Recently the internet helped get the restoration of a rare left-hand-drive 1960 Prince Skyline underway. As fate would have it, another chance to help resurrect a glorious piece of Japan’s automotive history has presented itself. And the car in question could not be more different — a Supra race car from the height of the Tuner Era, one of the Toyota Team Castrol TOM’s Supras that raced in JGTC. Continue reading
Just a quick update about the rare 1960 LHD Prince Skyline that was found in an Idaho junkyard. In an Facebook update yesterday by Alexis Campos, who discovered the car originally. It reads “I have received numerous amount of messages, phone calls, emails about the Prince! Didn’t think this would blow up like it did. Today, the Prince is officially sold! It will be on its way to Japan ?.” [UPDATE: According to the yard, the car has been paid for and they are looking for wheels to slap on so it can be shipped to Japan immediately.] To everyone who helped get the word out about this rare car, great work helping saving this car. Hopefully we’ll see it at a car show in Japan in a few years!
Are you having trouble figuring out what to do with all your used Amazon boxes? Perhaps these incredible cardboard cars can spark an idea or two. YouTuber Papa Ken has several videos showing off his amazing skills in building corrugated kyusha. Not only do they have accurate exteriors, but Papa Ken has, impressively, crafted detailed engine bays and interiors that you can once you open the hinged hood and doors. Continue reading
The Shibuya Crossing, also known as the Shibuya Scramble, is the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world. It’s the intersection Sean’s Evo, Han’s Veilside RX-7, and the Drift King’s Z (digitally) slid through in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, and by some estimates at peak times 2,500 people can cross the 5-way intersection in a single light cycle. A quarter million people can stroll through it in one day, but in 1974 it was a bit less hectic.
A Prince Gloria sedan heads west down Dogenzaka Street to the left, while a Kujira Crown taxi, Skyline Van, and TE27 Corolla wait to come eastward. On the right, what appears to be a Toyota Corona Mark II drives towards the camera Bunkamura Street. The cute little Mitsu Maru shop at the corner was replaced just a few years later by the Shibuya 109 mega-mall in April 1979. Here’s what this Shibuya Crossing looks like today.
We hope you had a good Father’s Day yesterday. The JNC family welcomed three babies over the last year or so, my son included. Personally speaking, I can’t wait until he is old enough to hang with me in the garage, and it has made me think a lot about what I will share with him when he’s ready (We don’t want to exclude anyone whose mothers were the wrenchers in the family, so feel free to respond with mom lessons too).
What did your dad teach you about cars?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What would you store in a Global JNC Vault?” Continue reading
Being a dad is a thankless but ultimately rewarding job. Now, there’s the 1980 Honda Ballade — it even rhymes with “dad”! — in 1300 and 1500 cc engine sizes. The katakana even offers a cheers “To the nicest family.” the one that you made! Happy Father’s Day from JNC!
Speaking of how some owners go through incredible effort and expense and just for a small, barely noticeable change? Hayato Muramatsu did that with his 1979 Datsun 620 by shaving the bed and combining it with the cab. The resulting “ute” is simply stunning. Happy 620 Day from JNC!
“How would a 1990s Formula 1 car stack up against a contemporary sports coupe of the era?” is something you were surely pondering over your Corn Flakes this morning. Luckily, a pair of Hondas answered this exact question back in 1992 at Suzuka Circuit. A then-new fourth-gen Prelude, used as a pace car at the Honda-owned track, was pitted against a Tyrrell 020 powered by a RA101E Honda V10, and that was just one of the reasons it was an unfair fight. Continue reading
Drifting went pro in 2000 when the D1 Grand Prix series was founded. But long before D1GP, there was the Ikasu Hashiriya Team Tengoku (roughly translated to Ikasu Racer Team Heaven), an amateur drift series that bridged the era between completely illegal night-time touge drifting of the 1980s and the professionally sanctioned D1GP of the early 2000s. Continue reading
The level of detail on the best Japanese customs can be mind-blowing. Take Kenichi Iizuka’s Mugen CR-X Pro, for instance. The aero kit from the Honda specialists at Mugen is already a Bubble Era aftermarket classic, but it was much more than simple ground effects. Continue reading
In our dimension, the once mighty Mitsubishi Motors has been relegated to just a few unremarkable models for penny pinchers. In an alternate dimension, a futuristic sports car, a true successor to the flagship 3000GT VR-4 of the 1990s, exists. This is one designer’s vision of what could have been. Continue reading
A true unicorn has surfaced in a junkyard in Nampa, Idaho when a 1960 Prince Skyline found its way into the inventory at Jalopy Jungle. What’s more, it is an unobtainable left-hand-drive example of an already extremely rare specimen. While this vehicle is far from a prime example of an ALSI-1 Skyline, it is one of only a handful of export models known to exist. Continue reading
With the popularization of the motorcar by the mid 1960s, Tokyo’s pre-war narrow streets could become quite crowded. Even today, there are many side streets where no sidewalks exist and cars simply whiz by as pedestrians side-step street signs and utility poles. Here, a shopping lance is already packed with Toyota Crown taxis as a Kokusai Kogyo bus enters the scene. “Sweet freedom!” the people in the Isuzu Bellett must be thinking as they escape the chaos.
Images: 2ch
On this day in 2006, construction began on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, an international bank that stores the building blocks of important plants in case of a global catastrophe. The seeds tell the story of Earth’s flora, and is intended to last 1,000 years. What if there was a similar vault for JNCs? A place to store important items, information, and actual cars that future generations will be able to admire, learn from, and maybe even replicate so they can comprehend this one shining moment in automotive and industrial history.
What would you store in a Global JNC Vault?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What JNC from 1984 would you buy new today?” Continue reading
“Why does Toyota have so many dealership chains in Japan?” you may have asked yourself at some point, “And why do certain dealers sell only certain models?” It’s all very confusing. Well, as of last month, if you’re buying a Toyota in Japan, you will no longer have to go through its byzantine network of showrooms to figure out who sells what. Say goodbye to the various Netz, Toyopet, Corolla, and Toyota Store chains. At last, everything is being unified under the Toyota brand, as the last vestiges of Japan’s Bubble Era auto sales traditions dies for good. Continue reading
While open-wheeled cars were the main event at the 1973 Japan Grand Prix, the supporting Touring Car races were where the action was. Take the TS-a class, for example. Here were racers based on cars that anyone could afford. Nissan Cherrys and Sunnys, Toyota Celicas, Corollas, and Publica Starlets. Continue reading
We’ve mentioned before that the Chinese website AliExpress is great for finding weird gems of miniature car greatness. Take this Japanese-style parking garage for 1:64-scale diecast cars, for example. The two-story playset looks like the type of scene where street racers would gather at night before a blast on the Wangan or Shuto. Continue reading
You have a Bluebird Wagon. You have a set of Enkei Bajas, turbine-looking wheels with Datsun fitment. Might as well lift the rear end up in the air to get that 70s funny car look! Happy 610 Day from JNC!
The debut of the Toyota Corolla was a big deal in 1966. Though, it’s quite likely that even Toyota didn’t know how big of a deal the new model would be. The idea was a small but sporty compact that would slot between the Publica and Corona, but no one could have predicted that it would by 1974 become the world’s best selling car model and by 1997 break the Guinness world record for sales, outselling the VW Beetle. Did any of the salarymen passing this new Corolla display know the success they were gazing upon? Would they, as old men seeing “Corolla” become a household word around the globe recall, “I saw the first one on the way to work in 1968.”? Continue reading
Here’s an uplifting story, centered around something we can all agree on: love for the FD3S Mazda RX-7. Mississippi has been hit hard by Tropical Storm Cristobal. During the storm, someone posted on Facebook photos of an orange FD parked on the bottom floor of a flooded parking garage, already up to its rocker panels in water. That’s when Gulfport resident and Japanese car fan Austin Owens leapt into action, even though he had no idea who the owner was. Continue reading
