 suspension, R33 brakes, a massive single-turbo RB26 with funnels for fuel injectors, and the old school style of KGC10 body dipped in R34 Bayside Blue paint. Check out the insanity at Ignition’s gallery here.
[Ignition via Auto Otaku via grandJDM]
The lads over at JNC have posted an entry about Japanese tuning house Rocky Auto, including an intensely hot RB26-powered S30Z. While I’d probably go for an L28 these days, there was a very long period there where all I wanted was exactly this sort of Z. Classic styling, modern power. It might not be my ultimate goal anymore, but I can’t say it isn’t damn magical. Check out the original Japanese blog post here, with more photos.
Ratrodding is a genre of the hotrod scene, where the cars in question are usually made to look unfinished and rusty, with peeling paint and undercoat showing through. Most of the time, the cars favoured are old Hudsons, Roadsters, and so forth. You know what I’m talkin’ about; the usual hotrod.
So when Scott from The Drift Scene linked me to this ratted up Toyota Corona Wagon… my jaw hit the floor. Is this not the most unreal lookin’ thing you’ve seen lately? Come on.
I haven’t been able to find any info about the car, but some of the guys on the Toyota3TC forum mentioned that it’s packing around 300hp (looks like there’s a 2JZ or 1JZ in there), and that the owner is known for these sorts of projects. Hopefully he or she will come forward!
Aichi may be the home Prefecture of Toyota, but lurking in the city of Okazaki, some serious Nissans lie in wait. Rocky Auto specializes in Skylines and Fairladys, and you can even buy them for export (like some of our forum members have), but they will also take your
nostalgic Nissan and fit it with the latest in expressway-ripping hardware, Bionic Woman style. The house special? Stuffing an RB26DETT from a modern Skyline GT-R into the unsuspecting stitch-welded chassis of cars like the S30 Fairlady Z. The silver one in the photo on the right spins its Wats with close to 500hp and looks sinister doing it. Check out this blog for more pics of an amazing 240Z (Japanese only).
