It’s getting to be that time of the year again when the leaves of Irohazaka in Nikko start to fall and we can look back on this fall season. During that season, maybe you had a chance to finish that summer repair project, open the engine up on a cool, autumn afternoon, or just have a great time riding with friends. Before the winter chill sets in, we want to know:
What’s you best JNC moment of this fall (2016)?
As always, the most entertaining comment by next Monday will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What JNC is most “on trend” right now”
Last week’s QotW was sparce to say the least. Maybe due to some red-hot discussion in the US. Either way, the comment submitted by SHC cannot be ignored. Importation of JNC has hit a sweet spot of “just the right time” and importers getting hip to knowing what we want is more than front cuts of Nissans and KD engines (with wiring harness, of course). This is a good thing actually. We hope there can be a revival of obscure J-tin so they can live on again in the hands of enthusiasts and not the victim of overgrown brush on the side of the road.
What’s “on trend”…….. low production JNC cars in general, especially unique or special production models.
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
Just yesterday, the NY/NJ/PA tri-state area group “NJassics”–founded only this past summer–had its second meet during the hours of the super-moon phenomenon at the Rockefeller Lookout in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The JNC scene’s growth here, in my opinion, is only being discovered and highlighted, so it meant a lot to me when I got to meet over 20 young and OG JNC enthusiasts who all came from just a few counties in North Jersey. The NJassics community also has many representatives of the NY boroughs, eastern PA, and South Jersey–but they could not make the drive for such a quick meet.
Clean 80’s/90’s cars came out like my Z31, Z32, a band of AE86’s, and EG Hatch, but the powers of the super-moon soon took hold and from the shadows of obscurity came cars like a Mazda 616, a ’76 Corona GT, lime-yellow ’77 Celica Liftback on Watanabe’s, Celica Sunchaser (owner actually owns another two), Z20 Soarer, and even 3rd-generation Dodge Colt on Southern Ways mesh wheels.
This was my highlight JNC Fall 2016 event because of the collective energy we had to plan bigger, unique JNC events for the coming spring/summer. A concourse of people from diverse regions in such a small area having the same passion for the same cars and cultures was the sign of lived dreams to come. The NJassics group has continued working with the Japanese Classics of Virginia (JCoV) and Old School Toyota Car Club of Bridgeport, CT to organize something like a “JCCS East”–an event for the east coast’s own unique narratives and styles of classic import car culture and community.
Pictures of the Super-Moon Meet will be posted in the forums section soon.
My highlight: watching the transporter pull up in front of the house last week with my third 86 300zx hardtop in burgundy to match the other two. Once it was offloaded I had to drive it down the street and back at 10pm to marvel at the odometer displaying the car’s 49k original miles. Once the car was parked I went inside to sift through all of the service records dating back to 1986 and I can’t wait to see the original window sticker with the title when they arrive in the mail from Corpus Christi, TX.
It has to be driving top down on the Tail Of The Dragon at first light on a crisp fall morning. The 2 liter soaring sending the newly fallen leaves scurrying for the roads edge. Eleven miles and 318 curves later sitting blissfuly in a turnout watching the suns rays break on the trees in full fall splendor.
My moment of the summer is when I finally got my hands on my dream car.
I’ve a thing for Mazda sports cars. My first car was a ’91 Eunos Presso V6, which I still have and is my everyday car. I’ve an ’84 RX-7 and I’ve a ’90 Eunos Cosmo, complete with a 20b and a manual conversion. But I still needed something a bit more retro. I co-run the Japanese Retro & Classic Ireland club, and it seemed a little wrong that I didn’t have something with chrome bumpers in my garage. Preferably a rotary-powered Mazda. At the start of the year, I set the goal of having a Mazda RX-2, RX-3 or RX-4 coupe in my shed, with the RX-4 being the most desirable to me. The RX-4 is my ultimate dream car, “the one”.
In May of this year, a cousin of mine sent me a link to a 1974 RX-4 for sale on carandclassic.co.uk, and it just so happened the owner, Terri, and I had a mutual friend – Brad at Triple B Engineering (who rebuilt my 20b and carried out the manual conversion).
I immediately got in touch with Terri through Brad. Unfortunately Terri had already given her word to another person that she would hold the car for them. I pretty much gave up on my goal at that point, as prices in Oz, NZ and Japan continue to rise.
A few months later, I got a random Facebook message from a guy in Somerset, UK. He said he had heard I was interested in an RX-4, and am I still in the market. The guy turned out to be the person that got to Terri’s RX-4 before me a few months previous, and was looking to move it on. I immediately said yes, and started organising plans to get the money together and collect it.
We left home, in the East of Ireland at 6am one Saturday morning, got the ferry to Fishguard and began the 4 and a half hour drive to find my dream car. We found the location very easily, and set our sights on the tragic but beautiful RX-4, which had just been dumped in field on a farm.
The car was as described and came with a van and car load of spares. We loaded up and began the return leg of our 30 hour round trip. Driving and sailing back to Ireland through the night, we got my new RX-4 home safe and sound.
There’s a few issues with the car – drivetrain and cosmetic body work are the main concerns. But most importantly, the car is complete plus very valuable and rare spares, and is extremely solid. With retro j-tin like this, that’s really 80% of the battle.
I’m aiming to have the RX-4 ready for next summer. Sitting here now, it still feels surreal that I’ve been able to find the car that had felt so unattainable not so long ago. Surreal, and wonderful.
Riding along in a friend’s daily driver on my first ever trip to Japan. Cruising down the C1 section of the Wangan, traffic is behaving itself as we slalom through the pachinko parlor environment of road construction, keeping pace with a sea of cotton candy colored economy cars, colorful taxis, and imposing black Toyota Vellfires and Alphards, anime and gameshows playing on their huge integrated tv’s.
A road sign above, familiar only in the fantasies played out in countless wangan racing games flashes overhead, festooned with speed control cameras. My friend states “Everyone knows where the cameras are, watch how traffic will speed up now.”
As if on cue, a distinctive wail shatters the night. A Nissan L-series, drinking Eneos premium greedily through multiple carburetors comes awake and shouts its challenge to the night; an ominous black Hakosuka sedan its home. The Skyline squats as it accelerates by us, an all-powerful Oni of the expressway on fat-lipped gold Watanabes, rocketing into the inviting orange warmth of the tunnel in front of us, towards Odaiba, towards Daikoku Futo, towards its destiny.
As its taillights fade quickly into the distance, I can’t help but feel that every playstation game, every Fujimi or Tamiya kit purchased and built, every track event put in, every car bought and wrenched on, has led me to this point. And that everything after this? This is when things get interesting.
I bought my 87 300ZX 2+2 in July and I’ve been daily driving it ever since. I guess my best JNC moment of the fall was the first real rain (as real as it gets for Northern California), driving to work with the t-top shades off and listening to the rain hit the roof above me. Love it!
Going to SEMA 2016 and seeing tons of J-Tin that normally would never be seen in an Aftermarket Parts Show, stock or otherwise.
Toyota pretty much giving several of their brands a historical retrospective, via the Corolla, Land Cruiser, and Van lines. The only way some of these cars would’ve been at SEMA if they had been heavily modified and hacked to bits.
On a similar vein, the Land Cruiser getting a much bigger showing in the Aftermarket Parts scene. Seeing the range from a stock J20 to an offroading J60, and numerous restmod J40’s to a bonkers J200 Dragster AND a JDM Lexus LX 570 Bippu amongst Bro-Trucks all in the same venue. Yes, a JDM Lexus LX570 Bippu amongst Bro-trucks: http://i.imgur.com/CsHvMIh.jpg
The scattering of various other J-Tin, ranging from the mini-trucks to Racers to Resto-mods, to even the just plain insane builds, and old farts looking and commenting about them IN THE POSITIVE.
Mazda again teasing the Miata faithful of forbidden fruit that will never see the light of day.
The sight of this all has me inspired to do something to be a part of this. Can anyone loan me like, some 7 figures in cash?
I drove my 1981 Celica Sunchaser from Monterey to Cayucos on Highway 1. Traveling south along the coast, through Big Sur, in a classic convertible Celica was just too awesome to be believed, and the sunset was glorious. It was what these cars are made for.
Pictures are here: http://oppositelock.kinja.com/driving-in-heaven-1786132808
Oooh, I love Cayucos. Great little town!
In late september I had a pretty bad weekend, Started with a fight and subsequent break up with my 7 year long girlfriend and then ended with my RA29 getting rear ended while parked. All I wanted to do the morning after the break up was to go a for a long drive to clear my mind and give me some time to think and reflect… instead it was a morning filled with stress, anger, frustration and all the emotions you can probably imagine. The car was undrivable. I have silly exhaust that sticks out far behind the bumper so it was completely gone up to the header. Amazingly the fiberglass smiley was relatively undamaged, not so amazingly was the punched in sheetmetal behind it… it wasnt a good time anyway you look at it. I definitely shed a tear or two as it was being loaded on to the flat deck. At the time I was expecting it to be written off…
Fast forward a month to late october and I finally get my car back. This whole month leading up to me getting it back, all I wanted to do was drive. I was a downer to be around, mopey and upset and I just couldnt shake those feelings. Same day I got the car back I took a late night cruise up the Sea to Sky highway. Stretching from West Vancouver to Whistler its probably the closest thing to a California Canyon road we have around here. So I turned up the synthwave and just lost myself in the drive. My Celica is nothing special, its dear to me in every way but it is just a 20r with a weber and header. It probably makes all of 95hp if that… but I cant say I have ever had a better driving experience than that night. I was barely keeping pace with traffic but the sounds of the exhaust coupled with the raw shakes of the stiff suspension, the mitch murder playing through my two crappy speakers, the fact that it was like the rain had let up just for me in this record breaking wet October, it felt like I was going a million miles an hour and for the first time in a good while I felt good. I had my car back and I was happy
… after a while though I realized they screwed up bits of the bodywork and the tailights let rain in like crazy and bla bla bla but whatever that drive was amazing and it was just what i needed
I would have to say driving a Toyota Sports 800 in Japan. Between Gotenba and Tsujido.
It’s the start of the rainy season up here in the PNW, but when my 510 gets out, the sidedrafts sure do like the dense air!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81mdt9iTP8I&feature=share – do I need to say more ????We were racing in the alpes 🙂