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.
In 1933, Datsun, or Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd. as it was called, established its headquarters in Yokohama, where Japan’s first real automobile factory would later stand. Three years later, this Datsun Model 15 roadster rolled off the assembly line. With its 722cc inline four generating just 16 horsepower to pull 1100 pounds, had the power to weight ratio of a Jawa sand crawler. However, it reached a top speed of 50 miles per hour, more than adequate for Tokyo’s slim alleys back in the day. During Nissan’s growth years, the head office moved to the posh Ginza district ot Tokyo. Today, this car has made its way back home to a small gallery at Nissan’s Yokohama factory, which still churns out engines and transmissions for new Nissans and Infinitis, and awaits the return of the company’s HQ to Yokohama in 2010.
Alright, so that might be Lexus’ slogan (is it? Jeez, I don’t even know!), but it just as clearly holds true for the guys at Classic Motorsports Online. Back in early 2005, they purchased a 240Z in reasonable condition as a project car. Their plan is to keep it relatively original – a plan made easier by the well preserved body – while updating whichever components may need it, or may simply make for a better car. Head on over to their project blog to check out their progress.
Fans of JDM literature will be well familiar with Option Magazine. It’s a monthly “tuner” magazine, with cool feature cars and tech articles. Perhaps the biggest aftermarket tuning magazine in Japan, it has been in business since the late 1970s. And in the past decade and a half, has branched out into videos and DVDs. Option was a key factor in starting and nurturing the drift scene in Japan in the early 90s and it remains a highly influential force in the JDM tuner scene today.
One of the really cool, and completely unexpected surprises lately is that Option has been releasing “The Legend of Option”, which are magazines which feature articles from their early days. They’re not just reprints but new articles that look back at the old times. Many articles have sidebars where famous tuners or racing drivers are interviewed about the old days. This is priceless stuff (I just wish I could read Japanese!
…There was the grassroots, self-published enthusiast magazine. If a car didn’t have a dinky photocopied magazine published about it (undoubtedly from some fan’s back room), it clearly wasn’t a car worth owning. Japanese Restorer is one such magazine, though it did a good job of surviving well into the Internet age, with its 14th and final issue being printed last year. Never fear though, the publisher assures me there are still quite a few back issues left, so get over to his website and order a bunch. Order the whole run!
The night of August 5, Eight Six Day Eve, is when all the hachiroku owners go to sleep with visions of twin cams and LSDs dancing in their heads. The legendary AE86s have such a huge following that enthusiasts actually reserve the chassis code derived date to celebrate the occasion. Check out this thread on AEU86.org to see how the Japanese Corolla Levin and Sprinter Trueno owners observe the holiday at Nikko circuit.
Source: [AEU86.org]
Now this is what I call a timely coincidence! Dizmine – also known by his real name, Arnel, whose TE27 we featured some weeks ago – posted a couple of photos today of his C10 next to a beautiful R34 GT-R, on the JNC forums (which you should all join). What a stirring moment if I’ve ever seen one. It’s funny actually; seeing the two side by side, it almost makes the C10 look huge, or the R34 look small. Crazy stuff! Click through the link for the two larger shots.
If you live in Japan, you can go down to your local Mazda or Mazda Anfini dealer today and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the rotary engine with the newly released Rotary Engine 40th Anniversary limited edition version of their top-of-the-line sports car, the RX-8.
With its spiritual successor, you’ll have your choice of six-speed transmissions, either a Type S manual or a Type E automatic. Color choice, however, is limited to Marble White. Numerous details will distinguish your suicide-doored coupe from more mundane RX-8s, like semi-gloss chrome light bezels, dark silver chrome wheels, front foglamps with blue reflectors, and – naturally – numerous 40th anniversary rotary engine badges sprinkled throughout.
Other touches not so visible as one speeds by you on the highway include Bilstein dampers, a urethane foam-filled front crossmember, a special engine cover, steering wheel, shift knob and aluminum pedals.
While this doesn’t seem all that different from the regular RX-8, It’s all about the heritage. Is it worth the 3,150,000 yen though? Well, forty years ago, this same visit to a dealership would have netted you one of 1,519 Cosmo 110 Sports ever built. Production of this RX-8 will be limited to just 200.
Source: [Mazda]
We couldn’t very well mention classic JDM wheels without paying our respects to Racing Service Watanabe. Their iconic eight-spoke wheels look good on any old school cruiser. It is rumored that amongst the nostalgic tuner crowd, the phrase “Get your own Wats!” is often heard. Whether legend or truth, heaps of drivers who couldn’t stand the standard metal pancakes their cars came with have done just that. In fact, the RS Watanabe website has an enormous gallery featuring the Watanabe-shod cars of their legions of devoted customers. Check it out, there are some really choice rides in there.
We’re trying to collect photos of old school JDM wheels in this forum thread. Please stop by and show whatcha got, or what you’ve come across while cruising the web.
The most sought after classic JDM rims are the infamous Sakuras, meaning cherry blossoms, which can cost $7000 for a set of four, assuming you can even find them. The amount of cash you’ll have to part with varies depending on offset and lip fatness, and this bosozoku set pictured has more lip than Angelina Jolie. Sakuras are so valuable, owners usually stow them away like a stolen Van Gogh rather than mount them on their cars, but here’s a Mitsubishi FTO owner, flossin’ like he’s got gingivitis, from our New Year Meeting gallery.
Thanks to our friends at grandJDM, the biggest car news blog in the States, Autoblog, received a little lesson in Japanese supercar history today. There is absolutely no reason for us to repeat the excellent write-up that grandJDM has done and Autoblog has repeated, so we will merely say please go to the source for the story on this unique automobile, the 1978 Dome Zero.
Source: [Autoblog via grandJDM]
Image courtesy of Dome.co.jp.
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