Here’s a collection of photos of nostalgic Japanese police cars strung together by an amateur, unidirectional Ken Burns. Some are equipped with high-power engine options and transmission pairings not available on civilian versions of the same model. Sadly, Japanese patrol cars that have outlived their usefulness are scrapped when decommissioned, not auctioned off to the public [...]

With its undulating cooling fins, the 1969 Honda 1300cc motor is a work of art. Not only does wind flow over its airfoils, but through the engine as well. Much like the way coolant is funneled through passages in a normal engine, Honda’s Duo Dyna Air Cooling system used a crank-driven rotor to force cold [...]

If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com This week: Saturday, March 20 – Sunday March 21 / Victoria, Australia Phillip Island Classic Saturday, March 20 / Pleasanton, CA: NorCal Japanese Classic Car Meet Future events: Sunday, March 28 / Issaquah, WA: Pacific Northwest Meet Sunday, March 28 / Los Angeles, CA: Datsun Nippon [...]

This video comes courtesy of oldschool.co.nz via Retro-Classics. It’s from the heyday of the Fuji touring car championships and is unique in that the narration is in English! No more picking handfuls of syllables out of rapid-fire Japanese commentary that might as well be an auctioneer having an argument with the announcer at the Kentucky [...]

Some Japanese believe that if you have your car blessed by a Buddhist priest, you will avoid accidents, tickets, and possibly even bird droppings. Kawasaki-Daishi is one of the temples that has a parking lot for this exact purpose. The white grid is where cars await their spiritual collision coverage, the yellow grid is where [...]

Suzuki Mario Bros.: Those Koopa Troopas don’t stand a chance when Mario and Luigi are behind the wheel of Suzuki Carry. The kei truck feasts on turtle soup tonight. [Reddit via Jalopnik]

It’s March in SoCal. That means the weather is warming and meets are ramping up. We rolled down to Cypress, California (home of Mitsubishi North America HQ) in the ol’ JNC wagon on Sunday to check it out.  It was a great meet with some gorgeous rotaries but a lone, faded Mazda 616 caught our [...]

With the recent discovery of black market JNC Stamp stickers, a lot of interest was drummed up about the JNC Stamp logo. The most popular question we’ve received is something along the lines of “Why did you change the sticker dammit, I liked the old one better!” Well, I’m here to provide you with some [...]

You know the BMW Art Cars, Chicago’s Cows on Parade and Washington DC’s Pandamania, right? In 2008 the venerable Honda Super Cub had its 50th birthday, and to celebrate Honda gave 60 of these best-selling bikes — one for each million sold — to artists for customizing. It was called the Love Cub 50 project, [...]

Congrats to JNC reader Nakazoto for getting his 1967 Mitsubishi 360 Van project featured on both Jalopnik and Speedhunters in the same week! David lives in Nagoya, Japan and came across this kei commercial vehicle rotting away in a field. He tracked down the owner and, after reassuring him that it would be in good [...]

What is it about criminal masterminds? Even in Japan, they can’t just kill off the hero with a point-blank gunshot to the head. Instead they string him up to elaborate yet escape-able death traps, such as this runaway Toyota that is both silver-hued and topical. However, in this case we are at a loss to [...]

With the release of the Series 3 JNC Stamp sticker and the recent launch of our Facebook Fanpage, we thought now would be a good time to have another contest.  All you have to do is take a picture of your JNC sticker in a cool place or in a cool way.  We’ll periodically choose [...]

Mitsubishi announced today that they were all but killing off their Ralliart division due to the global economic slump. In honor of that once great performance arm, let’s take a look at the triple diamond mafia’s flagship nostalgic, the Galant GTO. Mitsubishi actually exported it officially to the UK of all places, and JNC reader [...]

If you know of or would like to publicize an event, send us a tip at feedback(at)japanesenostalgiccar(dot)com This week: Sunday, March 14 / Cypress, CA: REPU/RX Meet Future events: Saturday, March 20 – Sunday March 21 / Victoria, Australia Phillip Island Classic Saturday, March 20 / Pleasanton, CA: NorCal Japanese Classic Car Meet Sunday, March 28 / Los Angeles, CA: Datsun [...]

Scouting locations for a photo shoot can be difficult.  When it comes to privately owned cars, how far you go to find that perfect spot is often limited by the owner’s unwillingness to travel, but with a nostalgic it’s sometimes the car itself that is stubborn.  On this particular day though, neither was a problem.  [...]

The 1970 Nissan Fairlady Z432 is a beguiling blend combination of the twin-cam S20 six (shared with the hakosuka 2000GT-R) and sexy S30 Fairlady Z looks, making it a blue-chip Japanese collector car of the highest order.  And now Jeweler Ginza Tanaka has made a one-off replica of the Tomica Z432 model in platinum!  It’s 7cm long, weighs [...]

It’s really amazing how Japanese automakers are suddenly all about their heritage. When the JNC Blog started two years ago, we basically bitched non-stop about how they were sitting on an untapped gold mine of good will. Though we would like to, I don’t think we can take credit for this change of heart. But [...]

The first-gen Mazda RX-7 has competed in many forms of motorsport, from IMSA enduros to drag racing to touring car challenges. Here it is on dirt, with gratuitous helicopter tracking shots.  Video after the jump. Hat tip to Andrew P.

If a Tree Falls on a Nissan…: Today’s zen koan comes from Australia, where, as Kev informs us, there are indeed trees. And sometimes they upend themselves on some poor sheila’s newly restored Datsun 610. Zoe Michalski had just purchased her “pride and joy” a three months ago and finished some paint and body work. [...]

At long last, Toyota is bringing out the nostalgic guns. Accompanying the Toyota FT-86 Concept’s arrival at the Geneva Motor Show last week comes these official images. Unless you’re steeped in Toyota history you might have missed the significance of the concept’s 86 designation, but here’s visual proof of where Toyota is going with this. [...]