Today is the birthday of one of the greatest humans ever to work behind a camera, director Akira Kurosawa. If he were alive today, Kurosawa would be 110 years old. Film (and digital) shots, whether still or moving, can make the mundane beautiful, and make the beautiful breathtaking.
One of my personal favorites of all time is the one that introduced to the world the 1967 Mazda Cosmo Sport and its baby brother, the Familia Rotary Coupé,. Angling skyward on a banked curve during testing, the brightness in the image of the cars, the sky, the unblemished track surface, perfectly captured the optimism and seemingly unlimited potential of not just the new type of engine under the hood, but of Japan’s coming industrial boom.
What shot of a JNC will be forever seared into your brain?
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 JNC project until this whole coronavirus thing blows over?”
We enjoyed hearing of self isolation plans, which varied greatly from Nigel‘s building of a 1:24 scale Nissan Leopard 280 TR-X to Geoff‘s building of a 1:1 scale Datsun 240Z. Others, like teddy, are content to give their car a much-deserved wax, while Lee L embarks on a journey to organize his garage. The winner, however, was mrfive1oh, who’s aims to finish his Datsun 510 project while juggling three kids and a new job:
I bought a super original extremely nice 1969 eggshell white 2 door 4 speed Datsun 510 on 4/4 last year the same day I started my new job in Berkeley. I had just had my 3rd child a month prior. The car needed a carb rebuild and I was planning on using it as my daily driver…..
Job with new commute and 3 kids kept me from working on it. Rather than rebuild the carb I decided it needed dual sidedrafts so I picked up a set of Weber 40s…….then header…….then libras……..then coilovers…….the list goes on and on lol. No time to work on it. Then a couple months ago bought a complete radiator to driveshaft deal from a friend with a built LZ20 with dual mikuni 44s and KA 5 speed.
About two months ago I managed to swap the engine into the bay but stopped short of cutting the new hole in the trans tunnel. My office just shut down and I’m now working from home until 4/7 at the earliest so the plan is to drive this car on my 1-year anniversary of purchase. Wish me luck!!!!
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
This picture needs no words and is by far my favorite picture of a JNC
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZOObj8cDz08/VGZrx5JRBeI/AAAAAAAAIiE/hYfRDohbDjE/s1600/1984HZ31NISSANFAIRLADYZBLUE%2B4.jpg
This is pretty much the exact opposite of Lee L’s fave, but for some reason, this image sticks in my head:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/69/4e/cb/694ecbb1090938b5fb127a98695d7e14.jpg
That is pretty fantastic.
One of my faves as well!
Mine would have to be one of the many shots of Colin McRae being in doubt, and going flat out!
https://d3lp4xedbqa8a5.cloudfront.net/imagegen/max/ccr/1023/-/s3/digital-cougar-assets/wheels/2017/06/09/-1/WRC-Subaru-wide.jpg
This 1982 Paris-Dakar Carina AA60 jumping about a meter high in the Sahara desert:
https://www.banpei.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/carina-sightings-kiichiro-yokota-toyota-carnia-aa60-paris-dakar.jpg
In 1982 Masaru Kubota’s and Masahiro Uchida joined the third Paris-Dakar rally with an unmodified Toyota Carina ST AA60 and won the unmodified class. Toyota made very good use of the free publicity by using many photos from the event in their advertising for the Carina. Outside Japan the Toyota Carina was seen as a bit of a dull car (unimpresisve 2T engine, bland interior, etc) but in Japan the Carina featured exciting engines (4A-GE, 3T-GTE) and interiors and was marketed as a Sports-Sedan. Naturally a high jumping Toyota Carina is _the_ way to sell a Sports-Sedan! 😉
That is so sick! I love ordinary cars doing extraordinary things
When I was a kid my neighbor’s wife worked for a Datsun warehouse in Aurora, Illinois and her husband owned an orange 1972 Datsun 510 that he parked in the driveway. From 1972 until it was starting to rust and “old” in 1980 I walked past his house going to school from 5th grade until a senior in high school.
I can still see it sitting in his driveway. Don Stevens.
Who could ever forget the Nissan commercial in which G.I. Joe steals Barbie from Ken?
https://www.picuki.com/media/2207663309267084825
For me the image is an Isuzu pickup working here in Argentina. This example is from the Automovil Club Argentino. Even today they continue tirelessly in many areas of the field working as the first day in very good condition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfFE-3VzwU
bonus. An advertisement for the Automovil Club Argentino of the time with an Isuzu truck. Some of these are still in the fleet. They are also still used in Air Force (blue) and Gendarmeria (green, in this case Trooper)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfFE-3VzwU
bonus. An advertisement for the Automovil Club Argentino of the time with an Isuzu truck. Some of these are still in the fleet. They are also still used in Air Force (blue) and Gendarmeria (green, in this case Trooper)
Kurosawa was born in 1910 and died in 1998 at the age of 88, so if he were alive today he’d be 110, not 90. Beautiful Cosmo photo btw!
I can’t math. Fixed, thanks!
For me, it was when I was 6 or 7 years old and watching the movie “Thunderbolt”. Since then I was always loved the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3. I also loved the scenes with the Nissan Skyline R32.
Probably one of my favorite shots of all time, not just automotive-wise, has to be the shot of HKS’ M300 Celica XX at the Yatabe Test Track. Reminds me of the days when I was just getting into classic Japanese cars and into the old-school tuning style back in maybe 2014-15ish. This was one of the first photos I saw and it’s stuck with me ever since.
https://www.hks-global.com/en/history/images/ph1983.jpg
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/4630/621/24072810013_original.jpg?v=0
THIS! I have always thought this pic of an MS75 lining up against a Camaro in Idaho represented all the years of hard work and busted knuckles of the JNC community, trying to gain the respect of the rest of cardom! (If I remember correctly they lost. A lot. But that’s not the point of this post!)
That is a great pic! I would love to have both cars
Well here in the Philippines, we used to have dubbed airings of pretty much everything on the local television. And I remember watching Shaider as a kid, we used to fight over Annie, that girl who drove the yellow RX-7 on the show.
I mean, who wouldn’t fight over a girl driving a rotary on a show?
Photo in the link: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/metalheroes/images/8/8b/Gk.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120922021151