We were pleasantly shocked last week when Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing revealed that they’d be bringing back Toyota’s WRC and JGTC Castrol livery — on a Ford Mustang, no less. It got us thinking about what other famous Japanese racing liveries should be resurrected. Bonus points for finding the perfect car to match, and they don’t have to necessarily be on a car of the same marque.
What Japanese racing livery should be revived?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your favorite Showa Era car?“.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Toyota 2000GT came up, as both a real car from Jim Simpson and as a Hot Wheels from Jacob B. Franxou‘s and Lakdasa‘s picks of the Honda S500/S600/S800 and Datsun Fairlady 2000, respectively, rounded out the roadsters of the era. From the 80s, we have Taylor C.‘s nod for the Toyota Cressida and Dankan‘s selection of the third-gen Honda Prelude, both excellent choices.
The winner this week was StreetSpirit, who not only made an outstanding ruling on the Kenmeri Skyline, but painted the perfect picture of how that car would be rolling down the dori. Also, it was his birthday!
showa era day? nah it’s my birtday today!
funny how people can be nostalgic for a time and place they never expereinced.anyways, my favorite showa-era sheetmetal has to be the c110 skyline but not any old skyline would be the skyline for me…
a shortnose coupe, specificly one with the surfline intact would be my showa era dream. imagine one in pastel yellow and drop it down low on some sakuras, spend a little time giving the prince G18 some breathing room and i wouldn’t be me if i didn’t go for a front air dam (like EVA celica ones) and a little gt-r wing on the back.
turn on the mood light, roll the windows down, get my friends and cruise the boulevard with some fresh takanaka jams oozing from the pioneers emitting a soft glow on the parcel shelf. ice cold boss coffees and lemonade on a warm summers evening, let’s go!
now if you’ll excuse me i’ve got some showa era daydreaming to do.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Keeping it in NASCAR, Toyota already sponsors cars in various series with the TRD branding at least occasionally. It would only make sense, maybe at a throwback race, that the use the 1983-1985 IMSA Celica livery on one of the Camrys in the series.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/60/9c/f3609cf1f3e5efce0ed0194fcec184d9.jpg
Thinking more about it, maybe it would make most sense in the Xfinity series since they drive Supras.
“Renown” on a Mazda, race series does not even matter. Done.
Speaking of which, the white and green stuff used on the iconic GTU RX-7 should be cool enough, same goes for the white and blue MRTE’s 323s had
Agreed. Classic 80s livery.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/33270/you-can-own-this-baja-1000-isuzu-pup-pickup-for-the-price-of-a-used-corolla
Maybe a little dark and forgotten but maybe the Isuzu colors for the Baja 1000 from the mid-80s?
The 555. Because that would mean that Subaru is back on the World Rally Stage.
I think it’s been a while since we’ve seen Mazda’s blue&white livery. They just need a car.
https://japanesenostalgiccar.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/AN5Q5115-Mazda-RX7-FC3S-IMSA-GTO-01.jpg
The Renown argyle was used for an IMSA race on the Lola in 2016, and variations on the colors have been used frequently.
It was nice seeing Nissan-Electramotive colors on the IMSA DPi car in 2019.
JACCS Accord!
Calsonic, Jomo, Axia, Renown… Unfortunately, many of brands and companies that were the main sponsors of my favorite livery no longer exist.
So which livery should be revived in the now?
There are two requirements. The main sponsor must be alive and well and cool and iconic.
I can think of two.
One is Idemitsu. They are one of the brands still in existence today. And their iconic livery from their Gr.A days is beloved, as are Jaccs and Castrol.
As proof, many toy manufacturers have commercialized their Civics and enthusiasts are buying them up.
Not only that, even world-famous video games like Grand Theft Auto have parodies of their livery in their games.
And what kind of car is Honda currently using in the Super GT? Yes, the Civic.
If they return to Japan’s premier GT race with the iconic livery Civic, I am sure they will get a lot of praise and high publicity that will surprise even them.
And one more thing. It is the HKS/Genki Hyper Silvia.
This car is one of the most iconic cars in the history of D1GP, and just like Ken Nomura’s Skyline, many people still love this car today.
And there are two reasons why I think this liveried car should be revived.
One is that it is time for D1GP to look back to the past. I don’t mean this in a negative way.
They have already accumulated more than 20 years of history and have become one of the most respectable historical drifting motorsports. That is why reviving the iconic livery would be a good symbol to showcase that history.
Another reason. It is that Genki is “coming back” for us.
Like other game developers in the world, they were one of the companies that could not keep up with the soaring game development costs.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer, one of the holy grails for JDM freaks, has not been released on consoles for over a decade, and with the shutdown of the mobile game servers a few years ago, everyone gave up hope.
But they are coming back this year. For us.
If they revive HKS Genki Silvia’s livery to the current D1GP at the best time, we will be reunited with two treasures.
Speaking of Genki, remember that yellow S2000?
I suppose it isn’t a true livery, but the simplicity of the Honda RA272 could potentially work. A stark Championship White with the red circle of the Japanese flag, blue driver’s names, and black numbers. Honda already makes the badges red on racing models in tribute to it.
It might be hard to make the simple design work on Honda’s modern cars especially with how many sponsors there are but it could be done!
Some left field ideas here:
With Liberty Media’s impending takeover of the premier motorcycle racing category, why not
to an F1 and MotoGP crossover? Mick Doohan’s classic 90’s Repsol Honda livery would be
awesome on a Honda powered Red Bull Racing F1 car.
And with Yamaha entering the world of Formula E, past and future would meet with Yamaha’s
1970’s Red and White livery on the spaceship like body of the Lola electric chassis!