It’s been raining a lot in California, a rare occurrence, keeping us from tinkering with actual cars in the driveway. But like a junkie, we’re going through withdrawal. We tried hitting up the local Target for Hot Wheels but there was nothing to buy. What should we try next, binge-playing Gran Turismo, building a Tamiya kit, or just standing outside in the rain like a serial killer and watching the water bead on cera-coated paint?
How do you satisfy your car addiction when you can’t access your actual car?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Which JNC looks most proper in orange?“.
When we asked the question we proclaimed that it was only really the 70s and a brief period in the early 2000s where orange was popular. This would seem to be true for James and Ginkei Garage, both of whom chose Imola Orange Pearl from that era’s Honda NSX.
More modern machines include Marcos‘ suggestion of the 30th Anniversary ND Miata’s Racing Orange, or Ian G.‘s nomination of the Scion FR-S’s Hot Lava. Ian G. also mentioned a car/color combo we have never seen in person, the AW11 MR2’s Orange Pearl.
Answers that are not conventional cars in the buyable-from-dealership sense but are glaringly obvious once mentioned include Franxou‘s pick of the legendary Mazda 787B, Jim Klein‘s choice of the Mazda RX-500 concept, and エーイダン‘s Toyota Dyna road works truck.
Of course, there were those like 4non and Dimitry Mochkin who believed that any and every car could look good in orange, though that wasn’t the original question.
In the 70s orange was the hero color of many models. Prime examples include Nigel‘s answer of a Mitsubishi Galant GTO, TheJWT‘s Isuzu Bellet, Taylor C.‘s Nissan S30 Z, Land Ark‘s Datsun 620, and mangocast‘s Honda Civic RS.
But even when it wasn’t the brochure hue, it just looked right on cars like Negishi no Keibajo‘s Honda Z600, Ian N.‘s Honda 1300 Coupe, Joaquin‘s Mazda RX-3, and Kyuusha Corner‘s C210 Skyline, and KiKiIchiban‘s Datsun 510.
The winner this week was EbolaWorks, who won the week with his heartfelt story. We hope you can do it!
918 Mexican Orange on a Datsun 510 wagon will always be my favorite. There’s a nice older couple who have ’70 down the road from me, rotting under a tree. They said they bought it brand new, and both their kids and their kids’ kids learned to drive in it. If there is one car on this earth I’d save above all others, it’d be that one.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Although the Toyota supra is way out of my price range, I did acquire a 1992 Lexus SC300. The journalists of the day actually liked the SC300 which was offered with a five speed and a lighter weight than the SC400 V8. Being 85 years old now, I became addicted to the Lexus SC430 for the luxuriousness, and so I traded-in my SC300 for the SC430, a low mileage stormy granite mica with “real” walnut wood trimmed and camel leather interior. The freeway performance is amazing, and the 25 MPG is the same as my 1992 Miata. My collection of 1:18 models of my Miata and Lexus SC430 occupy my moment when it is too rainy to play with my real toys outside.
A classmate in flight training at an airline asked if I could help drive one of his 2 cars from the LA Port complex to his new home in the U.S. When I got there, I was staring at 2 Lotus’s. That started my affairs with Lotus (which I just parted ways recently after 30 pls years). It was great but honestly, my 240-Z was a a way better car hands down. My partner’s NA Miata was a refined Lotus without the monumental headaches.
That’s easy. You co-drive a buddy’s car at an auto-x or any motorsports event. I’ve had the engine out of my AW11 for years now and luckily I’ve been able to drive another one via my gracious friends letting me co-drive their cars.
Its not that selfless of an act tho. One time, my buddy “used” me to warm up his brakes (almost lost it one time since the racing brakes were cold and did not stop as suddenly as I would have wanted) and tires and so I would run his car and then he would run it after me all warmed up and have a more competitive lap time. But yeah a co-drive opportunity is my answer to this QOTW.
I used to be a huge Craigslist junkie when CL was big. I was introduced to it during college in the late 90s, and it instantly put a negative affect on my academics. The addiction extended into my early career, where I could’ve worked harder and earned more promotions / higher salary so I could buy a nicer car vs. looking for the best deals around.
There was a time when CL started to become less popular, most notably when I moved out here to New England in 2017. As a response my West Coast friends told me the action was over at FB Marketplace now. I was never a facebook fan, but I gradually switched over to Marketplace. The addiction quickly re-satiated my perusing desires and would definitely take time from my routine. During the winter when the cars are in winter storage, I have spent time by myself in the garage staring at the cars in their parked spots while they slowly developed cabin fever.
After some time, I’d head back upstairs, settle into the couch, and fire back up Marketplace to see what’s out there. These would be dangerous times because the lack of access to cars have effected me to buy “replacements,” twice! Once was the 1991 Prelude (which has been a great nostalgic inducer), the other time was the 1991 Accord with H22A swap (which was a big mistake). This past 2025 winter season I was VERY close to buying a C5 Corvette Z06; fortunately Spring-like weather came early and I was able to pull my cars out of hibernation earlier.
I have started checking out CL again recently since Marketplace has too much “trash” at times. I didn’t buy a Corvette, but then I ended up buying a station wagon early this Spring, something I was definitely perusing during the winter season! I have such terrible self control!
This is especially pertinent for me, since the cars I’m addicted too aren’t at the location where I’m living, and I can only go and work on them a few days a month (when it’s not raining). For me it’s all about studying and preparing for the ways I will be modifying my current or future projects. I’m learning all sorts of stuff from building replacement pieces out of sheet metal, how to design suspension, engine mounts, make fiberglass molds for carbon fiber layup, CAD software, custom ABS systems, etc. I even have a bunch of spreadsheets where I try to catalog all the parts that go into a build, whether it is researching parts and part numbers, technology, or even paint codes. I also search for parts constantly, so when they pop up for sale I can snag them, and mark them on my spreadsheet.
You wait until late at night when everyone’s asleep, very quietly on tiptoes take your laptop into the bathroom, lock the door, leave the lights off, turn the laptop on and go to https://www.JapaneseNostalgicCar.com for full satisfaction of the craving.
when daydreaming about a project car i like to do concepts, in real or fictional settings. depends on how much time i have to burn or how much a liking i take to a particularly wild idea, these could be from simple sketches of body kits to full on fleshed out short stories. i almost made a model of one of these concepts (a heavily rebuilt cyberpunk 180SX that survived 100 years dogfighting in the streets of neo-tokyo). but when i got the kit i simply couldn’t bear butchering it and just built it as is. such a beautiful machine.
Easy. Picked up a 1990 Miata a week before local Canadian weather started hitting sub-freeze temps, which didn’t stop me driving it top down, but unfortunately it had to be put away to save it from salt. so now I’m cross shopping various websites and either just staring or actually ordering little bit to bring the little 35 year old Roadster back to factory spec, with nicer plastics, new rubber bushings, you name it.
P.S. now I understand why my wife likes shopping so much…
Easy, I collect Diecast. My most recent one was the Corgi Honda Prelude from the 1980s. Can’t have the real thing, so might as well settle for the diecast version. Repeat logic for pretty much every other model I want/wanted.