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Posted
Nov 18 2009, 01:18 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 36 comment(s)
I'm really missing Japan right now. I plugged in my external hard drive a bit ago to hunt for some lowdown car pictures and the memories came flooding back. Memories of Watanabes, SSR's, Solex carbs, and musical horns. We thought you guys might be getting a little tired of the late model flushed out cars we've been showing this month, and figured another gallery of retro JDM coolness can never be bad thing....
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Posted
Oct 08 2009, 07:30 AM
by
Jeroen Willemsen
with 15 comment(s)
Just because you guys asked for it, I've collected some more shots of the cars at the Nurburgring Nordeschleife parking lot. This is the area where people wait, before entering the track for public hotlapping. The first car is this Alfa Romeo 147 with Sportec wheels that looks spot on. I noticed that there were several Alfa's but they were older types like the Alfa 75 and 33. On the way to the track, I spotted this AE86 in Adenau, we didn't had time to stop and photograph it but luckily...
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Posted
Oct 07 2009, 08:43 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 35 comment(s)
As you are reading this I'll likely be making my way up to Monterey for the weekend's American LeMans race at Laguna Seca. In the meantime - here's some more JCCS photos to enjoy! Up above we can see a few of the Hakosuka Skylines at the event, including a two-door wearing US military tags from Okinawa (evidenced by the "Y" on the number plate). What better souvenir to bring back from your time in Japan than a certified legend on wheels?...
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Posted
Oct 06 2009, 01:36 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 36 comment(s)
Alright let's jump right into more coverage from the the Fifth Annual Japanese Classic Car Show in Irvine. Up above, you can catch a glimpse of a small sampling of the Datsun 510's that made it out. Whether you are into period correct restos, or more contemporary tuning, there were enough "five and dimes" at JCCS to to fit any taste....
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Posted
Oct 05 2009, 12:38 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 25 comment(s)
Before 2005, there wasn't much of "Japanese classic car scene" in the United States. Sure there were Datsun and Toyota owners groups, plus the few vintage cars that showed up to events like HIN or the Nisei Showoff, but there wasn't a gathering point for fans of classic Japanese machines. It wasn't until the folks at Katy's Nest decided it was time for an event dedicated only to vintage Japanese cars that the J-classics got their rightful place in the spotlight. That first JCCS at the Queen Mary in Long Beach turned out to be a huge success, and in the five years since, the event has become a Southern California tradition....
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Posted
Oct 03 2009, 06:31 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 33 comment(s)
The fifth annual Japanese Classic Car Show is now in the books, and what a show it was. I thought I'd throw up a few teaser shots to hold you guys over until I can organize all my photos from today's show (there are a lot of them this time!)....
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Posted
Sep 14 2009, 10:32 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 11 comment(s)
Today (Sept.15) in Japan, Mr. Yutaka Katayama - better known as "Mr.K" will be celebrating his 100th birthday. Nissan enthusiasts should immediately recognize the name, but if you don't, Mr. K is the man responsible for both bringing the Nissan brand to the United States, and for the creation of iconic Nissan/Datsun cars like the original 240Z.
Here's sending our birthday wishes the Mr.K!
-Mike Garret...
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Posted
Sep 08 2009, 12:25 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
We've covered the hidden gem that is the Caribbean motorsports scene a couple times here on Speedhunters, and each time we're even more impressed with the crazy machines people are running down there. This latest batch of photos was shot by Jason Joaquin at the second round of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship held on August 30th at Bushy Park in Barbados....
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Posted
Jan 30 2009, 02:49 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 19 comment(s)
As I continue to go through my photos from last Sunday's JCCA New Year Meeting, I'm finding it quite difficult to choose what I want to post. There's just so much good stuff to choose from. Anyways, I'll open with this shot of a GC210 Japan Skyline parked alongside some mini-bikes. Looks like it could be ripped right from the pages of Champ Road, the monthly Japanese magazine dedicated to two and and four-wheeled kyusha and the lifestyle that surrounds them. This reminds me that I should do a Champ Road feature for you guys sometime......
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Posted
Jan 27 2009, 10:47 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 21 comment(s)
I guess I'm one of those people that's easily influenced when it comes to cars. When I'm shooting a drift event I'll think about how nice it would be to build a cool a 180SX or Soarer, and when I'm at the circuit I dream of a properly done Honda S2000. Nothing though, is more influential than spending a day shooting classic Japanese cars. Seeing (and hearing) the waves of Skylines, Sunnys, Celicas, Z's, and others had me scrounging around Craigslist looking for possible projects for when I return to the states. I bet there's no one who could spend a day at JCCA New Year Meeting and NOT be thinking about starting a vintage car project....
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Posted
Jan 26 2009, 08:02 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 31 comment(s)
That's a pretty cool line up of cars isn't it? I suppose the fact that this was taken not in the show itself but in the parking lot next door shows just what kind of event the JCCA New Year Meeting is. Not to take anything from the actual show, but you could spend just as much time checking out the cars in the lots. A lot of people know this, because I saw tons of others strolling the parking areas taking photos of the machinery and "tailgating" with their buddies. Yep, this is Japanese classic car culture at its very best....
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Posted
Dec 09 2008, 11:35 AM
by
Antonio Alvendia
with 54 comment(s)
I'm sure just about everyone knows about Initial D . So what about Wangan Midnight ? If you don't know by now, Wangan Midnight is an extremely popular comic from Japan, which features an S30 240Z (instead of the AE86 panda Trueno in Initial D) and wangan /highway racing. So I was browsing through one of my favorite AE86 forums, Club4AG, and found this thread , which says that they are making an actual Wangan Midnight movie! Cool! I'm very interested in seeing how this movie turns out...
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Posted
Dec 02 2008, 02:00 PM
by
Antonio Alvendia
with 20 comment(s)
By now, many of our Speedhunters readers have probably already read my " driving impression story " on the new Nissan 370Z. However, I wanted to take a quick look back at the design similarities between the new 370Z and the old school S30-chassis 240Z. I thought it would be pretty cool to do a photo shoot showing both the new and old Zs together. However, I had a hard time finding a clean yellow Z to shoot; I wanted a yellow 240Z because our 370Z test car would be yellow as well. I called...
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Posted
Nov 27 2008, 04:15 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 8 comment(s)
Now we will continue our look back at the history of the Nissan Skyline from where we left off yesterday, with the R30 chassis. The R30 was released in 1981 and moved towards a more modern design than the C210 model. The coupe versions in particular were very good looking cars with a sleek, stretched out look. In Japan the R30 Skyline TV commercials featured legendary actor and driver Paul Newman, and there was even a special "Paul Newman version" of the car sold in Japan.The example in the photo above is the 1981 2000GT-ES coupe model, which was powered by the turbocharged L20ET engine....
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Posted
Nov 26 2008, 10:56 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 17 comment(s)
Last week, I took a look back at the lineage of the Nissan Fairlady Z model, and now it's time to continue with a look at the Nissan Skyline. The Skyline is one of Japan's longest running car models and Nissan celebrated the 50th anniversary of the car last year. 50 years is a long time for ANY car model, especially a Japanese one. Actually, to say "Nissan Skyline Retrospective" is not entirely correct as the earliest models were not made by Nissan itself, but by the Prince Motor Company, which merged with Nissan in 1966. The model pictured above is the first Skyline ever, the 1957 Prince Skyline....
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Posted
Nov 25 2008, 01:04 PM
by
Mike Garrett
with 4 comment(s)
The other day Rod asked me if I could post up some of the Nissans from my diecast and toy collection and, I had to tell him that I don't really have much of a "collection" to post. Here in Japan at least. I have some things packed away in storage back in the states, but the collection here in my apartment consists only of a few random miniature cars and a ton of car magazines that my wife is constantly telling me to throw away......
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Posted
Nov 20 2008, 03:00 PM
by
Antonio Alvendia
with 24 comment(s)
When I first moved to Southern California about 10 years ago, I remember flipping out with excitement when I first laid eyes on this old teal and white Datsun 510. The first time I saw it was either at an event at Pomona Fairplex or at the Los Angeles Grand Prix; I don't remember exactly. I remember seeing the car for the first time, and excitedly blurting out expletives, because I had never seen such a cool historic Japanese race car with my own eyes. I was walking with my good friend, Herbrock...
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Posted
Nov 20 2008, 05:38 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 23 comment(s)
As part of Nissan month, we wanted to take a look back at the lineage of some of the popular models that Nissan has produced over the years. With the recent unveiling of the 370Z, I'd say the Fairlady and Z models are a perfect place to start. While many will trace the roots of the Z back to the S30 in the early '70s, you can't really talk about the Z without going back to the original Fairlady Roadsters like the 1968 SRL311 Fairlady 2000 pictured above. The Mazda MX5 gets a lot of credit for being the Japanese version of the classic European roadster, but Nissan was doing it almost 30 years before Mazda introduced the MX5!...
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Posted
Nov 14 2008, 07:45 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 29 comment(s)
I was browsing through the latest issue of Option 2 Magazine yesterday when I came across this Datsun 510 in the monthly "Evolution Q" section. If the name Common Snapper sounds familiar to you, that is because last year they built an S30Z with an RB26 and a full R33 Skyline interior conversion. They work on all sorts of cars including American imports as well as Japanese domestics that have a slight "USDM" vibe. Well they are at it again now and this left-hand-drive USDM Datsun 510 is their latest project....
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Posted
Nov 11 2008, 08:51 AM
by
Mike Garrett
with 3 comment(s)
When I visited the East Car shop in Toride earlier this fall, I planned to shoot one of their finished projects and as soon as I arrived, this white Hakosuka Skyline jumped right out at me. The Hakosuka is one of the quintessential vintage Japanese cars and a perfect fit for our Nissan month. Like I stated in the previous story about East Car, the shop's specialty is restoration, so this is obviously isn't the fastest Hakosuka around, but it's a great example a top quality traditional restoration with a few tasteful modifications thrown in for good measure. ...
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