It’s a well known fact that Japanese Santa Claus, a magical yokozuna in a red and white yukata, travels all over the world to in a flying Hino Ranger dekotora to bring those on his “nice” list. You can ask him for anything you want, from a $1 Hot Wheels car to a 1 of 1 priceless race car currently in the possession of an automaker’s museum collection.
What are you asking Japanese Santa Claus for this year?
The best comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What made you fall in love with cars?“.
Obviously there’s no “right” answer to this week’s question (or any week’s, really), and we enjoyed all of your origin stories. Sometimes it was an iconic car themed TV show like Taylor C.‘s Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider, or Lupus‘ Initial D. For others it was an actual car, like Jeremy A.‘s $200 Skylark or Ian G.‘s brother’s Mitsubishi Galant wagon. Sometimes just a single ride will do, as in Lee K.‘s case with a turbo Eagle Talon. We can also identify with CycoPablo‘s love for Tamiya R/C cars, or Ellis‘ love for Gran Turismo. Almost anyone at the height of the tuner era would have fallen for the car as a form of self expression, as f31roger did at HIN. And of course, some of us, like Azfer, are just born with it.
We liked all your stories, but we could only choose one winner. This week the honor goes to Banzai for connecting this hobbies to the emotional explanation behind why we love what we love.
My first memories of cars involved playing with my matchbox cars outside, making racetracks in the dirt. Dangling my feet off the open tailgate of my dads Jeepster station wagon, while going to the store.
From there, I graduated to Hot Wheels and got into building plastic models. Still remember my my very first one, a 1/32 Aurora, Cobra Daytona Coupe. Had no idea what it, or who Carrol Shelby was, but boy was it cool. I think what cemented my bond for cars and racing was seeing the movie Grand Prix when I was about nine years old.
Back then, cars ignited passion and stirred ones soul. They were as much about fun and energy as they were practical. Today, they are more and more becoming utilitarian objects, used to move people and cargo from place to place. For me, cars and bikes are still emotionally driven experiences.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Well… this year i’m not asking for anything tactile, anything for my cars, no toys, collectibles, games…
I just want to finally find my own happiness with the women i love…
Life throws more and more obstacles under our feet while we’r trying to reach our dream… I would just ask Santa for a little help in our hill climb…
This is such a loaded question, so I will make it as realistic as possible.
For non-tangible wishes, I would like my 1990s cars to continue running smoothly. There’s nothing more annoying than a car that’s down for repairs, but fortunately Japanese cars from this era have been reliable and straightforward to repair. Still, it’s better to get into the car and drive worry-free.
Now, for something that’s a bit more fantasy, I wouldn’t mind a 1997 Toyota Hiace Super Custom 2WD 5-speed manual. Add the sunroofs and some rallye wheels and it’ll look great with the period-correct two tone white / grey paint.
That, right there. Ben, you nailed it. Watching James Garner in Grand Prix. That movie changed my car life. It was the quintessential Motorsport movie of the 1960’s. From the cars, production by John Frankenheimer, Lalo Schifrin soundtrack to the Saul Bass graphics. It put cars in a cool context.
Santa has already ordered (with my credit card annoyingly enough) a liberty walk spoiler for my Mustang.
For me to find at a Walmart store the Tomica North America series again. Was really hoping to land me the Lotus and the Mercedes G-Wagen……
Back in August the QotW was “What car do you wish you hadn’t sold”. And my answer that week was :
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The best car I ever owned, which also happened to be the first car I ever owned. A third generation 1987 JDM SI Civic on Mugen CF-48 wheels. Not the coolest car in the school parking lot circa 2002. But a whole heap of fun to drive. It revved hard. It handled superbly. I’ve owned a lot more expensive and certainly a lot faster cars since then but I don’t think anything has put a smile on my face quite as big as what that little Civic could.
It also led to some great friendships, many of which continue to today. It took us on some fantastic road trips and made so many amazing memories.
Sadly it was stolen in my final year of school and although it was eventually recovered it was a write off. Cars came and went after that but every now and again the thought of that Civic will cross my mind and put a huge smile on my face for the rest of the day.
I haven’t looked at what third gen Civics are going for lately, and I don’t even want to know how much a set of CF-48s fetch. But it was never about the money. It was about what a fantastic car it was. Could I build one now? Probably. But it wouldn’t be my first Civic. It wouldn’t be the car that made all those memories. And sadly that’s the only place it exists now.
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So Japanese Santa Claus, if you’re reading this – for Christmas I’d like my ’87 Civic back.
And if you can’t do that INNO models do a nice 1:18 scale model version that would look nice on my shelf.
Merry Christmas everyone and a happy 2022!
I’ll be getting a couple 1:18 diecast this year for Christmas. A Mercedes 190e Evo 2 raced in DTM and Porsche 935 raced at Le Mans.
But what I really want from Japanese Santa is the upcoming 1:18 Celica 1600GTV (TA22) from Ignition Model. If only it didn’t cost so much.
I’ve been asking Santa for a 2 car garage for a really long time. Which was kindly given a month ago as an early Xmas gift.
I’ve been sorting out my tools and years of car parts I’ve saved from the junkyards… and I just have too much junk. LOL.
Been slowly building my mancave.. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get done with a few other tasks that seem to have hung me up.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXQfNSnrJVI/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXeHD6EJ8h1/
Working on my diecast display in one of the recessed corners… and I recently got these:
https://scalecarhobby.f31club.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211222_004026.jpg
And Tomica Santas (my friends in Japan) got me a lot.
https://scalecarhobby.f31club.com/2021/12/07/recent-tomica-from-japan/
To be rid of this pandemic so things can go back to normal again! And by normal, I mean being able to go to Japan, hang out with car friends, and attend car shows.
A manual early NSX. Not easy to find a good one at a reasonable price! I think they’ve increased in value by about 20% in the last year.