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…
We were up at our local you-pull-it junkyard today searching for a side window for one of our upcoming projects, and ran across this awesome 1970 Datsun 510. We immediately pulled a U and caught up with the owner, Nestor, a really cool guy who drove it to Maryland all the way from Cali two years ago. We have to say, the metallic blue paint job set off by the gold pinstripe and matching gold Libre wheels make for a particularly stunning combo.
We happened upon this cool classic car dealership in Northern Maryland one day. Although it was the metallic yellow Corvette Stingray and bright orange ’67 Camaro that first caught our eye as we sped by, once we pulled a U and took a closer look at the lot, we noticed a Corona 1900 sedan with about 40,000 original miles on the clock hidden in the back. Whereas the 1969 Camaro Z/28 in the showroom (LeMans Blue with White stripes, all stock and matching numbers) commanded $45,000, the same-era little red Toyota (also all stock with matching numbers) had an asking price of only $5000.
Our buds over at Import Bible have given in to the hot hot appeal of the classic JDM styles, and will soon be releasing a tee dedicated to what is probably the most instantly recognisable ambassador of early Japanese motoring superiority – the S30 Fairlady Z. No word yet on a release date for this top, but you know we’ll let you know when we know what we’ll know. Click through for the larger shot.
Further speculation abounds on what could be an AE86 successor. The Asahi Shumbun reported today that Toyota and Subaru are considering a jointly developed entry level sports car. Since all of Toyota’s small platforms are front-wheel-drive, it was unknown what powertrain the rumored rear-wheel-drive hachiroku descendant would have used. Now, the latest word is that the car won’t use a Toyota-based drivetrain at all, but Subaru’s flat four and possibly its all-wheel-drive system as well.
Toyota acquired 8.7 percent of Subaru in October 2005 when General Motors relinquished its 20 percent stake, a partnership that yielded just one very Asian-looking Saab.
The Subayota is expected to go on sale in 2010.
Source: [Asahi Shimbun via Reuters]
Image courtesy of Best Car
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to tag along on a VicZCar.com cruise, along the Great Ocean Road, down here on the southern coast of Australia. It was a dreary old day, making it difficult to really get the most out of the beautiful twisty segments of this much revered stretch of road, but it was a great event nonetheless. I’ll be posting more photos later in the week, and perhaps some video if we can get it together in time – but in the meantime, here’s a couple of my favourite shots.
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