Hayashi Racing has announced a new product that is sure to be of interest to kyusha owners. These gorgeous rear brake drums are now available for Nissans of the late-60s and 1970s era. The aluminum drums are finned to help dissipate heat, but look beautifully period as well. Continue reading
Mazda debuts Roadster Brown Top Edition in Japan
Mazda has released a new special edition Roadster in Japan. The Brown Top Edition debuts a new color to the ND, Zircon Sand Metallic, that looks kind of like a modern take on 90s champagne gold. As you can probably guess, the Brown Top Edition has a brown top, along with a few other exclusive bits. Continue reading
Suzuki’s decision to crush its MotoGP bikes explains a lot
Earlier this month Suzuki won the Valencia Grand Prix, the last MotoGP race of 2022, but it was a bittersweet victory. With this win, Suzuki is closing the books on its decades-long participation in MotoGP, the premier motorcycle racing series in the world. And as Suzuki’s racing program draws to a close, it’s going to crush its bikes and associated parts. Continue reading
Mitsubishi Starion’s first wash in 26 years is extremely satisfying
The Mitsubishi Starion might look like a boxy, uncomplicated car to clean from afar. But all those straight lines must intersect in corners, and those many little nooks can be a real pain to keep spotless. Most 80s cars are like that, especially on the inside with the myriad buttons and crevices, and especially when you let one sit for 26 years in a damp garage in the northeast. Continue reading
QotW: Why aren’t there more good looking cars?
One time I was explaining to my non-car guy friend how there are entire schools specializing in automotive design. Car companies spend millions on every visual detail, like picking just the right shade of red. And everyone knows that buying a car is, for many, an emotional decision, and that a beautiful shape can dupe unsuspecting consumers to buy a car that’s otherwise crap. My friend was confused, and it was warranted. His exasperated response:
Why aren’t there more good looking cars?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What automotive dreams would you fulfill with $1.9 billion?” Continue reading
Posted in Question of the Week
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Japan’s supercar booms, a brief history
Exotic machinery has long been popular in Japan, but the country has had two notable supercar booms in its history. It could now be on the brink of a third, thanks to a perfect storm of unprecedented factors. According to a Bloomberg report, sales of cars with price tags greater than ¥20 million ($136,000 USD) have increased 64 percent this year compared to 2021, and last year sales increased by 75 percent from the year prior. Continue reading
Enkei RPF1RS now available in 18-inch sizes
It’s been 20 years since the release of the Enkei RPF1, a timeless racing wheel for Bubble Era cars. The super lightweight design has its roots in Formula 1 racing, but its consumer version has for two decades been one of the go-to wheels for street cars. The deeper RPF1RS variant, which has an extra step in the lip, has thus far only been available in 15-inch sizes, but Enkei has just released a new variation of the classic in 18-inch diameters. Continue reading
Initial D Toyota AE86 gets schooled by GR86 again, with a different master behind the wheel
In January a series of commercials for the 2022 Toyota GR86 reunited it with the famous Initial D AE86. In those commercials tofu delivery boy Takumi is defeated by none other than the Drift King himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya (or at least an animated version of him). In a completely different series of ads playing overseas, Takumi is once again schooled, but by a different master. Who else could out-drive our touge prodigy? Continue reading
Japan Automotive Hall of Fame welcomes Fairlady Z, Prius, and more
The Japanese Automotive Hall of Fame has announced their 2022 inductees. Each year three vehicles representing milestones in the country’s auto industry are selected for the honor. This year, they include a sports car classic, a technological turning point, and Japan’s first front-wheel-drive car. Continue reading
Posted in News
Tagged fairlady z, japan automotive hall of fame, Katana, nissan, prius, S30Z, suzuki, Torao Yamaba, toyota, Tsukuba
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QotW: What automotive dreams would you fulfill with $1.9 billion?
The Powerball jackpot has grown to $1.9 billion, the biggest ever in a national lottery according to the Guinness Book of World Records. For the winner the possibilities will be endless, quite likely in several life-ruining fashions. You could build your dream garage several times over. Or open the world’s greatest car museum. You could even buy a controlling stake in Mazda and force them to restart the RWD straight-six sedan project and put a rotary engine sports car into production. It’s such a huge amount of money it’s hard to wrap your brain around it.
What automotive dreams would you fulfill with $1.9 billion?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s the most sinister looking JNC?” Continue reading
This Honda Civic EF wearing Advan Oni 2 wheels was our SEMA favorite
We’re still compiling the hundreds of photos from SEMA into a digestible gallery (and intermittently washing our eyes out with bleach), but we wanted to give credit where credit was due. Our favorite car at the 2022 SEMA Show was a humble 30-year-old Honda Civic hatchback at the Yokohama Advan booth. Even better, it was brought in to advertise the remake of Advan’s famed Oni wheels. Continue reading
Toyota Land Cruiser body panels are here to help you rebuild an FJ40
One of the surest signs a car has become a classic is when an aftermarket company begins to offer body panels for it. At the SEMA Show this year, we stumbled upon a outfit making replica body panels for nearly every surface of the FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser. In theory, if you bought them all you could recreate the your dream 4×4 with brand new rust-free sheetmetal. Continue reading
Toyota’s TRD tricolor will never not look cool
At the SEMA Show Toyota unveiled a colossal number of trucks while announcing yet another line of off-road sub-brands called Trailhunter. Apparently this overlanding thing is really taking off (/s). The coolest among this gaggle of 4x4s is a Sequoia that’s been slathered with the old TRD tricolor on every conceivable surface. It’s almost too much red, orange, and yellow. Ah, who are we kidding? this livery will always be cool. Continue reading
Casio’s Honda watches are a tribute to historic machines
We don’t really know a lot about watches here at JNC, but our recent article about an Initial D and MF Ghost Casio took us down a bit of a rabbit hole. Turns out Casio is an official partner of Honda Racing and has been making some pretty spiffy watches are part of that relationship. There are two that caught our eyes specifically, inspired by the legendary racing machines of the Honda RA272 Formula 1 car and the Honda RC162 race bike. Continue reading
QotW: What’s the most sinister looking JNC?
Just in time for All Hallows’ Eve, we come to you with a question of the most sinister looking JNC. Some people think old wagons are just creepy because they look like hearses. An S40 Gloria wagon in particular looks like something that might be driven by the Addams family. A modded JZA80 Supra would strike fear into any rear view mirror it appeared in, but the smoothed out shape of car it self doesn’t look all that scary. Then again, you probably wouldn’t want to approach a Toyota Century with tinted windows if you saw one in a dark alley. There are several ways to skin this cat.
What’s the most sinister looking JNC?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Can you help a fellow JNC reader find a ride-on car for their daughter?” Continue reading
Happy Halloween from JNC
Have a wonderfully spooky day today, and may our vintage Japanese cars outlast us all. Happy Halloween from JNC!
BRE Sunny Truck with Leaf powertrain leads Nissan’s SEMA 2022 lineup
In the past couple of years the pandemic has decimated participation at the SEMA Show, but there are some signs of life in Las Vegas. Nissan, for example, is bringing a diverse mix of weird and wonderful builds that capture the spirit of the good old days. You might expect that with the new Z just coming out that it would be a Z-fest. But no, the headline car is a Nissan Sunny Truck with just the right amount of SEMA craziness beneath the skin. Continue reading
Matchbox X JNC Mazda MX-5 Miata ND
We’re honored to share another great piece by our friends at Matchbox. It’s the latest car to feature the JNC inkan, and in fact it’s the newest car by year, make and model to feature our logo. It works out perfectly, because we can’t think of another modern car that better captures the spirit of the Nihon classics than the ND Mazda MX-5 Miata. Continue reading
An Initial D and MF Ghost Casio watch is here to keep time on your touge runs
Expensive motorsports-themed watches are nothing new, but typically they involve a Formula 1 team or some kind of luxury brand tie-in. Now there’s a watch — ahem, timepiece — for the lone wolf mountain racer in a humble Toyota. The publishers of Initial D and MF Ghost have teamed with Casio Edifice for an official watch — ahem, chronograph — celebrating the touge battle manga. Continue reading
Posted in Watches
Tagged ae86, corolla, Initial D, MF Ghost, Shuichi Shigeno, sprinter trueno, toyota 86
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Hyundai continues to build better Mitsubishis than Mitsubishi
In 1986, to prepare for the upcoming Seoul Olympics, Hyundai needed a flagship sedan. But it was so wet behind the ears that it had to turn to another carmaker to design one for them, one that seemed like a juggernaut in comparison: Mitsubishi Motors. The Mitsubishi Debonair and its rebadged Korean cousin, the Hyundai Grandeur, both debuted in 1986 as the range-topping sedans in their respective lineups. Some 36 years later the Debonair is long gone while a new Grandeur has just debuted, and Hyundai has added a few retro cues that hearken back to the Mitsubishi-designed original. Continue reading
