Tag Archives: suzuki

EVENTS: 2016 All-Toyotafest, Part 03 — Sporty Fours

As we saw in Part 02, Toyota has had no shortage of grand, powerful machines powered by the legendary straight-six. However, the company built its fortunes on millions of inline-fours. Using its vast production reserves, it has over the years been able to bestow … Continue reading

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RIP Yoshimi Katayama, 1940 — 2016

It was announced in Japanese media yesterday that Yoshimi Katayama (片山義美) — the legendary race car driver often associated with Mazda — had passed away on March 26. He was 75. His prolific career was marked by some of Japan’s most … Continue reading

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day from JNC

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 04 — The Streets

In the last two installments of our 2016 New Year Meeting coverage, we prowled the parking area to find as much diversity in marques and models as there were in customization styles. In our final installment of the 2016 New Year … Continue reading

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Happy International Women’s Day from JNC

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EVENTS: 2016 New Year Meeting, Part 02 — The Parking Area

In Part 02 of our New Year Meeting coverage, we delve into the parking area to unearth gems as good as anything inside the show. Some of them aren’t able to make it simply because of the age cutoff, others perhaps … Continue reading

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ART CORNER: Beautiful dioramas of model cars from Japan

Takuji is a Japanese artist who places 1:43 and 1:64 scale minicars into beautifully constructed dioramas. From AE86s on touge roads to Mitsubishis tearing through a rally stage to mechanics tuning Skylines in a garage, each scene is a slice of … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2016 Tokyo Auto Salon, Part 02 – Callbacks

One of our favorite types of customization is when a new car references something old, whether its Japanese motorsports history, an ancestor in its lineage, or just a general obsession with nostalgia. Here’s all the cars that are rolling inside … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Hachimaru Meeting at Fuji Speedway

If it wasn’t for its glorious motorsports history, Fuji Speedway would be just about the worst place to hold a car show. It rains seemingly half the time there, and while that makes for cool photography, it can’t be pleasant for the … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2015 Mooneyes All Odds Nationals

If you’re looking for high-powered GT-Rs and the like, Mooneyes shows are probably not for you. The cars you find at a typical Mooneyes event celebrate the art of customization, whether it’s on kei cars or commercial trucks. The vehicles here less about racing than … Continue reading

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NIHON LIFE: How to park your car in Japan, Part 01

Finding public or street parking in Japan’s major cities is sometimes chotto muzukashii — a Japanese saying for “a little difficult,” said through clenched teeth with a trailing “iiiii…” it essentially means, with typical Japanese subtlety, impossible. So there is naturally … Continue reading

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Tokyo Motor Show: Suzuki’s kei throwbacks

The Tokyo Motor Show ended last night, and we have one thing to say: Oh Suzuki, how we’ve missed you. Not only do we not see your funky little cars on US roads any more, but then you show up to the big … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2015 Japanese Classic Car Show, Part 04 — Workhorses

This year’s JCCS had a higher turnout, truck-wise, than any other in recent memory. Former workhorses that managed to survive — or evade — decades of hard labor showed up en masse on Queen Mary lawn to enjoy their new status as classics. 

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MOTORSPORT: 1976 Kojima Engineering KE007

You never know what you’ll encounter at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Meandering through the paddocks, we came across the 1976 Kojima Engineering KE007, a Japanese Formula One car that was poised to become a formidable challenger in F1 a decade before McLaren-Hondas began their domination. … Continue reading

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ART CORNER: The illustrations of U井T吾

For this installment of JNC‘s Art Corner, we feature another artist from Japan. U井T吾, 27, is a Kyoto-based artist whose day job is in character design for board games and social gaming. Fortunately for us, he’s also an enthusiast of old Japanese … Continue reading

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EVENTS: Showa Car Preservation Meeting

The Old Car Club of Tokyo recently held it’s 3rd annual Showa no Kurma wo Mamoru Tsudoi or “Preserving cars made in the Showa Era” meeting. This is a gathering for cars made during the Showa Era, which ended in 1989 according to the … Continue reading

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NIHON LIFE: A kei car Sunday

For a number of years we’ve passed a lone Subaru 360 perched atop a rack built from scaffold over a similar-age Sambar truck. I kept thinking, “I must stop and photograph it before it disappears.” Like a Honda S500 no … Continue reading

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ART CORNER: Bosozoku Cats and Kyuusha by San Mamiya

San Mamiya is a brilliant artist from Japan that operates mainly on Instagram. With an apparent fondness for old cars, bosozoku cats and the superdeformed style that populates manga, his illustrations exhibit a unique Nihon style that can probably be loosely described as Japanese Ed Roth. 

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NEWS: Can you spot all the nostalgic styling cues of the Suzuki iM-4 Concept?

Suzuki may be gone from the US market, but it’s alive and well in the rest of the world. The 85th Geneva Motor Show is going on right now, and its automotive branch unveiled this morning the Suzuki iM-4 Concept, a … Continue reading

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EVENTS: 2015 New Year Meeting, Part 06 — Trucks, Vans and Wagons

There’s nothing like a good, honest work truck. In fact, many of the earliest forms of four-wheeled transport in Japan were commercial vehicles, but precious few, like this row of forlorn-looking Mazda Porter Cabs, have survived till retirement without major wear … Continue reading

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