Tag Archives: mazda

SHOWA SNAP: Los Angeles in the early 1980s

Welcome to the first Showa Snap from the US. Taken in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, it contains a glorious sampling of Nihon steel. Right in the foreground there’s three sporty coupes from three major manufacturers, all lined up … Continue reading

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SHOWA SNAP: Fukuyama Station, 1975

Fukuyama Station in Hiroshima Prefecture is located right by the 399-year-old Fukuyama Castle. Bullet trains whiz in and out of the station on a daily basis, and over 20,000 people pass though it every day. Back in 1975, parking at … Continue reading

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JCCS Spotlight: And the JNC Award goes to Kevin Truong’s NA Mazda MX-5 Miata

Our final installment of JCCS coverage spotlights the car to which we gave the JNC Award: Kevin Truong’s first-generation Montego Blue Mazda MX-5 Miata. Our pick coincided well with JCCS’s expanded eligibility of cars up to model year 1995. The … Continue reading

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JCCS Spotlight: Best in Show Mazda RX-7 GSL-SE

We’ve completed eleven installments of the biggest JCCS ever. It was a landmark year, one that saw approximately 500 cars and over 10,000 spectators, both new records. The competition was tougher than ever, but when the dust settled there was … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mitsuoka turns your Miata into a Corvette Sting Ray

Mitsuoka is famous for giving Japan’s domestic cars weird, retro automotive costumes. For decades, its most popular offerings were the Viewt, which transformed a Nissan March into a British saloon, and the Le Seyde, Japan’s own Excalibur or Zimmer built … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show, Part 10 — Bubble Era

For 2018, the Japanese Classic Car Show expanded eligibility to cars up to 1995. That means for the first time, a flood of Bubble Era greats were able to attend. Welcome to a JCCS full of pop-up headlights, T-tops, and … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mazda announces the official return of the rotary engine

The rotary engine is officially back. Mazda issued a press release this morning laying out is plans for electric and hybrid vehicles for the coming decade, and the rotary engine is a integral part of those plans, serving as a … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show, Part 06 — Mazdas

Vintage rotaries took a prime position at this year’s JCCS, thanks to a classy display by Mazda. Imagine a hillside blooming with brightly colored pistonless wonders from Hiroshima, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the Mazda section … Continue reading

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Happy 929 Day from JNC

It’s September 29, which means it’s time to honor the plushest Hiroshima sedan ever built. Even when it’s on the road it feels like it’s sailing along calm waterways. Happy 9/29 Day from JNC!

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NEWS: Mazda completes first factory NA Roadster restoration

Mazda has completed its first factory restoration of a Eunos Roadster. The program was launched in August 2017 to help owners get their beloved NAs back to new condition, as well as to manufacture discontinued parts for the first-gen Roadster. … Continue reading

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VIDEO: How the Mazda Familia evolved into the Mazda 3

Here’s an interesting little video about the evolution of the Mazda Familia, now known as the Mazda 3. In it Mazda chassis engineer and former editor-in-chief of Sport Compact Car Dave Coleman describes the link between the Mazda GLC and … Continue reading

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Sam Mitani put Tuner Era dream machines into the mainstream

If you grew up in the pre-internet age, “buff books” like Road & Track were your bible. Magazines of its ilk were the only reliable sources of automotive news, but they were mostly concerned about cars that came fresh off … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2018 Japanese Automotive Invitational

It has been a banner year for Nihon steel at Monterey Car Week. The annual series of ultra-prestigious automotive events have traditionally excluded Japanese cars, but 2018 saw, for example, Nissan become the first carmaker from Japan to be honored … Continue reading

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MOTORSPORT: Mazda’s Le Mans FC3S RX-7 rides again

Mazda’s most famous Le Mans story centers around that of the epic 787B and its historic victory in 1991, but there have been other contenders from Hiroshima. The humble Mazda RX-7 has been sent into battle many times, mostly in … Continue reading

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VIDEO: Mazda classics prep for a 5,000-km rally across Europe

Mazda Germany is back with the second season of its “Mazda Garage” YouTube series. Last year, the first season followed the restoration of a Mazda Cosmo Sport, which then went on to participate in the Hamburg-Berlin Klassik Rallye. This season the … Continue reading

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MINICARS: Japan Post honors Mazda RX-7 with commemorative stamp set

Japan Post has issued another commemorative postage stamp set, this time honoring the first-generation Mazda RX-7. The set consists of 10 standard ¥62 stamps, each with an image depicting the SA22 Savanna RX-7. Notably, the set includes a shot of … Continue reading

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NEWS: Mazda was likely testing a rotary sports car as recently as eight months ago

Somehow this slipped past our radar, but it seems that Mazda was testing what is likely a rotary powered sports car as recently as December 2017. Spy photos captured a prototype based on a Mazda RX-8, a car that has … Continue reading

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MOTORSPORT: Mazda bringing quartet of four-rotor racers to Monterey

At the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion this week, Mazda will enter four quad-rotor cars into the vintage races. Perhaps the most notable one, however, is the 1991 FC3S RX-7 IMSA GTO, which returns to its ArtNature livery, the colors the … Continue reading

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JNC LIBRARY: Sam Mitani’s The Prototype is a thriller with Japanese cars at its center

In the world of spy thrillers, full of CIA agents, gunfights, and global power balance-changing secrets that cannot fall into the wrong hands, there typically aren’t a lot of Japanese cars mentioned. However, when the author is former International Editor … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Nisei Week Car Show, 2018

The annual Nisei Festival in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles is a celebration of Japanese American culture. Nisei means “second generation” in Japanese, but with its 84 years since the inaugural festival, the event has already been passed … Continue reading

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