Toyota Yaris Club Concept at SEMA! oh, and there was a new Corolla, too

Much hype was made over the unveiling of the '09 Corolla and the '09 Matrix at this year's SEMA Show, but those cars proved to be a yawn.

What was really cool, and received far less attention, was the Toyota Yaris "Club" Concept by FiveAxis. This car evoked club racers of the 50s and 60s, when you could go to the track in a street driven roadster and race wheel to wheel.



Oh yeah, here are the new Corolla and Matrix....the rally-inspired Matrix concept was cool and really looked great in its red metallic hue. It merited about a 45 second pause in the mayhem of SEMA...really, that's a compliment. The Corolla? This unobtrusive model continues to move upscale in its latest, bland-tastic iteration. But while the Corolla line may not be the most exciting ride out there, Toyota continues to sell hundreds of thousands of them each year in the U.S. Would I have noticed the '09 without all the press surrounding its release? Probably not.

Without further adieu, THE 2009 TOYOTA COROLLA:



Corolla interior:

2009 Matrix (not exactly the showroom stock model):


Matrix interior:

Toyota's Motorsports Champions Saluted at NHRA Museum

As Toyota begins paying more attention to their history and heritage, it seems fitting that they'd want to honor their motorsports champions as well. Toyota as a brand has been an unfailing supporter of racing activites; in recent years, the company has launched major efforts in both Formula One and NASCAR racing. All gearheads should be thankful to them for that; Toyota is helping keep professional motorsports alive!



So it was that Toyota held a dinner dubbed the "Night of Champions" at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum on October 18th. There are currently six historic Toyota racing vehicles from the past 25 years on display at the museum. The exhibit runs through January 2008.

I was most struck upon seeing the IMSA Toyota Eagle MKIII formerly driven by Juan Manuel Fangio II.


This car brought back a flood of memories; I remember being six years old and attending the IMSA Camel GT race at Laguna Seca, where my favorite driver, Juan Manuel Fangio II, beat all the other competition driving a similar car. Fangio II is the nephew of the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio, who won 5 Grand Prix World Championships during the 1950s.



The younger Fangio (left) even made the trip from Balcarce, Argentina, to attend the ceremony.


The fuel-sipping Prius record setter (below) was certainly the greenest vehicle displayed in the house Wally Parks built. It looked somewhat out of place against a backdrop of '32 Ford Lakes Roadsters, Bonneville Belly Tanks, and frenched taillights.


This very rare IMSA Celica was trucked out for the evening of the dinner only. Period driver Dennis Aase was in attendance, but Dan Gurney was conspicuously absent!




Even with Gurney absent, the guest list wasn't suffering too much! There were no shortage of Toyota champions (above), with almost one at each dinner table. Visible in the photo (among others) are "Ironman" Ivan Stewart, Steve Millen, Cristiano da Matta, Alex Barron, Chris Cord, and Frank Arciero. All in all, it was a spectacular evening which provided an opportunity to reflect on all that Toyota has contributed to motorsport in recent years. Thank you Toyota for all the racing memories!

New CR-X to Steal Market Once Dominated by Toyota? We Hope So...

Once upon a time, Toyota made some pretty cool "hot hatches" and even...*gasp*...sports cars! There were, of course, the legendary "AE86" Corolla GT-S models, the later front-wheel-drive FX 16s, and all manner of cool Celicas, MR2s, and Supras. Honda had their CR-X, a tuner favorite, which gave way to the softer, less desirable (by our standards) del Sol.

But those days are long gone. Toyota's current lineup is pleasant enough, and the cars are selling like hotcakes...but really...walk into a Toyota showroom, and they may as well have signs saying "Welcome to Dullsville!". And those Prius drivers are a real bother, always driving slow in the left lane and whatnot. Oh well, it ain't the good ol' days anymore.


Toyota's lack of sports cars in the current lineup has opened the door for other companies to attract the enthusiasts that Toyota has essentially abandoned. Nissan is offering tasty cars like the new Altima Coupe and their revival of the Z; Mazda is definitely in the mix with its Miata, RX-8, and MAZDASPEED products. And it's time for Honda to step into the fray with their recently unveiled CR-Z, which harkens back to the original and much-loved CR-X.


The CR-Z is larger than the old CR-X, according to our buddies at Winding Road, who leaked news about the CR-Z concept onto the web on Tuesday. It's likely to be a gas-electric hybrid.

To quote from Honda's press release on their presence at the Tokyo Motor Show:

"'CR-Z' stands for 'Compact Renaissance Zero'-an expression intended to capture the idea of a renaissance in the design of compact cars that begins anew from fundamentals.

This design research model of a lightweight hybrid sports car features advanced technologies that deliver enjoyable driving for all while reducing the vehicle's environmental footprint."



We say, emphatically, build it! The renaissance of the Japanese sports car can't come soon enough for us.

610,000-mile '71 Corolla in Hemmings!

As if we needed more proof that vintage Japanese cars outlast, well, just about anything else on the road, Hemmings Motor News reports in their November issue about Vic Pike and his '71 Corolla Coupe, which he bought new.

Looking a little worse for wear today (as usual, the mechanical components seem to have held up better than the body), Pike's Corolla has covered 610,000 miles. We like his style: "At 182,823 miles...I replaced the brake discs and shoes, and those are still in the car. I use the brakes very little; I'll broadside a corner rather than braking", Vic writes.

However, his Corolla is looking rather worse for wear than the Guinness Book of World Records' official high-mileage king, Irv Gordon's '66 Volvo P1800, whose odometer has surpassed 2,500,000 miles. Apparently, those Swedes really had build quality figured out back then!

MJS and JCCS in the New York Times...again!

Well, we're in the big time now...

The publication that features "All the News That's Fit to Print" has taken notice of the vintage Japanese car scene once again, covering this past weekend's Japanese Classic Car Show. It was especially cool that they gave a shout-out to Motoring J Style, the guys at Japanese Nostalgic Car, and also to Brian Baker of hondasportsregistry.com. The link to the article is below:

NY Times

The first time they wrote about us was here, where they noted the rising interest in collecting classic Toyotas.

Sometimes, it seems like all the hours spent tinkering with our AE86s has been validated. Japanese cars and their enthusiasts are finally getting recognized properly, and that's a damn good feeling.

JCCS 2007 - SoCal's Japanese Old School Congregation

Hardcore fans of vintage J-cars were gathered together this past weekend at the annual Japanese Classic Car Show, now in its third year. This great show, organized by Koji and Terry Yamaguchi, attracts enthusiasts of all makes from all over Southern California and far beyond. Entries from the past have come from as far as Canada! This year, Rory Baldrey came all the way from Boise, Idaho to steal the show for many with his '76 Nissan Laurel, looking mean in primer black and sitting on some badass SSR MK1's.



Going to LA for a weekend is always a good time and a great chance to catch up with SoCal friends. During JCCS, I hung out with my good friend Antonio Alvendia from Cipher Garage, and ran into Joji Luz from TORC, Ben and Dan Hsu of Japanese Nostalgic Car . I got a chance to meet Ken Miyoshi, something of a godfather in the import scene, which was cool! If you don't know him, he's the founder of Import Showoff and has been in the game forever. Jay Leno even rolled in with his Mazda Cosmo - he parked near the Mazda factory cars. Here he is being interviewed by Barry Meguiar of Meguiar's Car Crazy:




For me, the star of the show was this incredible tube-frame, Hayabusa-powered, carbon-fibre-bodied Honda AZ600 built for some extreme autocrossing. I can't even imagine what it would be like to go buck wild in this thing, but I like it:




Other attractions, such as the R/C drift festival, featured vintage Japanese car themes as well:


A Dodge Colt 2-door in strikingly original 70's white/red two-tone was a real stunner:




And for many, this incredible "what might have been" "Ken Mary" era Skyline was pure perfection:



I was awestruck when I saw the condition of this '74 pre-CVCC Civic:




And I got way more enthusiastic upon meeting Telly Sahara (pictured below), the renowned artist whose incredible works grace the covers of Lightning magazine.





Towards the end of the day, I met up with Antonio and Mike Bumbeck of Jalopnik...we were hanging around with the late stragglers, reluctant to leave, when we came across none other than Steve Kopito who was loading up his genuine Toyota Land Cruiser Fire Truck! This thing beats the crap out of anything made by American LaFrance, and Steve told us (if my memory serves me correctly) that he actually uses this in the Chatsworth 4th of July Parade. Steve is an awesome guy, and even brought his '65 Toyota Publica and his Honda Beat to our Motoring J Style show this past July.



More good stuff...



A sick PJ Bonifacio Corolla





Datsuns everywhere...



Mini-truckin!


What a great show! We can't wait to see what comes out of the woodwork for next year!

Read more at:

www.japaneseclassiccarshow.com

Japanese Nostalgic Car's Coverage