We just returned from Monterey Car Week, where cars of all types mingle on the streets of the central coast peninsula. Traditionally Japanese cars have been relegated to the sidelines but are now gaining respect, even among the blue-bloods. Sure, cars like the Toyota 2000GT or Mazda 787B hold sway, but those aren’t exactly accessible to the average person. Our ride this year, a Toyota Previa SC, cost under $3,000 and received its share of plaudits, and it got us thinking:
What’s the most inexpensive way to command respect at Car Week?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What’s your favorite automotive hat?”
Your favorite automotive hats ranged from the funny, like @ye and j_c, to the nostalgic — Drive510‘s tuner shop souvenir, Land Ark‘s alma mater, or Ian G.‘s from one of the first large-scale enthusiast test drive events.
However, the winner last week was returning champion TheJWT for an automotive hat with an amazing story behind it:
My Trail Motor Apex Racing baseball cap.
The very abridged version of the story is that TMAR basically showed up out of nowhere at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon with some ridiculously high budget builds (One was that Hakosuka with a NASCAR V8 built by Daigo Saito). Soon after that, they sponsored 4 of the most popular drivers in D1GP. Their budget was seemingly endless, despite it not being clear what the company actually did.
As it soon turned out, what their parent company (Trail Logistics) did was defraud millions of dollars from Rakuten. The owner and a few others involved went to jail and TMAR disappeared as quickly as it started.
In 2024 I was at D1 round 1 at Okuibuki and I got my hat signed by all four of the former drivers (who also happen to be four of my favorites) – Daigo Saito, Naoki Nakamura, Takahiro Ueno, and Hokuto Matsuyama. They were all amused and in good spirits about it, as far as I know they were just along for the ride and had no direct involvement.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
That’s it exactly — an average price, and do not trailer it. Drive it — the single best way to appreciate your classic JDM car — even if it is across the country!
You haven’t driven your S2000 across the country? Why not? Properly taken care of, it’s actually very comfortable. After all, JDM cars took to everything from tiny street, to the Shuto Expressway Bayshore Route, and to the Touge very easily.
The drive will mostly be hundreds of boring miles, but with some research you can break it up with selected fun and scenic roads. This is your chance to experience the Tail of the Dragon (or better yet, its nearby cousins), Red Rock Canyon in NV, Route 66 across the middle, Natchez Trace Parkway starting in Nashville (actually, starting at the Loveless Cafe with a large dose of biscuits and some extras for later in the drive, after a visit to the Lane Motor Musuem where you’ll see the only S660 in the county along with it’s close relatives S600 and S800s)… and so much more.
And when you get to Car Week, tell them what you did. If there are some chips or dirt – those are wounds of honor! You did something that most have not.
At a Sunday drive event in Hong Kong once. Hong Kong being Hong Kong, anything from a 918 Spyder to a Singer can show up and you can tell who owns what by the watches worn by people there.
Amongst the crowd, there was a middle aged man, no wrist watch, with his son and his WiLL Vi. When the parking lot is full of supercars, nobody is paying attention to him. In between polishing details on the Vi, he was explaining to his son about the other cars, having pride in his, just having a father-son moment.
That’s respect right there.
Respect & compliment others of their efforts, no matter humble they may be. They brought it to a car show. It’s their pride & joy. Maybe they’ll return the respect.
Pebble Beach is all about the high end of the automotive spectrum, always has been, always will be. Sure you can drive whatever you want around the area, but beyond that, you will never, ever see a stock Supra on the lawn at the Concourse, just like you will never see a TR3, an MGB, a 240Z, a Plymouth or any other mass produced domestic “family” car.
Just how it is.
I agree. It’s West Coast, Monterey, Car Week, it’s going to be a very selective crowd. Whereas my 1991 Prelude was received with a lot of nostalgia and thumbs-ups at this past weekend’s Larz Anderson Cars and Coffee here in Boston Metro, I doubt it’d really attract much attention at Car Week.
I’m thinking a nice 1996 Toyota Camry Coupe SE V6 in Rally Red would definitely catch some eyes. Keep it stock, tan leather interior, roll up with the moonroof tilted up, that’ll get some stares.
With a Pur Sang T35 and a Daytona Super Clone.
Don’t bring any cash to a 4-way street drag race. Instead offer the pink slip to your ride. If you lose, winner takes your car but if you win, you take the cash and the respect. To some people its more important.
Mazda (Autozam) AZ-1 would be my call, not _that_ pricey but I think would attract plenty of interest. Not sure you need kit it to look like an F40 and then Renown-check it as one car mag did this year, but perhaps it helps?
Or the Murano CrossCabriolet they brought last year, or (moving away from J-tin) the Pontiac Aztek they brought the year before that.
Maybe I’d split the difference and bring a Pontiac Vibe, preferably the GT with a 2ZZ and 6-speed manual.
As you are asking…I just got back from Car Week with my SA/FB RX7. However, I didn’t drive it there, I brought it on a trailer. It isn’t a street car (it doesn’t even have a VIN), it is an ex-IMSA GTU car. It was a Monterey Historics entry, but, unfortunately, it wasn’t quite completed, so we ended up parked in the pits—which makes it only partly legit as a racing entry, when you don’t even take the green flag. Nevertheless, the cost of admission for the build (given that I did almost all of it myself, from a pile of parts) was likely a small fraction of most of the fantastic cars that were there. The Mazdas and Datsuns are really the way to go there from a budget standpoint, if one can find a legit old-time race car to rebuild. While they don’t get the respect due the Porsches, the Can-Am cars, the IMSA GTP cars, and so on, they get their measure of respect and attention, because Japanese race cars are awesome, people love them, and…have you priced out Porsche cars or parts recently? Hoo, boy.
Bring a clean lowered AW11 MR2 since it’s the first Japanese mid-engine car. The car guys that are actually into cars will respect it, while the people there to see expensive cars probably won’t. You can’t please everybody. The small boxy MR2 will stand out from all the large heavy blob shaped hypercars.
Late entry since this week’s hasn’t been posted yet.
Find the cheapest Tacoma/Pickup 5 speed you can find, paint it black, lift it and put bumper bars and rollbars with KC lights on them. You’ll get thumbs up from normies and car guys for pure nostalgia, even if it isn’t the right generation, folks will appreciate it.
my time to shine. USD $1200.
I have always wanted a Daihatsu Charade G100, because it was one of the only choices of car ownership in China 25 years ago, and the first family car we had. This makes a charade both JNC and CNC. So when I saw one on Trademe (NZ craigslist) back in 2024, I did the only irrational but correct thing, despite having about 8 cars already. That was $600USD.
Next came the modifications. One should rattle can a car at least once in their life. 150USD. What colour? chinese taxi red and silver of course. Then it was time for taxi seat covers and signage, only the best from AliExpress. 150USD. Some custom lowering springs, odd size tyres and four moon discs adds another $300 which makes this the most inexpensive and most complete car I’ve built (ruined).
And the reception? every insta kid, JDM fanboy, Chinese uncle and new balance wearing boomer line up to be taken for a ride in the Chinese taxi that they’ve never seen before. Then I inevitably have to answer their questions and introduce them to the JNC-NZDM-Chinese taxi mashup. This is not the kind of car to command respect, and I definitely was not taking this project seriously. But after every interaction, I feel like i made someone more appreciative of the car culture.