Let’s say you got your hands on a flux capacitor and had the nuclear scientist know-how of Doc Brown to attach it to any vehicle you want. You know the rest — hit 88 mph, get instantly zapped into the time of your choosing, and let the antics commence. The obvious choice would be to get that sports almanac, but let’s say for the purposes of this question that whatever you do has to be automotive related.
If you could travel to one moment in time, when would it be and what would you do?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “Which movie scene forever seared a Japanese car into your brain?“.
The answers this week introduced us to some titles we’ve never seen, like dankan‘s pick of Full Throttle for a variety of 250cc bikes, or Tomas‘ Kyōryū Kaichō no Densetsu (Legends of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds) for the presence of a very old Toyota Land Cruiser, or Alan‘s Sonatine with its S130 Toyota Crown.
There were also old favorites, such as Ian G.‘s Cannonball Run series for the presence of a Subaru GL and Mitsubishi Starion, or Rotor Nutcase‘s You Only Live Twice for its Toyota 2000GT convertible.
Famous Japanese series had a big influence, like Ray Denison‘s Ultraman and the Mazda Cosmo Sport, or Kyuusha Corner‘s Devil Z. The winner this week is エーイダン for his inspirational story on the gateway drug that led to a lifelong passion for Japanese cars.
The opening scene to the first episode of Initial D. I found out via my Hot Wheels collection and related websites and once I heard that the Toyota AE-86 was featured in an anime I tracked down a few pirated episodes on YouTube (this was 2016). I was Just turned 17 when I started watching it after having read Death Note in Manga form and seen almost all of Sword Art Online (SAO). When I learned that there was a street racing anime, I hunted down episodes and watched some in English sub and others in English dub. That opening scene with the song ‘Space Boy’ was the spark that turned into an obsession with Japanese cars and culture.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Mid 1960’s. in Japan. A mish-mash of Detroit iron from service members & some stunning examples of Japanese cars stepping into the world spotlight. One neighbor had a Prince 2000GT that he raced. Another one had a Mazda Cosmo. I wasn’t even into cars back then but they were badass & stunning respectively. We had a more pedestrian Nissan Cedric.
1968 Mazda headquarters while preparing the Cosmo Sport 110S for the 84 Hours of Nürburgring endurance race.
Why? Just a year earlier, a “new” technology, a new type of engine, had been launched. How much more futuristic could there be? Add to that perhaps a lack of understanding of the circuit’s challenge, in addition to the race’s length… if we consider that just over 20 years earlier, Japan was a disaster during WWII… how could we not have faith in those engineers doing the impossible?
If there’s one thing I believe drives Mazda, it’s never giving up. If there’s one thing that interests Toyota in partnering with them, it’s that spirit. How could we not want to witness firsthand a high point in that genesis that guides them?
Option 1: go back to March 30th, 2025, when I spun out in my Z32 Nissan 300ZX. Full of regrets because I gave the car too much gas when getting onto the freeway onramp, and unfortunately crashing the car onto the guard rail. If I was back to that date, I would’ve known better and driven the car a LOT more cautiously. The car is fixed now, but the memories will remain, and I rather not have those memories.
Option 2: Go back to the late 19th century, and either Benz headquarters or Ford headquarters. With my phone I’d love to just show them pictures of what the automotive realm will look like ~125 years from then. I’m not looking to alter the past, but to just share how far technology has went so far.
There are plenty of cool things I was never alive for, but honestly I’d just go back to a nice autumn Saturday in 2022 when I lived in Okayama. I took it for granted that I could just hop in my Alto Works and go hang out at the local car meet spot, drive up and down one of the nicest roads on the planet, get a cheap lunch at Lawson or Sukiya, and then have drinks that evening with my friends at our favorite bar in the city. Or maybe there would be a drift event going on at Okayama Circuit or Bihoku Highland that I could get up early for and shoot pictures at. Or I could rent my favorite Kawasaki ZX25R and take my favorite route around the prefecture…
There were plenty of downsides living there, but at its best it was very hard to beat
My moment in time will be witnessing the events leading up to the Prototype Group C Mazda 787B crossing the finish line on June 23, 1991 @ 16:00, the conclusion of the 24 Hours of Le Man Race. “Mazda’s Never Stop Challenging” and the “Never Give Up Spirit” perseverance, an international effort of at least 5 countries. The overall team was a core of Japanese, French, Belgium, German and English members.
17 attempts or roughly 21 years of trying since their first entry in 1974. Decades of effort and Victory, an historic achievement.
I want to be part of the team sharing hand shakes, hugs and tears.
Going to LeMans in 1966 to make sure Ken Miles doesn’t get screwed. And to warn him about the J-car.
Few days late and a dollar short, despite the fact that I had seen this post when it was fresh.
I have thought about this before, and the period I would most like to visit would be the late-90’s to early 2000’s tuner scene. Leaning more towards the early 2000’s.
I would like to experience how the car scene was before the ’08 Financial Crisis firsthand, rather than vicariously through old magazines and youtube videos. The reason being is that I was rather young during that time and the cars I was into at the time were the classic American steel of the ’20s to the early ’70s. I didn’t even realize what I was missing out on in those years. That, and the scantily-clad ladies on the tuner magazine covers kinda turned me away at the time (I thought they needed more clothes).
Things I would like to do would be to…
See if I could catch some races.
Visit some tuner and performance shops.
Buy some tuner magazines and maybe some motorsports/street racing videos/DVD’s.
Maybe buy some parts before they went extinct.
But the Holy Grail of it all would be to hit up the Super Street Tour all the way to Nopi Nationals at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia and see all those cars in their body kits, decals, hopped-up motors, custom interiors, and tricked out stereos.
Oh, a man can dream.