I recently found my file containing the pictures I shot at the 2009 Japanese Classic Car Show, held every year in Southern California. If we hadn’t moved away soon after, I’d still be going every year. If you are in the area, it is being held in Long Beach, CA on September 28th between 9am and 3pm. The pictures here are just some of the older un-modified cars in original and/or restored condition…
This Mazda Cosmo was absolutely stunning in all respects. The fit and finish was impeccable.
It’s hard to describe just how small and jewel-like this car is. The back is gorgeous as well with it’s jet-turbine inspired tail area.
There are many cars that were just throwaway commuters when built. While this early Honda is obviously restored, I can’t imagine tracking down some of the pieces needed to finish this at this level.
I love me some red interior!
Here’s a Toyota 800, it makes a first generation Miata look enormous in comparison. Beautiful little car.
With a taut little derriere to boot!
This is a Mazda R360, again in amazing condition. The color fits it very well and check out the detail in the hubcaps with the little red painted area surrounding the logo.
Engine was rear-mounted.
A very poor picture of the interior. I really liked the old Mazda logo through.
Here is a very early Corolla (1969), owned by Toyota, who had a large presence at the show, Toyota US is in nearby Torrance although all the Japanese have facilities relatively close by. Mazda was also there but on a much smaller scale.
I never thought I would ever be looking longingly at a white Corolla, but this one is nice enough to display in your living room.
Of course Toyota brought some of their heavy artillery as well, these pictures of this 2000GT do not do the color justice, it was a very deep Gold that worked perfectly with the black wheels and the few areas of shiny metalwork on the car. The red one was nice as well but everyone gravitated to this one.
All business, nothing there that is not needed.
Here’s a shot of the red one, check out how those fog lights are covered by a clear screen. Very nice.
Another nice older Honda, love the vent windows. Wheels are 10-inch!
It seems like you could just pick that engine up and wrap in a blanket like a little baby…This one was cleaner and less likely to dirty the blanket too!
I suppose the wheels on this Celica are not original (at least I have not seen any others with those that I can recall) but this is a very nice GT model. The orange is nicer than the pale yellow one in the background. I believe both were privately owned and driven regularly and perhaps even daily.
I always preferred the liftback to the notchback in this era, it has a little of the Mach1 Mustang about it.
An early Datsun Sunny, this is the only shot I have of it, not sure why I didn’t take one from the front as well.
Here is a very nice Datsun Fairlady, the body color wheels are a nice touch.
And here are three more, arranged in a very nice order.
This is a 1950’s Datsun 112. I did not remember what this was and when I googled “1950’s Datsun” the first thing that popped up was someone else’s shot of this same car in this same setting from the same day with the same certificate in the window!
This is a 1965 Toyota Publica Deluxe, thanks to NZ Skyliner for identifying it for me in the comments below!
This is a Toyota Crown S50, an earlier (’67-’69) version, again thanks to NZ Skyliner for clarifying. I love the Crown, especially the current cars that Ive ridden in as taxis in Japan and Hong Kong. Very comfortable ride.
A well-preserved mid-70’s Civic Wagon. The rear door looks off here, but I believe it was just ajar. Nice roof rack with the surfboard on top as well. For every Woody or VW camper that may have carried surfers to the shore, there were just as many little Japanese station wagons doing the same duty…
No Japanese Classic Car Show would be complete without Z-cars, of which there were plenty, both stock and modified.
This is a Toyota Stout, the first truck that Toyota offered in the US. It seems larger than the mini-trucks most people think of when they think Toyota trucks, those of the 70’s and 80’s.
And the Toyota Hilux, the beginning of the line of probably the most famous (world-wide) pickup truck.
And I will leave you with another mystery vehicle, this time with my son running around in front of it! It kind of looks like a mini-Scout. Someone here will know what it was…(Note: Flipper identified it as an Aichi Machine Cony Light Van Deluxe, more info in the comments below. I love the collaborative nature of this site, thanks!)
This was just a small sampling of everything that was there. It was a well presented show with a very mellow vibe and extremely friendly people eager to talk about their cars. I know I left the show thinking about how I would love to own a classic Japanese car. If you’re in SoCal and even if your thing is not these cars, it could be a very enjoyable way to spend an afternoon a few weeks from now.
Nice set of photos.
I have a soft spot for Mazdas, and older Hondas, having owned one of each, with my current ride being a 2003 Mazda Protege5. The Honda was a 1983 Honda Civic 1500DX hatch that I owned from 1992-1998.
As to the Honda N600/Z600, these were powered by motorcycle engines, but also sported the gearbox along side the crankcase, as in the modern FWD vehicles, but these were air cooled.
Also, I found a website on these, and there ARE ways to get, and make parts for them these days to keep them running, as there are for any of the older Civics as well.
I have a soft spot for the first gen Civics, rode in one (a weathered silver ’79 sport hatchback, with the larger CVCC motor) and do like the 2nd gen models as well.
Looked like a great time was had.
I’m going to disagree with you on the ‘motorcycle’ engine point, although it was probably designed in the same department as the motorcycle engines, so it’s somewhat of a moot point. That 600 is a V-twin if I’m remembering it correctly. An environmental freak buddy of mine had a Z600 and I drove it extensively until he replaced with a Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar. Talk about a mistake.
Honda didn’t make a V-twin motorcycle engine until 1979, the CX500. Then again, I never really looked under the hood of buddy’s Z600, I’d love to get a close up look at the heads and compare them to the CX (four valve OHV with pushrods and a 10,000rpm redline).
What may be confusing/contributing is that some of Honda’s earliest efforts including the S600/800 sports car had chain drive to the rear wheels.
Indeed, and according to Wikipedia, the 360cc motor was from the Honda CB 450 motorcycle, that the car had in Japan as it was made as a Kei (city) Car from the inception.
The 600cc motor used for all exports, including here in the US was an air cooled parallel twin, possibly based on a motorcycle engine because the engine and transmission use the same oil, but the clutch itself is kept dry, like in a conventional manual transmission setup. That is according to Jalopnik that did an article about Merciless Ming, as in Tim Mings, who restores these. The 600cc motor did produce a breezy 36HP, but the car weighed only 1350 or so pounds so it was quite sprightly to say the least and could do 81mph or so for a top speed. We only got these from 1970-72 when both the N and Z cars were replaced by the more capable Civic the following year.
Here is a YouTube video of Tim Mings himself, and you will see him with one of the motors.
http://youtu.be/bA2pKLS-JEc
Another article I found online indicated that the 600cc (589cc in actuality) was based on the larger 1300 sedan.
As stated, Honda DID use chain drives for the engine and rear wheels early on.
ciddyguy, don’t believe everything you read at wikipedia; it’s a great resource, but one has to be careful. Anyone can add information, and often it’s just repeating a mistake they heard elsewhere.
I wrote a CC on the Honda 360/600, and I can assure it was not “the engine from the CB 450”. As I said in my other comments, undoubtedly Honda didn’t start with a clean sheet of paper when they needed an engine for the 360. But there are very distinct differences, thee most obvious being a completely different cylinder head type.
I can’t say precisely what aspects of the 450 engine (if any) did make it into the 360/600 engine, but there are obvious differences. So it’s not accurate to say that they “used the CB 450 engine”.
Paul, you corrected the Wikipedia I hope?
Here’s both engines side-by side. The N360/600 has totally different cases, cylinders, heads, and other obvious differences. As I said before, most likely the N360/600 were derived from the CB450 engine, but that’s not the same as saying “They used the CB450 motorcycle engine”.
And the chain drive to the rear wheels was for the S360 sports car, which had a totally different four cylinder engine, NOT for the N360, which was always FWD.
The Honda N360/600 engines were vertical twins, like many of the Honda bike engines. But they were distinct too; not the same as used on the bikes. The biggest Honda twin then was the CB450, which was DOHC. The N360/600 engines were SOHC. Undoubtedly, Honda used its experience and engineering aspects of the CB 450 bike engine for these cars, but they were not the same.
I believe those wheels are 10 inchers.
Paul you are correct, 10″ it is, text amended! Not sure what I was thinking…
Yes the OE tires were 10″ 145R10 to be exact.
The transmission is not a totally separate unit and the clutch is similar to a motorcycle clutch in that it is on the end of the transmission under the cover that includes the throwout fork. Makes for a 20 minute clutch job.
I’d love to find a Z but I’d take another N if I found a decent one.
That would be the same size as the Mini – availability should not be a problem
I really like the Celica and the Cosmos
Ditto; I never noticed the Celica’s Mach1 resemblance before. A little ironic that Mazda based the Miata on the Elan when they had their own legacy available.
The Celica liftback made it to America a couple of years after the JDM one was introduced. By then, it had the 5mph rear bumpers – albeit nicely integrated. The JDM and Europe/Asian Celica Liftbacks bumpers had a Mustang-like curve to them. Very attractive. Nissan Sunnies showed up in the U.S. (West Coast first) for the ’71 model year as the “Datsun 1200” – choice of 2 door sedan or fastback 2-door sedan. 1200 OHV four.
Well, for the MX-5, they wanted a little convertible in the spirit of old British roadsters and the Cosmo was really something quite different. Also, when the MX-5 was developed, the Cosmo line (in its latest generation, of course) was still sold in Japan, so making the Miata look like the old Cosmo would have been an odd marketing choice.
The Cosmo had become a very different car by then; Mazda’s flagship, above the RX-7. It was a grand tourer, in the vein of the of BMW 850 and the Jaguar XJ-S.
Imagine if Toyota, instead of producing the Scion FR-S (and it’s Subaru twin, the BRZ), they would have instead done a retro knock-off of the 2000GT (including a convertible). That would have been so much cooler…
The last one looks like a ’65-’70 Suzulight van
Caption: Can you imagine US trying to fit in that thing?
Yeah, I was looking at my pix and decided NOT to go there 🙂 (No, I do not know those dudes but they do not seem like who you would expect the typical attendee to be)
I’m surprised that tiny little Mazda is LHD, were those even ever imported into the US?
Apparently they made a few left-hand drive ones for US servicemen stationed on Okinawa who brought them back. If you google “left hand drive R360” there are a few good references and articles. About 700 of the 65,000 production run were lefties according to what I found.
300k USD for Toyota 2000GT last week in some auction in Miami.amazing.
At the 2009 show, were any of the 240Z/Fairlady Zs actually stock? I went to a later year’s show and while there were a bazillion Fairlady Zs, many of them had obviously been modified very substantially.
The Mustard colored ’72 is showroom stock and a “Datsun 240Z” . . . . down to the silly wheels covers . . . . which when new, I remember most people shod them with aftermarket slotted aluminum ET or U.S. Racing Wheels . . . .
As Billy said the Mustard one that I photographed is stock and I think there was a white one as well. (but yes, there were many more modified ones, mostly in good taste). I am not sure (but it is possible) that the stock ones were part of Nissan’s venture wherein they remanufactured a multitude of old 240Z’s and resold them in new-car showrooms for around $25,000 – That whole project would make for a fascinating article as I believe they lost money on each one, it was more a PR thing. …
There is an extremely low mileage ’68 Toyota 2000 GT that makes the rounds of the Honolulu Car Show. I believe it’s owned by the distributor out this way (SERVCO Pacific). It’s a LHD U.S. spec model. It has it’s factory belted Bridgestones (bias plies); a ’68 City & County of Honolulu inspection sticker on the lower passenger’s side windshield. I’d love to go to a vintage Japanese car show in person someday.
Closest I ever came to one was in Spring of 2004, driving from Pt. Reyes Station back into Novato, at the Marin Cheese Factory in the picnic area with the pond, Nissan was doing a photo shoot. They had various JDM and non-US market cars lined up (Mexican Tsurus, RHD Skyline 350GT coupes and sedans, and a red LHD Datsun pickup, a ’59 1000), and a vintage RHD Nissan Patrol. Yes, I did stop and look.
The red car below the Datsun 112 is a Toyota Publica, the Starlet’s forerunner. Popping it into Google for more images revealed the exact same car you photographed, but at a different show. It has ‘PUBLICA” on the licence plate and is a 1965 Deluxe model. http://public.fotki.com/Zincs/queenmaryjapanese100106/1965toyotapublicade-4.html
The MS50 Toyota Crown you photographed is the 1967-69 version; the facelift was built from 1969-71.
Thank you for clarifying, I will edit the text above! The show in 2009 was in Irvine (or close to it anyway), I believe it moved to Long Beach in 2010 or 2011 where it still is today.
No probs – I’m still trying to identify the white van/wagon in your last photo! Could indeed be a Suzulight, but the only ones I have pics of have the taillights higher up and the top-rear edge of the front doors is curved not pointy. Really enjoying the challenge though!
And I should have mentioned in my earlier post, I love unusual old JDM cars, so this write-up and pics is an absolute treat for me, thank you Jim!
You’re welcome, although I must say over where you are you get plenty of interesting (albeit mostly more modern) JDM stuff yourself. It was a total treat for me when we were over there around the turn of the century; just seeing the older Japanese stuff that A) never made it over here and B) is no longer really running around in Japan either was fantastic Of course, the scenery, natural areas, towns/cities and driving roads in NZ were nothing short of spectacular either, I need to go back just wish the exchange rate was still 0.44NZD to 1USD! I think I need to go cue up some Split Enz or Naked&Famous on the iPod now…
Lol, funny you mention Split Enz, as the band’s Finn brothers grew up in the town of Te Awamutu, which I live in! (having moved here in 1995 when I finished Uni). Their old family home is just 1200 metres from my place. They pop back every year or three, participating in a local free ‘music in the park’ event. Cars and music, two things which unite folks across the world 🙂
Aha – the town name is referenced in one of their songs (the name of which will probably pop into my head about 2am…)
Thanks for an enjoyable supper-time tour. I saw my first Cosmo in Paris a few years back, and was surprised at just how small it is; all these decades, I assumed it was bigger. A lovely, delicate thing.
I believe the Cosmo and the R360 are both part of Mazda’s collection, kept at the Mazda headquarters in Irvine. In the first photo of the R360, you can see the rear quarter of the Car & Driver IMSA RS RX2 on the left!
You are correct on all counts. The Green and White 1979 IMSA GTU RX-7 was there as well as I recall.
The L10B Cosmo is my dream car. It’s still attainable, since good ones sell in the $40,000 range.
The JCES (3 rotor 20B 90-95) Cosmo is the one forbidden fruit I’ve been waiting for. Next year the first ones are US legal and I intend to get one.
I’ve got pics from the 2012 JCCS, if you’re interested. I focused more on the privately owned cars than the pristine vehicles that Toyota and Mazda brought.
A round 2 post of the show would be welcome!
That 60’s Corolla certainly appears to be the same one Toyota is using in their current Corolla ads. It is interesting because they have segments from most decades since the 60’s with period appropriate music and clothing. Yet they use only 2 or 3 of the historic ones per ad and mix and match them.
I love old Japanese cars. Thanks for finding these photos and posting them, very much appreciated.
Ditto, very interesting to see these. I’m not sure if I have ever seen the 1950’s cars but everything else I am familiar with although I don’t think the 2-door sedan version of the Sunny/1200 was sold here. I have (only) seen a Toyota 2000GT in a museum – the only car that could make the 240Z look like a bloated whale!
There are still differences though – eg the ‘double decker’ bumpers on the Honda N600 and not only the battering rams on the Celica but I get the feeling there is a small sheetmetal difference around the indicators.
That “scout like ” mystery vehicle is an Aichi Machine Cony Light Van deluxe.
Thanks Flipper, text corrected!
Wow, thanks Flipper, I’d have never got that! Never heard of them until now, as always Google gave me more info, including more photos and info on the actual one Jim photographed above. It’s a 1967 model, apparently found in a field in Temecula. The 360cc engine is under the seats, not unusual in a van, but weird in something that looks like a car! More photos of it here: http://clunkbucket.com/cony-light-van-deluxe/
3 regular sized people campaigned a 69 Corolla in Tassie good little bomb it had a 3k weber and extractors and went well not very roomy though,
The 1200 Datsun had a NZ only SSS model with engines modded by a local tuner for an extra 25 hp they were a club rally favourite along with the early Corollas few survive, the Datsuns live on powering the kids starter ministock class at speedway but roadgoing cars are rare.
My dad picked up a 73 Celica ST around ’76 or so, and I owned a couple ’70’s Celicas myself, all notchbacks. The sticks were a blast to drive. Last one I bought was a ’74 back in 1993, orange with a brown primered hood, for $400 bucks. Drove it for two years, ran great. If I could find a reasonably priced example, I’d drive it daily, but it seems they’re all in collectors or modders hands these days.
When I was 14, I rode with dad into DC in the red ST, don’t remember why, but on the way back, he pulled over on the shoulder of 495, and told me to drive the rest of the way home, about an hour west. First time I ever drove in public was on the DC beltway and I-66. You couldn’t remove the smile from my face. Good times.
On the orange one, it had no trunk floor left at all, so to get it to pass inspection, I laid down chicken wire and a bucket of bondo. Passed.
What, no Datsun 510 pics? For shame…
There would have been been but there were NO stock ones there that I saw or at least that I took pix of. Plenty of modded ones though, lots of them very nicely done. I just wanted to show stock cars of the pix I had in this article.
For fans of old Japanese cars, there is a website called Japanese Nostalgic Car dedicated to vintage cars from the Land of the Rising Sun. They do cover this car show I believe.
Yes they do cover it, I think they may be a sponsor. Very interesting website, I’ve been on there for years, and for a while they even had a print mag out.
Thanks for sharing. Having grown up near the west coast, I was treated to more cool Japanese stuff growing up than the average American. The early products were garbage, but I love them anyways. I owned a 600 Coupe Z. Pea soup green. It was a funny little car that got attention like it was a Countach.
I bet that ’69 Corolla is the one used in the new TV ad for the 2014 Corolla. Shame it’s not the Sprinter version like my brother had in the very early ’80s
check out a 1974 Toyota corolla(one owner)all original on Portland craigslist.so cute.