FOTO: vintage sights

[mil]

No matter what school of thought you may belong to, the kyusha scene in Japan has been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years. The vastness in which vintage cars are approached in Japan is as diverse and as varied as the culture itself, no matter how you tackle your own build, it will be appreciated and accepted. It’s a mishmash of styles and tuning practices but when applied to all the wonderful JDM cars of the last fifty years, well we all know how impressive the results can be.

Every year the guys at Nostalgic Hero, Japan’s biggest and most popular vintage car publication, organize the Nostalgic 2 Days show at the Yokohama Pacifico exhibition center. It’s a perfect time to immerse oneself in the best this particular scene has to offer and admire the love and respect these die hard enthusiasts have for the classic stuff.

Despite this being only my second time at the show, I have already come to like it quite a lot, mainly due to its relaxed pace. It’s a day of taking in the details, seeing what new cars tuners have been working on and how the industry has supported them all with yet more parts and upgrades. Rocky Auto had the center spot in the exhibition hall this year, and as you made your way through the main entrance it would have been impossible to miss their latest project, this all carbon Hakosuka! The car is on its way to receiving a naturally aspirated RB26 in the coming months and you can bet we will be shooting this when it’s ready.

Of course there are always some sweet import rides to feast one’s eyes on, much like this particular 911E, which happens to be owned by quite the collector;

…on top of having something like six Toyota 2000GTs, he also likes to take his other Porsche out for drivers around his local streets. He brought about eight cars from his collection, which I still have to dedicate a post or two too.

Wondering through all the displays…

…it was hard not to get carried away looking at some of the most impressive cars. I think I must have spent close to an hour doing exactly what these guys are doing, drooling over the 3.2L OS Giken TC-24B1 L-series engine fitted to this white S30. I’ll be spotlighting in the next posts so make sure you don’t miss it!

While you would probably expect a lot of purists and dedicated enthusiasts to knock on creations like this Kaido Racer RA22 Celica, the truth is that they are just as accepted as any other vintage car. Sure it may not be taken seriously but these cars are still very much a part of the scene, or rather a tangent with a dedicated following and specialized publications.

How about this Z432R as a complete opposite. See, balance has been reset!

Nissan is a great supporter of the Nostalgic 2 Days and always brings something from the Zama Collection to the show…

…like this beautiful R391 which is powered by a 5.4L V8 Chevy engine. In fact it was Dean Moon of Mooneyes who supplied the Can-Am engines for the R381 to Nissan (Prince), allowing Nissan to beat both Toyota with their “7″ and the Porsche 910s at the 1968 Japanese Grand Prix. The R381 also had other cool features like an hydraulically adjustable split rear wing to help it stay glued to the ground through the corners.

Nissan also brought the Impul Calsonic Gr.A BNR32 that Hoshino and Suzuki drove back in the early nineties, one of the cars that helped create the GT-R legend.

The rarest of all the GT-Rs, the “Kenmeri” KPGC110 was also present in the cornered off display…

…sporting the most sought after of all Nissan engines, the 2L S20.

If this Rocky Auto S30 is familiar it’s because I featured it a couple of days ago. The car was on display at Rays Wheels…

…running a set of matte bronze TE37Vs. Yummy!

Nissan F31 Leopard specialist, Car Shop Friend has their usual selection of spotless cars on display…and on sale. Actually it’s quite common for a lot of vintage car resellers to use the Nostalgic 2 Days solely as a display for their current stock which is why it’s quite common seeing cars with prices displayed on their windscreens.

Now this is a lot of JDM goodness for one single picture!

Toyota brought the 1962 Publica Sports concept that was built on the Sports 800 “Toyohachi,” a car that can sometimes be found on display at the Mega Web in Odaiba.

Fairlady & Skyline specialist Star Road from Tokyo never misses the chance to show off its demo cars, some of the most colorful S30s around!

Hakosuka specialist Victory 50 brought lots parts for the vintage Skyline a well as their own KPGC10 racer.

And on while talking about Skylines, Biko Works had quite the selection including a little replica I’ll be showing you in on of the Spotlight-o-ramas I have planned.

I literally couldn’t stop looking over these two Benzes. The black 300SEL 6.3 on the left was on sale for ¥4.8 million and only had 28,000 km on the clock while the 600 on the right had 51,000 km and offered at ¥7.8 million. Both were in showroom condition.

For those that wanted to take a break from the show there was the complete line up of Nostalgic Hero magazine laid out on a series of tables…

…and if that wasn’t enough to get your fix there were plenty of other old mags, catalogues, manuals on sale at the various vendor booths.

Things on sale of course included vintage toy cars…

…and trucks…

…as well as a wide selection of detailed models from Auto Art.

The attention to detail was very high, as were the prices but I guess the highest quality comes at a cost.

I hope this intro has whet your appetites a little; next up will be a series of spotlight post, a sort of different take on the usual coverage of these Japanese events. Check back soon for more nostalgic awesomeness…

[puma gte]

que bellezas de clasicos

[beto91]

que nivel los hakosukas o como se les dice a los GT-R's kgpc10 sñadljfsf lindos

los fairladys

[jaironep]

[MR BIG]

[KUNITT96]

[evalencia]

[Tony 1200]

q naves

[Z@Kr3d B0& !!]

x 1000 los GtR's

[kzim12]

[Ulquiorra]

Grandiosa puta! que hermosos esos Meches

[alex87]

[TITIO]

siempre buenos threads

[toerige]

[IsRa_RX]

de ahuevo

[Helios]

El Toyota 2000GT esta

[TEAM_SAML]

[mil]

I will attempt to tackle the Nostalgic 2 Days in the sort of manner one would at the show itself. If you were there you would head towards the cars that stand out the most and circle them, getting a closer look at their details. The first car that stopped me in my tracks was the 09 Racing Hakotora, the B110 truck that has been given…

…an “Hakosuka” front end. In Japanese “hako” means box and “suka” is short for Skyline and combined they form the term commonly used to describe the C10 generation of the Nissan Skyline.

This little Sunny “GB-R” was first unveiled last month at the Tokyo Auto Salon but with a crowd always around it I never really had a chance to get a good look. Aside from the front conversion there are lots of other Skyline details like the black fender flares and the wing mounted mirrors. Those are actually dry carbon items made by 09 Racing, a nice little detail, but one that would set you back $1,300!

The Datsun sport seats and Momo steering wheel might be the first things you will notice when looking at the interior, but it’s actually the KPGC10 dashboard conversion that impresses the most.

The rear has been kept pretty simple, but I liked the Aerocatch latches on the gate.

This R30 Skyline from KRZ Performance was looking great, combining its great classic eighties lines…

…with a very modern day show-oriented stance.

It was running 17-inch BBS-look Stance rims with gold centers…

…and sitting on air suspension in order to achieve that slammed look.

I never actually realized what a massive coupe the R30 was before I took a few minutes to walk around this one!

You would assume not many other shops out there would attempt another Hakotora; well you would be wrong. Biko Works from Chiba, who specialize in reselling all sorts of Japanese vintage cars…

…came up with this little creation based on a Suzuki Mighty Boy kei pick-up. All the details are there…

…the unmistakable quad-headlights, chrome grille surround, bucktooth lip spoiler…

…overfenders and of course little mini Watanabes.

Check out the rear end! Which one would you choose? The Kei-hakotora or the Sunny-hakotora?

But enough with lookalikes, now its time to take a look at the real thing. With so many authentic 2000GT-Rs on show at the Nostalgic 2 Days you are almost spoilt for choice, but this particular example from RS Start really stood out.

I can see the Work Meister CR01s the car was fitted with as becoming quite the popular wheel choice because simply put, they suit the Hakosuka incredibly well. Oh and look, no black fender flares; very refreshing.

Carbon parts on a classic like the KPGC10 are an either you love it or hate it affair, but the hood and side mirrors (same 09 Racing items as used on the Sunny Hakotora) really complimented the exterior rather well.

No L-series under the hood, this is the real thing and like every legit KPGC10 there is a stunning S20 taking care of performance…and high-rpm screaming duties!

It’s become very hard to come up with a unique Hakosuka these days, but RS Start have done a great job with a few well selected additions.

It’s on to another classic Nissan now, but more luxury oriented, the 330 Cedric.

This big sedan was the car to have in the mid to late seventies, if travelling in comfort was your thing.

This brown 2800 example was on display at the Profit booth…

…part of their big line up of “for sale” inventory. This car might be too clean and well kept but while checking it out I couldn’t help think of how nice it would look if dropped on a set of nice rims.

I’ve got another spotlight-o-rama post from the show coming up next, but first up I thought I’d treat you to a little engine porn. We all like looking at nice engines now don’t we…

[SERGIOZX]

Iniciado por mil

mil utassss que de ahuevisimo estan estos s30´s

[iphone]

[kamikaze kustomes]

por la gran puta me moje

[mil]

I will pick up the Nostalgic 2 Days coverage with another Spotlight-o-rama and after the slightly too Nissan oriented previous one, I thought I should probably mix it up a little (mind you 65% of the cars at the show were Nissans!). I’m a sucker for older Toyota Crowns, no matter what body shape, but if I had to pick a favorite it would definitely have to be the rarest of them all…the S50 hardtop.

The simplicity of the car was what stood out the most. Its stock lines highlighted by a substantial drop in ride height and a set of Mooneyes wheels for a little muscle car feel.

I was expecting to find a reworked and chromed up 2M under the hood…

…except its owner has obviously had other ideas, preferring to go for the added performance and reliability of a modern motor like this 2JZ. The swap was beautifully done, almost everything kept stock, which in a way sort of added to the look and feel of the coupe.

Japanese cars on the seventies sure had a lot of soul, that’s for sure!

And speaking of soul, what Japanese vintage car has more so than the good old Cosmo. This example on display at Garage Start Field was in pristine factory condition…

…no lowered suspension and aftermarket wheels to be seen.

It’s hard not to stare at the sheer simplicity of the rotary engine that powers it. Mazda has dedicated so much research and development to the Wankel, it’s very sad to see them shifting priorities these days. I’m sure there is still a very small department at Mazda that continues to experiment with rotors, but with fuel economy and emissions now the most important aspects of modern day engines, will rotaries even have a future?

Ever noticed how cool the old Mazda logo used to be?

Would be cool to see a modern “zoom zoom” interpretation of this!

Isuzu might only build commercial vehicles these days but back in 1969 it was releasing cool sports oriented cars like this Bellett GT-R. Aside from the orange body with black hood the GT-R differed from your normal Belletts for its engine…

…a 1.6L twin cam borrowed from the Giugiaro designed Isuzu 117 coupe.

Tuning shop Isuzu Sports have managed to extract around 140 HP from this engine thanks to some trick stainless steel headers

…and larger carbs.

Despite being a very rare car it’s not uncommon to see these GT-R versions out on the streets. The Japanese sure love to enjoy their classic rides.

And so we are on to another Nissan. Pardon me if I come across as being repetitive here, but I thought that after the “Engine Porn” post on the OS Giken TC24-B1Z, some of you would probably enjoy seeing an actual working engine fitted to a car. This S30 is OS Giken’s own demonstrator and while its body, brakes and interior may be stock…

…its powerplant sure isn’t! Someone asked me what the firing order of the TC24 was…I think this may answer the question. You may have already noticed something different here…

…there doesn’t seem to be a distributor. That’s because on top of being fitted with all the bells and whistles, this 420 HP, 3.2L 1BZ version of the L28 has been converted…

…to run sports injection with ignition being taken care by individual coil packs for each of the six cylinders. Engine management is handled by a Motec ECU. This Z was running the same engine last year, except it was on carbs and distributor-based ignition.

The header design is different from the one that was fitted to the display engine. Apparently, as one of the OS Giken engineers told me, this car is so fast and violent that it’s scary as hell to drive. Plus with what is pretty much a straight through exhaust, it’s as loud as a race car!

I’m going to go ahead and label Sudou-san’s Hakosuka as the best KPGC10 out there. It might be a bold claim but nobody has ever gone to the extremes he has going with this build. Sudou-san is the owner of the Garage Saurus Suro-R I features year ago so he isn’t a stranger to building extreme cars. It’s been about three years in the making, and once the carbon propeller shaft comes in from the US the car will pretty much be ready to go.

Under the hood is the most highly tuned S20 R Garage has ever built, stroked to 2.5 liters, and boasting a 14.5:1 compression. Under the head covers it also hides an OS Giken gear conversion, getting rid of the stock chain drive as well as custom OS Giken cams. Other nice touches are the titanium trumpets that feed the 50 mm Solex carbs and the custom headers made out of inconel. Sudou-san has gone for a Quaife sequential transmission…only the best!

The shell has been stripped down, reinforced and fitted with a non-intrusive roll cage. The whole floor and transmission tunnel has been lined with carbon fiber to further add to the stiffening – and looks of course. There is tons of carbon all around the car like the doors, hood and trunk…

…oh yes, even the bumpers and custom rear diffuser are made of dry carbon. Sudou-san told me that to get the engine sound just right the exhaust was made out of the thinnest possible (0.8 mm) stainless steel. Titanium would have absorbed too much of the high pitch sound the S20 creates, so the only way was to make it out of stainless steel. To do that, sheets of metal had to be rolled into tubular sections and then each section welded together, sort of redefining the term “one off.”

It’s pretty much all completed, including the nicely laid out fuel system. It might be as far from authentic as can be but how can you not respect all the work that has gone into this KPGC10!

[mil]

[ODAVID]

Que naves