In 2014 a new trilogy of Initial D movies came out. Called New Initial D Movie — Legend, It was a reboot complete with new animation style, a retelling of the earlier chapters of the beloved series. We watched the original in the early 2000s, but we’ve never seen this one. The coming holidays might be a good time to catch up on what is now a nearly decade-old ode to underground drifting. We’ve also heard that Stranger Things and Archer, while not about cars per se, have pretty good background cars.
What car-themed series should we binge over the holidays?
The most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What car-related things are you thankful for?“.
Classic hardware was a popular category among this week’s commenters, such as the high redlines, individual throttle bodies, and manual transmissions called out by Alan. Ian N got even more fundamental with the plain ol’ accelerator pedal. We suspect Jesse‘s list was overnighted from Japan. And for Taylor C. it was the ability to hang onto old cars and the parts that that make them run.
Others chose non-physical but equally important things, like Jonathan P.‘s car meets and エーイダン‘s notion of a truck-having friend that owes you a favor. Jim Klein almost won the week by appealing directly to our own vanity when he said, “Car websites such as this one,” but we can’t be so easily swayed (usually).
This week it was steve who came out on top with a touching story about his father that started with the simple pleasure that is the old school car brochure:
Paper Car Brochures: Let me explain how these wonderful emotional publications stirred the soul in a young boy that eventually lead to life full of cars, racing, rallying, design and models – while having a satisfying career along the way.
We didn’t have a lot of money in the 60’s-70’s. Dad would take me to the dealers every September where I collected the brochures. I would cut out mainly the side views of the cars and play with them on Mom’s carpet. They were everywhere. I created my own scenes and loved the sports cars, the wagons and the dumpy sedans. I learned about cars. I learned about perspective views, and I learned about design by studying these free toys.
I was hooked on cars. Dad took me to races, I was hooked. Dad bought me a few model cars to build. I learned about construction and assembly of motor vehicles. One Christmas I received the “Visible-V8”. I asked a lot of questions, and learned about the 4 cycles. I drew cars in Math and Social Studies classes, and got told “you will never amount to anything” for scribbling in a notebook. I took shop, I graduated High School, then went to VW Apprentice Training Center and worked as a wrench. I built a rally car (Datsun 510). Learned about being on time and working hard every day and night. Went rallying Professionally for 5-6 years. I still scribbled in notebooks, so I sold ALL of my rally cars and parts to go to Design School for 4 years, where I actually cut out paper cars again (cut out vellum sketches to paste on media board – LOL!), graduated, and have worked in the Design industry ever since. I went racing and rallying for fun with the money I made. I worked my way up to Design General Manager and pretty much feel that I “Never Worked a Day In My Life”. It was always fun (except maybe 3 or 4 days).
All from being influenced by my Dad taking me to look at new cars, every September when it was a thing, and collecting the brochures and playing with paper cars. I am so fortunate that I found the passion for something that I was able to enjoy right to this day. I am still working on model cars, in a work environment for money and engagement. I am a lucky guy.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
I think Initial D, still waiting for the last season of Stranger Things.
Car finding will give me a good excuse to go back and watch some older seasons of Stranger Things.
Currently I am watching two on Crunchy Roll that are very well done. MF Ghost and Overtake! Both of which you have written about. MF Ghost has the best racing action of the two, although it is a bit unrealistic, while overtake has a real plot and gives good insight on the roles the alpha and beta race drivers play on a team. Different target audiences but both are great fun to watch.
Season 3 Episode 7 of Archer has his car stolen by the Yakuza and it features RX3s and all sorts of very good cars. Theres good spotting throughout the series.
I recently found a streaming site called RetroCrush that has a bunch of old anime, so I will be watching City Hunter there, otherwise You’re Under Arrest is a good one and Miami Vice never fails.
Tried RetroCrush, but unfortunately, EVERY series comes up with the message: “The title is not available in your location”, despite the lavish and inviting webpage presented before me (in Aust.) Major bummer!
Tokyo Vice.
HG50 President, S130 Fairlady, and an R34 GT-R all play roles. Not exactly a car show, but an extraordinary true story and adaptation of an outstanding book.
I’m a fan of Wheeler Dealers, especially the early episodes with Edd China. It’s a great watch for non-professional wrenches like me.
There is also a ton of car-related content on YouTube that’s with checking out. For our interest, if you don’t watch Wasabi Cars you should check out his back catalogue. He’s the only content creator I’ve actually bought merch from
For the record, Archer is HILARIOUS until about Season 3. Somewhere about Season 4, something is off, and by the time you get to the [spoiler] coma seasons, the novelty has totally worn off.
Capeta (2005)
Not necessarily about cars, but racing. The story follows a working class boy getting into kart racing with F1 aspirations.
Kitchen Nightmares is one I’ve been binging lately. As for Fiction, Minder (UK series from the ’80s). On Youtube Doug DeMuro and Hoovies’ Garage make for good watching.
French Taxi series, of course. Except for the 5th installment.
Initial D Legends is massively disappointing. Skip them and stick with the original. It certainly wasn’t made by car enthusiast as Season 1 is more realistic than Legends depiction of driving.